With the use of so-called “artificial intelligence” software one of the main issues that led both SAG-AFTRA and WGA to go on strike, Mortal Media’s Ryan Kalil thinks AI is going to have a big impact on both sports and entertainment.

“I am super fascinated with how coaches are going to use AI,” Kalil told Todd Burach, SVP and Team Leader, Sports & Family Office Banking, City National Bank at “GAME ON: The Intersection of Sports & Entertainment,” presented by City National Bank as part of The Grill 2023. “I think it’s going to trickle down to all youth sports, too. It’s going to be super data driven.”

Kalil added: “I think more exciting than that is going to be the spatial computing stuff, I think the immersiveness of entertainment, especially in the sports world, is going to be bananas.”

Kalil, a former NFL offensive lineman who played for both the Carolina Panthers and New York Jets, is looking at some companies in that space.

“There’s a couple of companies, we’ve been looking that are doing that space, especially as it relates to streaming, spatial computing streaming,” Kalil said. “I think it’s going to be nuts I think you’re going to be inside the game in a way that you never were before.”

Make Plays Media founder Scott Braun added, “We are utilizing (AI) at our company already.”

“We’re pumping out hours of content every day, and we’re still a new company. So it helps a little bit with creative.”

Braun said his company utilizes AI for “getting a lot of the busy work done that we just don’t have the people power for right now.”

Watch the panel in full in the embed below:

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape.

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

The post Mortal Media’s Ryan Kalil on AI’s Impact in Sports and Entertainment: ‘It’s Going to Be Super Data-Driven’ (Video) appeared first on TheWrap.

While the business world’s movers and shakers continue to navigate a new normal defined by high interest rates and constant disruption, another challenge has emerged — one that is a little more political.

Speaking as part of TheWrap’s annual industry conference, TheGrill, Guggenheim Securities senior managing director Ethan Sawyer argued that one of the biggest issues in the macro-environment isn’t economic, but regulatory.

“Even if you have confidence that your deal makes strategic sense and should pass any trust muster, you look at some of the deals that are being held up,” Sawyer said, speaking on the panel “Acquire or Be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A.” “It still may take you a year or two to get it done.”

Moderated by Creative Media chairman Peter Csathy, panelists at the Wednesday event also included Charles Johnson, Truist managing director; Ed King, BTIG partner; Jason Sklar, Shamrock Capital partner; Oliver Chastan, Iconoclast founder and CEO; and Stephanie Horbaczewski, Vody CEO and founder.

Sawyer noted that for him, “M&A is a tactic, not a strategy.” However, he said that the approach from the current federal government under President Joe Biden “feels like the approach from an antitrust perspective right now” and “is different than it’s been historically.”

“They’re willing to look very closely at transactions and take it from a different, almost more European-type lens,” he said.

The Biden administration has adopted a more aggressive regulatory approach, especially compared to the previous administration. As outlined in a July 2021 executive order, Biden instructed relevant agencies to increase enforcement to prevent a rise in consumer prices and competitive harm in labor markets. Via what the order called a “whole-of-government competition policy,” it charged over a dozen other agencies to protect competition.

All parties Wednesday discussed the surprising delays in attempts by Microsoft to acquire Activision, a deal first announced in January 2022 that has yet to be finalized. There were attempts by the FTC to block the $69 billion deal, but the Supreme Court ruled against those efforts in July. That deal, which is still expected to occur, has faced regulatory challenges in both the U.S. and the U.K.

“That’s a multi-trillion dollar company that has a huge amount of cash and can afford to wait,” Sawyer said. “That transaction has just taken much, much longer than most people expected to go through.”

King argued that anti-trust conflicts are a byproduct of trying to get a deal done.

“If you want to do a deal, maybe the next administration will be more relaxed,” he suggested.

Watch the full panel in the video below.

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape.

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

The post Interest Rates Aren’t the Only Challenge for the Next Big Merger: The Government Wants a Say, Too | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“Last year, generative AI was on no one’s radar screen,” Peter Csathy, chairman of Creative Media said Wednesday during TheWrap’s annual industry conference TheGrill.

Csathy — alongside Erick Opeka, president and chief strategy officer for Cineverse; Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO; explAIner-in-chief at Human Artistry Campaign Dr. Moiya McTier; head of media and entertainment partnerships for Intel, Rick Hack; Lore Machine founder Thobey Campion; and What’s Trending founder Shira Lazar — discussed the future of AI, which, according to Opeka, isn’t as expansive as it’s been feared to be.

“The bigger picture is we’re using a lot of the technology we have to think about where is this going and how do we build systems to build the next generation of entertainment?” Opeka said.

“There’s very limited data today,” he continued. “Most of the LLMs today are very focused on textual-based data or individual images.” This is because the datasets created for AI were done over a decade ago and are still limited in scope. “The datasets that exist today are very, very far away from saying, ‘Hey, create ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ but put this actor in it,” he said.

What would it take for that to happen, then? As Opeka laid out, there are several things that needed to be negotiated starting with regulation.

