Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Wednesday, August 5, 2026.
Where I gotta say it was very considerate of the WARNAMOUNT judge to put the trial right in the quiet zone of the Q1 sports season between the NFL season and March Madness!
Be there March 2 through March 19 for the antitrust trial to remember (merch pending) — although March 8 and 15 will be off because the judge knows how much PSKY loves Monday mornings for making news announcements.
Thus, WBD shareholders can certainly expect a nice $1.3B check from the Ellison family (sent with regards), and we’ll see how long a ruling takes in Q2 to augment that payment.
- It also gives any new members of Congress entering in late January a nice window after being sworn in to make some public statements on the matter, should they so choose.
KEEP IN MIND: This is the fast way to trial. If PSKY had rolled the dice on the preliminary injunction and lost, this trial could have been set for a year from now, or more — this is the calculus PSKY likely used in making its decision last month.
- Remember, NEXSTAR/TEGNA is going to antitrust trial about 14 months after the preliminary injunction was issued in that state AG lawsuit.
Other options besides the trial in the meantime:
- An agreement in compromise is reached before March — Ellison said PSKY is “absolutely open to finding a solution outside of court” on the Q2 earnings call yesterday. The state AGs . . . likely not so much, unless Gavin Newsom has some unusually persuasive conversations over the next 7 months with Rob Bonta.
- PSKY decides to say screw it — here’s a check for $9.8B from the Ellison family (sent with regards), and we’re gonna now go see about some JV’s with soon-to-be-spun NBCU. Good luck, Zaz!
- The Ellison fortune suffers a huge AI market collapse-induced hit via ORACLE over the next 9 months or so (which we all wrapped our heads around a bit more last weekend thanks to the NY Times), and causes them to reconsider their Hollywood investments.
BTW: That David Ellison “This is all about CNN!” NYT op-ed yesterday was spearheaded by Blair Effron, the co-founder of CENTERVIEW PARTNERS, one of the lead financial advisors for PSKY in the WARNAMOUNT deal (and noted Democratic Party fundraiser). Breaker has more details here on how it came about.
OH: TIFF set its docs lineup here, and yes, the Elon doc from Alex Gibney will be there.
PLUS: Here is your NYFF main slate for next month.
OTHERWISE: Busy day today, so let’s get to it.
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Now, onto PARAMOUNT and DISNEY.
📉 Earnings Season
PARAMOUNT’s curious way to growth when revenue isn’t growing
So, the 2 big, topline numbers at PARAMOUNT are rather stagnant in Q2:
- Revenue: $6.91B, +1% YoY
- Net Profit: $41M, down from $57M last Q2
This is the nature of a business where the 2 main drivers are working against each other: a melting linear TV business and a growing streaming business.
As much as streaming grows — linear TV is melting a bit more . . . so total revenue kinda equals out. Then add on a theatrical movie business that will always fluctuate a bit from quarter to quarter (and is far smaller in revenue), and a TV studio in PAR TV STUDIOS that is really just getting its feet under itself as a seller to 3rd parties again.
However, the more you go inside the PSKY balance sheet . . . the more you see what levers David Ellison and co. have been pulling over the past year to free up more cash for 15 movies annually and all of those new PAR+ TV shows — and yes, cuts are involved.
So, here’s what the PAR C-suite is up to now, 1 year into having the keys to the lot on Melrose.
But first, a curious note about how Ellison is getting to that “15 Movie Guarantee” in 2026, which . . . well, I’m gonna guess is probably not what you’re assuming it means.
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