May 2025: President Trump announced plans for a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas to drive production back into the US (see our Lightning post here). The plan was met with industry skepticism, fear and confusion (watch Wes Anderson’s reaction embedded to the right at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival). Nobody could understand how the…
Two years ago, we sounded the alarm that when YouTube TV inevitably rose to a Top 4 MVPD/vMVPD it would have newfound leverage over broadcast station and cable network owners (link), resetting its rate card. Since then, YouTube TV has grown from ~6.5 million subscribers to over 10 million, making it the fourth largest distributor…
US Joint Venture. Over the next six months, ByteDance will convert its US subsidiary, TikTok US, into a joint-venture, between itself, its existing investors and a consortium of new investors. To be crystal clear, TikTok US is NOT being sold. No Control Shareholder. ByteDance’s ownership of the new TikTok US JV will be just under…
Disney’s new higher streaming pricing ties directly to a world where Hulu no longer exists. Disney has already stated that the standalone Hulu app will be sunset in 2026. Yesterday’s price increases appear designed so that when Hulu is simply part of Disney+, there will be a negligible impact on Disney’s financial results. The ad-free…
We have written quite a bit about Paramount’s speculated bid for Warner Bros Discovery over the past week (see links at the bottom of this post). However, two massive questions are troubling us as we attempt to make sense of what is (or is not) happening. 1) Why Paramount Ahead of Warner Bros. Discovery? If…
Lyft finally landed the Waymo partnership we predicted in LightShed’s Top Predictions for 2025. We had started to doubt it would happen as the public tone between the two companies cooled and Lyft went quiet on the topic, instead rolling out announcements with smaller autonomy partners. Maybe Lyft was simply too vocal early during its…
Yesterday, LightShed’s Rich Greenfield joined Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw on The Town podcast with host Puck’s Matt Belloni. The discussion focused on Paramount’s speculated bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery ahead of its planned split into Warner Bros and Discovery Global in Q2 2026. We debated why Paramount is bidding before the split, who else…
We have written about why Paramount is bidding now for Warner Bros. Discovery, rather than waiting for the company split next year (link), and how the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors could conceivably vote against a transaction depending on the price offered (link), particularly if no other bidders emerge for all of Paramount (the…
Prior to announcing a split of Warner Bros. Discovery into Warner Bros. and Discovery Global on June 9, 2025, WBD shares were trading at $9.82, down nearly 60% from where they closed on April 8, 2022, at the time of the Warner Media and Discovery Communications merger. Investor enthusiasm for the split and a string…
StubHub’s IPO roadshow presentation is personal, almost autobiographical. Control shareholder and CEO Eric Baker begins with his own story: he went to Harvard, then McKinsey, conceived StubHub, was forced out, founded viagogo, and ultimately bought StubHub back from eBay. It is a turbulent arc that underlines his message: Baker is a survivor who has willed…
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