Greetings!

To say it's been a busy week would be a dramatic understatement. 

We had Walt Disney on Tuesday announcing a new NFL partnership, with the league taking a 10% stake in ESPN, followed on Wednesday by more details about that long-awaited ESPN streaming service. It launches on Aug. 21, the same day as Fox One, also announced on Tuesday. This came on top of Disney's earnings and more details about the consolidation of Hulu and Disney+. 

Then came Thursday's closing of the Paramount-Skydance merger, with new CEO David Ellison and his leadership team sharing their thoughts on the company's near-term future (read our lead story for even more details). 

Warner Bros. Discovery quietly reported its own results that same morning, the latest to show that subscriber growth is coming mostly from overseas, with domestic additions fairly anemic (While HBO Max saw a little growth in the U.S., Disney+ was flat here). 

But at least WBD is still reporting subscriber numbers, which Disney will no longer do (following Netflix). 

That's a lot of headlines, but we'll start to see the effects of some of these announcements in the coming weeks, particularly with the dual launches of ESPN and Fox One and more changes with Paramount. In short, the craziness isn't over. 

Looking ahead next week, a small, selfish plug: I'll be attending the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas and moderating a panel on Tuesday morning. If you happen to be there, feel free to email me or come by and say hello. 

Roger Cheng
Managing Editor of Business and PRO
roger.cheng@thewrap.com

PS: We continue to offer a free 2-week trial of WrapPRO. If you’ve been wanting to check out our full coverage, now’s the time. Feel free to forward the news.

NEW PARAMOUNT'S GRAND PLAN

New Paramount CEO David Ellison and his team got more frank with our own Lucas Manfredi and Kayla Cobb, where they shared their thoughts on a number of topics. Here are just a few:

• They plan to be aggressive in consolidating the platforms powering Paramount+ and Pluto TV, but the services will remain separate for now.
• Paramount plans to "supercharge" its relationship with the NFL, just a day after Walt Disney went big with its partnership
• MTV and Comedy Central have value but there's an effort to take them more digital

Click through to read more about their thoughts on the company's future. 

DON'T MISS

One thing the New Paramount executives did not talk about was their plans for future movies. Fortunately, our own Jeremy Fuster did some digging and uncovered a trio of films that will be coming out in 2026. But with only eight confirmed titles, it's still pretty barren. The task of filling it out will fall to incoming feature film chief Don Granger, who ran Skydance Features and Sports.

CATCH UP

M&A: Gray Media to buy Allen Media Group stations in 10 markets for $171 million

Earnings: AMC Networks sees 4% drop in revenue from linear decline despite 12% jump in streaming

Lawsuit: Range temporarily off the hook for stealing CAA's trade secrets, but the judge says it may still be operating as an agency

BIZ CORNER

"Air Bud Returns" begins nationwide search for dog star

"Cruel Summer" Season 3 in the works at Hulu and Freeform with Olivia Holt returning

Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner to star in "One Night Only" for Universal and "Anyone but You" director Will Gluck

DATA POINT

Parrot Analytics analyzes the rising power of Korean entertainment (hello, "KPop Demon Hunters"), and how it's become a necessary part of any streamer's plan for global relevance

IN OTHER NEWS...

Everything you need to know about OpenAI's GPT-5 (Wired)

The winners and losers in tech's AI-powered ad race (CNBC)

America is living in a climate-denial fantasy (The Atlantic)