“Are we, as a society, going to allow that?” he said. There’s also a logistical component. The sheer amount of processing power and data that comes with building a system to allow that are, as Opeka explained, the “exclusive playground” of the largest companies in the world. It wouldn’t be something available to the masses.

And because the current data is all textual, it forces AI generators to craft things using descriptive tags. “How do you have descriptive tags at a level of depth to do full-length movies? It takes an incredible amount of processing power [and] you need experts that are watching,” Opeka said.

Opeksa explained that despite this being AI, there is still a lot of manpower that goes into processing. Most language models today, he said, have 40-50 people working on them: “Literally armies of people behind the curtain [are] training these models.”

That also begs the question of how people would be compensated, whether working on the models or being the basis for them. One would also have to answer the age-old question of whether there’s a business model for that.

As Opeka further explained, it’s one thing to craft something that could let a film viewer watch “Robocop” with a different actor in it, or that’s a comedy, but would a mass audience be willing to pay for that? He compared the tech to the early 1900s, when people were watching dime-store nickelodeons (short videos).

“It’s a far cry from ‘Avatar,’ but it’s the genesis that led to ‘Avatar.'”

Watch the full panel in the video below.

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape.

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

The post AI Is Nowhere Near Being Able to Remake ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ With a Different Actor – Yet | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Like anywhere else in Hollywood, strikes were a major topic at TheWrap’s annual business conference, TheGrill, on Wednesday. In a one-on-one discussion on the impact of those strikes, Loeb & Loeb’s entertainment labor chair Ivy Kagan Bierman said she believed that WGA and SAG-AFTRA have built unprecedented power for labor in the entertainment industry.

“There are times when labor and management is almost equal, but this really is a time for labor, and it’s because of a movement that’s happening worldwide,” Bierman said.

The veteran attorney pointed to WGA’s recently completed bargaining agreement, which came after nearly five months of picket lines from striking writers. She noted that there were multiple major gains in the contract — such as specific language on the use of artificial intelligence and guaranteed 13 weeks of scale pay for comedy-variety writers — that the studios showed no sign of agreeing to or even discussing when the strike began.

“I teach communication and negotiation, and in labor talks, you have to hear the other side. You have to address the major issues. So when I saw how the studios first came out on AI and not addressing it, I thought, ‘Oh, this is not a good way to start,'” Bierman said. “I think that was truly a trigger moment.”

Bierman also noted that the AI issue gave the WGA and SAG-AFTRA a hot button topic to control public messaging around the strike. She recalled how on the day SAG-AFTRA announced its strike, the guild’s national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland made it a specific point to highlight how AI could get to a point where it can replace background actors with digital replicas, taking away a key job that many of the actors guild’s members use to acquire and retain union membership.

“I’ve known Duncan Crabtree-Ireland for years, that was a brilliant strategic move on his part, to pick the person that’s going to be probably the most sympathetic, a background actor who doesn’t make very much money,” she said. “Now, because I also know the studio labor executives, I think that was a very frustrating moment for them, because they weren’t countering this negative publicity that was happening.”

With the WGA contract expected to be ratified by members and top studios back in talks with SAG-AFTRA, there is a lot of optimism that the end of the strikes may be near.

But Bierman believes a lot of key work will still need to be done even after the picket lines end. She pointed out that the strikes were an expression of how much distrust Hollywood’s creatives have towards the studios, and that restoring some of that trust will be needed to get the industry functioning again.

For her, the first step of that rebuilding process will be in implementing these new labor contracts.

“There are grievances, there are arbitrations, because people have different interpretations of what these contracts mean,” Bierman said. “Where companies can be more transparent with the people who work with them, they have to try to do that.”

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape.

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

For all of TheWrap’s Hollywood strike coverage, click here.

The post Hollywood Unions Have Built Unprecedented Power, Entertainment Lawyer Says: ‘Really Is a Time for Labor’ appeared first on TheWrap.

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape. TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

Ynon Kreiz, Chairman & CEO, Mattel

Ravi Ahuja, Chairman, Global Television Studios & Sony Pictures Entertainment Corporate Development

