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Happy Monday, readers! Today’s newsletter includes:
- A Hollywood-Shaped Silver Lining In July’s Jobs Report
- So Much For An American “Squid Game”
- Roku Reports Another Strong Quarter (Which Is Great For Fox)
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In The News
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The US job market isn’t looking too hot, but media and entertainment is apparently a bright spot.
- Many industries are shedding jobs or seeing stalled growth, according to Heather Long, chief economist for Navy Federal. The US economy lost 23,000 jobs last month, which “should worry you,” writes economics professor Justin Wolfers in his Platypus Economics newsletter.
- Despite the downward trend, the media and entertainment industry actually saw an uptick in job openings. Jobs in music and movies increased by roughly 9,900, abating some concerns about production slumps. Then again, if Paramount Skydance succeeds in its efforts to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (despite several active antitrust-related lawsuits), that could affect the entertainment job market, too.
In other WarnerMount news: Block the Merger, the industry coalition created to oppose Paramount Skydance’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), said that even though the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority approved the deal, its case to block the merger in the US remains strong.
- In a press statement, Block the Merger argues that UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was able to “obtain major concessions” from Paramount to clear the merger, which lends “powerful credibility” to the case that 12 state attorneys general filed in the US
- Block the Merger also points out that the US market is much more concentrated than that of the UK, where Paramount and WBD “hold a far weaker position.” In other words, if UK authorities were reluctant to approve the deal without requiring some remedies, that hesitation suggests the impact on the US market would be much more pronounced.
Starz’s Q2 earnings report was a mixed bag. The company achieved its second-highest audience engagement quarter of all time (thanks, “Outlander” series finale!) and increased its subscriber count despite a price increase in June. However, it also reported a net loss of $189 million due to its recent exit from an output deal with Universal.
Speaking of mixed bags, QVC Group officially emerged from bankruptcy after issuing $1.2 billion of take-back debt. The company, which owns both QVC and HSN (previously the Home Shopping Network), filed for Chapter 11 in April but says it is now “well positioned” to expand its presence across live social shopping platforms and streaming apps.
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This Is the Last Chance to Nominate a Top Woman in Media.
The 2026 Cynopsis Top Women in Media Awards close August 14. This is it — the final opportunity to ensure the women driving media, entertainment and advertising forward receive the recognition they deserve. Self-nominations are welcome.
Submit Today
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New & Returning Series
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For sneak peeks, check out Cynopsis Trailer Park.
TODAY’S PREMIERES
Freeform: “Somebody Knows Something” at 10 p.m.
History: “History’s Greatest Mysteries” Season 7 at 9 p.m.
Netflix: “Dr. Seuss’s Red Fish, Blue Fish” Season 3
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Production
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Netflix’s long-rumored spinoff of “Squid Game” must have moved during a game of Red Light, Green Light. Because the project is now dead.
- Rumors first circulated in 2024 that Netflix was developing an English-language spinoff of the Korean hit drama series, and had even tapped director David Fincher for the project.
- The third season of Hwang Dong-hyuk’s series also ended with a teaser that alluded to a possible American version, featuring Cate Blanchett as a recruiter in Los Angeles.
- However, sources close to Fincher told The Playlist that the project is no longer moving forward, as Netflix’s priorities for the franchise have shifted.
Netflix is, however, developing a new untitled scripted series about the New York Yankees with Daytime Emmy Award winner Josh Wakely and Jason Bateman’s production company, Aggregate Films. The new project ties nicely into Netflix’s ongoing relationship with the MLB, which kicked off with a stream of the MLB Opening Night Game on March 25 this year.
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Tech News You Can Use
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Deepfakes may become a pressing issue during this year’s midterm elections, in no small part because regulations against the technology vary from state to state, Axios reports.
- As home to both Hollywood and Silicon Valley, California is leading the way in regulating this space. The state’s AI Transparency Act, which just took effect last week, requires AI companies to include difficult-to-remove metadata that informs users when a photo, video or audio file was created with AI.
- Earlier this year, YouTube also developed a deepfake detection tool that allows celebrities to request that AI facsimiles of themselves be removed. The tool was first made available to major creators on the platform, then politicians and public officials, and finally to actors and other entertainment talent.
- However, lots of AI content generation tools – most recently, those created by ByteDance and MiniMax – still allow users to not only generate likenesses of actors’ faces, but also recreate copyrighted IP entirely.
Roku is touting recent gains in streaming TV revenue as it prepares to get gobbled up by Fox.
- During its quarterly earnings call Thursday, Roku reported that its platform revenue, which includes ad revenue and streaming distribution, rose 25% year over year. The company credits an increase in viewing hours and relationships with third-party ad platforms for the recent growth.
- Like many streaming platforms these days, Roku is putting a lot of effort into monetizing its home screen with ad inventory and AI-driven content recommendations designed to increase engagement and session time.
- Roku skipped a formal earnings call with investors in light of the pending acquisition by Fox in a $22 billion deal announced in June.
- “Our pending acquisition by FOX is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, allowing us to scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners, and advertisers,” wrote Roku CEO Anthony Wood in the quarterly shareholder letter.
Nielsen plans to acquire data verification company DoubleVerify, which it announced late Thursday afternoon. The deal is expected to close in the beginning of 2027, after which DoubleVerify will go from a publicly traded company to a private one under Nielsen’s umbrella. Nielsen sold itself to private equity ownership in 2022.
TV and video measurement startup VideoAmp laid off more than 50 employees last week, including a chief technology officer role that will not be refilled. That translates to about 20% of the company’s staff. In a statement, CEO Tony Fagan suggested that VideoAmp will instead focus its attention on investing in agentic AI models.
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Ratings
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Peacock’s “Love Island USA” earned the No. 1 placement on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 chart by a landslide with 1.997 billion viewing minutes during the week of July 6, due in part to the Season 8 finale. In second place is “House of the Dragon” on HBO Max with 969 million viewing minutes during the same week, according to Nielsen’s streaming content ratings.
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How many episodes of the original “Perry Mason” (1957-1966) were shot and aired in color?
(Email answers to trivia@Cynopsis.com and include your name, company and city. Answers limited to four per time zone.)
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Yesterday’s Trivia Answer
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NSYNC member Chris Kirkpatrick once said he was more famous for his role on a popular children’s animated series than he was for his boy band career. What is the name of that show? “The Fairly OddParents.”
Congrats to: Rev. Mark Wajda/Clermont, FL; Susan Nessanbaum-Goldberg-M and S Entertainment/LA; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Gerry Bixenspan-TV Marketing Inc./NYC.
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