Lucas Shaw

Warner Bros.’ David Zaslav Tried to Rebrand HBO. It Didn’t Work. Warner Bros. Discovery had a plan to turn HBO into Netflix. Here’s where it went wrong.

The ongoing quest to remake HBO for the streaming age has resulted in a network that is both cheaper and smaller than Netflix.

That & much more in this week's newsletter:

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Snoop Dogg Makes Peace With Spotify, Releases New Album on Service ‘Iz It a Crime?’ came out Thursday as a surprise to fans

Snoop Dogg has been railing against streaming services like Spotify and YouTube for two years, claiming they don't pay artists enough.

But the Doggfather has declared peace with Spotify -- and he explains why. @SnoopDogg

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

HBO Max is back.

The name of the Max streaming service is changing back to HBO Max.

You can't make this stuff up.

Trump Plans to Tax Movies. Here's How It Will Impact Hollywood While more movies and TV shows are being produced abroad, the US entertainment industry still exports three times as much as it imports.

What about a newsletter on it???

(But yes we will discuss.)

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Trump Plans to Tax Movies. Here's How It Will Impact Hollywood While more movies and TV shows are being produced abroad, the US entertainment industry still exports three times as much as it imports.

Donald Trump floated a 100% tariff on imported movies after spending the weekend with Jon Voight and his manager at Mar-a-Lago.

The tariffs are unlikely to bring production back to the US and risk retaliation, which would be devastating for Hollywood.

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Trump Plans 100% Tariff on Foreign Movies, Escalating Trade War President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he plans to impose a 100% tariff on films produced overseas, extending his restrictive trade policies on US imports to the entertainment sector for the fir...

Donald Trump plans a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas.

Will have more on this in the newsletter, which is publishing... shortly.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

How ‘Yellowstone’ Became a $3 Billion Franchise – and Where It Goes Next The creator of ‘Yellowstone’ talks about turning an unprofitable show into the most-valuable franchise on TV

For this week's Screentime: a rare interview with Taylor Sheridan, the most successful TV writer of this decade.

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Behind the ‘60 Minutes’ Upheaval, a Big Merger Seeking Approval Shari Redstone wanted to know what 60 Minutes was going to say next about President Donald Trump.

Shari Redstone has been upset w/CBS News for months. Her frustration started with Gaza and grew as 60 Minutes’ Trump coverage delayed her $8 billion deal.

An inside look at the growing divide between a billionaire media mogul and her newsroom.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Is YouTube making Hollywood irrelevant? The BBC's Katty Kay speaks with Bloomberg reporter Lucas Shaw about YouTube's meteoric rise and how it became a dominant player in the entertainment industry.

People spending more time watching YouTube than Netflix and Amazon Prime Video combined.

I spoke with the folks @BBCNews about why Hollywood is very scared of YouTube.

www.bbc.com/worklife/art...

Discord Names New CEO as Co-Founder Steps Down Ahead of IPO Discord Inc., the popular chat app, named a new chief executive officer, replacing co-founder and current CEO Jason Citron.

Always a good sign when you change CEOs right before an IPO.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Sinners ends up at $46 million in the US and Canada. A great result for an original movie.

International is only $15 million. Not so great.

The Massive Blockbuster That No One Predicted A Minecraft Movie took in more than $500 million in 10 days. Nobody saw that coming

A Minecraft Movie was projected to open to $65 million in North America the Monday before it opened.

It made $163 million.

I talked to the people responsible for forecasts to understand why -- and what it says about the modern film business.

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Trump Tariffs Will Make Entertainment More Expensive We asked experts how his trade policy will impact the entertainment business.

Shares in almost every major media and technology comapny have crashed over the last few days. I spoke to top analysts and executives to better understand how Trump's tariffs will affect their businesses.

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

‘A Minecraft Movie’ Mania Grips Nation, Opening Now At $130M+ For Warner Bros Legendary Pic – Update 'A Minecraft Movie' from Warner Bros amassed $10.55 million in Thursday previews, the best ever for a videogame movie. The outlook is a huge $100M opening at the box office.