Daniela Rus, Director, Computer Science & AI Laboratory, MIT

Mehran Sahami, Professor & Chair, Computer Science, Stanford University

Beth Anderson, SVP & GM, FAST Channels, BBC Studios

Sharon Waxman, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, TheWrap

Edward Menicheschi, President & COO, TheWrap

Edward Menicheschi & Sharon Waxman, TheGrill 2023

Charles Johnson, Managing Director, TME Investment Banking, Truist Securities

Cole Strain, VP, Measurement Products, Samba TV

Ed King, Partner, BTIG

Ethan Sawyer, Senior Managing Director, Guggenheim Securities

Lawrence Bender, Founder and Producer, Lawrence Bender Productions

Fri Forjindam, Co-Owner & Chief Development Officer, Mycotoo

Greg Foster, Owner, & Principal, Foster + Crew

Jennifer Vaux, VP, Content Acquisition & Programming, Roku Media

Josh Goldstine, President, Worldwide Marketing, Warner Bros. Pictures Group

Peter Csathy, Chairman, Creative Media

Valerie Kaplan, Global SVP, Head of Consumer Marketing, Pluto TV

Patrick Courtney, Head of Digital & Business Development, Fuse Media

Lindsay Stewart, VP, FAST & AVOD Revenue Strategy, AMC Networks

Rick Hack, Head of Media & Entertainment Partnerships, Intel

Ross Gerber, Co-Founder, President & CEO, Gerber Kawasaki

Ivy Kagan Bierman, Chair, Entertainment Labor, Loeb & Loeb

Erick Opeka, President & Chief Strategy Officer, Cineverse

Ariana Case, Program Manager, USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative

Dr. Moiya McTier, ExplAIner-in-Chief, Human Artistry Campaign

Dakota Ortiz, VP, Impact & Inclusion, Endeavor

Emerlynn Lampitoc, VP, Creative Talent & Content, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG)

Jerome Core, Head of US & Worldwide DEIA Content, Amazon Studios & Prime Video

Kevin Goetz, Founder & CEO, Screen Engine/ASI

Shira Lazar, Founder, What’s Trending

Sean Gamble, President & CEO, Cinemark

Levi Jackson, Head of Music Marketing, WME

Yvette Urbina, VP, Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Creative & Production, Warner Bros. Discovery

Mark Mothersbaugh, Musician & Co-Founder, DEVO

Thobey Campion, Founder, Lore Machine

Mark Mothersbaugh & Thobey Campion

Jason Sklar, Partner, Shamrock Capital

Olivier Chastan, Founder & CEO, Iconoclast

Todd Burach, SVP, Team Leader, Sports & Family Office Banking, City National Bank

Ryan Kalil, Co-Founder, Mortal Media & Producer, “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Hello Tomorrow!”

Scott Braun, Media Personality & Founder, Make Plays Media

Scott Braun & Todd Burach

Scott Braun, Ryan Kalil & Todd Burach

Jeff Clanagan, President & Chief Distribution Officer, Hartbeat

Stephanie Horbaczewski, CEO, Vody

Adam Chitwood, Co-Executive Editor, TheWrap

Oganes Akopyan, Vice President, Marketing and Events

Jeremy Fuster, Box Office & Labor Reporter, TheWrap

Jeremy Fuster and Ivy Kagan-Bierman

The post TheGrill 2023 Speaker Portraits (Photos) appeared first on TheWrap.

Amazon Studios and Prime Video aimed to “earn the trust” of its audiences and film and TV employees with disabilities earlier this year but adding “accessibility” to its core diversity, equity and inclusion values.

Speaking on behalf of the studio at TheWrap’s annual industry conference TheGrill, head of U.S. and worldwide DEIA content Jerome Core shared why and how the company is ensuring “all of our initiatives, all of our policies” incorporate a newfound emphasis on inclusion for the disability community.

“In February, we added the ‘A’ to our name, so we are now the DEIA team — ‘A’ for accessibility,” Core said. “We really wanted to make sure that all of our initiatives, all of our policies, everything was including accessibility.

Core spoke on the importance of DEIA at Amazon Studios and Prime Video as part of TheGrill’s “No Barriers: The Battle for Hollywood Inclusion” panel, held Wednesday. The panel included Core; Yvette Urbina, VP of DEI content and production at Warner Bros. Discovery; Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, EVP, Entertainment, Diversity & Inclusion, Paramount; Dakota Ortiz, VP of impact and inclusion at Endeavor; and Emerlynn Lampitoc, VP of creative talent and content at Universal Filmed Entertainment Group. Ariana Case, program manager of USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, moderated the panel.

During the wide-ranging conversation, each participant was given the opportunity to highlight strides their companies made over the years in the name of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, and the goals they’d like to hit in the future.

In their mission to uplift audiences and employees with disabilities, Core said, Amazon Studios and Prime Video “found a very interesting problem.” In the company’s “self-ID survey” used on all productions to “figure out who’s on the production and what we need to do to make sure that they have a welcoming environment,” Core learned that those with disabilities were reluctant to publicly self-identify as such.

“It’s actually really hard to get someone on a production set to say, ‘I have a disability,’ because of centuries of being told to hide their disability,” Core explained. “Usually, if I identify that I have a disability, that means I’m limiting the work I can do. So that was a huge headwind for us this year. And we’re really working hard to earn trust of the disability community and folks that are on our sets because we want them to know that when you raise your hand, we are going to give you the productivity tools you need to do your best job ever.”

Per the Pew Research Center, there are about 42.5 million Americans with disabilities, which makes up about 13% of civilian noninstitutionalized population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2021. But those numbers are historically not reflected in Hollywood. I 2019, the disabled community only made up 2.3% of all speaking characters in the 100 top-grossing films in the U.S.

