Richard Greenfield

Jeff Green Says Amazon is Not a Competitor, but Amazon Views Trade Desk as a Competitor Listen (7:43 mins) During yesterday’s Trade Desk Q2 2025 earnings call, CEO Jeff Green was asked about rising competition from Amazon. Green stated, “Amazon is not a competitor.” …

Jeff Green Says Amazon is Not a Competitor, but Amazon Views Trade Desk as a Competitor
$TTD @thetradedesk.bsky.social $AMZN @amazonads.bsky.social

Dissecting David Ellison’s Vision for Paramount Skydance Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison marked the closing of the Paramount and Skydance merger with his vision for the combined company (link). We thought it would be useful to dissect what was said …

Dissecting David Ellison's Vision for Paramount Skydance $PSKY

Background on HBO Max Reset with AT&T In… Background on HBO Max Reset with AT&T In today’s WBD Shareholder letter they stated: “During the second quarter, we restructured our HBO Max U.S. distribution deal with a former rel…

⚡️ Background on HBO Max Reset with AT&T ⚡️

Prior to the creation of Warner Bros. Discovery, WarnerMedia was owned by AT&T. At certain tiers of wireless service, HBO Max was included with your AT&T wireless... $WBD $T

Zuck Ramps up Instagram’s Attack on TikTok and… Zuck Ramps up Instagram’s Attack on TikTok and Snap Instagram announced two major feature launches today (see screenshots embedded below). Instagram introduced reposts, mirroring TikTok&#8217…

⚡️ Zuck Ramps up Instagram’s Attack on TikTok and Snap ⚡️

Instagram announced two major feature launches today...

Initial Reactions to ESPN’s Acquisition of NFL Media… Initial Reactions to ESPN’s Acquisition of NFL Media Following tonight’s ESPN acquisition of NFL Media assets, we continue to believe Disney is setting the stage to spin-off its televis…

⚡️ Initial Reactions to ESPN’s Acquisition of NFL Media ⚡️

Following tonight’s ESPN acquisition of NFL Media assets, we continue to believe Disney is setting the stage to spin-off its television assets in the post-Iger era (2027). Plus two BIG surprises in the deal...

Horrifying Box Office Stat Hollywood Is Not Talking About, While Streaming Movie Pierces Zeitgeist Hollywood has faced a series of setbacks that lead us to believe box office prospects are permanently impaired compared to pre-COVID times. After emerging from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic in 20…

Horrifying Box Office Stat Hollywood Is Not Talking About, While Streaming Movie Pierces Zeitgeist
lightshedtmt.com/2025/08/05/h...

Roku Saddling Up for a Ride Beyond Advertising Listen (3:49) Back in 2019, when the company had fewer than 30 million monthly active accounts, founder and CEO Anthony Wood asked me at a Roku company retreat what concerned us about Roku’s …

ROKU Saddling Up for a Ride Beyond Advertising
lightshedtmt.com/2025/08/05/r...

Comcast is Out-Executing Charter The prior narrative that… Comcast is Out-Executing Charter The prior narrative that Charter was out-executing Comcast is already unraveling. Despite Charter’s revamped video strategy, broadband subscriber trends at both com…

⚡️ Media Sector Implications from Comcast Results ⚡️

Disney Parks
Google AI
Cord-cutting & Cord-shaving
Media network ad trends
Streaming sub trends

plus Walt Piecyk's thoughts on why Comcast is Out-Executing Charter
$CMCSA $CHTR $DIS $GOOGL

Skydance Strikes Back: Ellison Chooses Paramount’s Streaming Future Over Easy Money Listen (3:00 mins) Investor confusion around Paramount’s new South Park agreement has been widespread this week. Here’s what the deal means for Paramount’s earnings, leveraging re…

Skydance Strikes Back: Ellison Chooses Paramount’s Streaming Future Over Easy Money

Here’s what the new South Park deal means for Paramount earnings, leveraging reporting from Bloomberg’s @lucasshaw.bsky.social and Puck’s @mattbelloni.bsky.social

Does Disney’s NFL Media Acquisition Foreshadow an ESPN/ABC Spinoff? Listen (7:15 mins) We have consistently advised Disney to spin off ESPN/ABC, while viewing an NFL Media acquisition as a no-brainer for ESPN’s strategic positioning as moves more aggressively…

Does Disney’s NFL Media Acquisition Foreshadow an ESPN/ABC Spinoff?

