Interpublic Takes Stake in Famous Group To Reach Consumers Returning to Big Events

Shirley Ju The rapper Russ headlined Los Angeles’ iconic Hollywood Bowl on Thursday night, performing to the biggest crowd of his career so far. It’s a long way from his days at the Echoplex in L.A.’s east side, a venue which held a few hundred, and even more impressive that he filled the 17,000-seat bowl as an independent artist.Knowing that it was a celebratory gig for the 29-year-old, surprise guests were in store and included Ty Dolla $ign, who popped out for “3AM”; and BLXST, who performed “Chosen,” which also features Ty$ and is, per Russ, his mom’s favorite song.

Déjà vu. As if the slap wasn’t enough, Chris Rock witnessed Dave Chappelle being tackled at the Netflix Is A Joke festival in Los Angeles on May 2, 2022. The Everybody Hates Chris creator quipped back with a response that recounted his own experiences at the Oscars. 

Big-screen pioneer Imax said it recorded a net non-cash provision of $6.9 million, or $0.12 per share, due to an increase in reserves given the uncertainty of collecting receivables in Russia. With the Russia-Ukraine war ongoing, sanctions and boycotts underway include all major studios pulling releases from Russia.

Imax reported a global quarterly box office total of $173.2 million, up 57% over Q1 2021 thanks in large part to the March release of “The Batman” and post-holiday holdover screenings of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” Imax also had screenings of seven local language films in countries like China, India and France. Adjusted EBITDA stood at $14.8 million, up from $2.8 million in Q1 2021 during which theaters worldwide closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorComcast said first-quarter profit rose due to NBCUniversal’s telecasts of both Super Bowl LVI and the Winter Olympics, as well as a surge in broadband customers at its cable operations.The Philadelphia cable and media giant saw overall revenue increase 14% to slightly more than $31 billion, compared with $27.2 billion in the year-earlier period, with a whopping 46.6% increase in revenue at its NBCU operations due in part to $1.5 billion in cash generated by the two big sports events. But even without those two landmark broadcasts, Comcast said, NBCU revenue would have increased.Overall, Comcast reported net income of $3.55 billion in the first quarter, or 78 cents a share, compared with $3.32 billion, or 71 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorA new film created with Toyota sounds the turning of the ignition on a new venture from TelevisaUnivision aimed at generating more interest from advertisers for the company’s Spanish-language media offerings.Así Studios aims to produce inspirational films that speak to Spanish-speaking viewers and can appear across TelevisaUnivision’s linear, streaming, digital and audio properties. The entity’s first creation, “Imparable: Ismael Guzmán, tells the story of a Texas man who has dedicated two decades of his life to helping the youth of East Austin play soccer.

Russia has sanctioned a number of Manchester MPs and hundreds of others across the country for “whipping up of Russophobic hysteria”.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWarner Bros. Discovery said profit rose in the first quarter despite declines in traditional TV audiences, as revenue from advertising and distribution rose thanks in part to the company’s streaming inititiatives.Warner Bros.

As the world was processing Will Smith slapping Chris Rock in the face at the 2022 Oscars, Liza Minnelli was apparently dealing with a figurative slap to the face by producers of the awards show!

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNetflix has held Madison Avenue at arm’s length for years. Now, the popular streamer wants to draw the advertising industry in a tighter embrace.After years of resisting the prospect of running commercials, Netflix signaled on Tuesday that it’s ready to consider launching an ad-supported tier of its service, which has lured traditional TV viewers with ad-free series like “Stranger Things” and “Ozark” and commercial-free movies like “Don’t Look Up.” Figuring out an ad strategy could take months, said Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-CEO, during an investor meeting, “but think of us as quite open to offering even lower prices with advertising as a consumer choice.”The company announced its intention to court commercials just weeks before the start of the industry’s annual “upfront” ad sales season, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for the next programming cycle.

Jada Pinkett Smith is back with her mother Adrienne Banfield Norris and daughter Willow Smith for a fifth season of their Facebook Watch chat show, Red Table Talk. The trailer, which dropped today (19 April), previews interviews with eight-time Grammy nominee Janelle Monáe, Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger and her daughter Ireland Baldwin, the parents of Miss USA Cheslie Kryst who died by suicide earlier this year and victims of the Tinder Swindler.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorVideoAmp has gained notice in recent months for its work with various media agencies and TV networks that are trying to take on the increasingly difficult task of measuring video audiences. The company hopes its latest maneuver will help make that complex assignment more simple.VideoAmp has acquired Elsy, a company that helps advertisers optimize the money they are spending to place commercials on various media platforms.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThey don’t need pro golfers to keep the celebrity “Match” going over at Turner Sports.In the first edition of the golf event to take place under the corporate aegis of the newly-merged Warner Bros. Discovery, four legendary NFL quarterbacks will take to the links on June 1 in a two-on-two competition that is, once again, sponsored by Capital One and broadcast on the cable network TNT.

Actor Sean Penn may be home from Ukraine, but he's still got the country on his mind amid Russia's invasion. Over the past several months the filmmaker spent time in Ukraine to film a documentary featuring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and military forces. Although he's since returned home to California, Penn revealed in a new interview that he has intentions to go back and has thought about "taking up arms" against Russia.

Sean Penn’s outspoken support of Ukraine continues in a brand new interview where the Oscar-winning actor reveals he’s considered “taking up arms against Russia.”