Thai Randolph is CEO of Hartbeat, the production company Kevin Hart founded with an eye on creating comedy across media platforms. She discusses how she's led the company after a $100 million investment aimed at taking Hartbeat to its next phase of growth. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As the Grammy Awards prepares to present its first ever Songwriter of the Year honor, Warner Chappell Music Publishing Co-Chair Carianne Marshall runs down massive strides in royalty rates and the challenges ahead for the business of songs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Our 2022 retrospective highlights favorite guests, moments and most significant industry trends in media and entertainment, as selected by Cynthia Littleton, Andrew Wallenstein and Shirley Halperin, hosts of Variety’s weekly podcast Strictly Business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Producer Tony Thomas tells the story of how his father, entertainer Danny Thomas, pulled together Hollywood stars and Lebanese and Syrian immigrant communities to build a hospital in the deep South. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital thrives today, a testament to the organization’s philosophy of treating children with catastrophic illnesses regardless of their ability to pay. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Peter Micelli and Jack Whigham of Range Media Partners outline their vision for the startup representation firm that aims to reinvent talent management for the Web3 era — with backing from billionaire Wall Street wiz Steven A. Cohen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jim Gosnell and Jim Osborne, CEO and president of APA, discuss the dramatic changes that have swept across the content business and Hollywood’s creative community. The pair discuss their bid to become the strongest mid-sized player after the Big Three agencies (CAA, WME and UTA) as APA heads into its 60th anniversary year in 2023. The “Jims,” as they’re known, also get candid about the marketplace for talent and their experience dealing with Justice Department lawyers probing the merger of CAA a...
How did Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” become one of the most-consumed songs of 2022, 37 years after its original release? “Stranger Things” happened, Sony Music Publishing’s VP of Creative Amy Coles explains of the long road to clearing the song’s use on the Netflix hit. Also: In the studio with Grammy-winning producer and entrepreneur Ricky Reed, who breaks down his work on Lizzo’s hit “About Damn Time.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
David Madden, global head of entertainment for Wattpad Webtoon Studios, discusses his mandate to develop TV and film projects based on new forms of storytelling that are wildly popular in Asia and gaining steam around the world. The seasoned Hollywood executive details the blend of data, math and talent scouting for new author voices that yields prospects for broader development. Contrasting his many years at top networks, studios and most recently with Greg Berlanti Prods., “I feel like I’m wor...
The TV megahit "The Walking Dead" will end its historic run on AMC this week, but that conclusion doesn't mark the end of the franchise. There's a slew of current and forthcoming extensions of the zombie-happy brand, says Skybound Entertainment CEO David Alpert, and a lot more other IP in the works at this innovative company. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
To make its animated Netflix series "Arcane," Riot Games didn't follow the typical Hollywood rules. Marc Merrill, co-founder and president of games, and Shauna Spenley, head of entertainment, discuss how they are trying to take a company known for gaming sensations like "League of Legends" into brand-new territory. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
It's another double-dose episode on the podcast this week about...podcasts. First, Jen Sargent gives us an inside look at how Amazon Prime is expanding its audio offerings. Second: Audacy chief digital officer J.D. Crowley offers his vision for the company's strategy in which podcasts play a big part. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jeff Stotland, executive VP of global studios for Hudson Pacific, explains why the real estate investment trust has been buying up studio lots in Los Angeles and other production hubs around the world. Stotland explains the ins and outs of managing soundstages and related services amid the exponential growth of TV and film production. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and many others have sold song catalogs for hundreds of millions of dollars. Primary Wave founder Larry Mestel — whose company handles the catalogs of Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, James Brown, Stevie Nicks and dozens more, and just got a $2 billion investment — talks about how to maximize the value of those catalogs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Los Angeles mayoral candidate discusses his policy agenda for the creative community, keeping production jobs in Hollywood’s backyard, making the city more hospitable to freelance workers and smoothing red tape for business activity. The L.A. native and prominent commercial real estate developer vows to address the city's growing ranks of unhoused residents through better coordination of existing resources and “tough” and “humane” decisions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...
From Vince McMahon to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, TV executive Brian Gewirtz has worked with more than a few wrestling legends, an experience he recounts in his new book, "There's Just One Problem: True Tales from the Former One-Time 7th Most Powerful Person in WWE." He also has a new Vice TV doc out this week, "Tales From the Territories." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Julia Boorstin, CNBC’s senior media and technology correspondent, discusses her upcoming book, “When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed and How We Can Learn From Them.” Boorstin explains her interest in studying how female leaders differ from their male counterparts, and how those differences translate into bottom-line performance. She also calls out the venture capital sector for the woefully insufficient amount of investment dollars that flow into female-led and female-founded bus...
