Dispatch 045: The Tok Tiks Midnight
Back to your regularly scheduled newsletter...
Given the Netflix/Narnia news down below, I thought I'd link to a post I wrote over the holidays about how Netflix is clearly, clearly gearing up to go all-in on live sports. They can keep denying it, but they tend to do that until they're doing it. Very Apple in that way. And yes, a backtrack on movie theaters will be next...
M.G. Siegler
I Think...
🇺🇸 Stephen Miller, Channeling Trump, Has Built More Power Than Ever – Tech angles bookend this profile of Miller. It starts with Zuck and ends with Musk. The former is far more interesting and thus, wasn't buried. In reporting that will only add fuel to the ongoing Zucklash, this suggests that it's not just Donald Trump to whom Zuckerberg is bending the knee, but Miller as well – signaling to "Trump's brain" that he won't interfere with the administration agenda (largely built by Miller) and intends to "stick to tech" as it were. But the real juice comes from the tidbit that Zuck blamed Meta's culture, and thus, previous stances, on his own former number two, Sheryl Sandberg. If that's true, it's certainly not the best look for Zuck, who has seemingly reverted Meta to its glorious history of PR disasters in an effort to be more masculine. Or something. Regardless of his actual stances and policies, this entire approach Zuckerberg is taking of late is comically short-sighted and just plain stupid. But easily predicted! [NYT]
🦁 Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ Release Plans Finally Revealed – Ted Sarandos caves. Movie theaters cave. IMAX wins. Greta Gerwig wins. But also, Netflix wins. As I argued a few months back, Narnia getting an exclusive window (four weeks) on IMAX screens will both raise the profile of the film and make a shit ton of money – for everyone, including Netflix. The (non-IMAX) movie theaters don't like it for the same reason Sarandos doesn't: it sets a precedent. And, of course, it goes against Netflix's streaming-first mantra. But I'd argue that model is now out of date. There needs to be more flexibility for Netflix to truly achieve peak performance as they continue to eat Hollywood's popcorn. Interestingly, Netflix will be in charge of marketing the movie, due around Thanksgiving 2026, as a Netflix/IMAX production. Much to Sarandos' chagrin, we're obviously going to see more of this going forward. But not for all movies, just for the massive ones. And it makes sense! This shouldn't have been like pulling teeth. [Puck 🔒]
📰 Apple Plans to Disable A.I. Summarizing News Notifications – Rarely do tweaks in the third beta builds of the third iteration of an iOS release make it to the pages of The New York Times – it's more MacRumors and 9to5Mac fair – but, well, Apple really stepped in it with their AI news notification summaries, which have been making headlines of their own around the world for all the wrong reasons. So Apple is removing the feature in the new build (and presumably in the next version of iOS 18) while they work on a fix. Which is to say, making the feature actually work as intended. AI is not off to the best start for Apple... [NYT]
I Remember...
⚾️ Bob Uecker, Clubhouse Wit-Turned-Popular Sportscaster, Dies at 90 – As a kid growing up in Cleveland in the 80s and 90s, I will always remember Uecker as Harry Doyle, the sometimes inebriated Indians announcer whose lines are undoubtedly the most remembered from the baseball classic Major League – even more remarkably, those lines were ad-libbed. And that's in part because Uecker was an actual announcer, for 54 years, for his hometown Milwaukee Brewers. But that wasn't enough for Uecker, who also famously called national games for ABC Sports, was an announcer for the WWF's Wrestlemania, and yes, was the (sportswriter) father in Mr. Belvedere, another staple of my youth. Oh, and he actually played baseball. In the major leagues – kind of. A career .200 hitter, he somehow parlayed that into a comedy routine which set in motion all of the above. His craziest stat is a great one: in 1964, as a catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, he hit two home runs for the year – one off of Gaylord Perry, the other off of Sandy Koufax. Koufax had a 1.74 ERA that year. He gave up just 13 home runs in 200+ innings pitched all season. One was to Bob Uecker. [NYT]
🎬 David Lynch, ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’ Director Dies at 78 – I feel like it's perfectly fitting that unlike Uecker's obit above, Lynch's is absolutely all over the place. Much like his films – a few of which I had to try to dissect in college – he was seemingly a singular enigma of a person. I mean, you're aware of his weather reports, right? Right?! He danced this really strange line of being almost a mainstream figure – as the outpouring over the past 24 hours showcases – but at the same time, a stubbornly artistic visionary who absolutely would never sell out. That turmoil all came together and worked perfectly in Mulholland Drive, but I also vividly recall how much people hated Lost Highway. It's sort of wild that he only made 10 feature films and that each of them you would immediately know were his – aside from maybe his strangest one of all because of how literally straightforward it was, the film he made in between Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive: The Straight Story. One thing the obit did teach me: I had no idea George Lucas asked him to direct The Return of the Jedi. Instead, he did the story that famously inspired Star Wars: Dune. Because of course he did, it's so much deeper, enigmatic, and strange. [NYT]
I Link...
