Electronic Arts Finishes Fiscal Year With Record ‘Madden NFL’ Growth, but Projects Harder First Quarter

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer “Grand Theft Auto 6″ has been slated for a fall 2025 release by Rockstar Games. The news was announced Thursday when Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive reported its fourth-quarter and full fiscal year 2024 earnings, revealing the company posted a $2.9 billion loss for the Jan. 1-March 31 period.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese video streamer iQiyi reported increased profits in the first quarter of the year, derived from lower revenue. The company, which is NASDAQ-listed but majority owned by Chinese tech giant Baidu, said that net income attributable to iQiyi grew to RMB655 million ($90.8 million), compared to RMB618 million in the same period in 2023. Revenues were RMB7.9 billion ($1.1 billion), a decrease of 5% year-on-year. “We have been generating positive operating cash flow for eight consecutive quarters, and our balance sheet continued to improve,” said Wang Jun, the company’s chief financial officer. Performance transparency, however, has recently been reduced.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor After nearly 35 years with CNN, longtime Washington bureau chief Sam Feist has been named CEO of C-SPAN. Feist will remain at CNN through June and take the reins of C-SPAN later in the summer, succeeding co-CEOs Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain. Founded in 1979 by a group of cable operators, C-SPAN is devoted to televising the activity in the chambers of the U.S.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Game developers that have worked on Sid Meier’s “Civilization,” “XCOM” and “The Sims” have launched their own life sim-focused venture, Midsummer Studios, with backing from investors including Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions. Founded by Firaxis Games vets Jake Solomon (creative director) and Will Miller (game director), as well as chief operating officer and chief financial officer Nelsie Birch, Midsummer launches with $6 million raised in seed funding led by Transcend Fund, along with Tirta Ventures, Betaworks Ventures, 1Up Ventures, F4 Fund, Krafton and Day Zero Productions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Tencent, the Chinese social media, gaming and streaming giant, enjoyed a 62% gain in profits, earned from a 6% revenue improvement in the first quarter of the year. Profits between January and March reached RMB42.6 billion ($5.92 billion). That figure also represented a 55% quarter on quarter gain.

Naman Ramachandran ProSiebenSat.1 Group, which owns one of Germany’s leading broadcasters and one of its top streaming platforms, has had an encouraging start to 2024 after a rough 2023 financial year that saw revenues dip by 7%. Financial results for the first quarter of 2024, reported on Tuesday, reveal that group revenues increased by 6% to €867 million ($935 million) in the first quarter of 2024 and adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) grew by 35% to €72 million ($77.6 million) despite higher programming expenses. The group said that in addition to revenue growth, the positive numbers are due to the cost control program implemented in the previous year.

Naman Ramachandran ProSiebenSat.1 Group, which owns one of Germany’s leading broadcasters and one of its top streaming platforms, has had an encouraging start to 2024 after a rough 2023 financial year that saw revenues dip by 7%. Financial results for the first quarter of 2024, reported on Tuesday, reveal that group revenues increased by 6% to €867 million ($935 million) in the first quarter of 2024 and adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) grew by 35% to €72 million ($77.6 million) despite higher programming expenses. The group said that in addition to revenue growth, the positive numbers are due to the cost program implemented in the previous year.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s largest online music corporation, got smaller but more profitable in the first quarter of 2024. That continued a trend seen previously in the company’s 2023 accounts. Revenues in the January to March quarter weighed in at $937 million (RMB6.77 billion), a 3% decrease compared with the same quarter last year. But profits after tax increased 28% to $212 million (RMB1.53 billion). Monthly active users across its free and paid for tiers decreased by 2% to 592 million.

