Michaela Zee A24 is closing an eight-figure deal to acquire the U.S. rights to Ruben Östlund’s “The Entertainment System Is Down,” Variety has confirmed.
08.05.2024 - 20:37 / variety.com
Cynthia Littleton Business Editor TKO, the parent company of UFC and WWE, is on the upswing, delivering solid Q1 results and enough momentum for both franchises that the company opted to boost its full-year revenue and earnings guidance for Wall Street. TKO disclosed that it has reached a $25 million deal with NBCUniversal to allow WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” wrestling franchise to remain on USA Network through the end of this year. In January, TKO struck a massive 10-year deal with Netflix to bring “Raw” and other WWE content to the streamer’s platform as of next year.
At the time, WWE’s pact with NBCU for “Raw” ran through the end of the third quarter. That forced TKO leaders to acknowledge on the company’s Q4 earnings call in February that “Raw” might not have a TV home for the last three months of this year and with that, no revenue coming in. But as expected, NBCU and TKO came to terms on a short-term extension before the WWE grapplers head off to new pastures at Netflix.
In March, TKO reached a $335 million settlement in a long-running antitrust battle with former UFC fighters, who accused the company of using illegal means to prevent them from working for other MMA leagues. The settlement will be paid out in two parts, starting with a $200 million payment this year and the rest in 2025. But the full cost of the settlement was recorded on TKO’s books in Q1.
Without that charge, the company would have posted positive net income. TKO’s stock price has climbed significantly since the UFC settlement was disclosed. For the year to date, shares are up 21%, closing Tuesday at $98.80.
Michaela Zee A24 is closing an eight-figure deal to acquire the U.S. rights to Ruben Östlund’s “The Entertainment System Is Down,” Variety has confirmed.
EXCLUSIVE: The novel Next to Heaven hit the market this week. Written by Anonymous, it’s a social satire that is being shopped by WME simultaneously for both a publishing deal and a film/TV deal. The TV deal has just closed, and the publishing deal will be next.
Joe Otterson TV Reporter It’s been less than two years since the close of Nexstar’s acquisition of The CW and the network’s primetime slate could not look more different. In addition to the broadcaster’s shifted focus to sports, unscripted fare and foreign imports/co-productions, The CW will soon be getting into the original TV movie business.
EXCLUSIVE: Colombian actress Diana Hoyos (Sniper: Ultimate Kill, Oye Bonita, Nurses) has joined the cast of the action pic Diablo, which Grindstone Entertainment Group has acquired for North America.
Ethan Shanfeld Raven-Symoné has signed a multiyear overall deal with Disney Branded Television that includes a pilot greenlight for a “Raven’s Home” spinoff series titled “Alice in the Palace.” Disney also announced that “Raven’s Home,” itself a spinoff of “That’s So Raven,” will not return for a seventh season. The sixth and final season aired from April to September 2023.
EXCLUSIVE: Raven-Symoné is extending her relationship with Disney, which she has called home for many years, with a new multi-year overall deal at Disney Branded Television. Under the pact, she will produce, direct, and develop projects across linear and streaming, with a focus on multi-cam comedies.
Fresh from skewering his employer, Seth Meyers has been rewarded with a new contract at NBC.
Hunter Ingram SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from “What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned,” the Season 2 premiere of “Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire,” now streaming on AMC+. On the set of AMC’s “Interview With the Vampire,” showrunner Rolin Jones and star Jacob Anderson had a nickname for Anderson’s character, Louis de Pointe du Lac. “We used to call him Cuddles the Vampire,” Jones tells Variety with a laugh. But notice the past tense.
After months of excitement - and some last-minute drama - the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 is over and the winner's crown this year was handed to Switzerland's Nemo
Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Endeavor delivered a loss for the first three months of the year as the parent company of UFC, WWE, WME and IMG burned through nearly $400 million in cash during the first quarter. The company released its Q1 2024 earnings report Thursday, which is likely to be one of its last as a public company as Endeavor awaits the completion of its deal to be bought out at $27.50 per share in cash by private-equity firm Silver Lake. That deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are reportedly too preoccupied to address the ongoing issues with Prince Harry, according to a royal expert. The Prince and Princess of Wales lack the "will or the strength" to tackle what's been dubbed 'the Prince Harry problem', as the Duke of Sussex makes his anticipated return to the UK.
WWE‘s Monday Night Raw franchise will stay on USA Network through the end of 2024 under an extended rights agreement between the wrestling circuit and NBCUniversal.
Shares in Dish Network parent EchoStar have fallen more than 11% after the company’s lackluster first-quarter earnings report and growing uneasiness about the company’s financial state.
Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Warner Bros. Discovery is staying on the sidelines of the Paramount Global acquisition drama — at least for now. That was the signal sent Monday by WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav during his appearance at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills.
Ryanair and Manchester travel agent On The Beach have confirmed a package holiday deal that could offer local customers more holiday options - and make their journeys easier.
Spring - with its frequent showers and rising temperatures - can be a cause for concern for homeowners due to the potential growth and spread of mould in homes.
Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The Samsung TV Plus platform has logged steady growth as a distribution platform for entertainment and lifestyle content during the past five years. Now, the South Korean electronics giant is putting a bigger spotlight on the potential of its device-based footprint, which encompasses more than 630 million TV sets, smartphones and other devices sold across 24 countries.
Naman Ramachandran Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has signed a one-year deal that is a mix of exclusive and non-exclusive library titles for the Pakistan market with streamer Begin. Backed by venture accelerator Z2C Limited, Begin is an SVOD platform that serves the Southwest Asian region, with licensed deals in live sports and entertainment.
EXCLUSIVE: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice writers and creators of the smash hit Netflix series Wednesday, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, have signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures to develop films through the duo’s Millar Gough Ink banner, Deadline has learned.
Roku had a busy Tuesday leading up to its annual NewFronts presentation for advertisers, announcing an Olympics team-up with NBCUniversal as well as measurement and ad pacts with iSpot and The Trade Desk.