Signal: Cable Bundles of Joy 📧
Well, I did the math. And it's not pretty. The amount I spend on streaming services each month is... a lot. Still, it's not quite as insane as I feared relative to cable and the new digital variants like YouTube TV – especially since the latter keeps jacking up prices without any choice to pay less for less content. Mainly, the new system is just a mess of management, until it all inevitably consolidates back into bundles. Which is already happening, naturally.
M.G. Siegler
Links...
🇺🇸 A Year in the Life of Zuckerberg & Trump
Casey Newton takes the year anniversary of Trump threatening to have Zuck jailed – which feels like it was a decade ago – to look at how the relationship has, um, evolved since then, month by month. We're probably now just months away from the attempts at the narrative turn about how this was all just pragmatic, etc – moral and ethical unease aside, Zuck's playbook seems to be working, even now – as the political winds shift again with a lame duck flying in the air... [Platformer]
🗣️ Did OpenAI Break ChatGPT?
I was back on Alex Kantrowitz's Big Technology Podcast last Friday to chat through that, the new "open source" AI movement, Apple's new iPhone roadmap, some thoughts on the notion they could outsource more of their AI work, and the new, state-sponsored Intel... [Pod Link]
I Quote...
"I would pay a lot of money to avoid a cocktail party."
– John Malone, in a profile looking back at his legacy shaping the current television landscape – in ways good and bad.
While his hands are now mostly on Warner Bros Discovery, he helped shape many other media properties (via TCI and Liberty) – even AOL (by talking Bill Gates out of an investment way back when). I also appreciated the part where he used Steve McQueen's Bullitt as a weapon in a local cable dispute (which he won). The 84-year-old is now the second largest private land-owner in the US – barely beating out his old friend, Ted Turner (to whom he once lent money for a divorce.)
Leading up to the launch of his autobiography, the FT also pulled out this tidbit: Malone pushed his friend Rupert Murdoch for a WBD/Fox merger, but it seemed too much of a headache trying to bring CNN and Fox News together under one umbrella. Still, he's pretty certain the "urge to merge" will win the day again with tech moving so aggressively into his world. Might Apple come calling?
One more thing: Zuck tried to buy Malone’s Castlemartin Estate in Ireland...
“I told him no, sorry Mark,” smiles Malone. “He said: “I hear it’s the prettiest place in Ireland”. And I said: “Maybe in the world, but it ain’t for sale.”
Everything else, is for sale, it seems.
Programming Note...
You'll notice a bit of a format shift here. I'm trying a few tweaks as we head towards year 3 of Spyglass. After running the newsletter under the 'Spiral' moniker for the past few months to allow me to better experiment, I believe I've landed on the format I want to use. More to come on that. For now, feedback welcome.
Happy Labor Day to those in the US! 🇺🇸
Below, members of The Inner Ring will find thoughts on:
• Meta's Sexy Celeb Bots
• Meta Outsourcing Their AI
• Meta's Scale Situation
• The Big Short Comeback
• and more...