| Thanks for opening today's Inside Streaming! I still haven't watched "Baby Reindeer" on Netflix... I know, I know, I'll get to it, I promise. But this story about fans of the show tracking down and finding and then harassing the real lady they think inspired "Martha" is disturbing stuff. I'm not sure if it's social media more generally, or the explosion of interest in "true crime," or just growing hostility and aggressiveness in our culture, or something else entirely. But it seems like there really is a zeal for "street justice" these days that goes beyond, well, justice and into a kind of digital mob violence. We want people who do terrible things to face accountability, sure, but that's not the same thing as an internet pile-on. Those might feel satisfying but they certainly don't contribute anything positive to the world. Anyway, don't try to figure out the real people who inspired your favorite TV shows and then take it on yourself to punish them accordingly for their actions. It's weird to have to type that out but here we are. Lon
p/lon-harris | |
| 1 | | According to The Hollywood Reporter, Peacock will introduce another price increase, just ahead of this summer's Olympic Games in Paris. Both Peacock Premium and Premium Plus will jump by $2 a month, to $7.99 and $13.99 respectively; annual subscriptions are also available for $79.99 and $139.99. More: - The price change goes into effect on July 18 for new customers and August 17 for current subscribers.
- The Paris Olympics opening ceremony will stream live on Peacock on July 26.
- Peacock's last price increase was just last year; Premium increased by $1/month while Premium Plus jumped by $2.
- Peacock Premium provides ad-supported access to all content across the platform; Premium Plus removes ads from most of the programming.
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| 2 | | According to still-unconfirmed reports, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish will apparently step down from his role, potentially as soon as today. The executive has been at Paramount since 1997, and has spent eight years in the CEO role. More: - The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on Bakish's likely departure on Friday.
- Paramount's board is currently in exclusive acquisition talks with Skydance Media and RedBird Capital; Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management are also reportedly considering an all-cash offer for the company.
- Should the Skydance merger go through, it's likely that current Skydance CEO David Ellison would take over control of the newly-formed company, with RedBird senior executive Jeff Shell serving as his day-to-day head of operations.
- Deadline reports that over the weekend, at a CBS-Politico party ahead of the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Paramount staffers expressed shock at the news of Bakish's abrupt departure.
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| 3 | | DAILY CALENDAR MONDAY, APRIL 29 BOILING POINT: Four-part scripted drama series from the UK, following up on the 2021 film of the same title. Vinette Robinson reprises her role as Carly, who's now running her own kitchen as head chef of the newly-opened London restaurant, Point North. Izuka Hoyle, Hannah Walters, Hannah Traylen, Gary Lamont, Daniel Larkai, and Stephen Graham co-star. [Netflix] HONEYMOONISH: This Arabic-language romantic comedy feature is Netflix's first original film from Kuwait. Nour Al Ghandour and Mahmoud Boushahri co-star as a newly-married couple who realize on their honeymoon, following a whirlwind romance, that they're actually very different people. Elie Semaan ("Rain Over Beirut") directed. [Netflix] | | | |
| 4 | | According to Variety, the joint sports streamer from Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery will get a sneak preview during this year's ad industry upfront presentations. The companies will use the event to offer sponsors a first glimpse at their plans, and begin filling in their launch advertising schedules. More: - In addition to traditional commercial breaks, there are early indications that the companies plan to insert ads into the actual programming as well.
- All three companies declined to provide any additional information about their plans.
- Traditionally, ad-supported streamers have offered limited advertising when compared to their broadcast TV counterparts, but as this new venture will replicate content from key ad-supported cable networks (such as ESPN, TNT, and Fox Sports), it's unclear if the companies will continue pursuing this strategy.
- No subscription rates have yet been announced for the streamer, which is expected to launch sometime later this year.
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| 5 | | HBO is making classic episodes of John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" free to stream on YouTube. The full first season was added to the platform on Sunday. More: - Apparently, new seasons will be posted to YouTube on future Sunday nights when there isn't a new episode hitting HBO and Max.
- In a post to X/Twitter, "Last Week Tonight" announced their plans and added "Trust us, some of this is still completely relevant."
- "Last Week Tonight" is currently airing its 11th season.
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| 6 | | An unnamed woman identified herself to The Daily Mail as the real-life inspiration behind Martha, the stalker character from Netflix's hit dramatic thriller series "Baby Reindeer." The show was created by star Richard Gadd, who has acknowledged that it was inspired by a real experience he had with a stalker. More: - Though Gadd asked viewers not to try and work out the real identities behind any of the characters from the show, the anonymous woman claims she has received abuse and death threats from fans of the series.
- In her interview with Daily Mail, the woman disputed some elements of how "Martha" is portrayed in the series, and claims that she's the true victim of Gadd's unwanted attention.
- "Baby Reindeer" has been viewed over 13 million times on Netflix; it has hit #1 on the platform's Top 10 TV shows in 30 countries, including the UK and the US.
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| 7 | | Roku ordered new unscripted series featuring actors Keanu Reeves and Josh Peck. The Reeves series, "The Arch Project," finds him investigating human creativity along with his friend and Arch Motorcycle co-founder Gard Hollinger. More: - Reeves and Hollinger launched the custom motorcycle manufacturer Arch in 2011; the duo met in 2007, when Reeves hired Hollinger to customize his Harley-Davidson.
- The duo said their goal in developing the series was to seek answers to the question: "Where does human creativity and ingenuity come from?"
- Meanwhile, Peck will host and executive produce the culinary competition series "Best Bite Wins," in which chefs try to impress hungry judges as they attend real-world events, like birthday parties, cocktail hours, and retirement celebrations.
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| 8 | | Though Pop-Tarts and parent company Kellanova were not involved in the production of Netflix's new film "Unfrosted," the company nonetheless built a marketing campaign around the project. "Unfrosted," from star, co-writer, and first-time feature director Jerry Seinfeld, takes a comic look at the origin story behind the iconic toaster pastries. More: - Kellanova produced a digital ad featuring and written by Seinfeld to coincide with the film's release later this week.
- There's also a sweepstakes to win limited-edition Pop-Tarts boxes featuring vintage packaging and art from the film.
- While the film is a comedy that lightly mocks the Pop-Tarts brand, Kellanova general manager Oli Morton described the comedian as "probably our biggest fan," suggesting that it puts an overall positive spin on the product.
- Seinfeld first joked about Pop-Tarts in his act over a decade ago, and told The New York Times that he'd agonized over his Pop-Tart material, relative to his other jokes.
- The Pop-Tart brand has been embracing offbeat comedy in its marketing for a while now; last year, college football's Pop-Tarts Bowl featured a mascot -- known as "Strawberry" -- being sacrificed in an oversized fake toaster, then devoured by the winning team.
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 | 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 | |
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