Disney+ Giveaway; $2B Endemol Deal; 'Watchmen' Ratings; Redstone’s 'Scale'; 'Skywalker' Trailer

What's news: Verizon to give subscribers Disney+ for free, Shari Redstone says ViacomCBS has the scale to compete, HBO's Watchmen opens to solid ratings, Martin Scorsese and other directors continue to pile on Marvel movies. Plus: The new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer. --Alex Weprin [The Hollywood Reporter]( [The Hollywood Reporter]( Today In Entertainment OCTOBER 22, 2019 What's news: Verizon to give subscribers Disney+ for free, Shari Redstone says ViacomCBS has the scale to compete, HBO's Watchmen opens to solid ratings, Martin Scorsese and other directors continue to pile on Marvel movies. Plus: The new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer. --Alex Weprin What's news: Verizon to give subscribers Disney+ for free, Shari Redstone says ViacomCBS has the scale to compete, HBO's Watchmen opens to solid ratings, Martin Scorsese and other directors continue to pile on Marvel movies. Plus: The new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer. --Alex Weprin [Verizon To Give Away Disney+] Verizon To Give Away Disney+ ►Verizon, Disney ink Disney+ deal. In a major deal, Verizon and Disney will make one year of Disney+ available for free to all new and existing Verizon unlimited customers, and to new home internet customers. The partnership has the potential to supercharge Disney+ subscriber numbers, making the service free to tens of millions of households. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. [The story](. +Context: With the streaming landscape about to get significantly more competitive, new services are looking for ways to gain scale quickly. Apple is planning to offer a year of Apple TV+ with the purchase of new computers and iPhones, while Quibi partnered with T-Mobile this week. Comcast, meanwhile, plans to make NBCUniversal's Peacock available for free to cable subscribers. The question sure to bubble through Hollywood: What will AT&T do to give HBO Max instant scale? ►Banijay nears deal for Endemol Shine. Endemol Shine Group, the producer of hit shows such as Big Brother, MasterChef, Black Mirror and Peaky Blinders, is nearing a deal to be acquired by French production powerhouse Banijay Group. The combination would create a new production giant with production shingles in Europe and the U.S., as well as a large programming catalog. [The details](. ►Shari Redstone touts scale of ViacomCBS. In an interview at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference, Redstone says that the combined CBS and Viacom will be big enough to compete with giants like Netflix and Disney when the deal closes, likely in December. "I think a lot of times when people talk about scale, they talk about market cap. But scale matters whether or not you have the ability to create quantity of content and quality of content," Redstone said in the interview, which was streamed. "Between the library we have, the IP we have, the $13 billion we spend on content every year, we can compete with the best of them." --Redstone also addressed South Park's China controversy, acknowledging that "China is a very important market to us" but that the company balances its interests. "I wouldn’t say they went out of their way to irritate China," she said. "If you take a look at South Park, they are very satirical in everything that they do. I think they have a point of view and a perspective, and frankly that is what makes them so successful. I support our content creators in what they do." In other business news... +Hasbro on Tuesday missed Wall Street estimates for its third-quarter earnings due in part to to the impact on domestic retail sales of enacted and delayed U.S. tariffs of China-made toys. The company is int he process of acquiring the studio Entertainment One. [More](. +Streaming media firm Roku said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Boston-based dataxu, a video advertising platform that enables marketers to plan and buy campaigns, for $150 million in cash and stock. [More](. +Discovery Inc. on Tuesday unveiled the launch of entertainment streaming service dplay in the U.K. and Ireland as an advertising-supported offering, taking its reach to 10 markets. [More](. +Netflix is raising $2 billion in debt. The latest debt offering is meant to boost its war chest for content production and acquisitions, among other things.The news comes ahead of the launch of new streaming video rivals, including from Walt Disney and Apple, as Netflix continues to focus on producing original shows and movies and license select content from entertainment companies. [More](. ^Here's the final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In a neat bit of corporate synergy, Disney premiered the trailer during halftime of Monday Night Football on ESPN. Tickets for the film, conveniently, also went on sale Monday. [Watch the trailer here](. ►Scorsese keeps the criticism coming. At the premiere for The Irishman in Rome, the director once again railed against "theme park" and "comic book" films. "[R]ight now the theaters seem to be mainly supporting the theme park, amusement park, comic book films. They’re taking over the theaters," he said. "I think they can have those films; it’s fine. It’s just that that shouldn’t become what our young people believe is cinema. It just shouldn’t.” [The story](. +Meanwhile, the lineup of veteran directors giving the Marvel Cinematic Universe a kick (when prompted) trundles on. This time it's the turn of Ken Loach, who told Sky News "They're made as commodities like hamburgers, and it's not about communicating, and it's not about sharing our imagination," he said. "It's about making a commodity which will make a profit for a big corporation – they're a cynical exercise." [More](. +The Irishman will open the Cairo Film Festival Nov. 20. [More](. Elsewhere in film... --Female directors[represented 21 percent](of all directors of European films produced between 2003 and 2017, the European Audiovisual Observatory said Tuesday, highlighting that the share "in Europe is growing slowly." --The free speech documentary No Safe Spaces from Dennis Prager and Adam Carolla is [aiming to get a wider release]( in the wake of China controversies. --Bombshell: Charlize Theron, John Lithgow [on portraying]( real-life Fox News figures with "empathy." --The Aeronauts and The Two Popes [have been added]( to the Gala section of the AFI Fest lineup. They will screen at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. --The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced on Monday the sartorial legends [that will be on display]( as part of its costume collection, including costumes from Dracula and The Shining. Verizon To Give Away Disney+ ►Verizon, Disney ink Disney+ deal. In a major deal, Verizon and Disney will make one year of Disney+ available for free to all new and existing Verizon unlimited customers, and to new home internet customers. The partnership has the potential to supercharge Disney+ subscriber numbers, making the service free to tens of millions of households. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. [The story](. +Context: With the streaming landscape about to get significantly more competitive, new services are looking for ways to gain scale quickly. Apple is planning to offer a year of Apple TV+ with the purchase of new computers and iPhones, while Quibi partnered with T-Mobile this week. Comcast, meanwhile, plans to make NBCUniversal's Peacock available for free to cable subscribers. The question sure to bubble through Hollywood: What will AT&T do to give HBO Max instant scale? ►Banijay nears deal for Endemol Shine. Endemol Shine Group, the producer of hit shows such as Big Brother, MasterChef, Black Mirror and Peaky Blinders, is nearing a deal to be acquired by French production powerhouse Banijay Group. The combination would create a new production giant with production shingles in Europe and the U.S., as well as a large programming catalog. [The details](. ►Shari Redstone touts scale of ViacomCBS. In an interview at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference, Redstone says that the combined CBS and Viacom will be big enough to compete with giants like Netflix and Disney when the deal closes, likely in December. "I think a lot of times when people talk about scale, they talk about market cap. But scale matters whether or not you have the ability to create quantity of content and quality of content," Redstone said in the interview, which was streamed. "Between the library we have, the IP we have, the $13 billion we spend on content every year, we can compete with the best of them." --Redstone also addressed South Park's China controversy, acknowledging that "China is a very important market to us" but that the company balances its interests. "I wouldn’t say they went out of their way to irritate China," she said. "If you take a look at South Park, they are very satirical in everything that they do. I think they have a point of view and a perspective, and frankly that is what makes them so successful. I support our content creators in what they do." In other business news... +Hasbro on Tuesday missed Wall Street estimates for its third-quarter earnings due in part to to the impact on domestic retail sales of enacted and delayed U.S. tariffs of China-made toys. The company is int he process of acquiring the studio Entertainment One. [More](. +Streaming media firm Roku said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Boston-based dataxu, a video advertising platform that enables marketers to plan and buy campaigns, for $150 million in cash and stock. [More](. +Discovery Inc. on Tuesday unveiled the launch of entertainment streaming service dplay in the U.K. and Ireland as an advertising-supported offering, taking its reach to 10 markets. [More](. +Netflix is raising $2 billion in debt. The latest debt offering is meant to boost its war chest for content production and acquisitions, among other things.The news comes ahead of the launch of new streaming video rivals, including from Walt Disney and Apple, as Netflix continues to focus on producing original shows and movies and license select content from entertainment companies. [More](. ^Here's the final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In a neat bit of corporate synergy, Disney premiered the trailer during halftime of Monday Night Football on ESPN. Tickets for the film, conveniently, also went on sale Monday. [Watch the trailer here](. ►Scorsese keeps the criticism coming. At the premiere for The Irishman in Rome, the director once again railed against "theme park" and "comic book" films. "[R]ight now the theaters seem to be mainly supporting the theme park, amusement park, comic book films. They’re taking over the theaters," he said. "I think they can have those films; it’s fine. It’s just that that shouldn’t become what our young people believe is cinema. It just shouldn’t.” [The story](. +Meanwhile, the lineup of veteran directors giving the Marvel Cinematic Universe a kick (when prompted) trundles on. This time it's the turn of Ken Loach, who told Sky News "They're made as commodities like hamburgers, and it's not about communicating, and it's not about sharing our imagination," he said. "It's about making a commodity which will make a profit for a big corporation – they're a cynical exercise." [More](. +The Irishman will open the Cairo Film Festival Nov. 20. [More](. Elsewhere in film... --Female directors[represented 21 percent](of all directors of European films produced between 2003 and 2017, the European Audiovisual Observatory said Tuesday, highlighting that the share "in Europe is growing slowly." --The free speech documentary No Safe Spaces from Dennis Prager and Adam Carolla is [aiming to get a wider release]( in the wake of China controversies. --Bombshell: Charlize Theron, John Lithgow [on portraying]( real-life Fox News figures with "empathy." --The Aeronauts and The Two Popes [have been added]( to the Gala section of the AFI Fest lineup. They will screen at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. --The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced on Monday the sartorial legends [that will be on display]( as part of its costume collection, including costumes from Dracula and The Shining. [HBO 'Watchmen' Ratings] HBO 'Watchmen' Ratings ►Who watches Watchmen? About 1.5 million people watched the HBO comic book adaptation on Sunday night, with nearly half of that number watching after its initial 9 pm airing. "That's a 21 percent improvement on the finale of Succession the previous week and the biggest first-airing audience for any HBO series since the Big Little Lies finale (1.98 million) in July," [Rick Porter writes](. +Nielsen is measuring Amazon Prime Video shows now. The first show to receive treatment under Nielsen's SVOD Content Ratings? The Boys, which debuted July 26. Nielsen says the Sony-produced show averaged 4.1 million viewers per episode over its first 10 days. Rick Porter [has the details](. +In other ratings news: The annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode — and an NFL lead-in — helped The Simpsons score Sunday's best adults 18-49 rating, not including NFL broadcasts. NBC's Sunday Night Football, meanwhile, rebounded from a season low and hit its biggest audience in three weeks. [The numbers](. Casting roundup: FX's pilot The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges, [has added]( Alia Shawkat to its cast... Ozuna, the Latin trap and reggaeton singer, [has been cast]( in Fast & Furious 9... Joseph Mawle has[joined the cast]( of Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV series, as its villain... In development: Monica Lewinsky is going into business with HBO Max. The former Clinton impeachment figure-turned-activist [will executive produce]( a documentary called 15 Minutes of Shame along with director Max Joseph. Both will also appear on camera as they take an in-depth look at the "public shaming epidemic in our culture"... Katie Cappiello and Beau Willimon are teaming to adapt the former's 2013 play Slut for Netflix. Picked up straight to series with a 10-episode order, the Netflix drama [will be called]( Grand Army... Amy Poehler is expanding her relationship with NBC. The Making It host and exec producer [has set up]( thriller The Mother-in-Law at the network... Elsewhere in TV... --Daniel Fienberg reviews season two of [Hulu's Castle Rock](. --Disney+ boss Ricky Strauss on the streamer's nonfiction content, and [opting out]( of the binge model. --Here's [a new trailer]( for season three of Netflix's The Crown. --Ratings: HBO 'Watchmen' Ratings ►Who watches Watchmen? About 1.5 million people watched the HBO comic book adaptation on Sunday night, with nearly half of that number watching after its initial 9 pm airing. "That's a 21 percent