The Five Biggest Stories in TV: HBO Max Is Back, NFL Goes Global, and Netflix’s Franchisification

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt is joined by CNBC Media and sports reporter Alex Sherman to discuss their five biggest takeaways from the TV upfronts, what the biggest platforms and streamers are prioritizing now, the rebranding of Max back to HBO Max and what it says about the new strategy for Warner Bros. Discovery, an NFL game on YouTube, how the NFL is distributing its media rights, ESPN’s new standalone streaming service costing $30/month, Netflix and Amazon’s heavy push toward franchises, and the growing dominance of YouTube (00:00). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about The Weeknd’s new movie ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ (00:00). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing…’ click here. Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Alex Sherman Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, it's Amy Polar, and I'm launching a new podcast called Good Hang.
0:05.1	In preparation for that, I asked some of my friends to send in some videos and give me some advice.
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1:11.8	It was running around for a few days in the rain at the TV Upfronts, taking in the presentations and parties for ad buyers.
	...

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