The HBO Of Microdramas

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Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital made an offer to buy Universal Music Group (UMG) for roughly $63 billion.

Why It Hits: We’re smack dab in the middle of M&A season, apparently, with mega-deals for Warner Bros. Discovery and Electronic Arts making waves in recent months. An acquisition of the world’s biggest record label (it commands over 30% market share) is sure to raise a lot of eyebrows… especially when it’s by an activist investor like Ackman.

Behind The Offer: The label behind Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, and Kendrick Lamar may soon be under new management.

Encore: Ackman, a hedge fund manager who made his billions betting against companies, clearly sees a major opportunity in betting on UMG. He said that the company’s performance and management (including CEO Lucian Grainge) are strong; it’s just the company’s structure that’s the problem. He noted that the company’s listing in Amsterdam has allowed UMG’s stock to slip 23% this year alone.

Time will tell if a US-based SPARC merger with Ackman solves those issues. UMG said it was already reviewing the proposal.

Prediction: If Ackman takes control of UMG, the company could potentially ink some major collaborations with the AI industry.

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Tommy Harper — a longtime producer of JJ Abrams, Tim Burton, and Joseph Kosinski — is launching a new microdrama platform called “VeYou.”

The Big Picture: Microdramas are becoming a big thing, with the industry expected to rake in $26 billion in revenue by 2030. The format is most popular in China, so several startups backed by Hollywood execs are hoping to capture the American market before Chinese platforms can make intractable inroads here.

Behind The Scenes: VeYou has already raised funding from S32 to build out its technology and content slate.

Final Upload: Harper stresses that the differentiating factor between VeYou and popular Chinese apps like ReelShort and DramaBox will be the quality of the content, claiming his platform will be the “HBO in the space.” Practically, that means employing Hollywood-level cast and crew, leveraging AI for VFX, and positioning titles to be picked up for film or TV adaptations.

It remains to be seen if VeYou’s first project, an action-romance called Love Under Fire, lives up to the company’s big pitch when the platform launches in the coming months.

The Future: If significant microdrama production does take off in the US, it could become a go-to pathway for young, aspiring creatives to enter the industry.

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59% of you voted Sometimes but not always in yesterday’s poll: Can you usually tell when something is AI-generated?

“It becomes more difficult by the day, especially with so much real media being AI-enhanced.”

“If I can see six, three, or two fingers, and the shadows are different for each person, OR it’s physically impossible to do what they’re doing — except in Road Runner cartoons — then it’s fake. But once AI learns to count, understand what a shadow is, and recognize what’s impossible to do, we could be out of luck.”

“I usually have a pretty good nose for this stuff (Photoshopped pics too!), but it’s getting more and more challenging these days. There are some good AIs out there making very realistic stuff. Now those Facebook pics, on the other hand — I have to call my family out every time. Not sure how those pics are still tricking people.”

“I’ve developed a good eye and ear for most AI creations, but I suspect that will become increasingly difficult — if not impossible — as it improves over time.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

📺 CBS is filling the vacant slot for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert with two syndicated comedy shows from Byron Allen. End of an era.

📘 Audible is opening a limited-time audiobook-only bookstore in NYC that, yes, features dedicated listening spaces.

🎙️ CNN is launching a new interview series called The 1 on 1 — a show where business leaders grill one another.

👀 Anthropic’s new AI model, Mythos, is allegedly so powerful that it’s only being made available to some partners to test their cybersecurity defenses.

🤖 Intel is partnering with SpaceX and Tesla on its Terafab chips project in Texas.

📱 Apple’s first foldable iPhone is reportedly hitting stores in September.

💰 Twitch is opening sponsored campaigns to streamers with “Affiliate” status.

🤳 Instagram is testing the ability to link to products directly within Reels with a select number of creators.

💻 MrBeast hit one million concurrent viewers during his Easter weekend competition featuring 50 of the top streamers in the world.