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ICYMI: You Have a $1.6M Cable TV Job? Yeah, You’re Worried

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4 weeks ago

August 25, 2024

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ICYMI: You Have a .6M Cable TV Job? Yeah, You’re Worried

Are you listening to our podcasts? I hope so. We have three excellent ones we share every Tuesday (Prestige Junkie), Wednesday (Martini Shot) and Friday (The Ankler), and helping behind the scenes on The Ankler pod is especially gratifying. This week, Rob Long’s Martini Shot featured a wry tale of working on a French sitcom and being peppered with work questions on airplanes, and Katey Rich’s Prestige Junkie had a revealing chat with the great Walton Goggins. On The Ankler pod, I joined Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to talk the latest Paramount sale drama and Disney succession, and Janice Min and Alison Brower recapped Hollywood’s DNC.

In my experience, the smartest people in business love audio as a way to multitask: listen, learn and be entertained while simultaneously doing something else. Because I know we have the sharpest audience in entertainment, I want your ideas for what topics you’d like to hear about from The Ankler — on our existing podcasts or, hey, suggest a new one. Email me at david@theankler.com.

And now, our best of the week, ICYMI:

Mid six- and seven-figure earners in entertainment are certainly the lucky ones these days. But even they’re worried about their careers. In this week’s Series Business (for paid subscribers only), Elaine talks to those at the top who fear ageism and demotions in their next career phase; explains the collateral damage from the death of overall deals; and how a production company can go from selling 15 shows a year to . . . one:

Hollywood’s Top Earners are Worried Too: ‘We All Feel Lucky to be Employed’

Manori Ravindran spent the week getting all the market intel from the Edinburgh International TV Festival (where she also moderated panels) for her latest column on the international TV market. She reports on the death of middle-budget content that sits between high and low; why co-productions and creative dealmaking are on the rise (even at and especially Prime Video); and how David Beckham’s production company offers a model for sustainable success:

What’s Selling, Who’s Buying in Int’l TV Now

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Did Taylor Swift endorse Trump? Obviously not. But deepfake AI has some believing that she did, that Jennifer Aniston uses a certain supplement, and that Tom Hanks endorsed a dental plan. In this week’s Dealmakers (for paid subscribers only), Ashley Cullins interviews the top Hollywood agents and lawyers helping stars fight back through the use of cutting-edge tech as well as the new and old laws they’re using to try to turn the tide:

‘Whack-a-Mole’: Agents and Lawyers Scramble to Fight AI Celeb Ad Scams

Hollywood these days is more conscious of what its presence — for better and (far) worse — can bring in politics. As the industry, long smitten with the new candidate, heads home from Chicago’s DNC, contributor Alison Brower details all the advocacy, partying and new rules of engagement:

Actorvists Unite! Newly ‘Self-Aware’, Hollywood Walzes into the DNC

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Everyone in politics and economics is focused on inflation, so why do our CEOs continue to raise — and raise — streaming prices? I dissect the increases of the last five years; which streamers are boosting prices well beyond the inflation rate; why entertainment leaders believe they’ve earned these hikes; and how other iconic consumer brands have adapted to customers’ demand for value in the exact opposite way:

Streaming 911: A Value Meal to Fight FASTs

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Richard Rushfield sifted through his vast archive this week. As Kamala Harris rises, he revisited a 2022 piece to consider why women lead everywhere but Hollywood. Then, with the Bob Iger succession plan inching forward, he unearthed a 2017 rumination on another moment when the process to replace himself was “strong”:

Mount Rushmore: Disney Succession

Mount Rushmore: 25 Women Who Could be CEO in the Kamala Era

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One of the hottest races at the now less-than-a-month-away Emmys is Lead Actor in a Dramatic Series. This week, Katey chatted with two of the field’s top competitors, Shogun’s Hiroyuki Sanada and Fallout’s Walton Goggins:

Meet the Secret Weapon of ‘Shogun’

Emmy’s Surprise Nom and the Case for Multi-Cam

Is there even such a thing as a slow news week anymore? That’s why you need Sean McNulty’s Wakeup. Can you afford to miss his breakdown of Edgar Bronfman, Jr’s Paramount bid and what Disney should do with Venu in limbo?: