Battle over Hulu / CEO compensation chart / NFL Sunday Ticket streams / "Ted Lasso" viewership high

Plus the weekend calendar, Lionsgate earnings best expectations, Obama on the WGA strike, Tarantino rejects Netflix, and more

Inside Streaming For May 26, 2023

1 According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Comcast and Disney remain considerably far apart in their ongoing negotiations over control of Hulu. Under the long-standing agreement between the two companies, beginning in 2024, Comcast can force Disney to buy its remaining one-third stake in Hulu, or Disney can demand that Comcast sell. More: According to WSJ, both sides want a deal but they can't even come close to agreeing on a price. The pre-standing deal sets a $27.5 billion minimum value on Hulu. In a previously-undisclosed arbitration case between the companies, Comcast claims that Disney permanently injured Hulu by failing to launch the platform outside of the US. Both companies plan to re-assess Hulu's value at the start onf 2024; if they still can't come to an agreement, an independent third party will be consulted. While negotiations continue, Comcast has entirely stopped funding Hulu; Disney has provided a bridge loan to keep the streamer operational in the interim. Despite the complications, Disney is moving forward with its plans to integrate Hulu content into Disney+ in the US by the end of 2023.

2 Top Salaries: Compensation packages for media and entertainment executives hit a median of $22.3 million in 2022, up 7.7% from 2021. As the bulk of executive pay at these high levels is determined by stock awards, 2022 compensation was largely based on gains made over the past few years, and don't reflect the recent downturn that has led to employee layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Entertainment stocks collectively lost $500 billion in 2022. Outliers: Some of the drastic shifts between 2021 and 2022 are due to larger changes within the companies and their corporate structures. Netflix's Reed Hastings saw his compensation jump by 25% due to a change in role, exiting the co-CEO position to focus on a new role as executive chairman. Comcast's Michael Cavanagh saw a major increase after moving up from the CFO job to the role of president; he now also oversees NBCUniversal following the departure of former CEO Jeff Shell. David Zaslav: But the largest outlier of all is WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who received $246.6 million in compensation in 2021 due to a specific employee agreement, designed to keep him at the company through 2027 at least. Zaslav received a massive $203 million stock option grant in 2021, reflecting the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. (His salary also includes 125 hours of personal use of Discovery's private jets.)

