Scouting Hollywood: Feb. 15 - 21
A roundup of news, gossip and history of the entertainment business brought to you from Hollywood, Calif.
Ten years ago around 100 million households subscribed to cable TV. Today that number is 55 million. And by losing subscribers slower, Charter-Spectrum finished 2023 as the largest provider, with slightly more than 14 million and just ahead of the former champion, Comcast, which as late as 2019 had 21 million subscribers. As Internet streaming services continue to grow these numbers are expected to decline further.
Is this the return of cable sports bundles? Almost. ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a joint sports streaming platform with programming from 15 networks and all four major professional sports leagues. Set to begin this fall, the new service will be jointly held by the three firms and include games from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, WNBA, NASCAR and college sports, including the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament, as well as golf, tennis and the FIFA World Cup. Also included will be offerings from 15 linear networks — ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN+, SEC Network, ACC Network, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS, and truTV. The package represents about 55 percent of all sports programming and does not include Paramount + or Comcast sports offerings. The announcement also caught the sports leagues by surprise, having been only notified shortly before the public announcement. A name and pricing will be announced soon.
Gina Carano, who appeared in the Disney + Mandalorian series for two seasons and then was dumped by Walt Disney Co., Lucasfilm and Huckleberry Industries over a series of posts the actress made on X (formerly Twitter) has sued the producers. One post in particular, Carano said: “most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” With support from X, Carano claims her free speech rights were infringed when the company described Carano’s social media posts as “abhorrent and unacceptable.” Elon Musk, as a sign of X Corp.’s commitment to free speech, has offered to empower X users seeking vindication of their free speech rights on X and the ability to work without bullying, harassment, or discrimination. Carano’s suit seeks $75,000 and reinstatement.
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