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An ESPN Scandalette, Trump’s Gas Grab, MLB’s Labor Crisis
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Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best
new reporting. Here’s what you need to know, and stick around for more on Jeff Shell’s Hollywood comeback… |
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What I’m Hearing: Just months after his unceremonious exit from Paramount, the company’s former president, Jeff Shell, is planning to launch a private investment vehicle to hoover up withering cable networks and stations. Matt Belloni breaks the news, and assesses whether linear TV is a cash cow still worth milking.
[Read More]
- What I’m Hearing: Bela Bajaria, the Netflix chief content officer responsible for the streamer’s $20 billion slate and greenlighting everything from Squid Game to the NFL, is
out. Matt scoops the defenestration—and reveals the former Disney and Fox exec who is replacing her. [Read More]
- The Varsity: Former ESPN producer Nicole Noren made a splash this week after claiming she quit
the network over its embrace of sports betting. John Ourand examines the firewall between sports newsrooms and the gambling businesses now bankrolling them. [Inner Circle Exclusive]
- The Best & The
Brightest: Desperate to lower gas prices before the midterms, Trump just struck a diesel deal with Putin that undercuts his own sanctions and rewards the Kremlin. Julia Ioffe dissects the lopsided negotiations and the resulting “energy ceasefire” that’s left more than 100 Ukrainian civilians dead in a matter of days. [Read
More]
- Line Sheet: Industry veteran John Demsey’s exit from Gap Inc. this week is a window into the bigger challenges facing C.E.O. Richard Dickson, who’s struggling to satisfy both his investors and the controlling Fisher family. Lauren Sherman considers whether Dickson’s surface-level
fixes are neglecting the company’s long-term health. [Inner Circle Exclusive]
- The Hidden Layer: As the A.I. safety panic goes mainstream, most of the conversation has been shaped by a handful of Silicon Valley frontier
labs. Ian Krietzberg chats with David Cox, IBM Research’s A.I. model boss, about whether safety is fundamentally an engineering problem, and why anthropomorphizing agents is the industry’s “original sin.” [Read More]
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And now, a little more on Jeff Shell’s reemergence… |
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After his bizarre exit as Paramount president and a summer spent in the severance-pay wilderness,
Jeff Shell is plotting his next move. As Matt reports, Shell is planning to launch a stand-alone investment vehicle to acquire and manage the linear TV assets that have withered in the streaming age: cable networks like BET, MTV, and the History Channel, plus station groups and owned-and-operated stations that broadcasters may eventually shed. And he’s doing it with... |
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Can’t see the full story? You’re receiving the free version of The Daily Courant
at dupa@niepodam.pl. For full access to Puck, subscribe today. |
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| Matthew Belloni
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The streamer’s creative leader will depart as it aims to fix its engagement woes. Peter Rice, the former Disney and Fox
executive, will replace her. |
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| John Ourand
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A former ESPN producer’s accusations that the brand had unfairly prioritized its gambling partnerships made the rounds this
week. Was this an overdue cri de coeur, or just business as usual for an entity that has long tried to balance its integrity with its core business model? |
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| Julia Ioffe
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Facing a midterm backlash over Iran-fueled inflation, Trump is again accused of sacrificing Ukraine’s interests for electoral
advantage—this time by granting Putin valuable sanctions relief in exchange for a largely symbolic diesel deal. |
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| Lauren Sherman
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