While purchaser Skydance has the right to approve any major contracts Paramount enters into before the acquisition is complete, “gun-jumping” — actively taking part or interfering in negotiations — is against federal securities law. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone argue that Skydance has seriously jumped the gun. - Bloomberg (Yahoo!)
“The not-for-profit network … which reached around 100 million homes in 2015, is now down to 51 million households. The contraction has led to a significant loss in revenue for C-SPAN, which has never sold advertising. C-SPAN took in $46.3 million in 2024, down 37% from $73 million in 2015.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
More than 50% of exhibition executives polled in a new survey believe that the “traditional cinema experience” has less than 20 years remaining as a viable business model. - Variety
The broadcaster has just launched the website BBC News Polska, for which a team of four native Polish speakers is curating material on global news from the English-language service, using AI machine translation to render that content into Polish, and reviewing the accuracy of the translation before posting. - Press Gazette (UK)
“Of the 48 titles selected to receive filming subsidies, only five are feature films, announced the California Film Commission on Monday. They account for roughly an even split of the $96 million in tax credits that the state is allocating this round.” - The Hollywood Reporter
The median compensation for media and entertainment executives for 2024 was $33.9 million, up 7% from 2023, according to figures from data company Equilar. - Los Angeles Times
“Faced with ongoing budget shortages and the possibility of federal funding cuts, Wisconsin Public Radio is laying off at least 15 staff members and has decided not to fill several vacant positions, while canceling four of its programs.” - Inside Radio
“What we dreamed of doing was to make a studio that had all this history, the old stages built in the 1930s and the heritage since 1902, but also have the most modern facilities. … It needed to be absolutely fit for the 21st century.” - The Guardian (UK)
What in the heck is going on? Since the pandemic, “while audiences often say they want to see new stories, box office ticket sales show they gravitate toward sequels, reboots and other familiar fare.” - Los Angeles Times
“Once a Cold War-era powerhouse for U.S. diplomacy, the U.S. Agency for Global Media has been gutted under a Trump executive order — slashing ... 85% of its workforce — in a move Kari Lake calls a win for taxpayers and critics warn is a death knell for press freedom.” - Salon
“The industry treats reality stars like the animals in a nature documentary: They can be compelling as we observe them in their habitat, but the true talent must come from the people behind the camera.” - Vulture
The industry group argues that "$900 permits are not what is causing productions to flee L.A. That is just a drop in the bucket.” Unemployed workers feel differently. - Variety
Jaws has earned the “classic” epithet. It invokes certain nostalgia for cinephiles and original audiences, many of whom fondly remember their first viewing. Aside from any cultural wistfulness, however, feelings towards the film may very well be a harkening back to a pre-neoliberal era when the embers of baby-boomer optimism still smouldered. - The Conversation
