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📝 Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger faces its toughest hurdle yet, Netflix takes the MrBeast approach, ‘Toy Story’ has generated $50+ billion of economic growth, and more.
💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this email.
Our Job Board now has 225+ early career Entertainment roles as well.
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📹 Today at 12:30pm PT on AvA LIVE we are bringing interns live on the show. Plus the former President of TV at Sony who had no connections to the industry and rose to the top, Scott Budnick a film producer & prison reform advocate (The Hangover, Project X, Old School, & Netflix’s #1 movie Nonnas) & Naz Perez who spent 7 years as a producer of The Bachelor franchise and now is my favorite red carpet host.
⭐ Music and TV are becoming one
Luminate dropped its first ever combined Trends in Music, Film & TV report. I read it so you don’t have to. Here are 11 things that stuck out to me:
📺 U.S. television premieres fell to 517 in the first half of 2026, down from 930 in 2022, a 44% decline in just four years.
📺 Major U.S. streaming platforms now carry roughly 19,000 library titles (older or licensed shows that were not originally made for that platform) compared with 7,000 originals. Library programming generates nearly 4x as many viewing hours.
📺 Netflix still accounts for 57% of all U.S. original-series viewing time, though its share continues to decline as competition grows. It still has unmatched depth across its slate at the top, with six of the 10 most-watched streaming originals.
📺 HBO Max had the No. 1 individual original series, The Pitt, with 19.4 billion minutes streamed, ahead of Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer at 16.9 billion.
🎵 R&B/Hip-Hop still accounts for roughly one in every four U.S. on-demand audio streams, making it the country’s most-consumed genre.
🎵 But R&B/Hip-Hop’s share of Billboard 200 consumption has fallen from 41% in the first half of 2023 to 30% in 2026, as Country and Latin continue to gain ground.
🎵 Country became the fourth-largest U.S. streaming genre in the first half of 2026, continuing its growth alongside Latin music. The share of American listeners casually consuming Latin climbed to 54%.
🎵 60% of Gen Z listeners now say they primarily listen to music from the 1990s or earlier, up from just 18% in 2021. CRAZY.
🎵 U.S. CD sales jumped 16% to 16.3 million units in the first half of 2026, while vinyl sales grew only 2.4%.
🎵 Physical album sales increased 7.8% in the U.S., outpacing the 4.8% growth of on-demand audio streaming.
“The music industry wants a clearer read on streaming television and theatrical performance; film and TV companies are asking for the reverse.” Full report here.
⭐ Netflix is taking a page out of MrBeast’s book by launching a ‘Monopoly’ game show with a $2 million prize.
Someone GET ME ON THIS SHOW ASAP.
⭐ ‘Toy Story’ has generated $51 billion worth of economic activity since it debuted 30 years ago
There are many franchises that have been (and still are) allowed to run until the tap is dry, and it is likely because of the blueprint that ‘Toy Story’ and a handful of others have set. Salute to one of the most iconic series, but here’s to more originals in the future.
⭐ Noah Kahan becomes the first artist to sell out Fenway Park for 4 nights in a row
⭐ Matt Damon said that ‘The Odyssey’ may be one of the last movies of its kind, but Christopher Nolan had a rebuttal worth sharing
“There’s a defeatist aspect of viewing it that way that I don’t agree with. I think cinema is vital and essential and continues to transform itself — we’ve got all these great new young voices in movies, making the medium their own and moving it forward.”
Our new job board features 225+ early career roles in Entertainment, including:
💼 Music Assistant - CAA - Apply Here
💼 Production Assistant - Live Nation - Apply Here
💼 Film & TV Coordinator - SXSW - Apply Here
💼 Marketing - Condé Nast - Apply Here
💼 Branded Content - NYCFC - Apply Here
💼 Social Media Manager - SiriusXM - Apply Here
💼 Associate Producer - LA Times - Apply Here
💼 Marketing - Netflix - Apply Here
💼 Content - Warner Bros. - Apply Here
💼 Producer - Olipop - Apply Here
💼 Books Assistant - WME - Apply Here
💼 Media Coordinator - NBCUniversal - Apply Here
💼 Publicist - Hallmark Media - Apply Here
💼 Global Operations - UTA - Apply Here
💼 Executive Assistant - iHeartMedia - Apply Here
💼 Production - Universal Music - Apply Here
💼 Content - MUBI - Apply Here
💼 Executive Assistant - CBS - Apply Here
💼 Production Assistant - Versant - Apply Here
🎒 Social Content Fall Intern - SiriusXM - Apply Here
🎒 Music Fall Intern - The-Team - Apply Here
🎒 A&R Fall Intern - Sony Music Publishing - Apply Here
👋 See you back here on Friday
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