Peacock hits 31M subs / Zee cancels cricket deal / Affleck, Damon reteam for "Animals" / Netflix drops "The Mothership"

Plus today's calendar, Amazon cuts Twitch payouts, Liman boycotting "Road House" premiere, MrBeast on Bilibili, and more

Inside Streaming For January 25, 2024

Thank you to our sponsor

Good morning/afternoon and thanks for opening today's Inside Streaming brief. Netflix dropping the Halle Berry sci-fi movie "The Mothership" while it's already in post-production set off the usual alarm bells on social media, but it's a somewhat different scenario than some of these recent, controversial movie cancellations. Rather than simply pulling a movie that, by most accounts, was releasable and even high-quality in its current form -- like, say, WBD's "Coyote vs. ACME" or "Batgirl" -- "Mothership" appears to have been a troubled production that would've required extensive, costly reshoots. There is maybe a somewhat more compelling argument for simply cutting your losses and shutting that kind of production down, especially as the upside of releasing yet another Netflix original is rather low. How many new subscribers were going to sign up to see Halle Berry in the sci-fi drama "The Mothership," after all? It's a drop in the bucket for them, content-wise. Still, a disappointment for us subscribers who love sci-fi films. Oh well. Enjoy today's issue. Lon p/lon-harris

1 According to Comcast's just-released Q4 earnings report, Peacock hit 31 million subscribers. That's a 3 million subscriber jump over Q3, and nearly 50% growth over the same period in 2022. More: Streaming revenue was way up in 2023 vs. 2022, rising 57% and passing the $1 billion milestone. The streamer nonetheless lost a total of $825 million for the year, down from $978 million in 2022 losses. Comcast received Disney's initial $8.6 billion payment for its stake in Hulu in Q4; there may be additional payments coming based on a final accounting of Hulu's valuation. New data from Antenna suggests that Peacock received around 2.8 million sign-ups specifically to watch the NFL AFC Wild Card matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, which it streamed exclusively in most of the US; that would make it the single largest subscriber acquisition event in history.

2 Indian media conglomerate Zee Entertainment informed Disney that it no longer plans to purchase cricket TV rights for $1.4 billion from the company. One anonymous source told Reuters that Zee simply does not have the money and have been forced to back out of the deal. More: Zee missed its first scheduled $200 million payment to Disney in the last few weeks, and then informed the company that it was backing out of the deal. A planned $10 billion merger between Zee and Sony Group Corporation was called off this week by Sony, after two years of negotiations; Sony claims that Zee breached the merger agreement, and is seeking a $90 million "termination fee." Zee remains one of India's most popular TV networks, but its ad revenue has plummeted over the last few years, depleting their cash reserves.

A message from our sponsor, Calendly. Turn scheduling from a pain point into a competitive advantage The average meeting takes 7.5 emails to schedule. All that back-and-forth, plus reminders and follow-ups — it's a poor experience for you, your customers, and your prospects. Calendly lets you eliminate that busywork and delight everyone you meet. Teams that use Calendly are seeing: 2x conversion rates (CallRail) +30% customer retention (Conductor) 75% faster time-to-interview (Base) 323% ROI (CI Assante Wealth Management) How are teams getting these results? Here are 4 features Calendly users can't live without: Embed: Schedule directly from your website. Routing: Qualify & route meetings to the right person. Workflows: Automate reminders, follow-ups & more. Integrations: Integrate with Salesforce, Hubspot, Zoom, & 100s more. Sign up for free to join 20 million people and 100k companies using Calendly to power their scheduling. Sign Up Free

3 DAILY CALENDAR THURSDAY, JANUARY 25 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING: The seventh installment in the action spy franchise -- a direct follow-up to 2018's "Fallout" -- finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team tracking down a key that controls a state-of-the-art AI known as "The Entity." Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Henry Czerny reprise their roles from previous films; newcomers include Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, and Pom Klementieff. Franchise vet Christopher McQuarrie co-wrote and directed. [Paramount+] SEXY BEAST: British crime drama series, serving as a prequel to the 2000 film of the same name. James McArdle and Emun Elliott star as London thieves and best friends Gal Dove and Don Logan, whose relationship is tested after one of them falls for an adult film star (Sarah Greene). Tamsin Greig and Stephen Moyer co-star; "Sopranos" writer Michael Caleo developed the series. [Paramount+] GRISELDA: Limited fact-based crime drama series from "Narcos" vets Doug Miro, Andrés Baiz, and Eric Newman, starring Sofía Vergara as infamous 1980s Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. The series charts her rise from poverty in Medellín to the top of the Miami cocaine underworld. Alberto Guerra, Martin Rodriguez, Juliana Aidén Martinez, Vanessa Ferlito, and Christian Tappan co-star. [Netflix] MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVOLUTION: Animated action-fantasy series from Mattel, creator Kevin Smith, and Powerhouse Animation, following up on the 2022 series "Masters of the Universe: Revolution." Teela and He-Man join forces to save Eternia from Skeletor, now in possession of a mechanized body. [Netflix] IN THE KNOW: Debut comedy series, parodying NPR interviews, in which stop-motion animated host Lauren Caspain (Zach Woods) sits down with real, human celebrity guests. The voice cast also includes J. Smith-Cameron and Charlie Bushnell; Season 1 features guests Kaia Gerber, Jonathan Van Ness, Nicole Byer, Finn Wolfhard, Ken Burns, Norah Jones, Tegan & Sara, and others, [Peacock] CHRISSY AND DAVE DINE OUT: Food and chat series, produced for the Freeform network, in which chef David Chang, TV personality Chrissy Teigen, and actor/comedian Joel Kim Booster enjoy their favorite LA restaurants along with celebrity friends. Season 1 guests include Jimmy Kimmel, Alexandra Daddario, Simu Liu, Kumail Nanjiani, Sasheer Zamata, Regina Hall, and others. Episodes air Wednesdays on cable and hit Hulu on Thursdays. [Hulu] HISTORY'S GREATEST HEISTS WITH PIERCE BROSNAN: The History Channel series explores daring and elaborate real-life heists from throughout history. Season 1 aired last year on cable and hits Hulu today. [Hulu] LOOK WHO'S STALKING: 2023 thriller, produced for the Lifetime network, about a young mother who gets a fresh start after her long-time stalker dies, until she begins to suspect she's somehow being stalked once again. Alissa Filoramo, Juliana DeStefano, and Kiana Nicole Washington co-star. [Hulu] BEAT BOBBY FLAY: The Food Network cooking competition series returns for a 33rd season. Various cooks compete in head-to-head battles for a chance to take on the famed celebrity chef. [Max]

4 Matt Damon and Ben Affleck will reteam for the Netflix kidnapping thriller "Animals." Affleck is set to direct the film, from a script by Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray, while Damon will star; both are also on board as executive producers. More: No plot details, other than the fact that the story revolves around a kidnapping, have been released. Affleck is also expected to reprise his role in an upcoming sequel to "The Accountant"; that project will likely enter production right after "Animals." Last year, Damon and Affleck teamed for the Amazon Prime Video feature "Air," which was released by their production company, Artists Equity.

5 Netflix no longer plans to release the sci-fi thriller "The Mothership," starring Halle Berry. Production wrapped on the film in 2021, for a scheduled 2022 release, but the movie suffered multiple post-production delays. More: Berry stars as a single mother who discovers an alien artifact on her farm; she has yet to comment on the film's cancellation. The film reportedly requires significant reshoots, which are complicated by the fact that a few young actors have now aged out of their roles. The film comes from writer/director Matthew Charman, who previously wrote the script for Steven Spielberg's 2015 legal drama "Bridge of Spies."

