Entertainment

Essential entertainment industry news & intel to start your week.
April 18, 2021
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Welcome to the new Sunday newsletter. We’ve moved up the What’s Ahead section to help you better plan your week, but we are still recapping the major events over the past week in the Week in Review section. And starting next week, we will be sending out the Sunday newsletter in the mornings so that you have more time to get caught up on the week ahead. Please let us know what you think of the new changes.

 

Before we begin, can you guess how many percentage points the MLB’s net favorability rating has fallen since mid-March, after the league moved the All-Star Game from Georgia?

 

Answer choices: A: 12 B: 15 C: 35 D: 42 E: 64 

 

Check out the answer at the bottom of today’s newsletter.

 

What’s Ahead

Netflix is reporting earnings on Tuesday. Why it’s worth watching: Netflix set a record last year, adding a net of nearly 37 million paid subscribers as consumers turned to at-home entertainment in the midst of the pandemic. The biggest question heading into the streamer’s first earnings report of 2021 is whether the growth will continue, especially as competitors, such as Disney+, experienced growth during the pandemic. It’s also worth keeping an eye out for any updates to Netflix’s content release schedule to see how it plans to compete with other anticipated streaming content over the next few months.   

 

AT&T’s earnings report comes out on Thursday. Why it’s worth watching: AT&T’s WarnerMedia made waves last year when it announced it would release its entire 2021 film slate day-and-date in theaters and on HBO Max. And while WarnerMedia Chief Executive Jason Kilar has said that’s not the company’s plan for 2022, one thing to look out for in the first-quarter earnings report is HBO Max viewership numbers for these titles. WarnerMedia films have been doing well at the box office this year (“Godzilla vs. Kong” set a pandemic-era record), and a strong streaming performance could inform distribution decisions across the industry as consumers return to theaters. 

 

Variety’s Entertainment Marketing Summit is also Thursday. Why it’s worth watching: While there are several notable sessions (including a keynote conversation with members of Disney’s marketing team), I’m most interested in “A Closer Look: Launching Streaming Entertainment Platforms.” ViacomCBS Inc.’s Domenic DiMeglio and Discovery Inc.’s Seth Goren will speak about launching new streaming services in a very crowded streaming marketplace. I’ll be listening for any information about how Discovery+ and Paramount+ have performed in the months after their respective launches.

 

Events Calendar

 

Week in Review

  • Kim Godwin is set to succeed James Goldston as ABC News president, becoming the first Black woman to head a broadcast TV news division after serving as an executive vice president at CBS News. 
  • CBS combined its news division and TV stations group and named Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon as presidents and co-heads of the new department. CBS News President Susan Zirinsky will remain in her role until early May, when Khemlani, a former Hearst newspaper and cable executive, and McMahon, a former ABC Owned Television Stations president, take over.
  • Seventeen Pacific Theatres and ArcLight Cinemas locations will not reopen following the pandemic, according to a statement from Pacific Theatres, which said there was no “viable way forward” after exhausting “all potential options.” Landlords for some Pacific and ArcLight locations may be able to find new tenants, though it is uncertain if major chains such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Cineworld Group PLC’s Regal Cinemas and Cinemark Holdings Inc. would be interested in leasing new space.
 
Stat of the Week
 

32%

This is the share of Americans who say they now listen to podcasts weekly.

 
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