Roku’s Reckoning: What Happens When Your #1 Partner Becomes Your Competitor? Listen (7:13 mins) Walmart’s December 2024 acquisition of Vizio has triggered a strategic pivot that reveals both the retailer’s ambitions and limitations in the connected TV market. Fo…

Roku's Reckoning: What Happens When Your #1 Partner Becomes Your Competitor?

RIP Linear TV as Predicted by Netflix in 2013 Listen (3:22 mins) The hot takes on Paramount’s decision to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in late 2026 are missing the forest for the trees. Regardless of why the show is ending, the re…

RIP Linear TV as Predicted by Netflix in 2013

Refreshing Honesty from Netflix on Engagement We have… Refreshing Honesty from Netflix on Engagement We have always viewed time spent/engagement as the key driver of Netflix’s success. If you and your family are watching more Netflix content, you…

⚡️ Refreshing Honesty from Netflix on Engagement ⚡️ $NFLX

It was refreshing to hear @netflix.com talk honestly about their engagement stagnation, most notably in the US...

Ten Questions for Netflix’s Q2 2025 Earnings Tomorrow Listen (6:03) Here are our ten key questions for Netflix management on tomorrow’s Q2 2025 earnings discussion (our Q1 2025 questions can be found here).  1) New UI/UX and Live Programming. Two mont…

Ten Questions for Netflix’s Q2 2025 Earnings Tomorrow
$NFLX @netflix.com

Plot Twist: Reddit Goes from AI Loser to AI Winner
lightshedtmt.com/2025/07/01/p...

Look Who Was Cageside at UFC 317 There… Look Who Was Cageside at UFC 317 There are exactly six months left in UFC’s current domestic licensing deal. Things have been quiet, with almost no press talk or rumors about a new deal. We are not…

⚡️ Look Who Was Cageside at UFC 317 ⚡️ via @BrandoLightShed

Thus, we are left to look for breadcrumbs to speculate on the who, when and how much of a new deal. One place to look is cageside at UFC events, exactly where...

Will Paramount’s Board Reshuffling Break the CBS-Trump Settlement… Will Paramount’s Board Reshuffling Break the CBS-Trump Settlement Deadlock? The WSJ reported today (link) that a mediator has proposed CBS pay $17 million in cash to President Trump’s f…

⚡️ Will Paramount’s Board Reshuffling Break the CBS-Trump Settlement Deadlock? ⚡️ $PARA

The impasse stems from board dynamics at Paramount, where non-executive Chair Shari Redstone has...

Netflix’s French Experiment: Could Be Unique Win-Win? Listen (5:05 mins) Waking up to headlines at the 2025 Cannes Lions that Netflix struck a deal with TF1 (link), a French over-the-air TV broadcaster, to offer their linear feed on Netflix was more t…

Netflix's French Experiment: Could Be Unique Win-Win?
@netflix $NFLX @TF1

Can Netflix Transform Ads into Cinematic Content Levering AI? Listen (2:55 mins) In just 2 1/2 years, Netflix has scaled advertising into a multi-billion-dollar business with a goal of reaching $9 billion by 2030. Unlike peers who are increasing their ad load…

Heading into Cannes: Can @netflix.com Transform Ads into Cinematic Content Levering AI? $NFLX

Four recent examples of Netflix Cinematic Ads + how Netflix hopes to utilizes the Gen AI that enabled this week's incredible NBA Finals ad

LightShed’s Top 17 TMT Predictions and Events to Watch for in 2025 (Listen: 37:46 mins) Happy New Year!  As always, we are publishing our predictions for the year ahead.  This year we are breaking a tradition.  In the past, we have added one extra p…

🚨 Banning Pharma ads on TV was #15 on LightShed's Top 17 predictions for 2025

What we didn't predict was banning pharma ads on radio, print, and social media too, as a new Senate bill seeks....

