Business Features
The NFL’s Taylor Swift Era: Who Wins the Most?
While the summer of 2023 had a blockbuster with Barbenheimer, fall is in the nascent stages of its own phenomenon. Call it: Football (Taylor’s Version). This NFL season has been anything but ordinary thanks to superstar Taylor Swift, who has attended two Kansas City Chiefs games after being linked with the team’s All-Pro tight end, […]
- By
‘Daredevil’ Hits Reset Button as Marvel Overhauls Its TV Business
It didn’t take long to see the problem after Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again paused production in mid-June during the writers strike. Fewer than half of the series’ 18 episodes had been shot, but it was enough for Marvel executives, including chief Kevin Feige, to review the footage and come away with a clear-eyed assessment: […]
- By
AI Tech Is Now Mainstream. What Could Go Wrong?
Charlie Puth had a problem: He’d written a lyric, “a little ditty,” but didn’t know what to do with those lines. The “Left and Right” singer-songwriter had joined a Google AI incubator program, so he fed the new lyrics into the artificial intelligence-assisted tool “like I would do if I were collaborating with anybody else,” […]
- By
What Big Moves Are Left for Lachlan Murdoch?
Rupert Murdoch’s American media empire was forged in dealmaking. The mogul transformed a regional newspaper business into a juggernaut through acquisitions, perhaps most notably the 20th Century Fox Film Corp. in 1985 and Dow Jones (owner of The Wall Street Journal) in 2007. But he also knew when to sell. Murdoch split his companies in […]
- By
Movies, TV Shows Brace for Post-Strike Talent Scheduling Crunch
As Hollywood sees the light at the end of the tunnel amid the history-making dual strikes, anxieties have begun to set in. “You’ve got the entire industry starting up again. Everybody’s going to be hitting the starting line with the same needs. There will be issues with cast availabilities, crews, getting stages, equipment,” says one […]
- By
How the Writers Deal Got Done: Inside the Room
On Saturday, Sept. 23, Disney CEO Bob Iger was in Beverly Hills, seemingly living his best life. He was at dinner with Paul McCartney and Eagles alum Joe Walsh at La Dolce Vita, an Old World Italian restaurant with long white tablecloths and dark red leather booths. Some people were discreetly snapping photos, as was […]
- By
Does CAA Have a Succession Problem?
For those of a certain age who like to think that they’re still young — and who doesn’t? — it is sobering to realize that when Michael Ovitz bowed out of the agency business in 1995, neither Tom Holland nor Zendaya had even been born. People who weren’t around in those days can’t begin to […]
- By
In TV’s Wild West, Which Channels Will Be Dropped Next?
Walt Disney’s new carriage agreement with cable giant Charter Communications is widely seen as a game-changer for the pay TV and streaming sectors, creating a new blueprint for how such deals are structured. Analysts and industry sources point to two key pieces of the deal that will likely be felt: ad-supported streaming in the bundle, […]
- By
Creators Once Dreaded the Pressure of Ratings, Now They’re Fighting for the Data
Striking writers and actors are pressing a few common issues as they seek better contracts from the media companies represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. One big one: Both unions want more transparency about how many people are watching streaming series and movies and, along with that, a bigger share of streaming […]
- By
Inside the NFL’s All-Media Blitz: How Roger Goodell Conquered Hollywood
The origins of the NFL’s streaming business can be traced, in part, to a party at Bill Gates’ house outside of Seattle several years ago. The event was timed to a summit that Microsoft was hosting, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell recalls chatting with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos there. “I was just talking about our […]
- By
Wall Street’s M&A Sharks Are Getting Ready for a Feeding Frenzy of Hollywood Deals
On Aug. 17, days after its strike passed the 100-day mark, the Writers Guild of America West issued a call for lawmakers and regulators to look into the deals of three Hollywood giants: Netflix, Disney and Amazon. “Pay and working conditions for writers have become so dire, and media conglomerates so unresponsive, that 11,500 writers went […]
- By
Box Office: Warning Signs Amid Summer’s Big Highs
In addition to the chaos of the strikes, Hollywood is facing a moment of reckoning after some of the costliest franchise installments in history were washed out to sea at the 2023 summer box office, while such original fare as Barbie and Oppenheimer created a surprise cultural tsunami. A box office aficionado would have to […]
- By