2025 Hollywood Business

[zendragon]

How long before Amazon just owns everything?

[Brian Fowler]

The interesting part is that Skydance is reportedly bidding for the entire company before the planned split, willingly taking on the full debt load that was mostly going to be shoved off onto the TV division. Possibly because they think there's a decent chance if they wait and only bid on the more valuable HBO Max/movie studio company later, others will also be trying to buy it and it might end up being cheaper even with the debt load to buy it all. 

Would be a bit funny to have UFC and AEW both be broadcast by the same parent company.

[Curt McGirt]

They can change the names to just TV Station and Movie Company

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

On 9/13/2025 at 5:27 AM, Brian Fowler said:

The interesting part is that Skydance is reportedly bidding for the entire company before the planned split, willingly taking on the full debt load that was mostly going to be shoved off onto the TV division. Possibly because they think there's a decent chance if they wait and only bid on the more valuable HBO Max/movie studio company later, others will also be trying to buy it and it might end up being cheaper even with the debt load to buy it all. 

Would be a bit funny to have UFC and AEW both be broadcast by the same parent company.

I think your answer is more in "take on all of WBD's debt, then bundle Paramount's debt into WBD's debt when you spin off all the cable networks into their own company and that company eventually folds in a few years".

[RIPPA]

Well, reportedly, Warner Brothers rejected Paramount's (what one would assume is the first) offer to buy

Per Bloomberg - Paramount is offering $20 per share. Deadline says David Zaslav is looking for $30 per share (and that Paramount's offer was between $22-$24 per share)

(Current WB shares are just currently just over $17 so they are valued at $42.3 billion but that doesn't count the hideous amount of debt)

[RIPPA]

Quote

NBC News informed staffers on Wednesday that the company is laying off approximately 2% of its workforce as NBCUniversal prepares for its impending spinoff of Versant, the new company that will hold NBC’s cable assets starting January 2026.

As part of the spin, NBC News is separating itself from the news-focused cable channels MSNBC, which will rebrand to MSNOW under Versant, and CNBC, which will continue operating under the same name. With those changes right around the corner, NBC opted to slightly downsize its NBC News division, laying off about 150 people, in order to reallocate those resources elsewhere.

And according to a report by Alex Weprin in The Hollywood Reporter, some of those reallocated resources will be given to NBC Sports. “NBC News is shifting resources to other areas, including the forthcoming subscription offering, and new areas of coverage like sports,” Weprin reports.

In a memo obtained by Weprin from NBC News head Cesar Conde, staff were informed about some of the sports-focused initiatives NBC will be focusing its resources on.

“NBC News is expanding its new Sports Hub, in partnership with NBC Sports, with the NBA returning to NBC, as well as the Milan Olympics, the Super Bowl, and the World Cup on Telemundo,” Conde’s memo read.

Per Weprin, the layoffs won’t be focused on one specific team within NBC News, though “the cuts were driven by the fact that NBC News will no longer be providing newsgathering capabilities for CNBC and MSNBC.” The networks transitioning to Versant will build out their own newsgathering capabilities separate from NBC News.

 

[RIPPA]

So Warner Brothers Discovery announces that they are officially for sale and HBO Max immediately announces prices increase

Quote

• HBO Max Basic With Ads (stream on two devices simultaneously)
  Monthly: +$1/month increase, now $10.99
  Annually: +$10/year increase, now $109.99

• HBO Max Standard (no ads, stream on two devices simultaneously)
  Monthly: +$1.50/month increase, now $18.49
  Annual: +$15/year increase, now $184.99

• HBO Max Premium (no ads, 4K content, stream on four devices simultaneously)
  Monthly: +$2/month increase, $22.99
  Annual: +$20/year increase, now $229.99

The prices are effective immediately for new subscriptions. Existing monthly subscribers will be notified 30 days in advance of their plan renewing and will see price increases starting from their next billing date on or after Nov. 20, 2025. Current yearly subscribers will not see an increase until their accounts are up for renewal (and will be notified 30 days in advance of their plan renewing).

 

[Dolfan in NYC]

Netflix has announced they have acquired the rights to the Catan games.   They say they will be creating movies and TV shows based around the games that your friends force you to play when they don't want to actually talk to you any more.

[Zimbra]

Yeah, well, I acquired the movie rights to Carcassonne.  It's just 90 minutes of a married couple screaming at each other after he stole a 24 point farm.

[odessasteps]

Oregon Trail: the movie 

[Dolfan in NYC]

1 hour ago, Zimbra said:

Yeah, well, I acquired the movie rights to Carcassonne.  It's just 90 minutes of a married couple screaming at each other after he stole a 24 point farm.

I will sue you for taking my concept of a modern remake of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[odessasteps]

One of my all time favorite MST gags is the two clowns slapping each other

Joel: it’s a full contact version of Virginia Woolf.

Crow: don’t talk our clown, Martha. 

[odessasteps]

 

[Contentious C]

On 9/16/2025 at 7:02 PM, Curt McGirt said:

They can change the names to just TV Station and Movie Company

Brought to you by CORN.

[Curt McGirt]

Corn: Rotting in the ground with all the soybeans in a field near you!

[Technico Support]

On 10/30/2025 at 10:03 PM, Curt McGirt said:

Corn: Rotting in the ground with all the soybeans in a field near you!

Farmers: “Still Biden’s fault!”

[Curt McGirt]

Ah, you know they'd go further back to the guy with the additional melanin. 

[Bustronaut]

He was wearing a mustard suit!

[RIPPA]

Meltzer recaps the weekend box office is everything you could hope for

Quote

The Sarah Sweeney movie on Christy Martin opened on Friday and almost nobody that I know was even aware of it.  I didn’t even know until Thursday. Anyway, the estimate is that it will do $1.3 million on 2,011 screens. Smashing Machine did 4.8 million in its opening weekend and was considered a bomb. It is believed to be the worst grossing full national release movie (2,000 screens) in its opening weekend in 13 years.

 

[Elsalvajeloco]

Of course...Sarah Sweeney, the sister of Larry. Keeping the Sweet n Sour International legacy alive.

[Dolfan in NYC]

Bob Iger announced that Disney+ will feature user created AI shorts soon.  

 

However... there is still time to nailbomb his office before that happens!

[zendragon]

On 11/10/2025 at 5:53 AM, RIPPA said:

Meltzer recaps the weekend box office is everything you could hope for

 

Yhea I don't think I've seen any promotion for it. Just happened to see it listed on Fandango

[NikoBaltimore]

On 11/13/2025 at 1:53 PM, Dolfan in NYC said:

Bob Iger announced that Disney+ will feature user created AI shorts soon.  

 

However... there is still time to nailbomb his office before that happens!

After the Kimmel fallout I thought "Should I consider maybe jumping back on for the Marvel stuff?"  Thanks to your post I'm glad I don't have to consider that anymore and will watch things a different way if you get my drift.

[Dolfan in NYC]

oof... 

[Curt McGirt]

Whoever had their bet on the big winners of end-times late capitalism as being Saudi Arabia must feel extremely vindicated right now.