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 Thursday, June 25, 2026.
Where ya gotta love Will Ferrell doing the full court rando press tour around NYC for his new NETFLIX series The Hawk.
Seemed like quite a day, from handing out fliers in Times Square to showing up at Meatpacking District bars, looking for his golf ball in Central Park and taking NYC subway rides. Alas, he seemingly didn’t have time for BED, BATH & BEYOND.
Who says Gen X doesn’t get social media?
OH: The FCC has received over 28k comments about its investigation into DISNEY’s local TV licenses, one day after ABC was airing spots on its O&Os during The View, urging folks to send thoughts. Most comments were in support of the show.
YUP: APPLE’s #pricehikeswent into effect this week across many of its products, from MacBooks to iPads.
ALSO: BYTEDANCE announced a 2.5 version of its AI video generation bot SEEDANCE is coming in China next month (no word on other territories), which can output videos up to 30 seconds and the ability to use up to 50 reference materials — such as images, videos and audio files — in a prompt.
- So, studio legal departments . . . keep those legal letters handy in July.
WELL: If you’d like to own 70% of the company that runs the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the current owner of that stake is entertaining offers.
YEAH: So much for the NYC World Cup boom — the Hotel Association of NYC puts the expected revenue pop at half of what it was expecting. Man, what happened?
- Oh, right — zero fan zones/celebrations or tailgating at the “New York/New Jersey Stadium” (or parking for that matter), a costly transportation nightmare to the venue, overall immigration “challenges” in the U.S. right now . . . but who could have seen that all coming?
AH: If you had any questions about the ties between Larry Ellison and the Trump regime, the WSJ laid out the cash spends very well this week. Larry also calls a compound in Manalapan, Fla., his official residence (complete with what looks like several holes of golf on it), about 20 mins away from Mar-a-Lago.
HI: See you at the midterm elections, America! 👇 I’m sure Trump’s DOJ investigating oil companies will do wonders to help matters, and overall reassure business leaders he has a firm understanding of how “the economy” works.
SO: America’s largest energy grid, PJM (67M customers), is now creating a “capacity advisory” status to warn customers when electricity supplies could become tight — not due to extreme heat, but due to AI data centers sucking up power. Can’t wait to see what happens when an extended heat wave gets thrown in!
AND: Here are your NBC fall TV premiere dates in case you like to plan your viewing really far in advance.
OH: Here is your April streaming Gauge from NIELSEN. People love that free streaming in an economy with $4+ gas . . . with YOUTUBE still tops by far, and TUBI hitting its highest share ever.
- AMAZON PV also got a bit of a boost above normal levels with the NBA playoffs in full effect.
- A combined FOX ROKU would have had a 5.3% share, ahead of DISNEY.
- A combined WBD/PAR+/PLUTO would have had a 3.6% share, still below AMAZON PV.
- As always:
- Viewership of apps like HBO MAX and PEACOCK on ROKU or AMAZON FIRE OS when subscribers sign up for the apps on those platforms is counted under ROKU or AMAZON, not the source streamer . . . which hurts the source streamer a smidge.
- YOUTUBE includes all kinds of “viewing,” from listening to music and podcasts to creator videos and Shorts viewed on the TV.
EAST COAST: For my NYC/Westchester folks, the Jacob Burns Film Center is doing a great retrospective of Ron Howard’s work on the big screen in July, including some Q&As with Ron himself — schedule here.
WEST COAST: I just found this a pretty fascinating read about ongoing R&D to put solar panels over California’s vast network of irrigation canals in the state (which totals 4,000 miles 🤯), which both increases clean energy production #duh, but also saves water by limiting evaporation — and in a current topic, also lowers algae growth in the water as it blocks photosynthesis. #TheMoreYouKnow🌈
WAKEUP Box Office Prediction
Supergirl is on deck this weekend from WB / DC, with expectations pretty broad across sources, though most seem to fall in the $40M to $50M range — some also see below $40M in the cards, while some think $50M+ is possible.
Given the reviews coming out yesterday, I’ll put my range at $38M to $43M.
🤝 The Deal Memo
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