6 Amazon announced a change to the Prime payment system for Twitch subscriptions. While Amazon Prime subscribers still have the option to support their favorite Twitch streamers, these sign-ups will no longer be as valuable as a base subscription. More: In the past, Twitch streamers earned the same rate from all subscriptions, whether they came through Twitch or from an Amazon Prime member. Starting on June 3, Twitch will move to a new model that bases Prime payouts on the subscriber's location. For most countries, the payout rate will drop around 5% or less; a Prime sign-up in the US is now valued at $2.25, down from $2.50. Some countries, however, will see a much steeper drop; a Prime subscription from Turkey is now valued at just 9 cents. Earlier this month, Twitch laid off more than 500 employees, accounting for around 35% of its total staff.

7 In a column for Deadline, "Road House" director Doug Liman announced he plans to skip the film's March premiere in protest of Amazon releasing the film directly to Prime Video. Liman's column ran on the same day that Amazon released the "Road House" trailer. More: "Road House" is a remake of a 1989 action film starring Patrick Swayze; Jake Gyllenhaal takes over the lead role as a legendary tough guy who takes a job as a bouncer at a rowdy Florida bar. Liman signed on to the "Road House" project at MGM in 2021, before Amazon purchased the studio; he writes that he was promised the film would still get a theatrical release, after the deal went through. According to Liman, "Road House" received better test scores than his films "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "The Bourne Identity." "Road House" will premiere as the opening night film at this year's SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

8 QUICK HITS The cloud experts at DoiT share everything you need to know about AWS and Google Cloud compute discount plans in this guide.* America's most popular YouTuber, Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson, posted his first video on the Chinese streaming platform Bilibili. A Ukrainian government social media account protested the casting of Serbian actor Miloš Biković in Season 3 of HBO's "The White Lotus," due to his vocal support for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Allison Janney will make a guest appearance on Netflix's political thriller series "The Diplomat" in Season 2, as US Vice President Grace Penn. Netflix's Formula 1 behind-the-scenes docuseries "Drive to Survive" returns for a sixth season on February 23. Monica Garcia will exit Bravo's reality series "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" after just one season; in the Season 4 finale, it was revealed that Garcia secretly ran an Instagram account that had mocked her co-stars. Kunal Nayyar will guest on an upcoming episode of NBC's "Night Court," reuniting him with former "Big Bang Theory" co-star Melissa Rauch. Paramount+'s "Mayor of Kingstown" added several actors to its cast ahead of its third season, including Richard Brake, Denny Love, and Paula Malcolmson; recurring star Michael Beach has been upped to a series regular for the new episodes. Comedian Ramy Youssef's new HBO special, "More Feelings," will be directed by "The Bear" creator Christopher Storer; it premieres in March on cable and Max. Paramount released a trailer for the Sundance documentary "As We Speak: Rap Music on Trial," exploring the use of rap verses as evidence in criminal trials; the film hits Paramount+ on February 27 in the US. The HBO Max service will switch over to simply "Max" throughout Latin America and the Caribbean on February 27; they're the first international region to get upgraded to the platform, which brings together HBO Max and Discovery+ content. Netflix settled a defamation lawsuit with Jose Basulto relating to the 2019 film "Wasp Network" for an undisclosed amount; the head of the Cuban exile organization Brothers to the Rescue alleged that the film depicted him inaccurately as a terrorist and drug trafficker. Want to earn extra dividends from your stocks? Your shareholder voting rights could have significant value that you're not taking advantage of. Join Shareholder Vote Exchange to unlock this "hidden" dividend today.* *This is sponsored content

Upcoming Events MAR 7 Alternative investment assets to know in 2024. Virtual Register Here * This is a sponsored event

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 Lon Harris

Discover more on inside.com/streaming Thanks for reading today's issue of Inside Streaming. Explore Explore

Calendly is your scheduling automation platform for eliminating the back-and-forth — and much more.

Share Email Share on X Open in Browser Open in Browser Open in Browser

Did someone forward this email to you? Get your free subscription here. Interested in sponsoring this newsletter? Connect with our sales team here. You received this email because you are subscribed to Inside Streaming. Manage your subscription or unsubscribe here. 767 Bryant St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94107 Copyright © 2024 Inside.com