issue 206
Hello! The wave of consolidation continues - those with power seek to attain more. Centralization. The world, a landgrab. Real estate gets manufactured scarce. The urbanist adds the expansion pack. Seasonal DLCs, subscriptions. War games.
Risk: concentric zoning… gentrification… domination.
The zip code is the most valuable puzzle piece in data census and governance. A golden barcode. Near everything can be extrapolated from that alone. Trendlines and territories. Movements and migrations. Markets, to be super-served eventually. The walls close in for the rest - trash compactor. Conglomerates prevail, the remainder get wedged down, then out. Cost synergies, layoffs. Exodus.
New land. The birth of island nation. A ship of pirates, course set sail - to be swallowed by aircraft carrier or to become one. Anchors away. Dry docked. Rinse n’ repeat. The ocean privatizes, turns red. You sunk my battleship. We go full stack in success.
Bienvenue, corporatization… verticalization… industrialization.
Ideas build armies. Staff up. It begins with individual talent recruitment, discovery of shared belief. A system, an organization, forms. Its mission is the project - work for it. Get in or get out. Survival. The job hunt. Many friends are lost, looking for their tribe - even if they’re already in one (or many). Chase heat, you’ll get burned.
Field promotion. The game of chutes and ladders is what so many execs play, not the industry itself - anticipate and initiate. The table must be level for it to be fair. It will never be. Occupational hazard. Payday. No dice. Full tilt.
The means to no end. Last issue touched on film/tv salaries and cost of living. Everyone functions as assistant, as a service, some with added autonomy - call ‘em exec. Higher ranking, higher power. Support the filmmaker, the decision maker; serve the film itself. Build the house. Maximize audience and shareholder value. The process results in the product. Creation.
Information inference: read ‘the tea’ leaves. Unearth the question behind the question, the reasoning for the role - how management thinks. The assignment. The why. Job descriptions act as open strategy documentation. With early state companies, if there’s a flood of job listings that usually means there was a capital injection based on that direction, they often don’t go unannounced. They’ll be added to a portfolio, database, newsletter — lists. Leading indicators.
Operational order. There will always be an over-reliance on lists - weigh the options, make a choice - tasks. Execution as creation. Ashes to ashes.
Indexes. Gather and categorize data. Call it proprietary, intelligence. It’ll be full of zip codes. Real estate agents subsist on MLS listings. We work off film/tv properties.
Our world as marketplace… empirical.
Welp, this turned into a bit of a companion piece to the last few notes - sorry for all the mixed metaphors. A couple gifts if you made it this far, here’s a list of TV Buyer Org Charts (Dropbox) and Mike Vorhaus’ Digital Study Survey (Dropbox) that he presented at GS’s Communicopia last week. Enjoy.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. It is what it is. See you next week.
Tech
Genially, Spanish focused interactive content and animation, raised $20m Fins
6AM City, newsletter-driven local news co, raised $5m Axios
Niio, digital art platform plus Samsung displays for physical, raised $15m TC
Nex, motion tracking games for fitness and more, raised $25m TC
Calyxia, aims to tackle the global micro-plastic epidemic, raised $17m TC
Dapper Labs, Top Shot NFTs and more, raised another $250m (they’re moving into video and talking to film festivals shhh) TC
CreatorIQ, influencer marketing platform, raised $40m Var
Ntwrk, livestream shopping app, raised $50m Axios
StreamElements, tools for livestreaming creators and more, raised $100m THR
Syng, fancy audio equipment for the home, raised $49m TC
Aktivate, school sports tech, raised $7m Fins
Cabinet, software for exec assts for scheduling and more, raised $2.6m TC
Sorare, fantasy sports and NFTs, raised $680m (woah) TC
Cam Kirk start a sort of record label for photographers called Collective Gallery Forbes
Lighttricks, app studio behind photo/video editing apps like Facetune, raised $130m plans M&A TC
Boom Ent, predictive casino games (?), raised $15m Cis
