☀️Cord Cutting & Rate Hikes

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY August 15, 2023.

Where AMAZON has stopped putting items that already come in boxes into additional ‘Amazon’ cardboard boxes when shipping to you… ya know, the environment and all. Ok yes fine, it’s to save money.

So, keep that in mind when placing orders, especially in regards to “things you want sitting out in the open on your doorstep.”

What’s that? Oh don’t worry, I’m sure AMAZON PRIME Entertainment spending is fine.

OH UH: AMAZON has also cut dozens of in-house created brands for clothing and home goods/furnishings (Goodthreads, Stone & Beam etc), leaving basically just a handful - each with AMAZON actually in the name (AMAZON Essentials, Collection, Aware, Basics etc).

AND: I would pay $200 to see this SNL sketch off-season: Ed Sheeran played a SIRIUSXM show this weekend in Amagansett for the… the young Hamptons crowd of Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, Jon Bon Jovi, David Zaslav, Robert Kraft, Gwyneth Paltrow and more… including BARSTOOL’s Dave Portnoy 😳.

Oh to have been a fly on the Champagne flutes 🥂. I mean, come on SIRIUS - no Wakeup invite 😢? Dave said I could totally crash at his pad anytime.

THEN: US Linear TV fell below a 50% share for the first time in July. But wait - there was so much great programming!! That 3rd repeat of a primetime Celebrity Jeopardy! episode was fantastic. Don’t forget the 5am World Cup games.

Although Streaming - your 2 biggest “hits” were Suits and Bluey so maybe hold off on the press releases.

Also to note: TUBI well over ROKU and PLUTO 👀 (not to mention PAR+ and PEACOCK, and tied with MAX).

PLUS: Retired NFL Lineman and subject of The Blind Side movie, Michael Oher, said he made nothing from the movie, and was cheated out of a cut of the film’s net profits by the Tuohy family, in a new court petition filed that seeks to rectify that… 14 years after the film was in theaters 🤷‍♂️. The Net Profits time horizon amirite? 🙄

I break down this math here down in the Movies section today to see what kinda money we’re talking about (potentially).

ALSO: TIFF added some more boldfaced projects next month:

2 episodes of NETFLIX’s All the Light We Cannot See limited series from Shawn Levy

AMAZON’s pic from The Farewell director Lulu Wang called Expats with Nicole Kidman

Plus some Int’l projects including an Israeli crime drama, and premiere of a new Korean PAR+ series.

MAYOR ON LINE 2 📞: LA mayor Karen Bass has been rolling calls with SAG and AMPTP leadership to try and get deal talks going again, according to The Ankler’s Strikegeist.

SLAINTE´🥳: To Ashley Olsen, who’s now a momma… welcoming son Otto with husband Louis Eisner.

A look at just how worse Cord Cutting got in Q2.

AND: Given that FOX just ended their Fiscal Year, a look at what the newly updated FOX NEWS distribution numbers in the annual SEC report could mean for FOX NEWS’ future financial picture as a case study.

note: this has nothing to do with politics, simply a $$ look some back of the napkin math around one of Cable TV’s biggest remaining assets.

UPDATE FROM YESTERDAY’S WAKEUP: The NFL+ Streaming App is actually now also available on your TV this season, in addition to phone & tablet - thanks to the Wakeup reader for the heads up! But you still can’t actually watch your local team’s games via the NFL+ TV App, you just get live audio #awesome, and highlights.

Or you can spend a $40 one-time cost for an Over-The-Air antenna and watch on your TV for free on local stations every season going forward.

BUT: You can easily get NFL REDZONE on your TV if you get the NFL+ ‘premium’ package for $80 a year and at least see when your favorite (out-of-market) team scores each Sunday, and not have to pay $350+ a year for Sunday Ticket to watch the rest of each game.

AND A CORRECTION: The Indian pic that did very well in limited US release this weekend was Jailer, my apology for the error yesterday on behalf of my brain for getting creative while reading too fast.

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