Christina Aguilera has officially signed to 5020 Records, leaving her longtime label RCA Records of 26 years, Variety can confirm. Fans have been speculating over the past few months that the powerhouse singer had parted ways with RCA, the label that she’s called home for the entirety of her career, after 5020’s logo appeared on her official website.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nebula is aiming to break into the big-league movie biz with the launch of Nebula Motion Pictures, the new studio arm of the creator-community-focused indie streaming service, and tapping director and cinematographer Valentina Vee as the company’s director of motion pictures. Under her new overall deal, which marks the first pact of this kind for Nebula, Vee will move in-house at Nebula and focus on the formation of the new film studio alongside Nebula Production vice president Trenton Waterson, an alum of Marvel Studios, to build and scale Nebula Pictures.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. will release the first of its new batch of “The Lord of the Rings” films in 2026, which will focus on Andy Serkis’s Gollum. Original “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy filmmaker Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the movie and “will be involved every step of the way” on the movie, Warner Bros.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer New transmedia company Iconic Arts launched Tuesday with $3.1 million in financing at a $20 million pre-seed valuation. The entertainment studio boasts support from screenwriter Eric Roth, Grammy winning artist Will.i.am and exec vets of Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and JP Morgan.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Food Network has renewed “24 in 24: Last Chef Standing” for Season 2 ahead of the new primetime competition’s first season finale. Hosted by Esther Choi and Michael Symon, “24 in 24: Last Chef Standing” follows 24 talented and fearless chefs who take on 24 food challenges in 24 consecutive, non-stop hours, per Food Network’s description for the series.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Cinemart, the production company behind Amazon’s “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” and Netflix’s “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” has signed an overall deal with Banijay‘s Truly Original. Under the new pact, The Cinemart will expand its development and production operations in premium documentaries and other genres of unscripted programming through Truly Original, a subsidiary of Banijay backed by co-CEOs Steven Weinstock and Glenda Hersh.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company is shrinking the MCU with a new mission to drop the number of Marvel TV series to two a year and the film output to no more than three movies per year. Iger said this is part of Disney’s overall strategy to reduce output and focus on quality, a strategy “that’s particularly true with Marvel.” On the TV side, Iger says that a portion of the upcoming series set for release are “a vestige of basically a desire in the past to increase volume.” “We’re slowly going to decrease volume and go to probably about two TV series a year instead of what had become four and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two, or a maximum of three.

Nintendo Switch, as Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has confirmed “we will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year”.In typical Nintendo fashion, this huge news was shared in a tweet with no fanfare. Earlier this morning (April 7), Furukawa tweeted “It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015”, and made the above statement that the successor to the console would be announced by the end of April 2024.It has been over seven years since the Switch came out, and people have been hotly anticipating its successor ever since the OLED released back in 2021.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When Amazon‘s “The Boys” debuts its fourth season next month, things are shaping up to be crazier than the time they blew up a whale and that other time they blew up a giant penis, as it seems Butcher (Karl Urban) and Homelander (Antony Starr) are ready to burn their whole lives down — and take everyone else with them. In “The Boys” Season 4 trailer, Butcher reveals to Hughie (Jack Quaid), Starlight (Erin Moriarty) and the rest of the Boys that time is running out for him, and with the few numbered days he and his weakened heart have left, he’s looking to unleash a deadly virus on the supe community.

Matty Healy is “uncomfortable” with the attention from Taylor Swift‘s latest album, but “relieved” it wasn’t worse.Fans have speculated that the majority of Swift’s recently released 11th LP ‘The Tortured Poets Department‘ was inspired by her short-lived romance with The 1975 frontman, namely its title track, ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ and ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ among others.Last month, after being approached by paparazzi in Los Angeles, Healy was asked how he felt about his “Taylor diss track”. While it’s unclear which exact song the paparazzo was referring to, the ‘About You’ singer replied: “My diss track? Oh! I haven’t really listened to that much of it, but I’m sure it’s good.”Now, an insider told US Weekly that Healy is not a fan of the new unwanted attention after the album’s release.

Todd Gilchrist editor Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. It’s also long been a fixture of Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy — from “The Tonight Show” routines about Cookie Crisp to the Honeycomb and Raisin Bran boxes lining the shelves of his cupboards on “Seinfeld.” His directorial debut, “Unfrosted,” brings the obsession full circle, chronicling the 1960s origins of Kellogg’s Pop-Tart.

Stacey Solomon was emotional and left her fans tearing up to as she paid tribute to her 'first girl' in a string of adorable snaps with her two daughters. The Loose Women star was paying tribute to her beloved late dog, Theo.