Andy Batkin

With Charter’s expanded distribution pact with Disney, it claims to provide $100 a month in streaming value “at no additional cost” to Select TV customers. But another $5 increase says otherwise. https://lnkd.in/gaDsw26y

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Sinclair announces it has initiated a strategic review of its broadcast business, which the company says could potentially lead to acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and mergers with companies in the broadcast and broader media and technology ecosystem. Simultaneously, Sinclair is evaluating the separation of Ventures through a spin-off, split-off, or other transaction. In 2023, Sinclair reorganized its company into two operating units: Sinclair Broadcast Group and Sinclair Ventures. Sinclair is one of the largest owners of TV stations, and its website states that the company currently owns 178 TV stations in over 80 markets. In the first six months of this year, Sinclair reported a net loss of $220 million, on sales of $1.56 billion, representing a 4% year-over-year decline. The company had $4.1 billion in debt and $616 million in cash and cash equivalents, of which $224 million was SBG cash and $393 million was Ventures cash. Press release: https://lnkd.in/eUcni79C - #sinclair #tvstations #paytv #sinclairbroadcast #streamingmedia

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The Ticketmaster Trial Is Bigger Than Ticket Prices. This week the U.S. government began its antitrust trial against Live Nation / Ticketmaster. But the real issue isn’t service fees. It’s control of cultural infrastructure. For decades, the live events industry has been built on a vertically integrated system: Promotion Venues Ticketing All connected through the same ecosystem. Estimates suggest Ticketmaster controls around 70–80% of primary ticketing for major venues. That’s not just market share. That’s control of the rails. And whoever controls the rails controls: • access to audiences • artist leverage • pricing power • distribution of culture But here’s the bigger story most people are missing. The entire cultural economy is shifting. Across music, film, sports and creator platforms we’re seeing the same pattern: Artists buying back their masters. Creators building direct-to-fan businesses. Fans demanding transparency. Ownership replacing access. The old model was built for the record label era. The next model will be built for the creator economy. Infrastructure that was designed for a handful of gatekeepers now has to serve millions of creators and global audiences. And that tension is starting to break the system. Whether the government wins this case or not, one thing is clear: The economics of culture are changing. The real question now is: Who will build the infrastructure for the next generation of live entertainment? Because whoever solves that problem doesn’t just build a ticketing platform. They build the operating system for culture.

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Fever is a live events x media co. They bought DICE, a ticketing platform. Below video explains 3 deal insights 👇 1. Fever connects experience discovery with ticketing to curate demand-driven events aka a content x commerce flywheel.     2. This is Fever’s second ticketing platform acquisition in the last couple months.     3. This is part of a broader M&A theme we’re observing: the combination of media and non-media companies.  Linked in comments is our full M&A deal analysis 👇 -- I'm the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and digital / audio agencies. My DMs are open.

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Interesting analysis from Puck's 2025 Media State of the Union: https://lnkd.in/gWhtjfid : 34% of media executives are betting on subscriptions as their top revenue driver. Why? Because advertisers will pay a premium for high-intent, engaged audiences. But subscriptions aren't the only signal of a high-intent audience—they're just the easiest to measure. The real challenge is proving that engagement, regardless of the model.

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Remote Production (REMI) is transforming how live events are produced, from esports to traditional sports. At the 2025 Sports Video Group Esports Production Summit, Geoff Bowen, Chief Technical Architect at Appear, joined industry leaders to discuss how REMI workflows are enabling scalable, high-quality production anywhere. Watch the full panel 👉 https://lnkd.in/ekPM9VzA #REMI #LiveProduction #Esports #BroadcastTech #AppearAllStars

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BREAKING: S&P just downgraded Warner Bros. Discovery to junk status (BB+) Why this matters: This downgrade reflects serious concerns about WBD's financial health three years after the Warner Media acquisition. With debt still weighing heavily on its balance sheet, the company faces critical strategic decisions. Key details: → S&P maintains a "negative" outlook on WBD's credit rating → Linear TV operations seeing accelerated revenue/cash flow declines → EBITDA forecast lowered to $9B for next three years → Leverage expected to remain above 3.5x until 2027 → Potential company split viewed as "credit negative" This downgrade highlights the ongoing transformation in media. Companies with significant linear TV exposure face mounting pressure as viewers shift to streaming. WBD's situation is particularly challenging with: • Higher exposure to general entertainment content • Weaker portfolio of domestic sports rights  • Loss of NBA broadcast rights after 2024/2025 • Smaller ad-supported streaming subscriber base than competitors My analysis: WBD faces a classic innovator's dilemma - invest in growing its streaming business (HBO Max) or focus on debt reduction. While streaming represents the future, the debt burden threatens financial stability. The company's reorganization signals potential separation, but S&P clearly views this as risky from a credit perspective. How should legacy media companies balance growth investments against debt reduction in this challenging environment? 👉 Follow me for more media industry analysis and updates. 🔄 REPOST to help others understand these complex media business dynamics.

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Huge News For Radio. More people listen to radio now than 20 years ago, but it hasn't been measured with the same precision as digital - until now. The pixel based solution from MagellenAI will measure radio attribution the same as podcasts showing the true impact of a full audio stack. https://lnkd.in/geU3XuqH

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Game changer! The Emergent AI-Enhanced platform growing with tools that help you produce content way more efficiently. Fusion is a long time coming for us. We always wanted to build a tool our clients could use to build their own storytelling apps without us having to integrate data or make html graphics on the backend. Now they can!

