☀️ SKYDANCE Tightrope: Debt Tied to AI Economy

Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026.

Where starting your corporate farewell video to employees with what sounds like music from a funeral dirge over footage of your company’s logo on its iconic water tower as it’s subsumed into another entity — while doing said exit video on a barren soundstage — is certainly a curious creative choice.

But at least the note was taken to avoid mention of your roughly $800M payday . . . as many viewers of your farewell video soon face being out of a job as a result of the deal you orchestrated.

Zaz, it’s been real. See you at the KNICKS opener in about 2 weeks — can’t wait to see what the new chyron says when they cut to you courtside.

YEAH: Hollywood’s major award shows now all have streaming home futures, as AMAZON PV made its Emmys deal official — 6 years in a global rights deal (2027 through 2032), and the show will be free for all to watch, just like The Oscars on YOUTUBE come 2029.

• The price tag is somewhere between $20M and $25M per year for the TV Academy (roughly doubling its current fee from the networks for U.S.-only rights) . . . as TV gets a 2-year jump on the movie business in the awards show streaming migration (joining The Actor Awards on NETFLIX) come September 2027.

AND: It seems DISNEY may have sold out of its Super Bowl ad inventory a bit too soon! It’s taking interest from advertisers on paying $10M to $12M for a 30-second slot in the game, should a current advertiser get second thoughts and drop out.

• Most of the ad time in the game was sold for around $8M per slot.

OH: DISNEY and the FCC have their first day in court over the local TV station license conflict.

THEN: The talent & production unions (DGA, SAG, WGA, IATSE, LIUNA, Teamsters) released a new study conducted with EY looking at how U.S. production spending has fallen over the last 25 years.

• Percentage of annual studio film production budgets spent in the U.S.:
  • 74% in 1999
  • 42% in 2024
    • For the 25 most-expensive films in those years, it fell from 74% to 34%. #MARVEL (and many others, but certainly a big contributor given the exodus from Georgia to London for many superhero films).
• Percentage of annual studio TV production budgets spent in the U.S.:
  • 94% in 1999
  • 64% in 2024
• STUDY PARAMETERS: Films with budgets of $5M+; TV episodes under 40 minutes with budgets of $1M+; and over 40 minutes with budgets of $1.7M+.
• While the total amount spent on TV and films obviously increased considerably from 1999 to 2024 #inflation — the study estimates that if those shares of spending had held consistent over that timeframe, it would have resulted in an additional $4B being spent in the U.S. annually as of 2024.
• The full report is here, cc: Jon Voight.

GOOD NEWS: Profits at Wall Street banks in H1 2026 were +51% YoY and are on track to hit $90B+ for the year. See? The economy is doing great!

So, how do you guys in Ohio fight tickets for your Lamborghini being too loud? NYC is so oppressive, bro. 🙄

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The New SKYDANCE, Day 1

Happy WARNAMOUNT deal closing day to you all — hopefully your tattoo artist can creatively change your PSKY into SKYD, which hits the NYSE today.

But Wall Street is seemingly having other ideas on what to focus on regarding SKYDANCE here on day 1 — namely, increasingly tying the company’s fate to that of the risky AI investment markets . . . despite SKYDANCE not having any data center exposure itself.

I know AI is the future in Hollywood — but I don’t think we foresaw this application affecting SKYDANCE’s future in a meaningful way (also nice to see Credit Default Swaps back en vogue! #TheBigShort).