Casting more talent with disabilities is one of Amazon Studios’ key focuses for inclusion, which highlights the company’s goal of casting people who self-identify as a person with a disability in at least 10% of its roles.

“We’re just doing everything we can to earn trust and let people know they no longer have to hide their disability,” Core concluded. “We are here to provide productivity tools for you and ensure that you are doing your best job, just like everyone else is.”

Watch the full panel discussion in the video below.

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape. TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

The post Amazon Studios Wants to ‘Earn the Trust’ of Audiences, Employees With Disabilities | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

TheWrap’s annual TheGrill Conference hosted specialists in all areas of entertainment Wednesday, from the CEO of Mattel and the Warner Bros. Marketing president behind blockbuster hit film “Barbie” to Stanford and MIT professors and researchers who have a pulse on the latest developments in artificial intelligence. TheWrap co-executive editor Adam Chitwood moderated panels about FAST Channels and the future of live entertainment, specifically in regards to Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ticketmaster, The Sphere and more.

TheWrap CEO and editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman and COO and president Edward Menicheschi kicked off the gathering of executives and minds with opening remarks and comments about the timing of this conference with the WGA strike ending and, hopefully, the SAG strike’s potential close. Besides AI, “Barbie,” Taylor Swift, and FAST Channels, panels also discussed the intersection of sports and entertainment, the battle for Hollywood inclusion, lessons learned from the 2023 Hollywood strike and more.

Read on to get a full sense of the scene at TheGrill 2023:

Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz attended TheGrill 2023 to speak about “Barbie” and more toy movies that the company has in store.

Daniela Rus, MIT’s director of computer science and AI laboratory, spoke at the “AI Unleashed: Academics and Experts Debate the Current State of Artificial Intelligence” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Mehran Sahami, professor and chair of computer science at Stanford University spoke at the “AI Unleashed: Academics and Experts Debate the Current State of Artificial Intelligence” at TheGrill 2023.

The “Reel Resilience: Navigating the Theatrical Landscape in 2023” moderated by Greg Foster, who owns Foster + Crew, featured a discussion between Josh Goldstine, president of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros. Group, Kevin Goetz, founder and CEO of Screen Engine/ASI and Sean Gamble, president and CEO of Cinemark, at TheGrill 2023.

Sony’s chairman of global TV studios Ravi Ahuja, who also manages corporate development, gave a spotlight conversation moderated by Sharon Waxman at TheGrill2023.

Sharon Waxman, founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of TheWrap, opened TheGrill 2023 with remarks about where Hollywood stands amid the rise of AI, the double Hollywood strike — which now only includes the Screen Actors Guild — and more.

President and COO of TheWrap Edward Menicheschi remarked on how his first few months with the company led up to TheGrill 2023.

Sharon Waxman spoke with Mattell CEO Ynon Kreiz about the success of “Barbie” at TheGrill 2023.

Ynon Kreiz told Sharon Waxman of his vision to transform Mattel from a toy manufacturer to an IP company that hopes to manage franchises at TheGrill 2023.

Kreiz compared Mattel’s strategy to that of Marvel, which began life as a comic book publisher before becoming a cross-media behemoth, anchored by zeitgeist-capturing feature films.

Mehran Sahami and Daniela Rus discussed the state of artificial intelligence with Sharon Waxman at TheGrill 2023.

Daniela Rus, director of computer science and AI laboratory at MIT, spoke on the “AI Unleashed” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Mehran Sahami, professor and chair of computer science at Stanford University, spoke at the “AI Unleashed” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Cole Strain, vice president of measurement products at SambaTV, presented “The State of Viewership: Top Trends and Insights for Driving Attention and Retention” as a spotlight conversation at TheGrill 2023.

Sony’s chairman of global television studios and manager of corporate development Ravi Ahuja unpacked the end of peak TV in a spotlight conversation with Sharon Waxman at TheGrill 2023.

Ravi Ahuja predicted that the end of peak TV will likely “be painful for most companies” in his spotlight conversation with Sharon Waxman at TheGrill 2023.

Ravi Ahuja likened the cost-cutting measures taken in the industry to “air coming out of the balloon” in his spotlight conversation with Sharon Waxman at TheGrill 2023.

From left to right, BBC Studios SVP and GM of FAST Channels Beth Anderson, Roku Media’s VP of content acquisition and programming Jennifer Vaux, AMC Networks’ VP of FAST and AVOD revenue strategy Lindsay Stewart, Fuse Media’s head of digital and business development Patrick Courtney and Pluto TV’s global SVP and head of consumer marketing Valerie Kaplan participated in the “FAST Forward Thinking” panel moderated by TheWrap’s co-executive editor Adam Chitwood at TheGrill 2023.

Beth Anderson, Jennifer Vaux, Lindsay Stewart, Patrick Courtney, Valerie Kaplan discussed various aspects of Fast Channels and VOD with TheWrap’s Adam Chitwood for the “FAST Forward Thinking: Innovations and Strategies in Ad-Supported Streaming” at TheGrill 2023.