Dice, live event discovery and ticketing, raised $122m Cis
Nreal, AR glasses in China, raised $100m CNBC
Mobile Premiere League, esports in India, raised $150m VB
Twitter’s super follows made about $6k first few weeks (and Twtr to pay $800m to investor lawsuit) CMtwtr
Songs for Tunes is a new decentralized music marketplace Suhailtwtr
HumanCo, healthy snack brand and more, raised $35m (lots of celebs) Cis
Discord testing Youtube integration Verge
BitClout founder raised $200m for new social blockchain Block
A look at Lost Poets, popular new NFT strat game SHss
Scripps leads $35m investment in Misfits Gaming TF
Near Space Labs, mapping Earth’s surface w/ balloons, raised $13m Forbes
Spearhead, founders as investors AngelList program is growing Spear
Potential bias in computer vision for workplace safety systems VB
A look at Masterworks, fractional art ownership marketplace (wait until you learn everything is fractionalized, syndicated and sold) Fastco
Greylock raises $500m fund purely for seeds (a monster) Grey
Users can use BTC with Twtr CNBC
Civis, analytics for progressive campaigns, raised $30m Axios
Volt aims to supercharge your Spotify profile PH
Mintin is a calendar for NFT drops (look at Islands too) PH
Instagram adds “book now” for appts (old, but I just saw this being used..) Tailw
Alexander is a short-form storytelling app with some solid names (about a year old but just got hit with ads) BW
FB unveils more Portal video devices FBblog
South Park Commons social impact fellowships Med
UrbanX 10th cohort of urban planning startups SmaCities
SeedClub cohort 3 participants SCtwtr
Slack launches Clips for video voicemails Verge
Media
Lionsgate is on the block Dead
FB unveils updates to block watchdogs from monitoring Markup
Big tech focused on bringing internet to rural America Bberg
Advertisers and networks trying to come up with new measurements to take on Nielsen Var
Epic Games isn’t getting into NFTs (for now) bc too many scams TStwtr
Sony Pics India to acq Zee Ent for $1.57b TC
Nflx offers free plan for subs in Kenya Reut
HBO Max halves price for six months Nasdaq
Zando adds Waithe and Gillian Flynn as advisors to indie publishing imprint Dead
YouTube and National Public Media team on podcast about creator economy Forbes
Hearst TV launching hyper local TV stations Var
FB to stream No Time to Die premiere Var
IAC in talks to buy Meredith for $2.5b WSJ
Fox sets fund for int’l formats Var
Minute Media (Player’s Tribune) raised from FanDuel for sports betting partnership Axios
Barstool to do $200m in rev this year FOS
VideoElephant plans marketplace for CTV channels Nexttv
DraftKings made $20b offer for sports betting co Entain CNBC
SiriusXM and Marvel partner for premium pods SXM
Snap $1m creator fund led to too much copycat content THR
Dazn in talks to acq Britain’s BT sports tv unit Reut
The Athletic wants to be sold for $750m (talk about using press as a banker mouthpiece) Info
Lakers jersey patch sponsorship w/ Bibigo $100m over a 5 years SP
TimePieces, new NFT initiative and community from Time Mag
And mistakes were made, Keith Grossman (prez) on the exp KGtwtr
Omnicom acq digital ad agency antoni Cis and OSK, German comms firm Cis
EA completes $1.4b acq of Playdemic Bw
David Kushner book to be serialized on Substack (watch this space, also remember Atavist) Var
YouTube CEO talks about free speech (mmhm) Bberg
777 Partners acq Italy’s Genoa Cricket and FC Sportico
Mannings getting into the tv show commentating biz NYT
UMG went public last week CNBC
NENT Group on ViaPlay and owning Nordic Noir Var
iMedia acq 123tv, German tv network GN
Marvel sues estates to comic creators Var
Comcast preps launch of Xclass smart TV Prot
Apolla makes $8b bid on Tegna TV NYP
US sports betting growth ahead Axios
Google Asst partners w/ Reese’s Book Club THR
Argus sets $250m SPAC, fmr CBS execs THR
Cinedigm acq Bloody Disgusting, horror site Var
Entertainment
CAA acquiring ICM (huge - and shoutout to the assts for keeping this under wraps) Dead
Tony Award winners Var
Iatse members voting to authorize strike Dead
Nflx acq Roald Dahl library THR
Studio frenzy for Pitt, Clooney and Jon Watt pitch Var
WME new sales division as part of WGA restructure, same names (McIntosh, Walton) THR
Wscripted unveils Cannes screenplay list marketplace focused on women Var
