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Business

WWE to use Amway Center through October

Spectrum News in Orlando is reporting that WWE has signed an agreement to use the Amway Center through October. According to PWInsider, WWE will have access to the entire venue for their TV Tapings and PPVs.

Jon Alba from Spectrum News Tweeted the following:

A rep from the City of Orlando tells me and @MyNews13 #WWE has a use agreement with Amway Center through Oct. 30 with no fans present in the building.

So barring an amendment in the agreement, no live fans through October, but WWE gets arena access for all events through then.

— Jon Alba (@JonAlba) August 15, 2020

16 August, 2020 0 comment

AEW Business Entertainment Wrestling

Kevin Reilly, the executive who brought AEW to TNT, is out at WarnerMedia

written by Ruben Jay

WarnerMedia announced a series of restructuring for the organization that saw Kevin Reilly, the man who was instrumental in bringing All Elite Wrestling to TNT, is no longer with the company.

Reilly was the Chief Content Officer for WarnerMedia and the President of TBS, TNT, and TruTV. Reilly was one of a few executives who were let go.

The changes help solidify the focus for WarnerMedia on their HBO MAX service. The new WarnerMedia CEO is the former Hulu executive Jason Kilar. Joining Reilly in the ousting is the WarnerMedia Direct-to-consumer Chairman Bob Greenblatt.

All Elite Wrestling President Tony Khan has gone on record on the role Reilly played on getting AEW on TNT.

8 August, 2020 0 comment

Business Featured Wrestling WWE

WWE hires a new President

written by Ruben Jay

WWE announced the hiring of Nick Khan, the new President and Chief Revenue Officer. Here is the full press release;

STAMFORD, Conn., August 5, 2020 – WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced that Nick Khan, former Co-Head of Television at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), has been named President & Chief Revenue Officer, reporting directly to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon.

“Nick is a seasoned media executive with a deep understanding of our business and a proven track record of generating significant value for sports and entertainment properties,” said McMahon. “While representing WWE at CAA, he was instrumental in transforming our business model by securing domestic media rights increases of 3.6x over our previous agreements. Nick’s management style and personal demeanor are perfect for WWE’s entrepreneurial culture, and he will fit right in with our exceptional management team.”

“I am very much looking forward to expanding my relationship with Vince McMahon and the entire team at WWE, and becoming a full-time member of the WWE family,” said Khan. “It’s rare to have an opportunity to work at a company that is not only legendary in what it has already accomplished, but also uniquely poised to enter into an unprecedented phase of growth and expansion across all lines of business. Our collective industry experience will enable us to extract maximum value across the portfolio globally while driving long-term shareholder value.”

Khan, a former practicing attorney, transitioned to International Creative Management (ICM) in 2006 where he launched their Sports Media department and represented the biggest names in sports broadcasting. In 2012, Khan moved to CAA where he became the Co-Head of the Television Department. During his tenure there, Khan continued to represent the top broadcasters while also representing WWE, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Top Rank Boxing and others helping to negotiate billions of dollars in media deals on their behalf.

5 August, 2020 0 comment

Business Entertainment Featured Sports Wrestling WWE XFL

Details on Dwayne Johnson buying the XFL

written by Ruben Jay

Do you smell what The Rock is tailgating? Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one of three parties who have purchased the recently bankrupt XFL.

Johnson has partnered with his longtime business partner, Danny Garcia, and Redbird Capital to purchase the failed league out of bankruptcy for $15 million. While the deal is not 100% final yet, Johnson and Garcia have said that they are planning on the future of the XFL.

Garcia, who will be the first female owner of a major sports league, will take on an executive role within the XFL 3.0.

“We’re planning for it… We’re doing all the steps that need to happen for the execution of that. But we’re also being mindful to what has actually been successful. It has been really interesting to see that [in sports], when you create a bubble, your players are safe. When you don’t, it’s chaos. We are a league, because of the number of teams we have, that actually can create a bubble environment. Those discussions are active.”

