Inside AI on the Lot 2025: Amazon's Project Nara, Google Gemini & Hollywood's AI Revolution

Inside AI on the Lot 2025: Amazon's Project Nara, Google Gemini & Hollywood's AI Revolution

David Bloom reports live from AI on the Lot in Culver City — the fastest-growing AI filmmaking conference in Hollywood — with 2,000 filmmakers, technologists, and studios gathered next to Amazon MGM's virtual production stage. Amazon's Project Nara is now open to independent filmmakers via a new grant program, with three animated series already greenlit. Google's Gemini Omni Flash tool is reshaping multimodal production workflows. A Spanish-Brazilian co-production called Miasma used AI for costume design and set building at a fraction of traditional cost — and a $500K horror film that ran $400K in compute tokens just screened at Cannes. Markiplier's Iron Lung — a $3M self-distributed film that made $35M — shows what happens when YouTube creators with built-in audiences get access to serious production tools. The creator economy just got a film studio. David also moderates a panel at Car App World on the explosion of in-vehicle apps, and why it mirrors the early days of connected TV. Plus: Cineverse's Matchpoint technology maps every emotional beat of a film for contextual ad placement — so Delta never ends up next to the plane crash scene. The real story from AI on the Lot: Hollywood isn't uniformly afraid of AI. Two thousand people showed up voluntarily. The question is whether the industry can adapt faster than the tools can replace it. Next TMT Talks is produced in partnership with Media Play News. New episodes twice a week on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. Subscribe to the newsletter at nexttmt.com [https://nexttmt.com].

Sports TV Chaos, AI Video, Cars as Screens Colbert's End

Daniel Frankel and David Bloom dig into the biggest stories in streaming, sports rights, media consolidation, and the AI video revolution in this week's flagship Sunday edition. 🚗 Cars Are the New TVs — The modern vehicle is a rolling screen. What that means for content creators, advertisers, and the future of in-vehicle entertainment. ⚖️ NFL Antitrust Exemption Under Fire — The DOJ expands its probe to include baseball. A bipartisan "Save Our Sports" bill targets streaming deals. But is this a genuine consumer revolt — or broadcast TV using Washington to protect its turf? Rupert Murdoch's fingerprints are everywhere. ⚾ Local Sports Networks Aren't Dead — They're Just Different — Up to 15 MLB teams are now streaming refugees. But if you know where to look, fans can cut their sports bill in half. The real problem: misinformation from people with a financial interest in keeping things confusing. 🏈 College Football Playoff Expansion: Fox's Power Play — The push for a 24-team playoff isn't coming from fans. It's coming from Fox, which missed out on the championship broadcast rights and wants back in. The SEC is holding firm to protect its $100M championship game. ⚽ Arsenal Wins the Premier League — The Kroenke-owned club will generate $1B this year. But sports rights spending globally is wildly outpacing revenue — from the EPL to cricket's $6B bubble. 📺 Stephen Colbert's Exit & the Future of Late Night — CBS cancels The Late Show. What replaces it? Charlemagne tha God's morning show goes to Netflix, TBPN hits 70K subscribers, and the lines between journalism, entertainment, and tech-backed media keep blurring. 🎬 Netflix Keeps Grabbing Everything — A Brad Pitt/Quentin Tarantino prequel (Cliff Booth) gets a two-week IMAX run. Narnia is theatrical. iHeart's morning show is streaming. Netflix is now in breakfast TV, premium cinema, and live sports. What's left? 💸 Paramount + WBD Merger Debt Reality Check — S&P rates the combined entity BB+ (borderline junk). $84B in combined debt. Thirty percent of all TV viewership under one roof. An economic downturn could be catastrophic. 🤖 AI Video at YouTube, the White House & AI on the Lot — The latest from the front lines of AI-generated content, plus what it means for Hollywood production. 🎙️ Hosted by David Bloom & Daniel Frankel | Next TMT × Media Play News 🔔 Subscribe → https://nexttmt.com [https://nexttmt.com] 🎧 Spotify & Apple Podcasts

SpaceX $1.75T Valuation, Disney Bundle Dominance & CBS News Civil War

David Bloom and Daniel Frankel break down the week's biggest stories in media, tech, and telecom. 🚀 SpaceX's $1.75 Trillion Valuation — What's actually driving it: Starlink's satellite-to-device dominance, NASA contracts, and government policy tailwinds from the FCC. Plus, what it means for Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire — and why Daniel has complicated feelings about it. 🌊 Undersea Cables & the Internet's Hidden Fragility — 95% of global data runs through fiber optic cables clustered in geopolitical chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz and the Baltic Sea. How vulnerable is the infrastructure that powers everything? 🎯 Authentic Brands Group Goes Public — The $38B brand machine behind Shaq, Kevin Hart, and David Beckham is heading to market. Their pitch: "content drives commerce." What that means for celebrity IP and the future of brand licensing. 📺 The Disney Bundle Actually Works — Hub Research confirms 59% of Disney+/Hulu/ESPN subscribers have zero plans to cancel. David and Daniel dig into how ESPN Plus transformed from obscure college softball to must-have sports streaming. 📰 CBS News Civil War: Is Bari Weiss Getting Edged Out? — Anderson Cooper's exit from 60 Minutes, Paramount's crushing debt load, the Skydance merger hanging on 13 state attorneys general, and why the real issue isn't who runs CBS News. 🎬 The Mandalorian & Grogu: Can a TV Show Survive as a Movie? — The biggest test yet of whether streaming-native IP can convert audiences to the theater. 🎰 Banning Gambling Ads for Under-18s — A bipartisan bill takes aim at digital gambling advertising targeting minors. The leagues made a Faustian deal. Now the cleanup begins. 🏀 NBA Playoffs & Victor Wembanyama — Is Wemby already the most dominant player anyone has ever seen? Plus: the $76B TV rights deal is looking very smart right now. 🎙️ Hosted by David Bloom & Daniel Frankel | Next TMT × Media Play News 🔔 Subscribe → https://nexttmt.com [https://nexttmt.com] 🎧 Spotify & Apple Podcasts 00:00 SpaceX Valuation and Market Dynamics 05:58 Authentic Brands and Celebrity Influence 12:02 Fiber Optics and Global Connectivity 17:54 Disney Bundle Effectiveness and Star Wars Future 21:06 The Future of Star Wars and Development Challenges 22:08 Leadership Changes in News Organizations 23:59 The State of Broadcast News Ratings 25:03 Political Dynamics and Future Prospects 26:30 The Impact of Talent on News Organizations 27:19 The Evolution of 60 Minutes and Its Talent 28:56 Mergers and Acquisitions in Media 30:31 The Future of the NBA and Emerging Stars 35:34 The Influence of Gambling on Sports Broadcasting 39:29 Upcoming Events and Opportunities in Streaming

