Now, on to part two of my look at the year ahead…

SpinCo, LazCo, CrapCo—whatever they ultimately call the new entity housing NBCUniversal’s castoff cable TV networks, it likely won’t launch until late 2025. Until then, NBCU will spend the year rethinking, re-orging, and ultimately remaking itself for the post-cable television era. Yesterday, I broke the news that Kelly Campbell, the president of Peacock, is out and won’t be replaced. And today, Mark Lazarus named the first group of executives for his SpinCo team. Next, look for Matt Strauss, who leads the business side of the TV and streaming operation, to do the same for his division—as will Donna Langley, the film studio head who recently took over all content. With the cable bleed-out mostly relegated to SpinCo, Langley wants to finally allow executives to shepherd shows from development through distribution via TV or streaming. Pearlena Igbokwe, chairman of Universal Studio Group, is expected to add NBC to her portfolio, becoming the first Black woman to lead the storied network; and Frances Berwick, who currently oversees NBC and the cable networks, will instead manage Bravo and related reality programming across linear and Peacock. (Trashy Bravo shows do well on streaming, which is why Langley pushed to save the network from SpinCo.) Jenny Storms, currently C.M.O. for NBCU Entertainment and Sports, is expected to be named C.M.O. of all entertainment content and sports, including streaming. Some longtime TV executives will get new roles, and others will leave the company entirely.

Once the sale of Paramount Global to David Ellison closes—probably in the first or second quarter, Trump willing—look for its two streaming services to be combined. Paramount+, the subscription service, and Pluto TV, the free, ad-supported platform, have operated separately, despite being complementary.

Watch a conversation with A COMPLETE UNKNOWN Writer/Director/Producer James Mangold and actors Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro and Boyd Holbrook. [WATCH HERE] Timothée Chalamet, Monica Barbaro and James Mangold break down Bob Dylan and Joan Baez’s intimate duet. [WATCH HERE] Edward Norton on the “mystery, illusion and magic” of transforming into folk hero Pete Seeger. [READ HERE] How Elle Fanning brings “authenticity” to A COMPLETE UNKNOWN in a performance James Mangold calls “exquisite and alive.” [READ HERE]

At 82, the outgoing president likely will not follow the Obamas into Hollywood. But Biden recently said he’s planning to do something. “I haven’t, because I’m not out of office yet, agreed who will represent me in these endeavors,” he told USA Today. “Whether it’s CAA or the other folks. I honest to God haven’t decided.” Presuming the “other folks” are WME, which reps the Obamas and Clintons for speaking engagements, and UTA, which has its own roster of politicos, I’m betting Biden goes with the name he could remember.

Disney has a lot riding on ESPN’s first major streamer, dubbed “Flagship” and set to launch with the NFL season. All the more reason to supercharge the offering with Fox Sports, whose combo of the NFL and college football, World Series baseball, and much more would give Flagship more than $15 billion worth of sports rights in one service. Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall has been predicting this for a while—in December, he wrote that an ESPN-Fox combo could lead to 3 million subs for Flagship by the end of the year. For Fox, which doesn’t have an S.V.O.D. service, this kind of reach-boosting arrangement also makes sense, even as Fox’s other sports-oriented partnership with Disney—Venu—looks poised to launch now that the Fubo litigation has been settled. Fox’s league partners would love the additional distribution via Flagship. Plus, it would mean a fat check from Disney. And this could be just one of many non-traditional tie-ups this year as the scramble to shift linear sports viewers to digital intensifies. As MoffettNathanson analysts predicted in a report this week: “This is certainly getting far into the realm of speculation, but the [Fubo] deal certainly has an air of being merely step one of a larger plan.”