Beth Anderson, Jennifer Vaux, Lindsay Stewart, Patrick Courtney, Valerie Kaplan also discussed Adam Chitwood’s question of whether FAST is just reinventing cable at TheGrill 2023.

Beth Anderson and Jennifer Vaux speak at the “FAST Forward Thinking” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Patrick Courtney weighs in on the “FAST Forward Thinking” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Lindsay Stewart weighs in on the “FAST Forward Thinking” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Patrick Courtney and Valerie Kaplan talk with Adam Chitwood on the “FAST Forward Thinking” panel at TheGrill 2023.

The “Reel Resilience: Navigating the Theatrical Landscape in 2023” panel included president of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros. Pictures Group Josh Goldstine, founder and CEO of Screen Engine/ASI Kevin Goetz and president and CEO of Cinemark Sean Gamble, moderated by owner of Foster + Crew Greg Foster at TheGrill 2023.

Greg Foster, owner and Principal of Foster + Crew, moderated the “Reel Resilience” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Josh Goldstine, president of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros. Pictures Group, brought his experience of setting up the global “Barbie” marketing campaign to the “Reel Resilience” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Sean Gamble, president and CEO of Cinemark, spoke at the “Reel Resilience” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Kevin Goetz, founder and CEO of Screen Engine/ASI, spoke on the “Reel Resilience” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Mycotoo co-owner and chief development officer Fri Forjindam, president and chief distribution officer of Hartbeat Jeff Clanagan, head of music marketing at WME Levi Jackson and Gerber Kawasaki co-founder and president Ross Gerber, participated in the “Redefining Live Entertainment Presented by Gerber Kawasaki” panel, moderated by TheWrap’s co-executive editor Adam Chitwood at TheGrill 2023.

Jeff Clanagan, president of Hartbeat, spoke on the “Redefining Live Entertainment” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Gerber Kawasaki co-founder Ross Gerber spoke on the “Redefining Live Entertainment” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Mycotoo co-owner Fri Forjindam spoke on the “Redefining Live Entertainment” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Levi Jackson, head of music marketing at WME, spoke on the “Redefining Live Entertainment” panel at TheGrill 2023.

After lunch, Endeavor’s Dakota Ortiz, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s Emerlynn Lampitoc, Amazon Studios and Prime Video’s Jerome Core, Paramount’s Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Yvette Urbina, participated in the “No Barriers: The Battle for Hollywood Inclusion” panel moderated by USC Annenberg’s Ariana Case at The Grill 2023.

Endeavor vp of impact and inclusion Dakota Ortiz spoke on the “No Barriers: The Battle for Hollywood Inclusion” panel at The Grill 2023.

Paramount’s evp of entertainment and diversity and inclusion Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i spoke on the “No Barriers: The Battle for Hollywood Inclusion” panel at The Grill 2023.

Amazon Studios and Prime Video’s head of US and worldwide DEIA content Jerome Core spoke on the “No Barriers: The Battle for Hollywood Inclusion” panel at The Grill 2023.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s vp of diversity, equity and inclusion as well as creative and production Yvette Urbina spoke on the “No Barriers: The Battle for Hollywood Inclusion” panel at The Grill 2023, and Program Manager of USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Ariana Case moderated the panel.

Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s (UFEG) vp of creative talent and content Emerlynn Lampitoc spoke on the “No Barriers: The Battle for Hollywood Inclusion” panel at The Grill 2023.

TheWrap’s labor and box office reporter Jeremy Fuster held a roundtable discussion: “Lessons from the 2023 Strike” with Loeb & Loeb’s chair of entertainment labor Ivy Kagan Bierman at The Grill 2023.

Jeremy Fuster discussed lessons learned from the strike in the roundtable with Ivy Kagan Bierman at The Grill 2023.

Ivy Kagan Bierman provided an in-depth analysis of the Hollywood double strike to Jeremy Fuster at The Grill 2023.

Journalist Peter Csathy moderated the “From Blockbusters to Algorithms: How AI is Changing the Face of Entertainment” and “Aquire or be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A” panels at The Grill 2023.

DEVO musician and co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh, Cineverse president and chief strategy officer Erick Opeka, Human Artistry Campaign’s explAIner-in-chief Dr. Moiya McTier, Intel’s head of media and entertainment partnerships Rick Hack, Lore Machine’s founder Thobey Campion and What’s Trending founder Shira Lazar participated in the “From Blockbusters to Algorithms” panel moderated by Peter Csathy at TheGrill 2023.

