What happened: Roku announced in January that it had reached an all-time high 70 million active accounts worldwide, continuing a growth story that accelerated for the company and other big streaming platforms in 2020. Why it matters: Roku announced a new round of layoffs Thursday, impacting 6% of its workforce. As an ad-based business, the company has encountered similar problems as other ad-dependent media companies, demonstrating that its user growth has not insulated it from economic uncertainty. Where to see the impact: Roku revealed expanded operating losses of $249.9M in its most recent earnings report (compared to $147M the previous quarter). The layoffs will provide one response to that trend, but the company will now be tasked with maintaining growth in 2023 after implementing these changes. We're testing new content formats in Inside.com newsletters. Do you want to see more coverage like this? Respond to this email and let us know.
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 Endeavor Group Holdings -- the company that owns the UFC -- unveiled plans on Monday to merge with the pro wrestling league WWE, forming a new global sports entertainment powerhouse. According to Axios, UFC and WWE will pursue separate media rights deals for now, but there is a potential opening for a combined streaming deal down the road. More: - Endeavor will hold a 51% controlling interest in the new company, with current WWE shareholders hanging on to a 49% stake.
- Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel will lead the new company along with the remaining Endeavor businesses, which include talent agency WME and management company IMG; Vince McMahon will serve as the new company's executive chairman, while Dana White will remain President of UFC.
- The overall merger is expected to close in the second half of 2023.
- WWE's current streaming deal with Peacock expires in 2026, while UFC's deal with ESPN and ESPN+ expires in 2025; at that point, the company could begin a new, unified collaboration.
AXIOS 
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DAILY CALENDAR MONDAY, APRIL 3 PRETTY BABY: BROOKE SHIELDS: Two-part documentary profile of model and actor Brooke Shields from ABC News, with a focus on her journey from a sexualized young girl to an adult woman in command of her own public image and persona. Shields provides commentary and insights herself; Lana Wilson ("Miss Americana") directed. [Hulu] MARTHA COOKS: The cooking series features Stewart preparing favorite recipes and sharing culinary techniques and secrets from the kitchen of her 153-acre farm in Bedford, New York. It's back for a second season. [Roku] THE BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES: Quirky detective drama from New Zealand starring Neill Rea as a former big-city police detective who takes up a new post in the seemingly sleepy town of Brokenwood. The ninth season arrives today on Acorn in the US. [Acorn TV] SURVIVING R. KELLY: The third and final season of the Lifetime true-crime documentary series aired on cable in January and comes to Netflix today. Season 3 focuses on the 2021 trial that resulted in the R&B singer's 30-year prison sentence for racketeering and sex trafficking. [Netflix] MAGIC MIXIES: Animated series for young kids, originally from YouTube, about an adventurous girl who becomes trapped in a hidden world populated by magical creatures known as "Mixies" and "Mixlings." [Netflix] MYSTERIES DECODED: True-crime docuseries looking into infamous conspiracy theories and "unsolved mysteries" from US history, such as the Salem witch trials, the Roswell UFO landing, and rumors about "Area 51." Private investigator Jennifer Marshall hosts. Season 3 debuted Sunday night on CW. [CW]
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 Marian Lee The New York Times spoke with Netflix chief marketing officer Marian Lee about the streamer's shift in promotional strategy. Lee is the company's third executive to hold the chief marketing position in just three years. More: - While Netflix once relied primarily on word-of-mouth, and positioning on the platform itself, as its primary marketing tool, newer shows such as "Wednesday" and films such as "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" have earned larger-scale campaigns, and even brief attention-grabbing theatrical releases.
- Nonetheless, Netflix's marketing budget -- around $2.5 billion in 2022 -- remains relatively small compared to its spending on content, which comes in at around $17 billion per year.
- Lee previously served as global co-head of music at Spotify before being recruited to join Netflix.
NEW YORK TIMES
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 Paramount Media Networks president Chris McCarthy told The Hollywood Reporter that a "Yellowstone" spinoff series starring Matthew McConaughey is officially moving forward at Paramount. According to McCarthy, development will continue on the new spinoff whether or not "Yellowstone" star Kevin Costner returns to complete work on the flagship series' fifth season. More: - A behind-the-scenes conflict between Costner and producers over Season 5 shooting schedules has put the future of "Yellowstone" into doubt.
- A February report claimed that Costner's lack of availability was becoming a source of frustration and a morale problem on set; Costner's attorney shot back at this was "an absolute lie."
- Production on the second half of "Yellowstone" Season 5 -- originally scheduled to debut this summer -- has not yet started, and no restart date has been set.
