Know What's Happening in Entertainment
Know What's Happening in Entertainment
Super Mario Galaxy film targets $200M+ opening weekend
Nintendo and Illumination are positioning the upcoming "Super Mario Galaxy" movie to open with more than $200 million domestically over the Easter holiday weekend. The strategy leans on the franchise’s multigenerational appeal and a family‑focused release window, with analysts citing the 2015 "Avengers: Age of Ultron" $191 million opening as a benchmark.
Also developing:
By the numbers: K-Love seeks FCC approval to acquire WFCC
Tegna has resolved a recent online public file (OPIF) rule violation by entering into a consent decree with the FCC’s Media Bureau. The agreement clears a key regulatory obstacle that has delayed its proposed sale to Nexstar Media Group. With the FCC issue settled, the merger is expected to move closer to final approval. The deal would combine two of the nation’s largest broadcast owners, reshaping the local television landscape.
Comcast co‑CEO Michael Cavanagh said Peacock will stay U.S.-only, aiming profitability. The service added 3 million paid subscribers in the last quarter of 2025, ending the year with 44 million paid subs, while revenue rose to $1.6 billion and operating loss widened to...
Luxury cinema chain iPic Theaters has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reporting a $20 million loss on $112.5 million revenue and assets between $10 million and $50 million. The filing follows a steep decline in ticket sales, heightened competition from streaming services, and lingering effects...
The article defines a first‑look deal as a contract where a creator gives a studio the right of first refusal on any new project, in exchange for a holding fee, office space, and development support. It outlines the step‑by‑step process—pitch,...
Will anyone dare call it Bay of Pigskin? JFK’s endorsement of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, an @NFL-friendly antitrust law, is coming back to haunt the New Frontier in the age of @Netflix, @Peacock, @YouTubeTV, and @Amazon @PrimeVideo. @BasedMikeLee,...
Backyard Ventures becomes the exclusive brand‑partnerships representative for the "excellence, actually" podcast, marking the first time the three‑year ad‑free show opens its inventory to sponsors. The Austin‑based agency will manage premium sponsor integrations across audio and digital platforms. Hosted by...
Damon Whiteside will step down as CEO of the Academy of Country Music in June 2026, transitioning to CEO Emeritus for the remainder of the year. During his six‑and‑a‑half‑year tenure, ACM achieved its largest, most diverse membership base and saw...
Grandson announced that the O2 Forum Kentish Town barred Bob Vylan frontman Bobby Vylan from joining his Inertia tour show on March 2. The venue, operated by Academy Music Group, cited local police concerns about protest‑related safety as the reason for...
Syndicate of Sounds announced that its Deja Vu stereo‑to‑5.1 upmixer is now embedded in three Telos Alliance platforms – the ZipStream R/20, Linear Acoustic LA‑5300 and UpMax ISC. The integration aligns with the company’s OEM strategy, allowing broadcasters to automatically...
Netflix is extending the Squid Game franchise with a new celebrity‑driven reality series titled "Squid Game: The VIP Challenge." The spin‑off pits eight high‑profile VIPs against each other in games that echo the original show's deadly contests. Hosts Dylan O'Brien...
Paradox Interactive announced a free patch for the original Cities: Skylines on Xbox Game Pass, arriving March 10 and adding roadside fences and an Employment Info View. The update coincides with new paid expansions for the 2015 title. Meanwhile, Cities: Skylines 2...
Versant Media Group reported 2025 revenues of $6.69 billion, generating $930 million in net income. Linear distribution contributed $4.09 billion, ad sales $1.58 billion, platforms $826 million, and licensing $193 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached $2.42 billion, and the board approved up to $1 billion in share repurchases alongside...
Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said Disney+ will boost viewer engagement by expanding content offerings. The service now has 131.6 million global subscribers, with 59.3 million in North America, but growth will come from increasing weekly watch hours. Disney plans targeted investments in...
YouTube TV is adding Adult Swim as a standalone channel to its Entertainment package while moving Cartoon Network exclusively into the Family tier. The shift mirrors DIRECTV’s recent bundling changes, separating mature‑rated programming from child‑friendly content. By placing Adult Swim in the...