DEVO’s Mark Mothersbaugh and Cinverse’s Erick Opeka on the “From Blockbusters to Algorithms” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Dr. Moiya McTier, explAIner-in-chief of the Human Artistry Campaign, participated on the “From Blockbusters to Algorithms” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Intel’s head of media and entertainment partnerships Rick Hack participated on the “From Blockbusters to Algorithms” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Shira Lazar, founder of What’s Trending, participated on the “From Blockbusters to Algorithms” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Founder of Lore Machine Thobey Campion participated on the “From Blockbusters to Algorithms” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Truist managing director Charles Johnson, BTIG partner Ed King, senior managing director of Guggenheim Securities Ethan Sawyer, Shamrock Capital partner Jason Sklar, Iconoclast founder and CEO Olivier Chastan and Vody CEO and founder Stephanie Horbaczewski participated in the “Acquire or be Acquired” panel moderated by Creative Media founder Peter Csathy at TheGrill2023.

Shamrock Capital partner Jason Sklar spoke on the “Acquire or be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A” panel at TheGrill2023.

Truist managing director Charles Johnson spoke on the “Acquire or be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A” panel at TheGrill2023.

Senior managing director of Guggenheim Securities Ethan Sawyer spoke on the “Acquire or be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A” panel at TheGrill2023.

Founder and CEO of Iconoclast Olivier Chastan spoke on the “Acquire or be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A” panel at TheGrill2023.

Truist managing director Charles Johnson (left) and BITG partner Ed King spoke on the “Acquire or be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A” panel at TheGrill2023.

Vody CEO and founder Stephanie Horbaczewski spoke on the “Acquire or be Acquired: Navigating the Complexities of M&A” panel at TheGrill2023.

Mortal Media co-founder Ryan Kalil and Make Plays Media founder Scott Braun spoke on the “GAME ON; The Intersection of Sports and Entertainment Presented by City National Bank” panel moderated by svp and team leader of sports and family office banking at City National Bank Todd Burach at TheGrill 2023.

Make Plays Media founder and media personality Scott Braun spoke on the “GAME ON” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Mortal Media co-founder and producer of “White Men Can’t Jump” and “Hello Tomorrow?” Ryan Kalil spoke on the “GAME ON” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Todd Burach, svp and team leader of sports and family office banking at City National Bank, moderated the “GAME ON” panel at TheGrill 2023.

Following the conclusion of TheGrill 2023, the conference had a cocktail party.

Edward Menicheschi and Sharon Waxman celebrated TheGrill 2023 at the cocktail party.

Ivy Kagan-Bierman and Jeremy Fuster caught up at the cocktail party.

Scott Braun and Ryan Kalil attended the cocktail party.

Lucy Porter, Claire Uhar, Lauren Beveridge, Maddie Kattleman, TheWrap’s director of events Emily Vogel and Chelsea Beeler celebrated at the cocktail party.

Sharon Waxman and TheWrap film editor Kristen Lopez attended the cocktail party.

Charles Johnson and Alexis Austin attended the cocktail party.

TheWrap staffers deputy audience editor Lawrence Yee, TV editor Jose Bastidas, audience reporter Dessi Gomez and TV reporter Loree Seitz attended the cocktail party.

Lucas Davidson and Aaron Jarboe attended the cocktail party.

Sharon Waxman and WrapPRO Editor Alexei Barrionuevo attended the cocktail party.

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape.

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

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Live Entertainment experts and executives unpacked the cultural success of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour — both of which dominate the zeitgeist and will likely soon do the same at the box office — at TheGrill 2023.

At the panel, titled “Redefining Live Entertainment: Presented by Gerber Kawasaki” fostered a conversation between Co-Owner and Chief Development Officer of Mycotoo Fri Forjindam, President and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Ross Gerber, Head of Music Marketing at WME Levi Jackson and President and Chief Distribution Officer of Kevin Hart’s multi-platform media company Hartbeat Jeff Clanagan moderated by TheWrap’s co-executive editor Adam Chitwood. Forjindam dove deep into the live performance transitions into concert documentaries for Swift and Beyoncé, which will be distributed by AMC in October and December, respectively.

She traced the drive to show up and show out for the concerts come from the desire for “a shared emotional experience, to align with a brand and artists that reflects who they are in their ideology in their consumer spending in their way of life in their sexuality.”

Forjindam also pointed out that the level of commitment to the pastel, sparkly and silver outfit trends and the investment in the concerts put on by the veteran female performers stemmed from more than just the desire to see the performances themselves.

“It can’t just be about seeing the artists, there needs to be something deeper, and it needs to be a shared experience that allows you to feel authentic and have agency. A lot of what we’re seeing right now is these major studios saying ‘It isn’t just about engaging with our audiences, it is about having repeat engagement,’” she said. “It’s about translating into consumer spending that leverages our IPs or worlds into something that’s an ecosystem, that has a loyalty base. So how do you make it a physical destination? Whether it’s a concert, or a museum or theme park? How do you take all of those principles and turn it into a revenue-based experience or entertainment destination? Beyonce and Taylor Swift highlighted that it is possible and women can be at the helm of that.”

Ross Gerber praised Forjindam’s work as some of foresight and a great prediction of where live entertainment is headed. At one point mentioned how some are blaming Swift for inflation and the Fed raising price rates in response to when either Levi or Clanagan brought up the potential recession that loomed at the beginning of the year.

