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Heroes with a half-life. Happy Monday, FutureParty people. How was everyone’s weekend? Hopefully, you were able to get out yesterday and celebrate National Cinema Day like us. We finally saw the new TMNT movie, and it did not disappoint — so much nostalgia. Speaking of radioactive reptiles, did you know turtles can keep records of nuclear activity in their shells? Maybe we’re closer to making some real teenage mutant ninja turtles than we think.
In other news… culture looks west, Amazon eyes ESPN, and the EU puts guardrails on Big Tech.
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CULTURE
Cowboy, but make it fashion // Illustration by Kate Walker
Cowboys are back in style
The Future. The West is beckoning Americans once again… but, this time, in a way that feels more demographically inclusive and stylistically modern. That’s because the West, as historian and The Sagebrush Trail author Richard Aquila details, is a “Rorschach inkblot test” of culture’s fascinations and preoccupations. In that spirit, expect the Western to make a roaring return in entertainment and potentially usurp the superhero as this decade’s defining storytelling genre.
Saddle up, culture
Culture is looking west again.
Some of the largest events of the summer (Barbie, Beyoncé, and, to a lesser extent, Taylor Swift) have all worked in cowboy iconography — but in a way Taylor Johnson, owner of boutique Hazel and Olive, calls “glam western.”
That style has evolved into an across-the-spectrum fashion trend, with the hashtag #coastalcowgirl going viral on TikTok and luxury brands like Prada harkening back to the Old West.
The cowboy hype has especially cemented in culture because of the enduring popularity of Yellowstone (and, really, the whole Taylor Sheridan universe of shows), which was the most popular scripted series last year.
Yellowstone has also fueled a Western tourism trend, with the University of Montana finding the show has pumped some $700 million worth of tourism spending into the state.
Historian of American cinema and culture at the University of Utah, Andrew Patrick Nelson, notes our renewed fascination with the West “is the idea you can live a more authentic, exciting, and rugged life.”
That feeling is especially seductive as we exit the pandemic. Atlantic writer and Lifehacker editor Jordan Calhoun said he became obsessed with Yellowstone because, stuck in his Harlem apartment, he “longed for rows of pines, big stretches of sky.” He has since made his way out to Montana because we all, in some way, want to dress and travel how we want to feel.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Boxing it up? // Illustration by Kate Walker
Amazon angles to join the ESPN roster
The Future. Amazon is reportedly in talks with Disney to take the available slice of ESPN that’s up for auction — part of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s plan to slim down Disney to its core assets and divest from the linear TV business. A team-up with Amazon could ensure ESPN stays the top player in sports exhibition, even in the streaming age when Apple and YouTube are competing for rights.
Full stream press
Iger is scouting for a partner to take roughly 30% of ESPN (Disney owns 80% of the network, while Hearst Corp. owns 20%), worth an estimated $9 billion.
Talks are ongoing, but an Amazon minority acquisition makes sense, considering how the streamer is trying to become more involved with sports.
For Disney, it lessens competition with the tech giant (keep your friends close, but your enemies closer).
It’ll likely also weaken the bargaining position of sports leagues (the FTC is going to have a field day with this deal).
But a deal hasn’t kicked off quite yet. Verizon and even the major sports leagues are all in discussions for a chance at streaming glory — ESPN remains one of Disney’s big moneymakers and could grow even more with its entrance into sports gambling.
And with the rumored ESPN+ price coming in between $20 and $35 per month (sports rights aren’t cheap, with Disney spending $10 billion annually), shared revenue could be massive if subscribers and advertisers rally for the service.
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Disrupting the tenant-landlord relationship
For many of us, landlords are the people who may take eight months to fix our bathtubs but won’t waste a minute coming after us if the rent is a day late.
“Landlord” doesn’t have to be such a dirty word, at least according to Roots CEO Daniel Dorfman. Roots is the real estate fund disrupting real estate investing stereotypes by giving tenants seats at the table.
Here’s the model:
Invest in the Roots fund (get started with as little as $100!)
Roots buys properties, fixes them up, and rents them out
Renters get invested in the fund for paying on time, taking care of the property, and being good neighbors
And it’s working. The fund is up 36% since July 2021.
TECHNOLOGY
Planting a flag in tech regulation
Europe’s Digital Services Act comes online
The Future. The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) went into effect last Friday, putting transformational restrictions on 19 “very large platforms.” The legislation is meant to protect user privacy, community well-being, and societal cohesion. With companies reprogramming their platforms to abide by the rules, US legislators may try to pass a similar framework, highlighting how the necessary changes are already a working reality.
Abort the algo
If you’re in Europe, any platform with more than 45 million monthly users will have to operate under some very different rules than their businesses in the US.
Platforms have to prevent or remove posts featuring illegal goods, services, or content while letting users report the posts when they see them.
It limits the scope of targeted advertising based on personal details like politics or ethnicity and restricts ads targeted to kids.
It requires platforms give users transparency on how their algorithms work, while allowing users to opt out of personalized algorithms.
It also ensures platforms share data with authorities and researchers and be ready to respond to crises (like acts of terrorism or climate disasters).
If the platforms don’t follow the rules, they could be fined up to 6% of their global revenue, with repeat offenders facing potential suspension in the EU.
In other words, Big Tech just got some big guardrails.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery has decided to push Dune 2 from November 3rd to March 15th, 2024, as the ongoing actors strike bars talent from stumping for movies — WB really wants Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya on the press tour. Read more → variety
Speaking of the actors strike, SAG-AFTRA is making it clear if a film has received an Interim Agreement, it can absolutely promote the movie on the fall festival circuit. Read more → deadline
The LA movie theater scene is undergoing a renaissance with the reopenings of the Cinépolis Inglewood IMAX, Vidiots, Landmark Sunset, and The Culver Theater, along with the upcoming ribbon cuttings of the Vista and the Egyptian (while Angelenos pray for the promised resurrection of the ArcLight Hollywood and Cinerama Dome). Read more → thr
Fashion & E-Commerce
Nordstrom reports the company’s losses from theft, especially the brazen flash mob robberies affecting major metros, are at a historic high. Read more → bof
PUMA is getting in the passenger seat with Porsche on two limited edition sneakers to mark the 75th anniversary of the shoe brand and the 60th anniversary of the automaker’s 911 model. Read more → hypebeast
Walmart has tapped Alphabet’s aviation arm Wing to create a drone delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Read more → engadget
Tech, Web3, & AI
The housing market is so unaffordable Zillow is offering a 1% down payment option just to get people their American Dream (good luck affording that monthly mortgage payment though). Read more → insider
Pactum AI is taking on the role of hard-charging salary negotiator — something most humans hate doing. Read more → axios
15 of the 100 most popular websites have blocked OpenAI’s GPTBot (the web crawler it used to vacuum up data for ChatGPT) in just the past two weeks. Read more → insider
Creator Economy
Apple Beats has inked 15 NIL deals with college football players, with a plan to feature them in upcoming marketing campaigns. Read more → bloomberg
Night, the creator-focused talent management company, has acquired LFM Management, with the firm’s now combined 60+ influencers (including MrBeast and Kai Cenat) bringing in over 5 billion views across their content per month. Read more → tubefilter
YouTube and TikTok are rolling out new creator monetization tools as the platforms compete for engagement (and affiliated fees). Read more → theverge
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.