improvement on the finale of Succession the previous week and the biggest first-airing audience for any HBO series since the Big Little Lies finale (1.98 million) in July," [Rick Porter writes](. +Nielsen is measuring Amazon Prime Video shows now. The first show to receive treatment under Nielsen's SVOD Content Ratings? The Boys, which debuted July 26. Nielsen says the Sony-produced show averaged 4.1 million viewers per episode over its first 10 days. Rick Porter [has the details](. +In other ratings news: The annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode — and an NFL lead-in — helped The Simpsons score Sunday's best adults 18-49 rating, not including NFL broadcasts. NBC's Sunday Night Football, meanwhile, rebounded from a season low and hit its biggest audience in three weeks. [The numbers](. Casting roundup: FX's pilot The Old Man, starring Jeff Bridges, [has added]( Alia Shawkat to its cast... Ozuna, the Latin trap and reggaeton singer, [has been cast]( in Fast & Furious 9... Joseph Mawle has[joined the cast]( of Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV series, as its villain... In development: Monica Lewinsky is going into business with HBO Max. The former Clinton impeachment figure-turned-activist [will executive produce]( a documentary called 15 Minutes of Shame along with director Max Joseph. Both will also appear on camera as they take an in-depth look at the "public shaming epidemic in our culture"... Katie Cappiello and Beau Willimon are teaming to adapt the former's 2013 play Slut for Netflix. Picked up straight to series with a 10-episode order, the Netflix drama [will be called]( Grand Army... Amy Poehler is expanding her relationship with NBC. The Making It host and exec producer [has set up]( thriller The Mother-in-Law at the network... Elsewhere in TV... --Daniel Fienberg reviews season two of [Hulu's Castle Rock](. --Disney+ boss Ricky Strauss on the streamer's nonfiction content, and [opting out]( of the binge model. --Here's [a new trailer]( for season three of Netflix's The Crown. --Ratings: [Da'Vine Joy Randolph On 'Dolemite'] Da'Vine Joy Randolph On 'Dolemite' ►How Dolemite Is My Name co-star Da'Vine Joy Randolph went "toe-to-toe" with Eddie Murphy. Rebecca Keegan speaks to Randolph, who plays Lady Reed in the film about how she learned about the project, which releases on Netflix Oct. 25. Quote: "On the male-heavy set, Randolph advocated for a nuanced portrait of Lady Reed — to show that she was Moore's confidante and, as a single mother earning a paycheck through her wit and wiles, a powerful figure. 'The director, writers, cast — it was all men, the whole set,' Randolph says. 'I felt a responsibility as a woman to impart this information.'" [The story.]( Disney is trying to stop female workers from joining together for a pay bias lawsuit. Eriq Gardner writes about a legal case that could have wide-reaching implications. Quote: "The Walt Disney Company is certainly a huge corporation. But is it so big that it is impossible to resolve in court whether Disney's female workforce at large suffers from discriminatory pay? In Los Angeles Superior Court, the entertainment giant is basically telling a judge that the answer to this question is yes. Disney is now demanding that women suing it for allegedly violating California Fair Pay Act do so on an individual basis." [The story](. +Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom and her husband, writer-producer Daniel Gregor, have discovered serious defects in their home and claim the company that flipped the home and sold it to them deliberately concealed the issues. They allege Raul Menjivar is using "various fly-by-night" entities to run a fraudulent house-flipping scheme with the help of his associates, one of whom, Matt Leinart, is a Fox Sports analyst, according to a complaint filed Monday in L.A. County Superior Court. [The story](. +HBO wants another shot at convincing a court that the Michael Jackson Estate can't go to arbitration over its Emmy-winning sex abuse documentary Leaving Neverland. On Monday, the pay network filed paperwork for a high-stakes appeal. [More](. ►On Broadway: Frank Scheck reviews Only Human, the pop-rock musical starring Gary Busey as God. "Wearing a sharp, light blue suit, [Busey] doesn't so much give a performance as project an above-it-all attitude, which admittedly feels appropriate for his role. You can see him visibly struggling at times, even as he gives the impression that he's typecast as God." [The review](. +In other Broadway news: The Who's Tommy will return to Broadway in 2021. Producers Hal Luftig and Patrick Catullo announced Monday that the classic rock opera spawned out of the Brit rock royalty's 1969 concept album will return in a new production, again directed by Des McAnuff, who was instrumental in developing the material for the stage[. More](. Mumbai Film Festival: Mumbai's industry program initiative [discusses the role]( of festivals in the age of