BRAND CONNECTIONS

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.  

Is Roger Goodell Spreading The NFL’s Love Too Thin?

How does a company like Netflix ramp up the production infrastructure needed to streamcast NFL football ... and make it cost-effective for just two games a season? Amazon had to make that commitment for Thursday Night Football, and it cost them a fortune. As much free cash flow as it may have right now, Netflix isn't Amazon.

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.

If Bundling Is Back, What’s The Ideal Bundle?

Bundling is back in a big way, with all the major streaming companies and many pay TV operators exploring ways to simplify the consumer experience by offering bundles of content and streaming services. But as the pay TV industry learned in the last decades not every bundle is a recipe for success. Bloated, ill-conceived, expensive bundles of content and services can also be a recipe for disaster.  

Fraud Trial To Begin For Ozy Founder Carlos Watson

Watson’s lawyer has argued that many other media leaders lured investors with “puffing and bluffing,” and that he is being singled out because he is Black.

X Finally Moves Away From Twitter.Com

The social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has taken the final step to complete it rebrand, ditching Twitter.com. The site’s URL now reads X.com, a pop-up told users. The change comes about a year and a half after billionaire Elon Musk bought the company and began the changes. (Rick Rycroft/AP)

Dabney Coleman, Actor Who Specialized In Curmudgeons, Dies

For two decades Coleman labored in movies and TV shows as a talented but largely unnoticed performer. That changed abruptly in 1976 when he was cast as the incorrigibly corrupt mayor of the hamlet of Fernwood in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a satirical soap opera that was so over the top no network would touch it, forcing producer Norman Lear to syndicate it. Coleman won a an an Emmy Award for best supporting actor in Peter Levin's 1987 small screen legal drama Sworn to Silence. Some of his recent credits include Ray Donovan and a recurring role on Boardwalk Empire, for which he won two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Coleman was 92.

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New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a vice president and general manager. Existing jobs include openings for a vice president and general manager, a lifestyle show producer, director of student media, a market manager and a digital platform specialist.

TVN Webinar: News, Sports And Remote Production In 2024

Technology leaders from NBC Regional Sports Networks, Sinclair, Gray Television, Hearst Television and Fox Television Stations discuss the benefits and challenges of remote production in an IP environment in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on July 16 at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.

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