Rebecca Shaw
From the title on down, I don't think I'd change a word of this column.
I Note...
- Xiaohongshu – aka the 'Little Red Book' app – is working on a secondary sale that would bring its valuation to at least $20B. No surprise given the surge of interest/usage in the US with the TikTok ban looming. Though it's feeling more likely that TikTok will be saved – somehow, TikTok returned – in the coming days, and it's not clear that Xiaohongshu has actual staying power in the US market beyond the novelty/protest of it all. [Bloomberg 🔒]
- But just in case those users do stick around, Xiaohongshu is scrambling to hire English-speaking content moderators. China clearly isn't thrilled with Americans posting memes for the lolz. [Wired]
- Interestingly enough, $20B would only match a previous high valuation Xiaohongshu achieved in the Chinese tech boom of 2021.
- As if we needed more twists in the TikTok saga, the company is the main sponsor of an inauguration party on Sunday – the day the would-be ban goes into effect. CEO Shou Zi Chew will of course be there, but the big question: will Donald Trump show up? Perhaps he can push a big red BAN button if ByteDance/China fails to secure a deal in time as Waka Flocka Flame performs in the background? [Politico]
- Apple's defense of their fee structure is clearly that it's "impossible" to accurately gauge the profit margin (and thus, the profits) of the App Store. That is just silly as you could make such a case with many such businesses and yet, the corporate world marches on. How? Nobody knows. [FT 🔒]
- A day later, Microsoft is directly following Google in bundling AI into their 365 subscriptions – and raising prices of the packages as a result. At least they're letting people opt-out of the increases (if they go to cancel), new users must add that AI money to Microsoft's bottom line though. [Verge]
- Apple's creation of a dedicated Store app would seem to continue the push to make India a major market for the company (for both sales and production), especially important as China falters. [TechCrunch]
- Why has Block stalled when its peers are soaring in the stock market? Blame all the ridiculous distractions Jack Dorsey has built up over the years – from failed music streaming services to "web5" nonsense. I wish they would just go back to being Square. [Information 🔒]
- “Riveting Storytelling for All of America.” isn't the worst slogan ever, I guess. But it's a mouthful and is too generic. But if it's just some sort of internal rallying call for The Washington Post, which seems to be bleeding more than just money at the moment, fine. Though "We hear for you" also keeps popping into my head... [NYT]
I Quote...
"I do think actually gaining political leverage is its own value for the company, for our ability to pursue our goals."
-- Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO, saying the not-so-quiet part out loud during a Q&A with employees at the company's Reality Labs, which he oversees.
If you think all of this like chaotic from the outside, imagine what it must be like inside Meta right now. This feels like Boz essentially saying to those folks: the rationale here isn't nefarious, it's political, but we need to clean up the execution and the messaging. Easier said than done when it's perhaps also a bit personal.
I Spy...
I couldn't fit in all Bob Uecker had done throughout his career above – including the role many people who don't live in Milwaukee or Cleveland will know him for: a Miller Lite spokesperson in popular national commercials and ads.
RIP Mr. Baseball.
