Weekly Roundup – Week of August 12th, 2024

"After launching Hulu on Disney Plus in March for US subscribers, the ESPN hub addition is landing on the streaming service in December, the company shared in its third-quarter executive summary on Wednesday. CEO Bob Iger initially announced the news about adding ESPN content to Disney Plus during Walt Disney Co.'s second-quarter earnings call in May.
"By the end of this calendar year, we will be adding an ESPN tile to Disney Plus, giving all US subscribers access to select live games and studio programming within the Disney Plus app," Iger said."

"DraftKings’ plan to add a surcharge to winning wagers in states with high sports betting tax rates was one of the main talking points at Bet Bash, a sports betting networking conference that took place this week at Circa.
DraftKings CEO Jason Robins announced Aug. 1 that, starting next year, the sportsbook giant, which doesn’t operate in Nevada, will deduct a 3.2 percent gaming tax surcharge from winning wagers in Illinois, which recently raised taxes on sports betting from 15 percent to 40 percent.
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“If any living human bets in a place where DraftKings is taking 3.2 percent off the winnings, you’re out of your (expletive) mind,” longtime professional bettor Alan “Boston” Dvorkis said during a seminar. “Don’t do it. You’re not going to win. I don’t care how good you are. There’s no living human that can overcome that.”
Bettors must win 52.4 percent of their wagers to turn a profit against a -110 price. Under the new surcharge, which equates to -114, gamblers would have to win 53.3 percent of their wagers to make a profit."

"YouTube is not as grand an archive of sports history as it could be, but it's still the best means of delivering highlight aggregations to bored, stoned, or sleepy fans. If you put the algorithm in the right mood, it can deliver you a package of LeBron dunks, hockey dekes, hard hits, disc golf aces, funny technical fouls, MMA comebacks, or crazy catches. But see enough of these and you'll notice something. Despite coming from different channels, the titles are most often formatted in the same ungrammatical way: "X but they get increasingly more Y."
There are endless variations on this theme: "Connor McDavid Shootout Goals But They Get Increasingly More Impressive" or "Fernando Alonso rages but he gets increasingly more furious" or "Pure NBA chaos but it gets increasingly more chaotic." It extends beyond sports—"Norm Macdonald Jokes But They Get Increasingly More Savage"—but the phrase is undoubtedly rooted in the sports highlight genre. I hate it.
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It's obvious bait that makes me feel dumb for being the type of person they think they should dangle it in front of. Moreover, it contributes to the feeling that the gatekeepers of this once wide-open internet are pruning the paths to visibility. You see that in the consistently overcaffeinated voices of team social media, too: In a world of infinite possibility, everything sounds the same."

"Podcasting has entered its maturity, in which the eye-watering spending sprees of the early 2020s have given way to more rational dealmaking. But even amid last year’s relative slowdown, the sector saw several marquee acquisitions.
Among those, SmartLess, hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, moved from Wondery over to SiriusXM in a deal said to be worth more than $100 million; Wondery, in turn, nabbed Armchair Expert, co-hosted by Dax Shepard, from Spotify in an $80 million deal, suggesting there’s still demand for and a premium placed on top talent. Not to be outdone, Call Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper and the brothers Kelce with their New Heights podcast are said to be seeking nine-digit paydays of their own.
But, overall, the deal pace has abated. And instead of locking podcasts into exclusive distribution deals, as had been the initial model for Spotify in particular, companies are largely signing exclusive sales and first-look agreements with podcasters while seeing their shows distributed across all platforms."

"The Federal Communications Commission's hopes of enforcing net neutrality rules was dealt a major setback last week. A panel of appeals court judges blocked the regulations on Thursday in a ruling that said broadband providers are likely to win the case on the merits."

"In addition to top songs, artists, playlists, and music videos, YouTube Music will soon let you publicly share your “personal radio” on your profile/channel page.
YouTube Music added profiles that you can set to public or private in April of 2023. In addition to those four “top” stats, a “personal radio” will soon appear on your profile page. It can also be shared via link, while there’s the ability to add it to your library like any other playlist."

"During their second quarter earnings report on August 7, Warner Bros. Discovery announced an $11.2 billion including a $9.1 billion write-down for their linear cable TV networks. Besides the struggling linear cable networks, WBD cited the potential of losing the NBA as another reason. The WBD also reported a $2.1 billion of “pre-tax acquisition-related amortization of intangibles, content fair value step-up, and restructuring expenses”."