3 Monday is Memorial Day in the US, so no newsletter. You can find Monday's calendar below. We'll be back with a new edition on Tuesday! -- Lon WEEKEND CALENDAR FRIDAY, MAY 26 BEING MARY TYLER MOORE: Documentary feature profiling the screen icon, made with access to her vast personal film archive, with a focus on the impact she had on the representation of women on-screen. The film features insights from Moore herself along with James L. Brooks, Rob Reiner, Ed Asner, James Burrows, Norman Lear, Joel Grey, and many others. James Adolphus ("Soul of a Nation") directed; Lena Waithe and Debra Martin Chase produced. [Max] KENDRA SELLS HOLLYWOOD: The HGTV reality series finds former "Girls Next Door" star Kendra Wilkinson taking up a new career as a real estate agent in the hotly-competitive Los Angeles market. Season 2 debuts Friday on Max. [Max] RUN THE WORLD: The comedy series about a group of ambitious, hard-working Black women friends from Harlem returns this week for a second season. Amber Stevens West, Bresha Webb, and Corbin Reid co-star. [Starz] BARBECUE SHOWDOWN: The reality competition series (previously titled "The American Barbecue Showdown") is back for a second season. Eight more grillmasters from across the US square off in an "open fire playground" for a $50,000 grand prize. Michelle Buteau hosts; Melissa Cookston and Kevin Bludso serve as judges. [Netflix] BLOOD & GOLD: Period action/dark comedy from Germany, set during the waning days of WWII. Robert Maaser stars as a German soldier who abandons his unit to search for his daughter, only to stumble into a group of SS troops searching for a hidden Jewish treasure. Marie Hacke and Alexander Scheer co-star. Peter Thorwarth ("Blood Red Sky") directed. [Netflix] TURN OF THE TIDE (RABO DE PEIXE): Portuguese action-thriller series about a group of friends whose lives are changed forever when a large stash of cocaine mysteriously washes ashore near their village. José Condessa, Helena Caldeira, Rodrigo Tomás, and André Leitão co-star. [Netflix] INFLUENCER: Mystery-thriller starring Emily Tennant as a social media influencer on a solo backpacking trip through Thailand who makes a friend (Cassandra Naud) on the road, then discovers her new traveling companion has a secret, dark agenda. [Shudder] VIOLENT NIGHT: 2022 holiday action comedy in which Santa Claus (David Harbour) interrupts his annual deliveries to rescue a wealthy family that has been taken hostage by mercenaries. John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, Edi Patterson, and Beverly D'Angelo co-star. [Amazon] HOHLBEINS THE GRYPHON (DER GREIF): Debut fantasy series from Germany, based on the book series by Wolfgang Hohlbein. It's about three friends who discover a gateway to an alternate world known as The Black Tower, where a world-devouring monster resides. Jeremias Meyer, Zoran Pingel, and Lea Drinda co-star; "Dark" vet Quirin Berg executive produced. [Amazon] THE OLD WAY: 2023 Western film starring Nicolas Cage as a retired gunslinger in the 1870s Montana Territory who takes up one final mission of revenge. Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Le Gros, and Clint Howard co-star; Brett Donowho ("Acts of Violence") directed. [Hulu] MUMMIES: 2023 animated comedy feature about three mummies who venture from the afterlife to present-day London to reclaim an ancient ring. The film was produced in Spain but has been dubbed into Engish for US and UK audiences. [Hulu] SATURDAY, MAY 27 SARAH SILVERMAN: SOMEONE YOU LOVE: The comedian's second HBO special -- her first since 2017's "A Speck of Dust" -- was recorded at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston. [Max] SUNDAY, MAY 28 SILOS BAKING COMPETITION: The Magnolia Network cooking competition -- which debuted as a series of specials on Discovery+ -- returns on the newly-merged Max with its first full season of episodes. Baking enthusiasts prepare their signature recipes in front of a live audience in Waco, Texas, for host Joanna Gaines and a revolving panel of guest judges; the winners get their recipes featured at Magnolia's Silos Baking Co. [Max] THE LOVE CLUB: SYDNEY'S JOURNEY: Original romantic comedy feature from Hallmark starring Lily Gao as a food blogger who's still hung up on the college boyfriend she hasn't seen in nearly a decade. Jesse Hutch, Brittany Bristow, and Camille Stopps co-star. [Peacock] WORLD ELECTRONIC MUSIC AWARDS: Two-hour ceremony honoring the best in electronic music, recorded on May 18 in Las Vegas ahead of the Electric Daisy Festival. Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton hosts. The show airs Saturday night on CW and comes to the website and app on Sunday. [CW] MONDAY, MAY 29 REALITY: 2023 biographical drama feature from HBO and co-writer/director Tina Satter, based on her stage play "Is This a Room." Sydney Sweeney stars as former Air Force member and NSA translator Reality Winner, who leaked a classified intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 US election. The play and film are adapted from the real FBI interrogation transcript of Winner on the day of her arrest in 2017. [Max] THE CURIOUS CASE OF NATALIA GRACE: True-crime docuseries from Investigation Discovery (ID), examining the case of Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace, who was adopted in 2010 by an Indiana couple and later accused of being an adult woman impersonating a child. The series features exclusive interviews with Michael and Kristine Barnett, the couple who adopted Natalia, along with never-before-seen footage. [Max] MOTEL RESCUE: Debut reality series from Magnolia Network in which Lindsey Kurowski ("Inn the Works") travels across the US helping struggling motel owners to get their properties back on track. [Max] 90 DAY FIANCÉ: THE OTHER WAY: PILLOW TALK: The chat series features veterans of "90 Day Fiancé" shows discussing recent events from the spinoff series, "The Other Way," in which couples travel overseas for love. Season 4 hits Max today. [Max]