“You can’t quantify impact, you can’t quantify an emotional connection that resonates, and if people are choosing to give the value or sort of support the value that you’ve presented, that means there’s a promise that’s being made. You’re saying you’re going to get all of me you’re gonna get my full catalog, you’re gonna get performance showmanship, tech, all the things VIP, there’s an experiential sort of overlay that is delivering on that promise as opposed to just gouging,” Forjindam said.”People are changing their behavior. They’re extremely more discerning. They don’t want bullshit. They want to come and have a compelling, profound experience that allows them to have agency and authenticity and to see that in the things that they’re engaging with.”

When asked if the concert documentaries affect initial concert sales, or in the case of comedians like Kevin Hart, initial standup shows before the specials land on streamers like Netflix, Clanagan relayed the importance of repeating the experience, which does not detract from sales either way.

“This is the next piece where people have sat at home and watched live streams on their computers. We were talking about this — now they want to share the experience. Maybe they can’t go to Taylor Swift, and they can’t physically get there. They can’t afford to be there. But it’s a lot cheaper in theaters,” Clanagan said. “Why not spend 30 or 40 bucks to go in a theater with friends and watch it and you’d have to worry about missing out on tickets, you still get a decent event and if you did manage to go you get the chance to relive it again.”

“[There’s] absolutely zero chance it’s going to impact ticket sales. It’s one of those things we started — we released a number of Kevin Hart specials in the theaters. What happens is that [people go to] theaters at the end of the tour,” Clanagan added. “What happens is that as much as we’re talking about the live experience. there’s still a huge audience that might not have went to a stadium to see Taylor or Beyoncé because of the ticket prices or whatever, but also people who went to the shows, want to really have that experience in a theater. It’s just another touch point for the consumer to share that experience in that theater, but it had zero impact in terms of negative ticket sales.”

Jackson chalked repeat viewing or attendance of both concerts and then docuseries up to supply and demand.

“I think to your point on the demand, we’re dealing and talking about artists where the demand is just so high, they actually aren’t meeting the supply with the number of shows the tickets are happening,” Jackson concluded. “You look at Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Beyonce Taylor Swift. There are millions of people that are missing out on those shows and tickets so if this can come in and fill some of that void for just the people that missed out, let alone the ones that want to go again, I think it’s only a good thing.”

This meeting of minds also explained why the problems with Ticketmaster are so difficult to solve, especially by just one musician alone. They also discussed live entertainment in the context of The Sphere, the new venue at which U2 just performed in Las Vegas.

Watch the full panel below.

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape.

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

The post Live Entertainment Experts Connect Success of Taylor Swift and Beyonce to Fans’ Desire for a ‘Shared Emotional Experience’ appeared first on TheWrap.

After racking up over $1.4 billion at the global box office and sparking a cultural phenomenon that cannot be measured in dollars and cents, “Barbie” has become the year’s biggest success for movie theaters. Josh Goldstine, the marketing chief at Warner Bros., opened up about the marketing strategy that helped transform Greta Gerwig’s film into a worldwide sensation, including the iconic parody opening.

“You have this iconic brand that is both a reflector and creator of culture,” Goldstine said during the panel “Reel Resilience: Navigating the Theatrical Landscape in 2023” during TheWrap’s annual business conference, TheGrill, on Wednesday.

“There was such a fascination about what a ‘Barbie’ movie could be,” Goldstine continued. “Part of our job was to defy expectations and to use cultural curiosity about what this could be.”

Goldstine said that Gerwig gave his team the perfect way to introduce the film to the world through the opening of the film, which parodies “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

That parody was used as the basis for the teaser trailer that was attached to “Avatar: The Way of Water” last December, which sparked months of hype leading up to its July release, as Warner Bros. slowly offered more glimpses of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken.

The end result was a box office run that set an all-time box-office record for Warner Bros. with $1.43 billion grossed.

“This really was an example of how theatrical movies can engage culture,” Goldstine said. “It can pierce the zeitgeist and become part of the conversation, and I think the shared experience of a theatrical space, with so many people wearing pink to the theater for a film that appealed to the very young and also adults with a sense of nostalgia shows how ‘Barbie’ engaged people on so many levels.”

Goldstine was joined by Cinemark president and CEO Sean Gamble, Screen Engine/ASI founder and CEO Kevin Goetz and moderator Greg Foster, the former CEO of Imax Entertainment and the founder/principal of Foster + Crew.

The success of “Barbie” prompted a larger discussion of the topsy-turvy nature of the box office, which saw weeks of high ticket sales thanks to “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” in the late summer but sank to near-year-lows in late September. Gamble noted that a factor in these larger swings is the accelerated nature of word-of-mouth for films.

“If a film doesn’t work for audiences, the grosses drop off fast,” Gamble said. “But if audiences really like a film, it can play for weeks and weeks.”

Goetz noted that theaters are now competing more than ever with streaming for customers’ attention, and with so many high-quality shows and films available at home it takes a film that clears that higher bar to get millions to spend the time and money to travel and see a film on the big screen.

