Finance

Domain and its subsidiary, Domain Capital Advisors (DCA), have just announced that they have closed more than $700 million of equity commitments for a new entertainment fund and co-investment vehicle focused on film, television, and music. In a press release announcing the news, Atlanta-based Domain says that it has already deployed more than $170 million of this new fund for deals across entertainment media.

Source: After teaming up with Sony Music Publishing to buy Ashley Gorley catalog, Domain Capital closes new $700m+ fund

Shares of Paramount Global fell more than 10% in early trading Wednesday after the New York owner of the CBS broadcast network and Paramount movie studio said third-quarter net income fell due to investments in content for streaming and declines in its main business of securing revenue from advertisers and affilates.

Source: Paramount Shares Fall After Q3 Profit Slump

Music tech firm VNUE has partnered with Kokku, claimed to be South America’s ‘largest gaming and entertainment co-development firm”, to bring “a continuous VNUE Festival and multi-stage experience” to kids gaming platform Roblox in Q1 2023. Nevada-headquartered VNUE, a publicly traded company on the OTC markets, also says that it has “retained” ICON Capital Group to raise $15 million “or more”, in order to list on NASDAQ.

Source: Music tech firm VNUE plans to list on NASDAQ with $15m+ raise

The company says that the new feature will allow artists who have received a qualifying offer from beatBread to highlight tour dates, collaborators, marketing partners, and other initiatives to a range of pre-approved investors. Investors within the network can use this information to bid on providing advances on some or all of the royalties associated with an artist contract.

Source: Music funding platform beatBread launches exclusive investor network

In a brief two-page order issued late on October 31, Judge Florence Y. Pan blocked PRH’s bid to buy S&S, saying the government had succeeded in showing that the proposed merger would harm competition in the market for the U.S. publishing rights to anticipated top-selling books.

Source: Court Blocks Penguin Random House, S&S Merger

Deezer ended Q3 2022 with 9.4 million subscribers, unchanged from the start of the period, while revenue growth in the third quarter gained momentum partly due to price hikes that the company implemented. On a year-over-year basis in Q3, Deezer’s total subs fell 2.5% YoY from 9.7 million to 9.4 million, weighed down by a 15.8% drop in B2C subscribers outside of France.

Source: Deezer revenues grow 13.8% YoY in Q3, but total subscribers fall 2.5% to 9.4m

Universal Music Group has announced its financial results for the third quarter ended on September 30, 2022, reporting a revenue increase of 13.3%, informed by growth across all sectors. Recorded music revenue grew by 10.1%, with music publishing growing by 6.9%, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 9.1%, driven by revenue growth. The quarter’s top sellers included BTS, BLACKPINK, Ado, INI, and Morgan Wallen.  

Source: Universal Music Group Revenues Jump 13% In Q3 2022

Disney is not currently in the market to buy another studio or network, chief executive officer Bob Chapek said. Disney’s biggest content acquisitions came under its previous CEO, Bob Iger. In 2019, the conglomerate closed its $71 billion deal for 21st Century Fox assets, coming after earlier buying Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilm. At this point, Chapek said, “Our plan is to have all our content creation self-contained.”

Source: Disney Is Not Looking to Acquire Any Content Companies, CEO Bob Chapek Says

NBCU grew its studios unit financials, helped by the likes of ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru,’ while the cable systems at its parent company added 14,000 broadband subscribers. Peacock, the streaming service of Comcast’s entertainment unit NBCUniversal, grew its third-quarter revenue strongly, but its loss widened again, while NBCU increased its earnings for the latest period by more than 20 percent.

Source: NBCUniversal Third-Quarter Earnings Rise, Peacock Loss Hits $614M, Comcast Takes $8.6B Sky Charges

YouTube’s ad revenue dropped during the third quarter, down nearly 2% compared to the previous year, parent company Alphabet reported on Tuesday. But the video giant isn’t the only tech and social platform to be impacted by a declining digital ad market. Snap reported a net loss of $360 million during Q3 as the company has seen engagement in the U.S. decrease by 5 percent year over year.

Source: YouTube Sees Ad Revenue Drop Slightly to $7.07B During Third Quarter