Minecraft is the first big hit of the year at the box office. It's on track to double the initial estimates for its opening weekend.

deadline.com/2025/04/box-...

Nintendo Delays Pre-Orders for Switch 2 After Trump Tariffs Nintendo Co. said it’s delaying pre-orders for the new Switch 2 due to concerns over the impact of global tariffs instituted by US President Donald Trump.

Two immediate impacts from tariffs:

StubHub paused plans for an IPO.

Nintendo delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The True Story Behind MrBallen’s Crime Podcasts John Allen, known online as MrBallen, operates a 70-person company with his Pulitzer Prize-winning family on staff.

A boston guy from a journalism family has one of the biggest true crime podcasts in the world.

@ashleycarman.bsky.social with the definitive @mrballen.bsky.social profile

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People watched more Suits on Netflix in 6 months than Suits on TV in 9 years. And that's not even the largest bump a show has gotten from Netflix.

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Asia’s Richest Man Takes Aim at Netflix, YouTube in India More than 100 million people now subscribe to India’s largest paid video service.

A streaming service in India has 100 million paying subscribers for the first time. It's controlled by Asia's richest man. Is this an inflection point for the local media industry in the world's largest country?

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

New York Times Cooking App Finds Right Ingredients to Vanquish Rivals After launching 10 years ago, NYT Cooking has succeeded in a crowded field with its blend of sleek videos, massive recipe catalog and an active community of home chefs.

The New York Times was never a national destination for cooking recipes.

So how did it become one over the last few years? We spoke to the team behind the Cooking app.

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Disney Executives Audition to Be the Company’s Next CEO The two leading candidates to succeed Bob Iger have delivered public performances that address their perceived weaknesses.

For this week's Screentime, I wrote an update the race to be the next CEO of Disney.

Find out who is in, who is out and who is lurking.

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Spotify Signs Bill Simmons, Its $250 Million Man, to a New Deal Bill Simmons is sticking around at Spotify.

New: @billsimmons.bsky.social is sticking around at Spotify.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

YouTube’s Biggest Star MrBeast Makes More Money From Chocolate Than Videos Beast Industries is looking to raise a couple hundred million dollars to expand into new areas, including video games, beverages and wellness

The biggest YouTube star in the world (@MrBeast) makes more money from chocolate than his entertainment business, according to two different investor decks.

We took a dive into one of the most interesting creator businesses around.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Skydance Refutes Project Rise’s Paramount Bid in Letter to FCC Skydance Media, the independent movie and TV studio that’s seeking to merge with Paramount Global, fired back at complaints by rival bidder Project Rise Partners in a letter to the Federal Communicati...

It would appear Skydance is officially fed up with Project Rise, the group trying to scuttle its deal for Paramount.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

It is in a few theaters in the US, but you are correct and we amended that already!

Media Moguls Were Excited for Trump to Make Them Rich. Are They Still? The new administration has already caused problems for two major deals and isn’t making it easy for potential IPOs.

Four months ago, media executives hailed Trump as a more business-friendly president who would likely usher in a wave of dealmaking.

Now? Not so much.

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

I will do a reader mailbag for the newsletter in the near future. What questions do people have about media/entertainment meets tech?

A few takeaways from Netflix's latest data dump:

The Oscars Consider Move from Disney to Netflix, Other Networks The audience for the Oscars has declined more than 50% over the last decade. Will that lead to a break-up with its home of more than 50 years?

Screentime: On Oscar Sunday, I wrote about the show's future on TV.

Disney has had the deal for 50+ years, but its exclusive window is up and the Academy is looking to see if anyone else will offer a major increase. Yes, that includes Netflix.

www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

A Billion People Are Watching Podcasts on YouTube Every Month The video site has leapfrogged Spotify to become the most popular podcasting platform in the US

YouTube is the biggest podcasting platform in the world.
It's the biggest music service in the world.
It's the biggest video service in the world.
It's the biggest entertainment platform ever.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Disney has made a lot of moves in streaming over the last 3 years, and yet its services share of total TV time hasn't budged.

YouTube, Netflix and Amazon have all grown quite a bit.

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