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In other news… Taylor Swift x football, TikTokers go to the movies, and Tubi tries AI curation.
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SPORTS
Power team // Illustration by Kate Walker
Swiftonomics comes to the NFL
The Future. At this point, anything Taylor Swift touches blows up (in a good way). Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Chicago Bears — a coming-out party for Swift’s and Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce’s relationship — was no different. While it may not be the reason for dating Kelce, their relationship has potentially turned NFL fans into Swifties… ensuring her concert film’s opening next month (which will now be released in over 100 countries) is a four-quadrant title that’ll easily be one of the biggest box office debuts in history.
Taylor’s touchdown
“Let’s f*cking go!,” the battlecry Swift screamed out as Kelce scored a touchdown, can now be applied to how… well… swiftly Swifties turned into NFL fans.
The Chiefs’ victory over the Bears was viewed by 24.3 million people — the second-most watched game of the season so far (beat only by the season opener between the Chiefs and Detroit Lions).
Nielsen hasn’t released its final broadcast tabulation for last week, but Fox, which aired the game, said the game was the most-watched program of the week on any network.
In the aftermath of the game, Fanatics reported sales of Kelce’s jersey skyrocketed by 400%, while a 1989-inspired jacket Kelce wore post-game sold out on KidSuper Studios.
Unsurprisingly, everyone wants a piece of the Swift-Kelce action. The NFL changed the bio on its X profile to “NFL (Taylor’s Version),” while Kansas City’s Union Station posted a photo Sunday Night of the station lit up red, captioning it: “‘How the (Chiefs) Kingdom lights shined just for me and you.’ This one’s for you @tkelce and @taylorswift13.”
And in true TikTok fashion, a viral trend has started of Swift fans asking their boyfriends, “Isn’t it crazy that Taylor Swift put Travis Kelce on the map?” Regardless of Kelce’s many achievements, clearly nothing puts the spotlight on someone as much as dating the biggest artist in the world.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Big screen influence // Illustration by Kate Walker
TikTok influencers wield moviegoing power
The Future. Influencing has taken over film criticism, with the “MovieTok” community turning up awareness of new releases (on pause during the actor’s strike). While youth-oriented movements usurping the old guard is a tale as old as time in film criticism, the current iteration’s focus on positivity (and sponsorship) may be more effective at simple promotion than actual critical appreciation. But considering how they’ve already helped recent titles go viral online and at the box office, they may still be embraced by filmmakers hoping to reach a new generation.
Gatekeepers of hype
For young audiences, film criticism is being remade on TikTok.
MovieTok influencers like Straw Hat Goofy, Cinema.Joe, and Maddi Moo have amassed millions of followers reviewing movies typically in 30-to-90-second videos, focusing on a specific genre.
The “movie reviewers” (they avoid the label “critic”) put an emphasis on positivity, acting as a recommendation resource rather than aspiring to join the critical community of professional publications, which they view as having “unearned authority.”
A major reason for the focus on positivity is because they’re often paid by studios to promote movies, earning anywhere between $1,000 to $30,000 for a sponsored post. And even if they’re not paid (which is required to be disclosed on TikTok), they may be gifted swag boxes or tickets to red carpet events (which don’t need to be disclosed).
While that conflict of interest would be a major ethics violation for professional critics (just look at the controversy surrounding Rotten Tomatoes), MovieTok influencers don’t have the same limitations… or standards, depending on your viewpoint. But some have drafted their own code of ethics, only taking payment for trailer announcements or more general marketing.
Authenticity is a fine line.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Courtesy of Tubi
Tubi tries AI curation
The Future. Tubi is the first streaming platform to get its own AI-powered recommendation tool, which could significantly cut down on how long it takes for users to find something to watch. If Tubi users respond positively, expect every streamer to have a similar tool before the year is through.
ChatGPT presents…
Tubi’s Rabbit AI wants to help users stop the “endless scroll” for something to watch.
The ChatGPT-powered feature (which can speak to you too now) will be available at the bottom of Tubi’s mobile app, where it lets users ask for custom, detailed recommendations.
The tool will then surface a list of relevant titles, which users can save to their watchlists.
The search history will also be saved for users to refer back to and to be fed into the algorithm that recommends titles on their homepages.
The tool is currently in beta and available to roughly two-thirds of Tubi users.
Tubi senior director of product Blake Bassett says there are three types of users: people who know what they want to watch, people who have a vague idea of what they want to watch, and users who have no clue and don’t want to think about what to find.
With one in five streamers binge-watching shows simply because it’s too hard to find something else to watch, the tool could be a major asset for that second subset… especially when Tubi users have over 200,00 titles to choose from.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
SAG-AFTRA members have overwhelmingly authorized a strike against the video game industry’s ten major companies, paving the way for the union to go out on a second strike. Read more → deadline
The companies behind several major streaming services, including Netflix and Disney, have created a trade alliance (with bipartisan advisors) to lobby for policies that favor… you guessed it… streaming. Read more → thr
CollegeHumor, the once-trend-setting purveyor of all things funny online, is graduating its name to “Dropout.” Read more → variety
Fashion & E-Commerce
TikTok Shop will likely struggle for repeat business in Indonesia as the country cracks down on social media companies’ ability to process direct ecommerce payments on their platforms. Read more → bof
Olivia Rodrigo is collabing with Sony on a pair of sustainably-produced earbuds that are tuned to the exact EQs she and producer Daniel Nigro intended Rodrigo’s Guts and Sour albums to be listened to. Read more → thr
Lego may be ditching its plan to make bricks from recycled water bottles, but the company says it’s committed to phasing out its oil-based ones — they just need to be as easy-to-use and long-lasting as the current ones. Read more → bbc
Tech, Web3, & AI
The CIA is building its own AI tool to sift through all the data it collects worldwide (we’re getting Mission: Impossible vibes already). Read more → bloomberg
Microsoft is considering using nuclear reactors to power its AI because it requires so much energy. Read more → theverge
California Forever (the secretive group of Silicon Valley heavyweights buying up land in northern California to build a new metro) is hoping to design “a city of yesterday.” Read more → insider
Creator Economy
Threads is apparently struggling to keep new users… but may still catch up to X as that platform hemorrhages users. Read more → theverge
UTA and Crown + Conquer are launching a new creator summit titled UNLOQ404. Read more → tubefilter
According to the European Commission, X has the highest rate of disinformation than any other social network. Read more → hypebeast
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Melody Song. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.