Nflx picks up LoL animated series from Riot (the guy who ordered it then went to Riot) Dead
Patricia Arquette to direct/star in Love Canal limited for showtime Var
Redford and Springsteen team on doc The Mustangs Var
Eddie Murphy signs three-pic deal w Amzn THR
Frybread Face & Me gets Macro, River Road and REI (the brand) to sign on as EPs for indigenous culture feature Dead
Depp launches UK prod co, backs a Spanish one Var
Nflx to make Indian version of Ray Donovan (hmmm) Var
Mara Brock Ackil overall deal at Nflx (lists slate) Var
Goldwyn/Roadside pick up Aline, biopic loosely based on Celine Dion Var
All The Light We Cannot See a go at Nflx THr
Saban picks up Nic Cage’s Butcher’s Crossing Var
Apple picks up Sharon Horgan dark comedy series Var
Rashida and Oyelowo join Wool at apple Var
Netflix might be looking at sports rights after success of F1 show Drive
Showtime orders Let The Right One In w/ Bichir Var
De Luca and Abdy commit to theatrical Var
Emma Watts steps down at Paramount Var
Super Mario Bros animated movie adds quite the cast Var
Disney’s Bob Chapek says they need to rethink talent deals in the world of streaming (you don’t say?) THR
AMC ceo poll on if the theater should accept Doge (i can’t) AAtwtr
Collaborative
Rihanna profile NYT
Larraín’s Spencer trailer YT
PTA’s Licorice Pizza trailer YT
A look at YouTube’s recommendation system YTblog
Ozy Media, inflated metrics, bots, and impersonating execs to raise capital (wtf) NYT
Minivans in NYC as travelling music machines NYT
Interview w/ Maya Cade who writes Black Film Archive MKss
Military used AI to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist (woah) NYT
Profile on Peter Thiel Intelligencer
A look at how Apple built cinematic mode TC
Universal blood type for regenerative medicine Neolife
TikTok users and subtitles LAT
Scott Belsky shares his top insights for products leader SBtwtr
Interview w/ Colson Whitehead on his book Harlem Shuffle GR
Jeen-Yuhs first look clip, Kanye doc YT and the site is rad.
Keith Gro
Hunter Walk shares his thoughts on VC and picking winners in these time HWblog
Joel Coen’s Tragedy of Macbeth trailer YT
Profile on producer Bruna Papandrea NYT
Hipgnosis founder on music writers bottom of the stack Var
Alexis Ohanian on web4 AOtwtr
Stranger Things 4 trailer YT
iAge and the fight of death and disease, increase the biological clock Neolife
Palahniuk starts a story newsletter (how much is Substack paying him?) CPss
John Green on defining productive time YT
Manny Jacinto and Nicole Kidman Interview
AI that helps developers write code Wired
The potentiality of carbon neutral steel NewYorker
Music livestreaming concerts as horseless carriages Musicx
Challenges of music sharing and metadata Byta
Predicting human-animal conflict in the wild with AI PDF
Anchorage, crypto consultancy, on NFTs and banking Prot
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and commercial rights Med
The surveillance apparatus around Britney NYT
Sovereign citizens (wth) NYT
Prepping the US for clean energy VoxYT
Speech synthesis attacks could go undetected by humans and computers PDF
Nathan Baschez on DAOs replacing corporations Every
Turning corps into benefits NYT
Chris Dixon on web3 CDtwtr
Passing trailer (~$15m acq at Sundance) YT
NASA accepting proposals for $1b private space stations CNBC
Profile on Ibai Llanos, Twitch streamer who interviews super athletes NYT
Cherie Hu on music and the livestreaming market CHblog
BoFA key takeaways TMT earnings recap EMC
Profile on Karla Jurveston Puck
Eze Vidra on opps on the creator economy Med
Interview w/ Mark Suster, venture investing is nuts rn TC
Matteo Vallone on web3 and games Med
Metrics to prove ROI to brands in esports Nielsen
Regynald on building (and leaving) Dispo RAblog
Google to buy building in NYC for $2b WSJ
The World in a Corner, short film in Mex Psyche
MTA to step up mask enforcement in NYC Gotham
MG Siegler takes a look at Sweeney’s Epic v Apple statements MGblog
Hack reveals details of Proud Boys and extremists SFG
Social media should be taught in schools Embedded
Punk6529 starts a gallery with Cyber Ptwtr
Crypto-trading hamster outperformed the S&P (it’s proprietary) NPR
Video on Manatt discussing college NIL rights (must register) Man
Reviewing the last year of Nielsen’s top lists EMC
Profile on free diver Alexey Molchanov GQ