Warner Bros. Discovery Split: Wall Street Wizardry or Hollywood Fantasy? When the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery Communications was announced on May 17, 2021, management guided 2023 EBITDA to $14 billion. WBD lowered that initial guidance four separate times over t…

Warner Bros. Discovery Split: Wall Street Wizardry or Hollywood Fantasy? $WBD

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. Using that lens for WBD, we can understand why they announced a split into two separate entities...

While Investors Ignore Ventura tvOS, Trade Desk Continues… While Investors Ignore Ventura tvOS, Trade Desk Continues to Push Forward In November 2024, Trade Desk formally announced that its tvOS operating system, Ventura, would launch in 2025 (link). Howev…

⚡️ While Investors Ignore Ventura tvOS, Trade Desk Continues to Push Forward ⚡️ $TTD

Investors have assumed Ventura was DOA, especially after the only speculated device partnership, Sonos, shuttered their TV box initiative...

Legacy Media Execs Hoping Investors Ignore the Elephant in the Room Comcast’s NBCUniversal is set to spin off Versant, comprising its linear cable networks excluding Bravo; Lionsgate has just completed its separation from Starz; investor excitement for a Warn…

Legacy Media Execs Hoping Investors Ignore the Elephant in the Room

Getting out of linear cable networks sounds like a great idea, but it honestly feels like legacy media executives all waited far too long to hit the eject button...

$CMCSA $DIS $PARA $WBD $FOXA $STRZ $AMCX

Reddit Data Way More Valuable Than Investors Realize… Reddit Data Way More Valuable Than Investors Realize Earlier today, Reddit sued Anthropic for unauthorized and unlawful scraping and use of Reddit content to train and commercialize its AI systems,…

⚡️ Reddit Data Way More Valuable Than Investors Realize ⚡️

For AI chat bots that dont send meaningful traffic to Reddit based on their current UI and product architecture, we believe Reddit will require annual data licensing fees that dwarf the levels...

Who Blinks: Redstone or Trump, or Is This About More Than Money? Listen (5:17 mins) Skydance announced its merger/takeover of Paramount on July 7, 2024. The transaction has all necessary approvals to close immediately, except the FCC. While everyone on both side…

Who Blinks: Redstone or Trump, or Is This About More Than Money? $PARA

Disney+ Willingness to Embrace Third-Party, Non-Exclusive IP is… Disney+ Willingness to Embrace Third-Party, Non-Exclusive IP is Important Shift Historically, Disney was focused on owning the animated content they aired, so they had complete control over the IP …

⚡️ Disney+ Willingness to Embrace Third-Party, Non-Exclusive IP is Important Shift ⚡️

Historically, Disney was focused on owning the animated content they aired, so they had complete control over the IP to make toys, integrate into theme parks, create derivative content... $DIS

AppLovin’s Black Box Delivers Compelling ROAS AppLovin’s rapid… AppLovin’s Black Box Delivers Compelling ROAS AppLovin’s rapid revenue growth continues to defy investor expectations and prove the doubters wrong (as we detailed earlier this month, li…

⚡️ Applovin’s Black Box Delivers Compelling ROAS ⚡️

The positive feedback on @AppLovin's ecom push keeps building $APP

Why is Peacock Slashing Price by 70%? The… Why is Peacock Slashing Price by 70%? The same week that NBC Universal held their Upfront to highlight that they have the Winter Olympics in Milan, Super Bowl LX and the launch of the NBA over the …

⚡️ Why is Peacock Slashing Price by 70%? ⚡️

After spending over $27 billion on NBA rights alone over the next 11 years, @peacock is offering an incredibly aggressive promotional price $CMCSA

ESPN’s Direct-to-Consumer Trojan Horse Listen (4:55) Yesterday, ESPN announced (link) that its decade-in-the-making direct-to-consumer streaming service, aptly named ESPN, would cost $30/month, or $36/month if bundled with Disney+ and H…

ESPN’s Direct-to-Consumer Trojan Horse

So why go through all that effort to launch a DTC app that will not be all that appealing price-wise to consumers on a standalone basis? $DIS @espn.com

Lightning – LightShed Partners Lightning

⚡️ Will Fox News be the Biggest Winner in the 2025 Upfronts? ⚡️

Earlier today, $FOXA CEO Lachlan Murdoch stated that Fox News now has over 200 new advertisers since Election Day, building materially on the 100+ new advertisers FOX disclosed back in March 2025