TV OS Wars, Roblox's Adult Pivot, FIFA's $13B Grab & the Next Bond

David Bloom and Daniel Frankel break down the biggest stories in media, technology, and telecom this week. 📺 The TV OS Power Grab – A Laguna Beach reunion special beat Netflix on Looper Insights' platform visibility rankings. How? Roku put it there. With 100M households, Roku — and soon Google TV with YouTube Shorts integrated into the discovery layer — has the home field advantage that's quietly making or breaking what you watch. Second-tier streamers like Peacock and Paramount+ are increasingly vulnerable. 🎮 Roblox's Older Audience Play – 131 million daily users, 8 million experiences, and now a deliberate push to grow with its aging user base into the 18-25 demo. Major game publishers are starting to treat it like a console. David reports from his Web Summit Vancouver conversation with Roblox CMO Jared West. 🛰️ AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile Team Up — Sort Of – The three biggest wireless carriers formed a joint venture framework for satellite connectivity standards. Musk isn't happy. Analysts aren't sure what to make of it. Is it a real deal or a trial balloon ahead of SpaceX's IPO? ⚽ FIFA's $13 Billion World Cup – While host cities celebrate, FIFA is pocketing an estimated $13B in TV rights, locking down stadiums for a month before games, and keeping nearly all revenue. Hotels, restaurants, and Airbnb hosts are quietly asking: what's in it for us? 🤖 Gossip Goblin & AI Filmmaking – California-in-Sweden creator Zach London is making artistically striking AI horror films that are turning heads in Hollywood. A preview of what's coming at the AI on the Lot conference on the Amazon lot later this month. 🏀 NFL Streaming, the Next Bond Search & More – Netflix gets 5 NFL games in 2026, Congress tries to legislate streaming football, Wembanyama's future, CBS's decline, and Amazon's search for the next James Bond. 🎙️ Hosted by David Bloom & Daniel Frankel | A Next TMT production 🔔 Subscribe for weekly media, tech & telecom analysis → https://nexttmt.com [https://nexttmt.com] 🎧 Also on Spotify & Apple Podcasts

TV Upfronts 2026: AI Ads, EchoStar's Collapse & Hollywood's Vancouver Problem | Next TMT

Vancouver ate Hollywood — and TV's upfront revolution AI is upending how television sells ads, EchoStar is breathing its last, and Vancouver just quietly became the world's animation capital. David Bloom reports live from Web Summit. 00:00 TV upfronts 2025: impressions are out, ROI is in NBC Universal, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery all pitched agentic AI ad systems this week — promising advertisers a direct line from ad exposure to actual purchase. But can legacy TV really close that attribution loop the way Amazon can? 07:00 Nielsen's measurement crisis and the TCL lawsuit As Nielsen struggles to transition from analog panels to smart TV data collection, a new class action against TCL highlights just how murky — and legally fraught — TV audience measurement has become. 08:00 Vancouver ate Hollywood: the animation cluster LA forgot to build Sony Imageworks, Blue Ant Studios (Spider-Verse), and Disney Animation (Frozen 3) are all thriving in Vancouver — with government seed funding, workforce pipelines, and over 100 VFX companies. Meanwhile LA doubled its tax incentive and still can't keep productions home. 15:00 AI branding, copyright, and the EU's 15% fine cliff Companies racing to market with AI-generated brands may find they can't copyright what they built — and in the EU, failure to label AI-created content can trigger fines of up to 15% of annual revenue. 18:00 K-pop Demon Hunters and the Netflix global hit formula Sony Imageworks didn't know what they had. Netflix didn't know what they had. Then superfans found it — and it became Netflix's most watched title. What the surprise runaway hit reveals about how global streaming actually works. 26:00 EchoStar's endgame: spectrum seized, $40B in deals, a SpaceX stake Dish lost another 366,000 pay TV subscribers. AT&T and Amazon bought $40B of its spectrum. The FCC — under Brendan Carr — effectively forced the sale. EchoStar walks away asset-light with a $10B SpaceX stake and Boost Mobile. Is this the next Yahoo? 33:00 Charlie Ergen, force majeure, and a very convenient escrow Ergen tried to invoke force majeure to avoid paying $2.4B to tower vendors. The FCC required an escrow account. The whole saga — and what it says about doing business in the current regulatory environment.