☀️Zaz Sets Free HBO Deal for #2 U.S. Cable TV Company
☀️Zaz Sets Free HBO Deal for #2 U.S. Cable TV Company
MBJ, Apatow Set New Directing Gigs / AMAZON 🏈 welcomes more sponsors / OPEN AI valuation keeps growing
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY, September 12, 2024.
Where ya gotta love a local culture where more than 6,000 folks pay $50+ each to come listen to billionaires in an arena that cost $1.4B to build — this NYT story on the Acquired podcast’s recent live-recording event with Zuck was fun, complete with special cameos by Jamie Dimon and Jensen Huang on the jumbotron (but sadly, neither came out for an encore).
Plus hey, where else are you gonna get a killer Aeschylus analogy? You don’t get that on Smartless, people.
BTW: Katey Rich’s live-recording pod with Hugh Grant up at TIFF for her Prestige Junkie pod was a #GoodListen (even if SPOTIFY head Daniel Ek didn’t fly in for that one, like he did for Zuck — next time, Katie). A solid recommend — link here.
PLUS: Frances Ford Coppola is suing Jay Penske’s Variety for $15M for libel over its story asserting Frances was kissing or attempting to kiss extras and others on set.
OH: AMAZON signed up 50 new advertisers for TNF this season, starting tonight of course. Gotta say— going ad-tier with PRIME VIDEO is still my leader for biggest 2024 flex in the streaming business. The benefits keep trickling down.
BUT: DISNEY is still trying — $2 a month DIS+ for 3 months anyone? The company employed this same tactic last September in the CHARTER dispute, so it seems like DISNEY found some things it liked (DIS+ added +500k subs in Q3 last year).
Of course, also nothing like trying to get more folks in the door before you raise your base price from $7 to $10 a month in mid-October. Come for Inside Out 2, Agatha and Waverly Place . . . stay to totally forget to cancel that membership in December. 🙏
THEN: The Presidential Debate got 67.1M viewers according to NIELSEN across 8 networks on Tuesday (the 4 broadcast nets, CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS and FOX BUSINESS).
That’s 16M more than the Biden debate . . . which had 8 more TV networks factored in, as well as out-of-home viewing.
ABC led with 19M, followed by NBC at 10.1M and FOX NEWS at 9.1M.
Plus — only 61% of the audience was 55+ this time! It hung around 72% to 75% for the conventions.
ABC said an additional 7.4M folks streamed it on DIS+ and HULU, putting the total up to 74.5M.
No word on the MAX/CNN streaming audience
The two 2020 debates averaged 68M.
KUDOS: To the WNBA’s Aja Wilson who set the new single-season scoring record last night against the FEVER (Aja’s ACES also won the game, 86-75).
BUT: Kinda seeing why so many PREMIER LEAGUE ⚽️ teams are having trouble closing new investor deals. Storied franchise MANCHESTER UNITED lost $124M last season, despite having record-setting revenues and one of the world’s most recognizable sports team brands. 👀
AND: Just when you thought Elon couldn’t get any creepier . . .
THOUGH: It’s always fun when the valuation of your company goes up 50% in a week like it’s an auction. 😳 OPENAI went from looking at a new $1B investment at a $100B valuation last week (up from $80B earlier this year) to moving up to talks for a new $6.5B investment at a $150B valuation this week.
A24 investor Josh Kushner and his THRIVE CAPITAL is reportedly in for an additional $1B of this new round.
Not to be outdone — the Olsen twins just got a $1B valuation on their fashion business THE ROW. But ya know, the real money is in those Full House residual checks. 🫰
THANKS: To the folks at MTV for the invite to the VMAs last night (winners here). UBS Arena — pretty nice! Where do those Katy Perry skills end . . .
TODAY IN MEDIA CONFERENCES
GOLDMAN SACHS: David Zaslav at 1:10 p.m. (link here to listen)
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
UNI’s See No Evil is targeting a $10M to $13M opening . . . which, if you view this as a horror-thriller, would continue the somewhat lackluster 2024 for the genre. So, what say you?
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
