☀️ PSKY Wins: Now Comes the Pain — Where It Hits First

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty, and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026.

Where a congrats goes out to the NY METS for winning at least one stat this season.

Unfortunately, it’s for the biggest YoY decrease in stadium attendance, down from 3.18M last year to 2.7M this season, or -15%.

Even The Ankler’s Christopher Rosen has moved from his METS hat to his NY GIANTS hat for podcast recordings (although after last night’s RAMS game — he may need to shift to his NHL hat sooner rather than later).

But there’s always another MLB season in April . . . for better or worse.

WELL: I think we now have a pretty good handle on NFL streaming audience sizes on Thursdays to start the season — AMAZON PV got 18.5M viewers for its TNF season opener last week . . . the same amount that NETFLIX got in the U.S. for its NFL game from Australia.

• AMAZON also got the same 4M number in the 18-34 set that NETFLIX got as well. 6.8M were 55+.
• The AMAZON number was also +5% YoY, and given that NIELSEN’s addition of co-viewing this month to the methodology showed about a 4% bump to audiences during the beta phase, so let’s figure this is about even — but it is a nice 21% above last season’s TNF average.

KUDOS: At a time of year when the WNBA gets a bit drowned out in the sports noise, just sending a 👏 to the WNBA’s Olivia Miles, who beat Caitlin Clark’s rookie scoring record.

AND: The Saudi Red Sea Festival is officially canceled this December.

YEAH: Gotta love AMAZON shutting down access to META’s new kinda hot MUSE AI bot, which can do your shopping for you, claiming it violates AMAZON site terms.

FINALLY: Yes, we have another E.U. fine for #bigtech, this time for GOOGLE to the tune of $463M for violating policies around tracking and keeping user location data. Ah gee whiz, don’t worry — those scamps will get it together one of these days!

AND: Thanks to the folks at NBC NEWS for having me on to talk all things PSKY settlement earlier this morning in my usual button-down and blazer Wakeup writing attire.

OH: Here’s Ari on The Daily Show, which I will also be watching over my morning coffee in case you need something yourselves.

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💼 Get A Job

Yeah, it kinda feels like a good day to check back in on the job board, no?

If you’re looking to hire someone — drop me a note to be included here! seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect with me on LINKEDIN here.

• WME — Director, Entertainment & Content Strategy ($116k to $155k)
• VOX — Director of Podcasts, NY Magazine ($150k to $250k)
• TRIBECA FILM — Director, Industry ($125k to $150k)
• STUDIOCANAL — Global TIKTOK Manager (no salary listed)
• DAILY MAIL — Deputy Head, Original Video ($110k to $120k)
• WME — Sr. Manager, Entertainment Content Partnership ($67k to $90k)
• NBC/PEACOCK — Manager, Social Marketing ($80k to $100k)
• SESAME WORKSHOP — Writers Room Fellowship
• VANITY FAIR — Coordinating Producer, Video (no salary listed)
• LIONSGATE — Sr. Coordinator, Film Marketing (no salary listed)
• PARAMOUNT — Assistant to EVP, Strategy & Insights ($50k to $64k)
• UNI TV — Coordinator, Drama Programming ($56k to $65k)
• MGM TV — Creative Assistant ($23 to $34/hr)
• FOX CREATOR STUDIOS — Assistant ($21 to $26/hr)
• VERVE — Feature Lit / Indie Film Assistant ($25/hr)

AND: As always, you can subscribe to The Ankler here to read this column and get full access to all other columns, or you can also just subscribe to The Wakeup on this page too (scroll to the bottom).

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PARAMOUNT Mountain Needs a New Name

It’s always great when the settlement terms of your antitrust lawsuit address things that were almost entirely . . . not in your lawsuit.

But on the other hand — yesterday was a great way for WBD folks to get used to working on holidays. Welcome to PSKY! Well, those of you who will be keeping your job, that is.

Curiously, for all of the production jobs Rob Bonta was pontificating about in his press conference yesterday — the impending huge loss of WARNAMOUNT employees as a result of this deal was 🤐.

BTW, remaining WBD employees — I’m gonna guess this will be your onboarding message next month: We love you so much here at PSKY that we’ll want to see you here 5 days a week, vs. uh . . . whatever it is that David Zaslav has let you people do for the past few years (oh, and Zaz — let us know the new address where to send those several hundred million dollars next month 🤑).

So, yes, we have a deal before both the ticking fee sets in (mostly) and any changes in the political tides in D.C. take place with the midterm elections.

The topline of the agreement is essentially a 5-year commitment from WARNAMOUNT to spend $300M more annually on film production in the U.S. than it does now (sorry, TV — continue to enjoy your Irish game show production lifestyle).

• ALSO: If a federal tax incentive program is passed, 20% of all WARNAMOUNT film production will be in the U.S. in the first 2 years of the agreement, and 30% in the following 3 years. That number is currently 5% at the company, according to Rob Bonta. #NotMadeInUSA
  • There are additional increases should California or New York up their programs as well.
  • Again, note this is all in regard to film production only — the TV biz was largely left hanging out to dry in this deal with no protections or stipulations, except around cable TV network negotiations.
  • Also, note that while these U.S. production spend increases heavily touted by Bonta are great, they have . . . absolutely nothing to do with what Bonta was suing PSKY about. I’m actually kind of surprised Jon Voight wasn’t there with Bonta at the announcement.

NOW: Recall that a good portion of this PSKY U.S. film spending increase was likely already in the financial planning forecasts, as PSKY set a 10-year deal last year to use 285k sq. ft. of soundstages at a new facility under construction in Bayonne, New Jersey — largely enabled by a generous 40% production tax credit from NJ as a preferred production partner. Those stages should be completed by the end of 2028.

SO: Outside of the above — it’s a 5-year deal for most of the “concession” deal points . . . that are definitely behavioral remedies for the lawsuit concerns around consumers paying more for movies and cable TV bundles — not structural remedies, which Bonta repeatedly said was the only acceptable form of remedy.

AND: The WGA lawsuit is also settled, with PSKY paying $17.5M into the guild’s health insurance fund, covering WGA legal fees in the matter, and agreeing to no writer layoffs at the CBS NEWS Broadcast division for 5 years.

HOWEVER: As Matt Stoller pointed out in his conversation with Rushfield yesterday — the deal comes with some pretty big “out” clauses for PSKY (i.e., force majeure clauses):

• Outside of usual clauses around natural disasters and such — if there’s an “economic recession” or a guild strike in those 5 years, PSKY has reason to hit eject on the deal. So this announcement is more of a nothingburger than you thought.
• Place your bets on a recession happening in our new AI investment-inflated economy in the next 5 years.

EITHER WAY: Come 2032 — know that PSKY is free of all obligations, should those U.S. economic recession or strike events not arise before that.

We’ll also see if/when the Ellison test the limits of whether Rob Bonta (or whatever state AG is in place in California during this deal period) actually would take them to court on any violations.

THUS:

I’ll list the other deal terms out for anyone needing to get up to speed further down below, but I’m gonna bet most have already gotten the gist.

So first, I think it’s more important to look at the timeline ahead and what’s next for:

• Talent & crews
• Industry employees
• Consumers
• Wall Street