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[ad_1] NYT Columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and C.E.O. of The Walt Disney Company Bob Iger speak during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023 in New York City.  Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's the third annual anonymous media and entertainment executive predictions list! In honor of the 12 days of Christmas, I asked 12 past and current executives at the world's biggest media and entertainment companies for one industry-shaking prediction for 2024. And then I asked one more because this is the holiday season, and I was feeling generous. A baker's dozen! Actually, I asked a few more, but some overlapped. Quite a few of last year's predictions were accurate . Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger did extend his contract . Christine McCarthy stepped down as Disney's chief financial officer. Paramount Global hasn't sold, but controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is now in talks to sell Natio

[ad_1] The Paramount logo is displayed at Columbia Square along Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, California on March 9, 2023. Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images Paramount Global shares jumped more than 5% on Friday after an investor known as Warren Buffett's favorite banker piled into the media company's controlling shareholder. National Amusements, Paramount's majority voting shareholder, announced Thursday afternoon that it has entered into an agreement for a $125 million preferred equity investment by BDT Capital Partners. Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon Paramount Some Buffett watchers noticed a curious connection with the news. BDT Capital's chairman and co-CEO is Byron Trott, who has long been known as Buffett's preferred and trusted banker. It was Trott who suggested that Buffett put a $5 billion lifeline in Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis. The connection didn't end there. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is actually Paramount's b

[ad_1] SportsCenter at ESPN Headquarters. The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images The blackout fight between cable giant Charter Communications and Disney appears to be coming to a close. Hours ahead of "Monday Night Football," which airs on Disney's ESPN, the companies are expected to reach a deal that would allow millions of Charter cable customers to watch the game, CNBC's David Faber reported Monday, citing sources. Charter and Disney's stocks, as well as media peers including Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global traded higher on Monday morning. Representatives for Disney and Charter didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Terms of what the deal would entail were unclear Monday morning. The dispute has been ongoing since late August when carriage renewal negotiations broke down between the two companies and left millions of customers without Disney TV channels, including ESPN, FX and Disney Channel. At the time

[ad_1] LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 12: CEO of Netflix Ted Sarandos attends Netflix's FYSEE event for "Squid Game" at Raleigh Studios Hollywood on June 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix) Charley Gallay | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images The main takeaway from Netflix 's second quarter earnings is business is ... good. That's right. A large media and entertainment company's fundamental business is just fine. Netflix added 5.9 million subscribers in the quarter, a sign that its two primary 2023 initiatives — cracking down on password sharing and launching a cheaper $6.99 per month advertising tier — are bringing in new subscribers. Netflix added 1.2 million subscribers in the United States and Canada in the quarter — its largest regional quarterly gain since 2021. This is not the story for the rest of the media industry. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have spent the year slashing content f

[ad_1] Skynesher | E+ | Getty Images LOS ANGELES — The 2023 box office is inching closer to pre-pandemic levels, but inconsistent performances from blockbuster features in the first six months of the year will put a lot of pressure on second-half releases. While the domestic box office has tallied $4.46 billion in ticket sales through June 30, a nearly 20% increase over the same period in 2022, it still lags behind 2019, the benchmark of a time before the pandemic, according to data from Comscore. Ticket sales are down 21% from four years ago, but that's not the only thing that's down. So, too, is the number of wide releases. From January to June 30 in 2019, 57 films were released in 2,000 theaters or more. In 2023, there have been only 45 releases during that same period. "It really isn't a fair comparison just going dollars to dollars," said Mike Polydoros, CEO at PaperAirplane Media. And quantity matters. While blockbusters and franchise films can draw big