Creative Artists Agency has bolstered the leadership in Connect Ventures after expanding into the venture capital world in 2020 via a joint venture with New Enterprise Associates. Veteran investor Nicole Quinn and former CAA executive Michael Blank have joined to leadConnect Ventures as managing partners. Connect Ventures as an investment vehicle identifies and accelerates the growth of early-stage, consumer-focused businesses...

Chris Best, Substack co-founder and CEO, has opened the way for his newsletter platform to join todays TV wars. Despite what you might hear, people still read we would know. But they watch video too, and sometimes that video is best on a TV, Best tells The Hollywood Reporter. So subscribers to Substack creators, often with phones in their hands,...

Lionsgate Studios has named Steven Mnuchin, a former Treasury Secretary in Donald Trumps first presidential administration, to its board of directors. Bringing on the hedge fund operator and film producer follows Lionsgate signing a standstill and voting agreement with Mnuchins Liberty 77 Capital L.P., and MHR Fund Management, LLC, run by Mark Rachesky, chair of the Lionsgate Board of Directors,...

The production and management firm Anonymous Content has named Darren Walker president and CEO. Walker, who stepped down as president of the Ford Foundation last year, will now oversee all aspects of the company across film, television, representation, and branded content businesses, as well as global operations. He joins Anonymous Content as the Emerson Collective, the venture capital and philanthropic...

AMC Networks chief financial officer Patrick OConnell is exiting the company after more than three years in the job. The executive has decided to undertake an opportunity outside the media industry, AMC Networks announced on Thursday, without offering further specifics. OConnell will remain at the company until March while a search for his replacement has begun. OConnell will appear in...

United Talent Agency is staying put in Beverly Hills at its longtime headquarters. The David Kramer-run Big Three representation giant inked a long-term lease at Civic Center Drive with the buildings owner, investment firm DivCore Capital, which unveiled the new deal. (The year that the lease runs through wasnt disclosed.) The agency occupies two four-story buildings and 192,000-square-feet as the...

The Warner Bros. bake-off has officially begun. Paramount, Comcast and Netflix each submitted bids for some or all of Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday, a source familiar with the matter confirms, officially kickstarting a process that is likely to see the company sold to yet another new buyer, either whole or in part. Paramount, led by CEO David Ellison, is...

Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Night Agent will relocate to California after being tapped to receive subsidies to shoot in the state amid a global tit-for-tat race to host Hollywood. In total, 17 TV shows will get roughly $313 million in tax credits, the California Film Commission, announced on Thursday. Theyre projected to generate $1.2 billion in economic activity...

A flood of AI slop is raging through our screens. By one count, theres 50,000 AI songs uploaded daily to a major streaming service and 97 percent of listeners cant tell when they hear a fully AI-generated track. In another survey, about 1 in 4 of all producers conceded to using AI tools, while others may quietly say that the...

We put our feet up, we took things for granted, opined California Gov. Gavin Newsom on July 2, as he signed into law a doubling of the states tax incentives for film and TV projects from $330 million to $750 million annually. Now the impact of the move is starting to come into focus: California saw a 10 percent increase...

Shares in Netflix on Wednesday stumbled after Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne questioned the value to the streaming giant from potentially bidding to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery and prized properties like DC Comics and the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises. While such a transaction may have long-term benefits for Netflix, Swinburne wrote the streamer may have the...

AMC has been sued over its handling of profit payouts for Fear the Walking Dead by creator Dave Erickson, who accuses the network of breach of contract for shortchanging him backend payments. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in California state court, challenges the structure through which Ericksons profits for the series is calculated, alleging hes not on equal footing as...

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting may have been shuttered, but public media isnt going anywhere. New York Public Radio on Tuesday night hosted its Stand With Public Media gala, imploring attendees to help fund public media, while honoring CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee Colbert, outgoing Ford Foundation chief Darren Walker, and New Yorker editor...