Together with
I’d like to buy a vowel, please. After decades as the face of Wheel of Fortune, host Pat Sajak is passing on the baton. This week, Sajak tweeted that he will be bidding farewell in 2024. Fun fact: Wheel of Fortune is one of the longest-running game shows in the United States, entertaining viewers for over 40 years. One last spin, folks.
In other news… Golden Globes gets a behind-the-scenes reboot, Reddit’s subreddit blackout, and Netflix looks for local language stardom.
Top Trends
YouTube → Poor Things
Twitter → Treat Williams
Google → Pat Sajak
Reddit → Samuel L. Jackson
TikTok → “Spider-Man 2099” - Daniel Pemberton
Spotify → “Telepath” - Jimmy Eat World
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ENTERTAINMENT
Dick Clark Productions wins the Golden Globes
The Future. The Golden Globes are getting a behind-the-scenes reboot — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is disbanding, and the awards show is being sold to unscripted titan Dick Clark Productions. DCP hopes to give the embattled Globes a shot at relevance… but may be fighting against a larger cultural disinterest in most live telecasts.
The HFPA has left the building
The Golden Globes are under new ownership… sort of.
The Golden Globe Awards have been acquired by Dick Clark Productions (a longtime producer of the awards show) and Eldridge Industries for an undisclosed amount.
The new owners will turn the brand into the Golden Globe Foundation — a move from a non-profit organization to a for-profit (while keeping up with the HFPA’s charitable giving).
Speaking of the HFPA, the sort-of secretive group of roughly 100 journalists and other foreign press that voted on the titular awards is “winding down.”
No word on who will actually be voting on the awards now.
That’s a wild end to a years-long downfall for the group, which was embroiled in several controversies, experienced a revolt by actors and Hollywood publicists, and went dark for a year after it tried to rebuild its image with several membership updates.
Oh, and Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media… which means the three major Hollywood trades (Deadline, THR, and Variety) and the second biggest Hollywood award show are all under the same roof. Expect a lot of back-patting.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Lights out at Reddit // Illustration by Kate Walker
Subreddit blackout turns off Reddit
The Future. In protest of Reddit’s new API pricing increase, over 7,000 subreddits went private or read-only yesterday, with the blackout lasting until tomorrow (though some will do so indefinitely). With Reddit angling to IPO in the near future, the battle over the platform’s API may highlight the struggle of free, community-driven platforms to actually turn a profit.
Community control
The subreddits have struck back.
According to Insider, the blackout “stands to affect over 2.6 billion Reddit subscribers and more than 28,000 moderators.”
This protest has caused major “stability issues” (Reddit’s words) on the site, effectively crashing it for a period of time.
Reddit has positioned the price changes as a way to keep AI systems from just using the platform as a free repository for constantly-updating data. The company wants to make some money for that access, especially as advertising has proven to be a complicated revenue generator for the platform.
But Redditors allege that the price increases are just too astronomical to justify, forcing many apps that rely on the API to shut down because of the cost. One popular app, Apollo for Reddit, said it would now cost $20 million per year to continue operating the app. Wow.
All the drama is apparently great news for Discord.
TOGETHER WITH UPWAY
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E-bikes also make a great Father’s Day gift! Right now, Upway will knock up to $600 off the price of selected bikes. Plus, you can get an extra $100 discount for being a Future Party reader. Use the code TFP and get riding.
ENTERTAINMENT
Netflix looks for local language stardom
The Future. Netflix is shifting its strategy from “local for global” to “local for local,” meaning it wants culturally specific hits. It’s a fragmenting of the Netflix success model. While that will lead to a lot of investment in those chosen regions, it may also set off alarm bells for countries who are nervous that Netflix has the power and allure to replace their own local industries if they don’t put up guardrails.
Little wins, everywhere
Netflix wants to make more great Korean shows for South Korea or great Brazilian shows for Brazil.
That new international strategy allows for shows to be hyper-localized so that they speak very directly to the audience they’re made for.
That makes sense when most people around the world still mostly watch shows that are in their language and are steeped in their cultural context — especially on Netflix.
According to Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, Netflix “isn’t just trying to be the largest TV network in the world; it’s trying to be the most popular TV network in every single country.”
Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said as much last week when she declared, "We don't make global shows; we make local, authentic shows that are on a global platform." Getting a breakout show is just icing on the cake.
And if Netflix gets really lucky, it can turn a global hit into a sprawling local language franchise, as the company has done with Money Heist and hopes to do with Bird Box.
TOGETHER WITH GROWTH FORUM
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Editing by Melody Song. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.