“The criteria of what makes a theatrical experience is whether it is ‘elevated,'” Goetz said. “If it is not elevated, audiences won’t see it in a theater. ‘Barbie’ got audiences to lean in because the concept and the marketing was so compelling. It promised an experience, and if you don’t have an experience, you won’t be able to make it in a movie theater.”

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape. 

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

The post Warner Bros. Marketing Chief Reflects on Strategy That Fueled ‘Barbie’ Success | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

In the ongoing battle for streaming supremacy, a surprising contender has emerged in the form of FAST channels — free ad-supported streaming television, a hybrid of the new and the old.

According to Pluto TV’s global SVP and head of consumer marketing Valerie Kaplan, FAST isn’t the future, it’s the present tense.

“I think FAST is now,” Kaplan told TheWrap’s co-executive editor Adam Chitwood during a panel titled FAST Forward Thinking: Innovations and Strategies in Ad-Supported Streaming Wednesday at TheGrill, the publication’s annual business conference.

She continued, “It’s projected to reach $6 billion in revenue in 2023, with double that in coming years.”

On the panel, Kaplan was joined by Patrick Courtney, Fuse Media’s head of digital and business development; Beth Anderson, BBC Studios SVP and GM of FAST Channels; Jennifer Vaux, the VP of content acquisition and programming at Roku Media; and Lindsay Stewart, the VP of FAST and AVOD revenue strategy at AMC Networks.

The likes of Pluto and Tubi are absolutely streaming platforms, but they are free to the audience with revenues mostly coming from periodic advertisements during a show or film instead of subscription fees. According to Samba TV’s latest State of Viewership report, one in three U.S. users subscribe to FAST services.

Not a replacement, but a supplement

The panelists were hesitant to argue that FAST channels were intended to supplant paid streaming services or that it was merely a reinvention of cable. In their eyes, it’s a supplement for those trying to prune their monthly streaming bills.

“Linear never went away,” stated Anderson. “The idea of paying an enormous sum of money every month for the year has become less popular as we move to a model where we look to the audience to choose the type of time they want to spend with it, and the devices they want to interact with.”

The initial hook of streaming was the idea of having everything you wanted to watch at the touch of a button for a low monthly price. However, the deluge of studios launching their own streaming platforms, as well as raising prices as Wall Street changed their minds in early 2022 about valuing subscription counts over profits and revenue, means that the average consumer can’t get everything they want from the streaming ecostystem for cheap.

Kaplan said, “When you contrast that with all the price hikes across SVOD services, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to sustain that ultimate bundle or package of streamers.”

She further stated that she felt that FAST was “a perfect supplement and complement to those two or three core services that that audiences are paying for.”

All partipants agreed that success in the ad-free subscription video on demand realm wasn’t necessarily superior to success within the FAST (or less expensive ad-tiered SVOD) ecosystem. The goal isn’t necessarily to convert every FAST consumer into an eventual SVOD subscriber.

Different goals for different ecosystems

Anderson noted that “you can have the ability to push to a subscriber acquisition, that having that as the one-dimensional final goal for everything is very limited, because you will ultimately find people who just don’t want that subscription.”

However, Stewart said that “there’s a natural synergy between consumption of content, we have different windows of contents, or FAST base, relative to SVOD in a year.”

Anderson also discussed the ways in which the goals of a FAST channel (or multiple FAST channels in one service) can differ from that of an SVOD platform.

“I don’t necessarily want to fit everyone who comes down to this experience,” Anderson said. “But I want the people who find this to love it and come back.”

As she explained, it’s less about broadly appealing content than about having a wide range of content that appealed to specific demographics or fan bases.

Courtney added that Fuse Media’s “channels like Shades of Black or Latino Vibes… do serve specific communities through culturally relevant content.”

Not lost was the perhaps undervalued, at least in recent years, notion of advertisements as a revenue-generating powerhouse.

“I think there’s there’s a lot of room for innovation as to how advertising looks and feels in an environment like that,” Courtney stated.

Anderson noted that “social media is light-years ahead of the traditional television business in terms of integrating ads within the viewing experience.”

All participants noted that advertising, both as a creative medium and a financial one, is still a force to be reckoned with.

“The Super Bowl stops so ads can play,” stated Anderson. “That’s phenomenal.”

About TheGrill: For more than a decade, TheGrill event series has led the conversation on the convergence of entertainment, media and technology, bringing together newsmakers to debate the challenges of and opportunities for making content in the digital age. TheGrill delivers a unique series of curated discussions, industry panels and networking activations that explore the ever-changing media landscape.

TheGrill is powered by the essential source for entertainment insiders, WrapPRO, TheWrap’s premium content subscription platform. This members-only service and community provides deep analysis and access — that can’t be found anywhere else — on the business of entertainment, streaming and media. Click here for more information on WrapPRO.

The post ‘FAST Is Now’: Why Free Ad-Supported TV Is Rising | Video appeared first on TheWrap.