A special doubleheader edition of the podcast begins with Kareem Daniel, chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, and concludes with Jason Blum and Abhijay Prakash, the top execs at Blumhouse (Q&A starts at 28:36). Both interviews were conducted at Variety's Entertainment & Technology Summit on Sept. 15, 2022. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Producer, songwriter and label executive Richard Gottehrer talks about working with Blondie and the Go-Gos, co-founding Sire Records and the Orchard, and writing songs like 'I Want Candy' and 'My Boyfriend's Back.' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Andrew Fitzgerald, senior vice president of streaming video services for Hearst Television, details the broadcast TV station group’s growing investment in hyper-local streaming content for its Very Local platform. The ad-supported free service is a hub for time-delayed access to local newscasts ON Hearst's major markets including Boston, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Omaha, Neb. Very Local is an effort to reach the expanding number of broadband-only homes who have lost access to local b...
She may be best known in the NBA, but Jeanie Buss is making a name for herself in Hollywood, with a Hulu documentary out now about her legendary franchise, a potential comedy in the works based on her life and the relaunching of her venture WOW: Women of Wrestling. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
K-pop can’t be denied. That was abundantly clear in downtown Los Angeles in August as thousands of die-hard fans gathered for KCON 2022, a celebration of K-pop and other aspects of South Korean pop culture. On the-ground-conversations with KCON attendees offer insights into how this niche fandom has grown around the world. The conversations also demonstrate how the fundamentals of K-pop and the emphasis on direct fan interaction reflect larger trends in media and entertainment. See omnystudio.co...
Sam Wu, CEO of the Rakuten Viki streaming service, discusses the surging demand for Korean dramas and other content from Asia. He details the company’s growth as the streaming arm of the Japanese retail giant, and he muses on the reasons for the burst of interest in South Korean pop culture in recent years. “It’s easy to fall in love with K-dramas,” Wu says. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Flush with a Series D round amounting to $100 million, Overtime CEO Dan Porter talks the Xs and Os of growing his innovative basketball and football leagues featuring teenage athletes. He looks ahead to attracting media-rights deals and invading other sports but the investment will fuel growth of existing properties. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Peter Shapiro, veteran concert promoter, venue owner and author of the new book “The Music Never Stops: What Putting on 10,000 Shows Has Taught Me About Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Magic,” talks about his lifelong love of the Grateful Dead, how he set out to succeed as an entrepreneur and his thoughts on the controversial dynamic pricing model for concert tickets. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The leader of the Worldwide Leader weighs in on the state of the sports giant that has been the tip of the spear for the transformation of media in the streaming era. Speaking at Variety’s Sports and Entertainment breakfast July 21, Pitaro gamely engages in rapid-fire questions about ESPN’s long-term runway as a linear channel, the upcoming NBA TV rights talks, the influence of social media and how Peyton and Eli Manning’s alternate “Monday Night Football” telecast opened the door to innovation ...
Dan McDermott, president of entertainment for AMC Networks and AMC Studios, details the world-building process that began after the company struck a wide-ranging deal with the estate of famed novelist Anne Rice. McDermott, a veteran executive and producer, explains the new TV math of developing programs and characters designed to support interlocking characters across multiple platforms that to play out over a decade or more. McDermott discusses the pros and cons of aiming so high and why it’s s...
Cyma Zarghami, founder and CEO of MiMo Studios, discusses the changing state of children’s media and burgeoning efforts to create a kid-friendly metaverse. The former leader of Nickelodeon details the launch of her New York-based independent production banner and how she is approaching development and production for a new generation of media. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In country music, the more issues like parity for female artists and people of color get talked about, the more they stay the same, it often seems. But for the better part of a decade, Leslie Fram, CMT’s senior VP of music & talent, has been pretty much the first name you hear when you hear about execs who are making a difference. That’s been within the network, with the Next Women of Country initiative and an Equal Play pledge to program at least 50% female artists, and outside it, with som...
Recorded on the ground at Vidcon 2022, this episode takes a deep dive into the minds of teenagers and twenty-somethings who attended the annual fan gathering in Anaheim, Calif. You'll hear first-hand from the next generation of consumers about why they're drawn to watch TikTok but rarely turn on a TV set. These are the rabid fans of social media creators who are the tip of the spear, forging a new form of entertainment that is largely produced outside of mainstream Hollywood. See omnystudio.com/...
The hit series "Peaky Blinders" is wrapping up its celebrated run having just premiered its sixth and final season on Netflix in the U.S. But as executive producer Caryn Mandabach explains, "Peaky" is poised to live on in many other forms besides a TV show including a virtual-reality experience, a ballet performance and an alcoholic beverage, just to name a few. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