Sumo Group, now owned by Tencent, has shed roughly 15% of its workforce, closed its Timbre Games studio and sold several subsidiaries to concentrate exclusively on co‑development and work‑for‑hire services for external IP. The co‑CEOs, Gary Dunn and Andy Stewart,...
Chinese billionaire Lin Bin, co‑founder of Xiaomi, agreed to purchase a 1% stake in the Miami Dolphins' holding company, valuing the franchise at $12.5 billion. The NFL finance committee has cleared the transaction, but a full owners’ vote is still pending....
Banijay and All3Media announced an $8 billion merger that will combine two of the world’s largest independent TV producers into a single entity. The deal gives each side a 50 percent stake, with Banijay’s Marco Bassetti becoming CEO and Jeff Zucker chairing...
Moments Lab will unveil its next‑generation multimodal, agentic AI capabilities at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The company’s Discovery Agent lets video teams retrieve clips, quotes and precise moments using plain‑language prompts, reporting over 50% user adoption and...
French filmmaker Luc Besson’s fantasy‑horror romance “Dracula” will hit digital platforms on March 10, offered for rental and purchase through Vertical. The film, which Besson directed, wrote and produced, has accumulated $41.8 million at the global box office. It follows a...
Roku announced that Apple TV is now available through The Roku Channel’s Premium Subscriptions platform, letting users sign up with their existing Roku account. The service costs $12.99 per month or $99 per year and includes a seven‑day free trial....
Eric Hochberger co‑founded Mediavine in 2004 as a collection of SEO‑driven fan sites. After years of selling sidebar ads and consulting, the company built its own header bidding platform in 2014, which quadrupled revenue and shifted Mediavine into a full‑service...
Canal+ Österreich has named Vienna‑born Peter Kail as its new chief executive. Kail, who rose from managing director at Eviso Austria to director of telecom partnerships at Canal+ International, will steer growth in the Austrian pay‑TV market. The appointment follows a leadership...
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is hiring an Assistant to support the Head of Podcasts in its Los Angeles‑based Creators department. The role combines high‑volume administrative duties, financial tracking, and cross‑department coordination, with an hourly wage of $20‑$22 plus benefits and...
Sharon Osbourne announced at MIDEM in Cannes that Ozzfest will return in 2027, marking the first festival since the 2018 show that was cancelled due to Ozzy Osbourne’s illness. She confirmed ongoing talks with Live Nation to relaunch the metal‑focused brand, emphasizing that...
Backyard Ventures, an Austin‑based media partnership agency with over 200 clients, is hiring a Sales Planner for its newsletter vertical. The role blends advertising operations, campaign reporting, client management, and introductory sales tasks, allocating roughly 80 % of time to execution...
Liberty Media’s 2025 earnings show Formula 1’s revenue climbing to $3.87 billion, a 14% increase, while operating income jumped 28% to $632 million. The franchise’s equity value rose to over $26 billion, delivering a 16% annualized return since the 2017 acquisition. Heading into the...
The PG Connects Summit Malmö × MeetToMatch, powered by Xsolla, will run on May 27‑28, 2026 alongside Nordic Game 2026. Hosted in the MeetToMatch Publisher Lounge at the Comfort Hotel, the two‑day event offers pre‑arranged, high‑value B2B meetings for developers, publishers, investors...
Paramount Global's pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery could spell the end of TNT Sports, the long‑standing sports brand of Turner. The deal, while likely to clear U.S. antitrust review, may still face challenges and follows a pattern where regulators...
Zoom Communications has appointed Dallas‑based PMG as its first global media agency of record, committing an estimated $25 million annual media spend. The partnership aligns with Zoom’s transition from a meeting platform to an AI‑first workplace, leveraging PMG’s Alli operating system...
Compass Media Networks announced exclusive radio coverage of the 2026 Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, running from March 10 through the championship on March 15. The tournament’s recent expansion to six days provides a packed schedule of high‑stakes games. General...
Universal Music Central Europe has named 8Ball Music founder Tony van de Berkt as the new CEO of Universal Music Netherlands, effective immediately. He succeeds Kees van der Hoeven, who will retire in December 2025, and will report to Frank Briegmann, Chairman & CEO of Universal...