When asked about who would be running the league, Garcia mentioned that the ownership was in talks with the current XFL management team. One has to wonder if this might mean that Oliver Luck, the former CEO and Commissioner of the XFL, might be returning to ta role in the revamped league. No decisions have been made on who will be running the league.

Currently, one of the only members of the XFL team from the Alpha Entertainment executive team is the XFL President Jeffrey Pollack. Most other XFL employees were laid off on April 10.

Vince McMahon, the founder and now former owner of the XFL, considered purchasing the league out of bankruptcy but eventually decided against it. It should be important to know that McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment pledged $500 million to run the league over 3 years. The Johnson/Garcia/RedBird Capital group has not made a public commitment for an investment in the XFL.

The XFL currently has TV deals with Fox Sports and ESPN. Many of the stadiums that the XFL played in still have lease agreements with the league. The bankruptcy sale’s proceeds would go to pay off the debts to stadiums accrued through Alpha Entertainment.

“The acquisition of the XFL with my talented partners, Dany Garcia and Gerry Cardinale, is an investment for me that’s rooted deeply in two things — my passion for the game and my desire to always take care of the fans,” said Johnson, who played football at the University of Miami from 1990 to 1994. “With pride and gratitude for all that I’ve built with my own two hands, I plan to apply these callouses to the XFL and look forward to creating something special for the players, fans and everyone involved for the love of football.”

Pollack released a statement calling the Johnson purchase “a Hollywood ending” and called the new owners “a dream team ownership group and the XFL is in the best possible hands going forward.”

An interesting note, Johnson’s HBO show Ballers had a very similar story arch in the final season. The difference is that Johnson’s character attempted to purchase an NFL team and in real life, Johnson purchased an entire league.

The XFL 2.0 averaged 1.9 million viewers. According to ESPN, the league generated $20 million in gross revenue and projected $46 million for their first season. Their week to week attendance rose and social media engagement was steady.

3 August, 2020 0 comment

Business Entertainment

Fox Sports announces layoffs

written by Ruben Jay

Fox Sports has announced a round of layoff in relation to the Fox Sports regional networks sales to Disney. TheWrap is reporting that 50-100 staff members were let go from Fox Sports on Friday.

“As part of Fox Sports’ commitment to become a more efficient organization, we are taking steps to streamline our business. As a result, today we announced the restructuring of several positions,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement on Friday.

Last month, Fox Sports laid off producers from shows that were cancelled including WWE, low-rated Boxing, and more. In April, Fox Sports asked their on air talents to take a 15% pay cut.

25 July, 2020 0 comment

Business Entertainment

ViacomCBS terminates Nick Cannon after anti-semitic comments

written by Ruben Jay

ViacomCBS has terminated Nick Cannon after the entertainer made anti-semitic comments on his podcast, Cannon’s Class.

In a statement made late Tuesday evening, “ViacomCBS condemns bigotry of any kind and we categorically denounce all forms of anti-Semitism,” the company said in a statement. “We have spoken with Nick Cannon about an episode of his podcast ‘Cannon’s Class’ on YouTube, which promoted hateful speech and spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”

ViacomCBS did not mention anti-white comments that Cannon made on the same episode where he said that white people where inferior to white people because of their skin color.

“When you see a person that has a lack of pigment, a lack of melanin, they fear that they will be annihilated,” Cannon said. “So, therefore, however they got the power, they had a lack of compassion. Melanin comes with compassion, melanin comes with soul. We call it soul. You know soul brothers and sisters. That’s the melanin that connects us. So the people that don’t have it, and I’m going to say this carefully, are a little less.”

“They didn’t have the power of the sun, the sun then started to deteriorate their skin, so then they’re acting out of fear, they’re acting out of low self-esteem, they’re acting out of a deficiency,” Cannon continued. “So, therefore, the only way that they can act is evil. They have to rob, steal, rape, kill in order to survive.”

“They had to be savages, they had to be barbaric, because they’re in these Nordic mountains, they’re in these rough environments, so they’re acting as animals,” Cannon added. “So they are the ones that are actually closer to animals, they are the ones that are actually the true savages.”

