ABC Signature Curtain Calls, Twitch's New Partner Change & More

Here's this week's news for entertainment, sports, creators, & more.

Talk of The Town
October 03, 2024

After 4 decades and hits like “Agents of SHIELD”, “Castle”, “Criminal Minds”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and more, ABC Signature is no more. The production unit is being shut down, with its operations folded into 20th Television.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra is set to step down, and current President & COO Ravi Ahuja is set to takeover in 2025. Vinciquerra will remain with SPE as non-executive chairman through 2025.
The satellite war is over: Satellite TV giant DirecTV announced Monday they will acquire EchoStar’s video distribution business Dish DBS, including Dish TV and Sling TV, through a debt exchange transaction.
A lawsuit filed by the major talent agency CAA is targeting Range Media Partners and how representing talent, allegedly stealing confidential information to poach clients, and is also accusing the company of skirting a law designed to prevent conflicts of interest. CAA claims that Range is actually just a rival talent agency masquerading as a management company, allowing it to skirt laws and guild agreements that give it an unfair advantage over competitors & while also structuring deals in ways that agencies cannot, violating California’s Talent Agencies Act.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

According to MIDiA’s most recent music economy report, a full quarter of musicians upload their songs directly to TikTok and other platforms, completely bypassing distributors, labels, and even streaming services like Spotify.
Twitch has announced a major viewership change to its’ partner program as a Twitch employee on the Global Partner Operations Team has confirms raids now count towards Partner status

MLS club Los Angeles FC has acquired a small stake in the NWSL’s Angel City FC. The deal stems from priced warrants issued when Angel City signed a lease agreement to play its games at LAFC’s stadium. The move comes as Angel City has new controlling owners. Willow Bay and her husband Disney CEO Bob Iger bought roughly 40% of the club at a $250 million valuation with an additional $50 million investment into the club that will go toward operations, facilities and personnel.
Youth sports giant Unrivaled announced its newest division, Football Youth, on Wednesday. It will run the All-American Flag Series to showcase the sport’s top prospects, with a nationwide 2025 tour already planned.
Michael Andretti is relinquishing his ownership stake in Andretti Global, the motorsports company he has helmed since 2002. Andretti, whose racing teams have won the Indianapolis 500 five times and who is the son of legendary driver Mario Andretti, is listed as CEO and chairman of Andretti Global.

On this week’s episode of Talk of The Town, we spoke to Chris Defendis. Throughout the episode, Chris talked about getting his start at HBO in the early 2000s, climbing the ranks to VP of Network Distribution, a total of 18 years at WB before moving moving to the squared circle at WWE, and becoming the president of Xtreme One, a publicly traded MMA organization, and the spaces in real time.

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