Check out the Warner Bros. slate for ’25: pricey new films from Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Bong Joon Ho (Mickey 17), Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Bride!), and Paul Thomas Anderson (not officially titled, and may be pushed to ’26), plus big-budget in-the-works projects from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, J.J. Abrams, and Emerald Fennell. These are all original films (or ancient I.P.), a major test of the “filmmaker as franchise” theatrical strategy that Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have employed at Warners. With the right director and an aggressive marketing spree, non-I.P. movies can be “eventized,” as Oppenheimer was with Chris Nolan. Or at least that’s the thinking, which feels simultaneously retro as well as a reflection of modern, social media–fueled fan culture. Throw in a couple movie stars (Michael B. Jordan in Sinners and Leo DiCaprio in the PTA movie) and the projects hopefully feel “theatrical,” as if they were based on well-known brands. Universal, which arguably launched this micro-trend with Oppenheimer, similarly has big-budget originals coming in ’26 from Steven Spielberg, Jordan Peele, and the Daniels, plus Nolan’s $250 million The Odyssey, whose source material is about 2,700 years old. Nolan and Spielberg and Abrams as franchises unto themselves? Sure. But given the budgets of some of these movies from, say, the A– or B tier of “name” filmmakers, it’ll be interesting to see whether they can be eventized like Oppenheimer.

I was already gonna predict that 2025 will see a big bump in press releases from studios touting premium video-on-demand revenue. Not every movie is a P.V.O.D. hit, of course, but the ones that are have delivered increasingly important profits, since the revenue splits are more favorable to the studios. Which is why Paramount and Warner Bros. sent Gladiator II and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, respectively, to P.V.O.D. after just 33 days in theaters. Today, as if on cue, Universal announced that Wicked had earned a massive $70 million in its first week in P.V.O.D. and download revenue, while still grossing millions in theaters. The “premium” home video window has generated $1.5 billion in consumer spend since 2020, the studio claims. Universal has been especially aggressive on P.V.O.D. releases, but all studios would like this revenue stream to become part of the public calculus determining whether a movie is a hit or not. Announcing more P.V.O.D. numbers will advance that effort.

By Eriq Gardner, What I’m Hearing+ author and legal expert I wouldn’t go so far as to predict a truce in the so-called A.I. wars. After all, screenwriters, musicians, authors, and other creators have all sued over alleged misappropriation of their works in various learning models. But I do anticipate growing conversations around a legislative solution.

CNN chief Mark Thompson has a tough task: Convince the channel’s mass-market but dwindling TV audience to pay for news online. To that end, even amid ongoing layoffs, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to invest $70 million toward creating a digital subscription business. “We need to start building a suite of products … which are distinctive, which feel special, so potentially many of our users can become subscribers,” Thompson told a town hall, according to Status. That’s why Thompson is said to be looking at whether CNN should acquire a few journalistically oriented “creators” and digital media “communities” with paid followings that have already convinced their audiences to fork over cash. These entities could be blended into CNN and given a much larger platform to grow—thus making CNN an appealing place for independent journalists and a more compelling subscription product.

Bieber hasn’t toured or released new music in more than two years, citing health issues. During that time, he fired most of his team, cut ties with longtime manager/business partner Scooter Braun, and started posting bizarre stuff on social media, sparking rumors about whether he’ll ever return to the stage. But now, despite the $200 million sale of his catalog in 2023, I’m told Bieber needs the money and wants to work. (He still owes AEG a ton for his canceled tour, among other pop star expenses.) To aid the comeback, if that’s the right term for a 30-year-old who took a few years off, he’s got a new attorney in Michael Rhodes to make deals.

We all know that studios and streamers want to leverage A.I. just enough to become more efficient without stoking outrage in the talent community. That’s why it seems clear they will pursue A.I. aggressively in everything except live-action film and TV production. I wouldn’t be surprised if a full-length A.I.-generated animated film is acquired by a major distributor this year. But in a year-end report, Deloitte predicted that less than 3 percent of studio production budgets will go toward generative A.I. tools in ’25. At the same time, a much larger investment in A.I. will be deployed for “supporting functions like contract and talent management, permitting and planning, marketing and advertising, and localization and dubbing of content.”

You may or may not believe that Amazon’s Melania Trump documentary represents a triumphant return to Hollywood for Brett Ratner after he was accused of sexual impropriety by multiple women (he’s denied it). But Ratner definitely believes that, as he’s been telling people it’s only a matter of time before the long-gestating Rush Hour 4 happens with him at the helm. Will it? The winds of #MeToo and accountability culture seem to have shifted a bit. Besides Ratner, let’s look at some of the other comeback contenders, ranked by highest probability of a return…

See you Monday, Matt Correction: Logan Paul is the WWE wrestler, not Jake Paul, as I mentioned Monday. Apologies to the Pauls. This is now the second time I’ve mixed them up! Got a question, comment, complaint, or want to donate to the L.A. fire relief? Go here, or email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.

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