- Both Costner and "Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan -- along with several other actors and members of the show's creative team -- were absent from a PaleyFest panel over the weekend.
TV LINE
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 Marvel Studios released a full trailer for the Disney+ thriller series "Secret Invasion." Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as spy chief Nick Fury for the series, which concerns a pocket of shapeshifting alien Skrulls living covertly among humanity on Earth. More: - The ad debuted on broadcast TV during ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball."
- A number of other Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) vets make appearances alongside Jackson in the show, including Ben Mendelsohn, Cobie Smulders, Martin Freeman, and Don Cheadle.
- Newcomers to the franchise include Kingsley Ben-Adir, Dermot Mulroney, Emilia Clarke, and Olivia Colman.
- "Secret Invasion" hits Disney+ on June 21.
DEADLINE
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Netflix ordered its first-ever pilot episode, for a single-camera comedy called "Little Sky." The show comes from creator/director Rightor Doyle ("Down Low") and star Samara Weaving. More: - According to Deadline, Netflix has no plans to shift its overall model from straight-to-series orders over to pilots.
- Apparently, executives wanted to see a first episode for "Little Sky" specifically to ensure that everyone is aligned on "the tone and the chemistry," particularly in light of the show's large ensemble cast.
- Weaving stars as an inept TV news reporter who hopes to turn her career around by investigating the the disappearance of a small town mayor.
- Deadline suggests that, if the "Little Sky" development process goes well, Netflix will likely consider more pilots, particularly for comedy projects.
DEADLINE
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 Netflix dropped a teaser for the action sequel "Extraction 2." Chris Hemsworth returns as black ops mercenary Tyler Rake for the film, which finds him on a new mission to take out a ruthless Georgian crime boss. More: - Director Sam Hargrave and writer Joe Russo both return from the first film; Russo produces along with his brother, Anthony Russo, through their company, AGBO.
- Golshifteh Farahani also reprises his role from the original film.
- Rake appeared to die at the end of the first "Extraction," but a last-second reveal hints that he may have survived; in 2021, Netflix promoted the hashtag #RakeLives, suggesting more to come from the character.
- "Extraction 2" hits Netflix on June 16.
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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 For the first time ever, all performances from both weekends of the 2023 Coachella music festival will stream live on YouTube. Weekend 1 is scheduled for April 14-16; Weekend 2 will follow on April 21-23. More: - Six total feeds will be available to stream on Coachella's official YouTube channel for both weekends starting at 4 pm PT.
- No daily schedule has yet been released.
- 2023 Coachella headliners include Frank Ocean, Bad Bunny, and Blackpink; Rosalía, Björk, Gorillaz, Wet Leg, Becky G, Burna Boy, and dozens of other acts are also slated to perform.
- YouTube will continue a number of features first introduced in 2022, including integrated YouTube Shorts, creator activations on-site, and various merch purchasing options.
PITCHFORK
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- Limited thriller series "The Crowded Room" -- starring Tom Holland as a man who's arrested in late 1970s New York and Amanda Seyfried as the interrogator getting to the bottom of his complex backstory -- hits Apple TV+ on July 28; "A Beautiful Mind" vet Akiva Goldsman created the series.
- The CBS action drama series "True Lies" is off to a promising start on both linear TV and Paramount+, ranking as the network's third most-watched premiere this season (behind only "Ghosts" and "Fire Country").
- Two-time "RuPaul's Drag Race" champion Jinkx Monsoon has been cast in a major role in the next season of "Doctor Who"; Monsoon recently became the first drag queen to play the role of Matron "Mama" Morton in Broadway's "Chicago."
- Netflix entered development on the Norwegian series "Salmon Island" along with Anne Bjørnstad and Eilif Skodvin, the creators of "Lilyhammer"; the crime comedy was among the streamer's very first original shows.
- British YouTube star KSI (aka Olajide Olayinka Williams JJ Olatunji) apologized for using a racial slur during an appearance on the UK game show "Countdown," and vowed to take a break from social media.
- Season 2 of HBO's "The Last of Us" will swap Canadian filming locations, moving from Calgary to Vancouver.
- "American Idol" contestant Sara Beth Liebe -- who previously clashed with judge Katy Perry over a "mom-shaming" joke -- voluntarily walked off the show by surprise this week to rejoin her family.
- During a panel at PaleyFest in Los Angeles, James Corden revealed some plans for his final late-night shows, which will include three new "Carpool Karaoke" segments.
- Fox ordered a first season for the medical drama series "Doc," a remake of a popular Italian format; the US version will center on a Minneapolis doctor who suffers a traumatic brain injury, causing her to forget the last 8 years of her life.
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 |  | Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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