Nick Cannon says white people are "a little less," "closer to animals," "the true savages," "acting out of a deficiency so the only way they can act is evil." When does he get canceled? pic.twitter.com/vK3TBDW9i8

— Adam Ford (@Adam4d) July 14, 2020

Disclaimer: Quotes curated from DailyWire.com

14 July, 2020 0 comment

Business Featured

SiriusXM buys podcast service Stitcher for $325 million

written by Ruben Jay

SiriusXM has purchased the podcasting platform Stitcher from E.W. Scripps for $325 million. Sirius has been in talks for weeks to purchase Stitcher. Stitcher is a podcasting platform that was owned by the company behind Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend and other major podcasts.

With the purchase, Sirius is setting themselves up to compete with Podcasting powerhouses such as Apple Podcast, Spotify, and iHeartMedia. The podcasting game has been getting extremely competitive with names like Joe Rogan being signed to exclusive deals with Spotify and other platforms buying up podcasting platforms and production companies.

“With this acquisition, SiriusXM’s combined properties will contain the largest addressable audience in the US across all categories of digital audio — reaching over 150 million listeners,” Sirius Chief Executive Jim Meyer said in a memo to staff Monday.

Sirius has been slowly moving into the podcasting space as they purchased Pandora for $3.5 billion in 2018. Pandora is best known as a music streaming platform but has many podcasts featured on their service.

According to the New York Post, Sirius will make a $265 million cash payment to Scripps and then an additional $60 million that is contingent to Stitcher meeting financial metrics in 2020 and 2021. Scripps has been shopping Stitcher around for a few months now as they have had pressure on their core TV businesses.

13 July, 2020 0 comment

Business

Wendy’s franchisee used $1 million of Paycheck Protection money to buy a house

written by Ruben Jay

Andrew Levy is the CEO of Starboard Group, a company that owns and operates over 100 Wendy’s franchises, has allegedly used $1 million of the Paycheck Protection loans to purchase a home.

Starboard was awarded $9 million from the Small Business Administration and allegedly used $1 million of that loan to purchase a home. Levy allegedly told Sandi Adler, a former employee, to list some of Levy’s personal employees as employees of Starboard.

“The effect of this, in view of the PPP funding, was to defraud the United States and the Small Business Administration,” the complaint said.

Starboard employees 3,200 employees over 7 states. The Paycheck Protection program was designed to keep employees on the payroll of their employers.

The suit also claims that Levy instructed Adler to lie to creditors, landlords, and suppliers claiming they never got the PPP funding. Adler also alleges that she was terminated on June 1 after complaining to her supervisor, Kevin Holbrook. Alder also alleges that Holbrook sexually harassed her while she worked for him.

Adler is looking for restitution for her lost wages and compensatory damages for “pain and suffering” caused by Starboard.

12 July, 2020 0 comment

Business

Electric vehicle startup Rivian gets $2.5 billion investment

written by Ruben Jay

Rivian is a startup that plans to produce electric trucks in 2021 to compete with Tesla. The company is currently backed by Ford and Amazon and just raised $2.5 billion in investments led by T. Rowe Price.

The investment comes as Tesla’s valuation rises and Nikola Corporation has an IPO. Both of those companies are planning to have a pickup rival for Rivian. According to the New York Post, this latest round of investments join the likes of the Soros Fund, BlackRock, Baron Capitol and Amazon.

Rivian is looking to begin production of their trucks in 2021.

11 July, 2020 0 comment

Business

Samsung follows Apple’s lead in eliminating chargers from new phones

written by Ruben Jay

Apple isn’t the only phone company no longer offering free phone charges with the purchase of a new phone. Samsung announced to ETNews in South Korea that they will no longer be supplying charging blocks with news phones. According to the company, this is an attempt to lower their cost in production.

Samsung claims that most of their customers already have charging blocks and there is no need to include new ones. Apple is also cutting out the charging block from new phones as it tries to lower their costs.

The New York Post is reporting that Apple will include a new UBS Cable to charge the phone. It will be interesting to see if the two companies will increase the retail price of devices as planned.

11 July, 2020 0 comment