AT&T Discloses DirecTV Q2 Subscriber Losses as Telco Preps for Pay-TV Unit Spinoff

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorViacomCBS said second quarter profit rose as advertisers spent more robustly on its media assets and the company saw new revenue from a host of streaming initiatives.The New York owner of the CBS broadcast network, Showtime, Nickelodeon and the Paramount movie studio, said revenue  rose 8% to $6.6 billion, fueled by gains in ad sales, fees from affiliates and streaming activity.

ViacomCBS added 6.5 streaming subscribers in the second quarter, reaching 42 million worldwide, powered by the rebranded and expanded Paramount+.

The New York Times Company announced its second quarter earnings Wednesday, revealing the media brand has just hit 8 million subscribers. Times leadership would like to see 8.5 million subscribers by year’s end.

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t read this if you haven’t watched the three-episode premiere of “FBoy Island”. While some might have been intimidated or put off by men who openly (and proudly) refer to themselves as “FBoys,” Divij Vaswani – a self-proclaimed “FBoy” himself – felt right at home, as he facilitates brand partnerships for social media stars and influencers like Jake and Logan Paul, Julia Rose and Mike Majlak, to name a few.“I work with influencers all day long – these really big personalities –

Anime purveyor Crunchyroll has surpassed 5 million streaming subscribers and has also teamed with Zoe Saldana on Dark Star Squadron, a project it describes as an “epic animated space opera.”

Tesco is offering Clubcard holders the chance to exchange just £8 worth of reward vouchers for a full three-month subscription to the popular streaming service Disney Plus. The deal offers impressive savings of £23.97, based on the £7.99 monthly subscription fee and is available to both new and existing Disney Plus customers.

Advertising rebounded strongly in the second quarter, enabling Discovery Communications to easily beat Wall Street’s estimates.

AT&T completed its acquisition of DirecTV. Moving forward, the standalone DirecTV will include its satellite service, AT&T TV — which will be rebranded as DirecTV Stream — and U-Verse TV.

AT&T has completed the spinoff of DirecTV into a new entity part-owned by private equity firm TPG, capping a costly six-year adventure in the satellite TV business.

Upcoming negotiations for a new film and TV contract covering members of Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 “will be more difficult than usual, as the companies try to make up for Covid losses on our backs,” Local 399 leader Steve Dayan said in a message to his members.

Get ready to meet the all-new Suicide Squad in James Gunn’s take on the comic-book series “The Suicide Squad”. And while Idris Elba may be stepping into the role of Bloodsport for the first time, Margot Robbie is an old hand playing Harley Quinn.

Big format giant Imax reported a surge in revenue last quarter and narrower losses compared with a shuttered 2020 as CEO Rich Gelfond said a deluge of Hollywood tentpoles arriving will drive people to theaters.

The producers of the Apple+ series The Morning Show say that they incurred $44 million in losses from the Covid-19 shutdown and delay of the second series — and they want their insurer to pay up.

AT&T has sold 100% of Vrio Corp. business in Latin America to Grupo Werthhein.

“Space Jam: A New Legacy” is wrapping up its first week of wide theatrical release but there is one lost scene that is on people’s minds.

Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, will create and executive produce Pearl, an animated series for Netflix.

EXCLUSIVE: Damon Dash, co-founder with Jay Z of Roc-A-Fella Records, has been involved with a few reality television series including WEtv’s Growing Up Hip Hop and BET’s Ultimate Hustler.