Business

The non-disclosure agreement comes two weeks after a Paramount’s monthlong exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison’s Skydance ended with no deal but the indie studio still hanging in, still interested. Sony and private equity giant Apollo kicked things off previously with a preliminary bid of $26 billion, but what’s being contemplated now is not that, but something narrower. A look at the books is necessary to move forward in any case.

Julia Phelps, Paramount Global’s EVP, chief communications and corporate marketing officer will leave the company at the end of May. Her group — which encompasses corporate communications, marketing, social impact, ESG, creative & strategy, production, board relations and events and brand experience — will report to studio chief Brian Robbins on an interim basis.

The Dow finished above 40,000 Friday to cap Wall Street’s latest winning week.

Thursday marked the conclusion of the third week of negotiations between IATSE and the AMPTP on a new three-year deal for the L.A. Locals. The union had planned to wrap up talks on the basic agreement by the time the clock struck midnight, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement and will be extending talks.

Fox’s nascent sales house has struck its first third-party distribution agreement for a TV series, taking rights to Australian docu-soap Billion Dollar Playground.

A new Aluma study indicates that pay TV subs are far more likely to buy the new Venu Sports service, which would accelerate cord cutting.

Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA continue to have discussions about reaching a new broadcast deal. WBD has matching rights if the NBA signs a deal with NBCUniversal for a package of games. If WBD matches NBCU’s bid, it’s unclear if the league has full discretion to walk away from the matched offer, sources say.

It was intended to be a teaser for future research validating ad attention measurement by medium, but the Advertising Research Foundation this week teased an anecdotal finding from its latest phase indicating TV outperforms the attention of social media by a margin of more than two-to-one.

In a major licensing deal for the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, the organization says that it has inked a multifaceted deal with the web platform Reddit. OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman is among Reddit’s largest shareholders.

An unsettling trend of putting GMs in charge of multiple markets is creeping into the industry. It doesn’t bode well for those who hope for any degree of proficiency at that scale.

Wall Street edged back from records Thursday after the Dow briefly topped 40,000.

Netflix’s programmatic advertising deal with demand-side platform The Trade Desk is estimated to yield major revenue results for the streaming platform and the DSP. Morgan Stanley estimates that 10% share of Netflix advertising dollars for Trade Desk would add around 2% of the DSP’s 2026 revenue. It estimates Netflix will generate over $3 billion in advertising revenue by 2026 for its “Basic With Ads” subscription option.

In July of 2023, recently returned Disney CEO Bob Iger shocked the media industry by indicating he might be open to divesting the company’s declining  linear assets. By last fall, he’d changed his mind, declaring them not for sale. On interviews and earnings calls since, he’s explained why — most recently at the MoffettNathanson media conference, and in the midst of annual upfront presentations to advertisers.

In its biggest completed deal so far, the company adds the production firm behind such series as The Traitors (pictured), Squid Game: The Challenge and The Tourist, and films like 1917 to its media portfolio.

Using Samba TV data, StackAdapt is providing clients with Reach Forecasting and Incremental Reach Measurement features.

The CW is looking to keep acquiring sports rights and is eyeing an expansion on Sundays as well as potential team-ups with other rights holders, President Dennis Miller said. In an upfronts briefing alongside Brad Schwartz, president of Entertainment, Miller said the pace of sports rights dealmaking has surprised “everyone, from Perry [Sook, CEO of parent company Nexstar] on down.”

When YouTube launched nearly two decades ago, its first clip was a grainy video of co-founder Jawed Karim speaking to the camera while standing in front of the elephants at the San Diego Zoo. Since, then the online video giant has increasingly been the entertainment of choice for billions of people. And while the Google-owned service is still often thought of as being the destination for people watching funny short videos on their smartphones, the way that Americans watch it has changed in a big way.

The seven-year run of the hit series, which ends on Thursday, mirrors the story of the television business during that time.

Now is not the best time for women in TV. According to recent research by the Creative Diversity Network, whose Diamond report collects data from the U.K.’s big broadcasters, the gender gap is widening. One female director hides that she has a child; younger women face a 39% gender pay gap; and harassment is widespread. Insiders say it’s a wonder the television industry has any women left at all.

The current leader of CBS O&O WBBM Chicago is adding the company’s Detroit station to her portfolio.

Diamond Sports Group said negotiations with Comcast Corp. remain open despite warnings from Major League Baseball that the cable provider’s decision to drop its regional sports channels could force the league to set up alternative broadcasts for fans of a dozen teams.

The Trade Desk, Google Display & Video 360 and Magnite join Microsoft handling programmatic sales.

Wall Street rallied Wednesday set to records after inflation slows.

The Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) is challenging a new Nielsen tabulation aggregating total TV viewing across both linear and nonlinear viewing sources, because it includes some non-ad-supported viewing. The new analysis, which Nielsen released Tuesday, showed Disney has the biggest share of aggregate cross-platform audiences, followed by YouTube. TVB President Steve Lanzano said the analysis “misleads marketers into thinking their commercials can reach significantly more streaming viewers than is possible or the reality.”

Warner Bros. Discovery announced new advanced advertising products marketers can buy on its Max streaming service during its upfront presentation Wednesday that include shoppable ads, advanced contextual targeting and interactive video formats.

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