4 On Twitter this week, Google announced that NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers will have access to unlimited, simultaneous football streams across both YouTube and YouTube TV. Previously, YouTube had indicated that it would limit subscribers to two simultaneous feeds. More: The two-stream limit will remain in place for viewers who are currently outside their own household. YouTube TV will also introduce a "multiview" feature for Sunday Ticket, allowing fans to check out multiple streams at the same time on one screen. Sunday Ticket plans currently start at $249, but this promotional deal expires on June 6.

5 According to Nielsen, the Apple TV+ comedy series "Ted Lasso" hit an all-time viewership high in late April. The soccer series was Nielsen's sixth most-watched streaming series of the week between April 24 and April 30, with 795 million minutes viewed. More: This is the first year Apple TV+ has been included in Nielsen's charts, so only the third season of "Ted Lasso" has been measured by the company. The Apple original film "Ghosted" was also on Nielsen's charts for its second week in a row in late April, with 181 million minutes watched. Amazon's "Citadel" debuted on April 28 but failed to make the chart; it was viewed for around 306 million minutes in its first three days. A "Ted Lasso" finale event at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills was canceled this week for unknown reasons, though it's likely related to the Writers Guild strike.

6 Lionsgate beat earnings and revenue expectations for the first quarter of 2023, thanks in large part to the theatrical success of "John Wick: Chapter 4." Profits for the company's film business were up 48% in Q1, thanks to box office returns from both the "Wick" sequel and the Gerard Butler action-thriller "Plane." More: Revenue for Lionsgate's media networks business -- including Starz and the Lionsgate+ streaming service -- were up 2.3%, to $389 million. Profits for this segment, however, jumped more than 100%, to $73.3 million, due to lower marketing and distribution expenses, and major cuts to content spending. Lionsgate's total global subscriber count increased by 1.3 million; the company now claims 20.4 million subscribers worldwide.

7 During a panel promoting his new Netflix docuseries "Working: What We Do All Day," Former President Barack Obama voiced support for striking Hollywood creatives. Prior to the panel, Obama made some prepared remarks about the WGA strike, saying "My hope would be that in a time of big technological change, where you've got big mega corporations that are doing really well, that they keep in mind the creative people who are actually making the product that consumers appreciate and that gets exported all around the world." More: Obama had made a previous mention of the strike on Instagram on May 16, in a post that was also promoting the Netflix series; the new comments were seen as more forceful and aggressive than his original remarks. Obama and his wife, Michelle, have an overall Netflix deal through their company, Higher Ground Productions; they both executive produced the "Working" series, while the former president also hosts and provides narration. The series was inspired by the 1974 Studs Terkel book "Working," and features conversations with everyday Americans about their jobs and thoughts on employment more generally. The Writers Strike is now in its fourth week.

8 QUICK HITS Access Seed's DS-01 24-strain probiotic + prebiotic for digestive, gut, immune and skin health. Use code INSIDE40 for 40% off your first month.* In an interview published by Deadline on Thursday, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino said he's uninterested in developing projects for streaming services, noting that Netflix original films don't "exist in the zeitgeist... It's almost like they don't even exist." Senior AMC development and programming executives Emma Miller and Carrie Gillogly both departed their roles at the company for new gigs with Netflix. The Netflix drama series "Sweet Magnolias" -- based on the novels by Sherryl Woods -- returns for a third season on July 20. A Chinese influencer known as "Sanqiange" on Douyin -- noted for his ability to consume alcohol very quickly -- died during a livestream drinking contest last week after consuming multiple bottles of baiju. NBC's long-running crime drama "The Blacklist" concludes with a two-hour series finale on July 13. *This is sponsored content

Lon Harris Writer 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." This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia

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