☀️ SONY Tarantino Expansion, Diller’s IAC Layoffs, Rebrand

ALSO: The DGA renewed the contract of its chief negotiator, Russell Hollander, through 2029. Talks with the AMPTP begin May 11.

HUH: Congratulations, print media! Barry Diller is renaming his IAC company as PEOPLE, reflecting the core of its business as new digital investment opportunities shrink.

• The company will lay off 77 folks as a result, and its CFO and CLO will also leave.

YAH: OPENAI has reportedly missed its internal targets for revenue and new users, according to the WSJ, #ThanksClaude. The CFO has also told other division leaders that there are concerns about paying for future computing contracts if revenue doesn’t grow fast enough.

OH: While the FCC likely considers another go at censoring free speech on a broadcast network — Kimmel addressed Melania/Trump’s comments yesterday head on last night — it will still likely have no issue with one of those said broadcast networks being 49.5% owned by foreign money . . . as PSKY notified the FCC that’s where almost half of the equity in the company comes from, as it seeks approval on the matter.

• The 3 Middle Eastern funds will collectively own 38.5% of PSKY’s non-voting equity.
  • Saudi:15.1% equity stake
  • UAE:12.8% equity
  • Qatar: 10.6% equity
• The remainder is mainly from foreign “limited partner investors” in funds run by REDBIRD.
• The 49.5% foreign ownership will have no voting rights in PSKY. The Ellisons and REDBIRD will maintain that entirely.
• Note that the public can file comments on this FCC matter until May 27, with replies due by June 11.
• Here is the FCC filing (MB Docket No. 26-93), and the site for public comments. I’m sure Paddy Chayefsky would have had some fun ones.

YEAH: REGAL charging $50 a ticket for Dune: Part Three 70mm IMAX seats in December sounds like a great idea to help the theatrical business’ image with consumers (do not tell Tom Rothman).

AH: NETFLIX has set a Tyson Fury / Anthony Joshua fight for Q4 in the U.K. this year with its go-to boxing promoter, Turki Alalshikh, who is also building the forthcoming ZUFFA boxing promotion at TKO (those fights have a deal at PAR+).

• Joshua was on NETFLIX back in December, knocking out Jake Paul in 6 rounds.

SO: One of college football’s biggest prospects in the transfer window this year, TEXAS TECH QB Brendan Sorsby, is entering in-person treatment for gambling addiction, per ESPN.

• He reportedly bet on INDIANA football games while he was redshirted on the team there previously (he did not play in games) in addition to making thousands of bets on sports via online apps.

GOOD NEWS: Folks are making money on POLYMARKET! Well, not human folks, sadly . . . but rather the majority of the profits on POLYMARKET seem to be made by automated bots, according to a new Bloomberg report.

• Regular humans have racked up losses totaling about $131M since January 2025.

AND: YOUTUBE is getting a weekly late-night TV show — or at least someone is doing one on YOUTUBE (YT isn’t, like, ya know, paying for it 😂). Comedian Ben Gleib is launching Good Night with Ben Gleib with a full studio audience on Thu. May 28, with former Daily Show exec Stewart Bailey showrunning, and Keith Harris leading the band.

• Nikki Glaser and Scott Galloway are among the investors and will be among the guests in season 1. Gleib’s YT channel has 2.9M subscribers.

OH: Bob Iger’s new employer, Josh Kushner’s THRIVE CAPITAL, has set up a new THRIVE ETERNAL division with a directive to invest in businesses with “qualities that cannot be replicated by technology.” (i.e., long-term investments, vs. typically shorter-term PE investments). Ya know, like daily newsletter columns with penchants for communicating in gifs and ’90s pop culture references.

• Ah, wait, I see they’re going with a minority investment in MLB’s SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS to start. Well, you fellas know where to find me.
• More details here from Axios on funding sources and complications with other sports investments for the inclined.

SO: The LA Times has a look at the NFL’s long-in-the-works scripted efforts in Hollywood, which will be getting quite a spotlight at the end of the year, with the John Madden movie on Amazon Prime Video, Mr. Irrelevant from Paramount in theaters at Christmas and the in-production NFL show The Land on Hulu.

AH HA: META is coming for the CTV advertising marketplace (let’s hope the guns-and-drugs ads filters are a bit tighter on the big screen), holding conversations with TV makers and ad software folks ahead of Upfronts. Hey — gotta fund that AI spending somehow!

ALTHOUGH: It sounds like uh, CTV audience data is a mess across all of these platforms.(Hint: they don’t all use a standard audience measurement methodology approach! Ah, ad biz — never change, bro.)

THEN: Did you know Oprah is now a creator, apparently? AMAZON set a deal for Oprah’s weekly video interview podcast (which will now be 2x a week — Kelce Bros. collab pending), plus specials for her Favorite Things and Book Club franchises, and her 25-season Oprah Winfrey Show library.

• No pricetag was indicated for the deal that starts in July — and the video pods will still be available everywhere (YT, SPOTIFY, etc., as well as now AMAZON PV, AUDIBLE,etc.).
• So this seems to be basically a licensing/ad sales/promo situation . . . and obviously her Favorite Things and Book Club have commerce tie-ins on AMAZON (sales and ad revenue will be shared between AMAZON and Oprah).
  • No real specifics as to how the Oprah library will be utilized as of yet.

ALSO: FOX’s RED SEAT VENTURES signed Tony Hinchcliffe’s Kill Tony to a multi-year ad sales/distro deal, which will put the pods on TUBI and FOX ONE as well as its traditional outlets.

AH: SPOTIFY made a deal with PELOTON to make its workout class videos available to SPOTIFY paid subs in a new Fitness section.

• NETFLIX tried something like this at the end of 2022 with NIKE, but did not continue.

• SPOTIFY has the more organic potential integration, given that many users create workout playlists on the platform / already go to it when going to work out.
  • This will perhaps help increase the use of SPOTIFY on TVs at home.
• I break down the business trends at SPOTIFY below, including positive subscriber growth (what #pricehikes?), a struggling ad business and Wall Street’s reaction.