ABC’s revived "Scrubs" episode attracted 11.36 million cross‑platform viewers within five days, making it the network’s top comedy debut on streaming in over a year. The broadcast also earned a 0.74 rating among adults 18‑49, the highest linear comedy telecast on...
OnSocial repositions influencer marketing as a social‑data problem, offering a toolkit that includes creator discovery, analytics, sponsored‑post tracking, audience overlap analysis, and an always‑on API. The platform targets agencies and brands that need defensible, data‑driven creator selections rather than an...
A new VoxComm report shows agency profit margins have collapsed from a historic 30% to roughly 10% as AI accelerates production and erodes the value of billable‑hour models. The authors argue that agencies must abandon effort‑based pricing and adopt solution‑based...
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter warned that Microsoft’s aggressive push toward Game Pass could render the next Xbox console “already dead.” He argues the company’s focus on high‑priced subscription tiers, especially a rumored $30 Ultimate plan, undermines traditional hardware sales. While...
The UK's Insomnia Gaming Festival, scheduled for 30 April‑3 May 2026, has been cancelled. Organisers say reduced investment from major technology and hardware brands left insufficient sponsorship and exhibitor presence. The event, to be run by a consortium that includes Modern Wolf,...
Broadcasters are moving toward fully IP‑centric FM infrastructures, embedding IP audio and MPX decoders directly in transmitters and shifting MPX generation to virtualized, ST 2110‑based server environments. The Ecresco AiO series exemplifies native IP decoding, eliminating external STL hardware and reducing...
X has launched a Handles Marketplace that lets Premium+ and Premium Business subscribers claim dormant @handles. Handles are split into free Priority names and paid Rare names, the latter fetching $2,500 to over $1 million. Paid Rare handles remain with the...
YouTube Shopping has expanded in 2026 to let brands turn any video—Shorts, long‑form, or Live—into a direct storefront. By linking a product catalog through Google Merchant Center, brands can tag SKUs within videos, letting viewers purchase without leaving the platform....
Consistently and without fail, the biggest mistake former TV and studio executives make is retrofitting legacy media economics into digital media models. The Ellisons aren’t building a legacy media conglomerate. They understand the tech and more importantly the new medium...
Banijay and All3Media Strike Merger Deal to Form Multi-Billion Dollar Production Group https://t.co/S2DGE01t3X via @variety
Event Network, a leading operator of experiential retail for museums, participated in the American Alliance of Museums' Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill on February 24. The company’s executives joined museum leaders to lobby for continued IMLS funding, the bipartisan Museum...
On the #GameOfThrones movie news: be wary of any development reports not accompanied by a studio quote. That said, given the incoming ownership's hunger for franchise IP, I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually happens.
We did a merch collab with the greatest anime ever made in the history of the universe, Naruto :D https://t.co/vMBSTlcdKJ
Paramount Skydance Debt Downgraded to Junk Status by Fitch Ratings Following Warner Bros. Discovery Deal https://t.co/bBiUN3grT5 via @variety
Versant, the newest company in the media sector, is getting ready to tackle some of the most lucrative properties in the business..... https://t.co/Hf3JAskeC5 via @variety
Versant Sees Chance to Snatch Big Sports Rights as NFL Opt-Out Looms https://t.co/Hf3JAskeC5 via @variety
Paramount’s $110 Billion Warner Bros. Deal Backed by Arab Sovereign Funds Raises Soft Power Concerns https://t.co/YAzJc52Fgq
🎙️ 🎙️ NEW POD: Puck all-stars @MattBelloni & @WilliamCohan debate David Ellison’s existential Paramount-WBD challenge, Ted Sarandos’ next play, and the legacy of David Zaslav… this is a fun one… Apple: https://t.co/FhmAiCfP7H Spotify: https://t.co/skJZmlCppk @PuckNews
Just in: S&P Global Ratings placed all its ratings on global diversified media company PSKY, including the 'BB+' issuer credit rating and our issue-level ratings on its debt, on CreditWatch with negative implications
