#netflix

#netflix

The Paley Center for Media today announced the dates and first programs for PaleyFest LA 2026.

The streaming company once known as "Debtflix," before it started generating heavy cash flow, is looking to add tens of billions of dollars of debt to finance its planned $72 billion acquisition of most of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. But Netflix Inc. has a stronger balance sheet than it did before the pandemic, which will probably allow the company to boost the price it pays in any bidding war that emerges, while remaining investment grade.

State of play: WBD' s board has 10 days to respond to a hostile takeover bid from Paramount, launched Monday after WBD announced a deal to sell its studio and streaming businesses to Netflix for $83 billion. While the board has said it believes Netflix's offer was superior to Paramount's for financial reasons, it will need to weigh whether choosing to reject Paramount's tender offer could invite shareholder lawsuits.

And, really, who deserves one of these more than Simon Cowell? Because here is a man who, as the face of The X Factor and Pop Idol, spent the first part of the 21st century at the top of the entertainment tree. He could make and break careers with a flick of his wrist. Discounting sport, royalty, Covid and (weirdly) Gavin & Stacey, the 2010 X Factor finale remains the most watched British TV show of the last 15 years.

For most audiences, it's the first real chance to gauge the strength of films in the Oscars race after months of speculation. The Globes also possess the opportunity to rectify any snubs or surprises upsets in TV from the Emmy Awards. There are always the usual arguments. What defines something as a comedy or a drama? But of course, even with double the number of nominations, the Globes still find a way to surprise us.

We didn't expect that we had a high likelihood of prevailing with a deal that made sense to us,

The battle for Warner Bros. is not over yet. After Netflix announced on Friday that it would buy the majority of the Warner Bros. entertainment assets, Paramount on Monday announced that it would offer billions more to buy the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery as part of a hostile takeover bid. Specifically, Paramount is offering $30 per share, compared to $27.75 from Netflix. That works out to $18 billion more in cash than Netflix.

Two of the most popular streaming services have agreed to combine, in a move that could change the streaming service landscape. Netflix said Friday it will acquire the studio and streaming business of Warner Bros. Discovery, the legacy Hollywood giant behind Harry Potter and Friends, for $72 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the next 12 to 18 months after Warner completes its previously-announced separation of its cable operations. Not included in the deal are networks like CNN and Discovery.

It is significant that the new Paramount regime's first move was to prise Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer away from Netflix. And Netflix, of course, have made their billions by upending the traditional pitch-session-to-cinema pipeline that had sustained the film industry for decades. They have signed up legions of the classiest directors, hogged nearly all the audience-friendly documentaries and premiered one water-cooler series after another.

In a vacuum, the logline for Netflix's latest series "The Abandons" is gangbusters: An old-school oater set in the 1850s, created by Kurt "Sons of Anarchy" Sutter, starring Gillian Anderson and Lena Headey as two mama bears pitting their respective clans against each other in a classic Hatfields vs. McCoy scenario. Sutter, after all, loves an outlaw almost as much as he loves the innate melodrama of found families clashing against the values of modernity out in the wilderness.

The visualised podcast, which is hosted by Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, currently releases three episodes a week but will run daily on Netflix throughout the World Cup. The deal marks the streamer's first significant foray into football coverage and an expansion of its podcast portfolio, which is seen as an effort to rival YouTube. Lineker said the deal was a "fantastic opportunity for the three of us to do what we love - talk football every day - but on a truly global stage".

So, on the eve of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery arriving on the streaming service, Netflix has released "Forks Out," a new sketch in which Detective Beignet Blanc - obviously riffing on Daniel Craig 's signature role as Benoit Blanc - arrives just in time to solve a dastardly crime: Who ate Cookie Monster's triple berry pie?

Jurors can expect to hear a rollicking Hollywood tale featuring a bidding war (a half-dozen streamers, including Amazon, had vied for the project's rights) and at least one celebrity (Keanu Reeves was an early investor, according to the New York Times.) They'll likely see raw footage from Rinsch's dystopian, AI-themed thriller, "White Horse," turning a federal courtroom in Manhattan into the project's first public screening venue. And they'll hear extensive details of Rinsch's spending - with what prosecutors contend was Netflix's money - on cars, watches, clothing, luxury rentals, and those two very pricey premium mattresses.