The Paramount Skydance chief executive will have to work hard to repair badly frayed relations with Hollywood talent who fiercely opposed the consolidation of two historic studios as a bad deal for workers. - Los Angeles Times
Beast Games does not provoke debates about who can or should win and how. Rather, it stages a demonstration of what money can make people agree to. - The Conversation
The bill provides a tax credit of at least 20 percent on the wages of the vast array of workers who create movies and TV shows. That includes actors and directors as well as camera operators and makeup artists. - The New York Times
It’s all about attention to mundane detail. The new The History of Concrete fits Hallmark "because that’s the kind of living proof that this rhythmic cyclical way of storytelling is actually soothing and attractive to people over long periods of time.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Well, a bot sport, anyway. Bots are doing so much online work that regular collectors just can’t keep up - and are getting excluded from the things they love as a result. - The Verge
Jeff Probst doesn’t care about the Trump-loving network owners. Instead, he says, he cares about story. “Our stories are so much more interesting now because we have people from completely different walks of life.” - Variety
Ad spending on political podcasts jumped 42% in the first half of 2026 after rising 36% during the same period last year, according to Magellan AI estimates provided to TheWrap. Taken together, spending increased approximately 93% over two years. - The Wrap (MSN)
“The Drive-In, a TVOD service that will operate within independent film and TV discovery app RecDek, … will stream directly from the filmmaker’s library within the platform, which means that ‘nothing is handed over, re-uploaded or locked away.’ Producers will also set their own prices and keep receipts from first sale.” - Variety
“Per a note to Boston Globe staff today, the lesbian bar story generated 1,000 subscriptions to the paper yesterday. The Globe’s managing editor said it was ‘by far our best performing story of the year,’ and appears to be ‘on pace to shatter all sorts of Globe records.'” - Mediaite
“A number of suitors, … enamored by the site’s obsessive audience and the subscription and advertising revenue streams it provides, … have submitted expressions of interest, including The New York Times Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment and (indie studio) A24. … Any deal is expected to value Letterboxd at more than $300 million.” - The New York Times
“Deadline hears that the BBC is expected to unveil what one source described as ‘audience-facing’ closures next week, as the UK broadcaster ramps up efforts to save £500 million ($660M) over the coming years. … Speculation (is) rife that youth network BBC Three is at risk of being unplugged for a second time.” - Deadline
With an 11 am PT virtual hearing before Judge Martinez-Olguin widely viewed as a rubber stamping of the September 21 antitrust settlement and hence the mega-merger itself, the granting of Block the Merger’s move makes it almost certain the deal won’t be formally approved today. - Deadline
“These promises are extremely, exquisitely hard to enforce,” said Alvaro Bedoya, an antitrust lawyer, likening Paramount’s concessions to a pinkie promise. If Paramount fell short of its spending commitments, for instance, attorneys general would need to rely on the company’s own data to prove it, Bedoya said. - The Wall Street Journal