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Cumulus 2017 Bankruptcy Playbook Reloaded Cumulus is inching toward another financial reckoning, with collapsing profitability, declining revenue, and little room left to maneuver running out of both time and options. ·      Bleak first-quarter results but beneath the surface is a strategy that looks all too familiar — one that echoes the company’s pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017. ·      Once again, CEO Mary Berner may be steering the company toward a controlled crash landing before creditors take the wheel. What to watch ·      Lender pressure:  If debt covenants are breached or EBITDA falls further, lenders may push for restructuring — likely behind the scenes first while the company gives the business-as-usual look. ·      Layoffs and asset sales: Is it even possible for Cumulus to cut deeper, sell assets where buyers are scarce or relieve themselves of non-core assets – Berner has a plan. ·      A second bankruptcy filing? It will be similar to the first one with industry-threatening desperation that could upend other struggling radio groups teetering on the brink. Read the full article now   https://lnkd.in/eYW6zJY6

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Everyone assumes content distribution is automated. It’s not. If you work across #TVOD, #FAST, #AVOD, or #SVOD and haven’t seen how avails are actually distributed, you’d be shocked at how manual the process still is. Excel files flying back and forth. Partner templates. Constant updates. Human error everywhere. Matthew Carter and Vincent Muscarella break down why this legacy workflow slows licensing and delays revenue for the entertainment industry. The industry deserves better. #Helix #WhipMedia

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There’s a frustrating pattern in ticketing conversations right now: one side loves to talk as if they hold the moral high ground, while completely ignoring the realities of economics, consumer behavior, and how this industry actually functions. They talk about resale, brokers, pricing, and demand as if these things exist in a vacuum. They don’t. Live events are an ecosystem. Artists, teams, venues, promoters, primary ticketing companies, resale platforms, and brokers all play a role in how inventory moves, how prices are discovered, and how seats ultimately get filled. What gets left out of these conversations is the part where the “clean hands” crowd is also chasing every dollar they can. Platinum pricing, dynamic pricing, fees, VIP packages, parking, concessions, merch, and exclusive inventory control are all part of the same economic machine. So let’s stop pretending only one side is motivated by profit. The truth is simple: ticketing is driven by supply, demand, risk, technology, and timing. Brokers take risk. Secondary markets create price discovery. Soft-demand events often sell below face value because the market corrects itself. High-demand events rise because demand exceeds supply. That is not fantasy. That is economics. You do not have to like every part of the market to acknowledge reality. But if you are going to criticize one side, at least be honest enough to admit your side is monetizing every angle too. The industry does not get better through selective outrage and rewritten narratives. It gets better through honesty, better technology, better policy, and a real understanding of how the market actually works. Write that down… #Ticketing #LiveEntertainment #TicketingIndustry #SecondaryMarket #Resale #Brokers #Economics #SupplyAndDemand #LiveEvents #TicketBroker #PrimaryMarket #DynamicPricing #PriceDiscovery #ConsumerChoice #EventIndustry #Venues #Promoters #TicketTech #PricerQX #ProcessorQX

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🚨 Brand Advertising is About to Get a Major Tailwind As the Fed enters a rate-cutting cycle in the back half of 2025, in the midst of major tentpole holidays; we're embarking on a new chapter — one where brand advertising dollars finally get off the sidelines. Here’s why that matters: 💸 Dry powder is real — there's a massive amount of capital looking for alternative returns. Traditional large-cap investments are hitting tariff-era headwinds, while small-cap volatility is giving institutional investors pause. The demand for alternative investments has seen dramatic growth as investors look for diversification, higher returns, and protection against market volatility…ultimately driven by low returns on cash due to inflation. Total alternative assets under management are projected to reach $29.2 trillion USD by 2029, a significant increase from previous years. So where does that capital go in the world of media? ➡️ Specialist, independent agencies — agile, audience-centric, and culture-native — are becoming incredibly attractive investment vehicles. 👀 We’re watching Publicis gobble up top-notch specialist agencies that have proven to be a force-multiplier for their social/streaming/ecommerce strategy. Why? Because the battleground for brand growth is increasingly the democratized platform ecosystems of social, streaming and ecommerce. Demand-side platforms that enable advertisers to buy impressions and select audiences across many publisher sites aren’t socially native concepts in direct-sell environments, and increasingly lack the full-funnel needs of evolving brands. Social & social-commerce platforms are data-rich, ROI-visible cultural ecosystems where the right creative & performance strategy meets the right community — and builds brand at scale. In this next cycle, putting your brand “in culture” won’t be optional. It’ll be measurable. And profitable. Attention is the new alpha. Culture is the new capital. Let’s build accordingly. Vertiqal Studios #Advertising #BrandGrowth #DigitalMedia #FedRateCut #CulturalCapital #MarketingStrategy #IndependentAgencies #AlternativeAssets #TikTokMarketing #MediaInvestment #VertiqalStudios

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While experience-based upselling works, without a path to reduce debt, the financial story of AMC remains uncertain. Key Takeaways: - Revenue per attendee is up, driven by higher ticket prices, premium formats, and upselling. - AMC’s special formats strategy (IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and its own branded premium screens) continues to boost margins and differentiate the customer’s experience. - Attendance growth is still modest, but spend per attendee is at record levels, compensating for the slower recovery in overall moviegoing. - Despite operational gains, AMC’s high debt load remains a major pressure on net results.

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Biz Talk Today TV (BTT) Expands Distribution: Now Streaming Free on Mometu Business & financial programming joins the curated entertainment platform’s global lineup of niche channels Press release attached... CrossCheck Media Inc. | OTTera, Inc. | Nielsen | Mometu | #Business #Streaming #Media #News #Entertainment

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