streaming... Changemakers authors on how [women are transforming]( Bollywood... How Slow Burn [captures the urban isolation]( found in Delhi... Clarification: In yesterday's newsletter, I shared a link to Lester Holt's interview with Mark Zuckerberg. While the clip was published yesterday morning, it was an excerpt from an interview that aired on NBC Nightly News, not Today. What else we're reading... --"Inside Apple’s high-flying bid to become a streaming giant" [[Wired](] --"Marvel strikes podcast deal with SiriusXM" [[WSJ](] --"Islamic State turns to teen-friendly TikTok, adorning posts with pink hearts" [[WSJ](] --"Local news is dying. New York may try to pass a law to save it" [[NY Times](] Today's birthdays: Christopher Lloyd, 81, Bill Condon, 64, Bob Odenkirk, 57, Deepak Chopra, 73, Jeff Goldblum, 67, Jennifer Lee, 48, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, 44. I had a typo in yesterday's newsletter. Judy Sheindlin is 77, not 7. Thanks for reading! I value your feedback. Email me at Alex.Weprin@thr.com with tips, suggestions and comments. Da'Vine Joy Randolph On 'Dolemite' ►How Dolemite Is My Name co-star Da'Vine Joy Randolph went "toe-to-toe" with Eddie Murphy. Rebecca Keegan speaks to Randolph, who plays Lady Reed in the film about how she learned about the project, which releases on Netflix Oct. 25. Quote: "On the male-heavy set, Randolph advocated for a nuanced portrait of Lady Reed — to show that she was Moore's confidante and, as a single mother earning a paycheck through her wit and wiles, a powerful figure. 'The director, writers, cast — it was all men, the whole set,' Randolph says. 'I felt a responsibility as a woman to impart this information.'" [The story.]( Disney is trying to stop female workers from joining together for a pay bias lawsuit. Eriq Gardner writes about a legal case that could have wide-reaching implications. Quote: "The Walt Disney Company is certainly a huge corporation. But is it so big that it is impossible to resolve in court whether Disney's female workforce at large suffers from discriminatory pay? In Los Angeles Superior Court, the entertainment giant is basically telling a judge that the answer to this question is yes. Disney is now demanding that women suing it for allegedly violating California Fair Pay Act do so on an individual basis." [The story](. +Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom and her husband, writer-producer Daniel Gregor, have discovered serious defects in their home and claim the company that flipped the home and sold it to them deliberately concealed the issues. They allege Raul Menjivar is using "various fly-by-night" entities to run a fraudulent house-flipping scheme with the help of his associates, one of whom, Matt Leinart, is a Fox Sports analyst, according to a complaint filed Monday in L.A. County Superior Court. [The story](. +HBO wants another shot at convincing a court that the Michael Jackson Estate can't go to arbitration over its Emmy-winning sex abuse documentary Leaving Neverland. On Monday, the pay network filed paperwork for a high-stakes appeal. [More](. ►On Broadway: Frank Scheck reviews Only Human, the pop-rock musical starring Gary Busey as God. "Wearing a sharp, light blue suit, [Busey] doesn't so much give a performance as project an above-it-all attitude, which admittedly feels appropriate for his role. You can see him visibly struggling at times, even as he gives the impression that he's typecast as God." [The review](. +In other Broadway news: The Who's Tommy will return to Broadway in 2021. Producers Hal Luftig and Patrick Catullo announced Monday that the classic rock opera spawned out of the Brit rock royalty's 1969 concept album will return in a new production, again directed by Des McAnuff, who was instrumental in developing the material for the stage[. More](. Mumbai Film Festival: Mumbai's industry program initiative [discusses the role]( of festivals in the age of streaming... Changemakers authors on how [women are transforming]( Bollywood... How Slow Burn [captures the urban isolation]( found in Delhi... Clarification: In yesterday's newsletter, I shared a link to Lester Holt's interview with Mark Zuckerberg. While the clip was published yesterday morning, it was an excerpt from an interview that aired on NBC Nightly News, not Today. What else we're reading... --"Inside Apple’s high-flying bid to become a streaming giant" [[Wired](] --"Marvel strikes podcast deal with SiriusXM" [[WSJ](] --"Islamic State turns to teen-friendly TikTok, adorning posts with pink hearts" [[WSJ](] --"Local news is dying. New York may try to pass a law to save it" [[NY Times](] Today's birthdays: Christopher Lloyd, 81, Bill Condon, 64, Bob Odenkirk, 57, Deepak Chopra, 73, Jeff Goldblum, 67, Jennifer Lee, 48, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, 44. I had a typo in yesterday's newsletter. Judy Sheindlin is 77, not 7. Thanks for reading! I value your feedback. Email me at Alex.Weprin@thr.com with tips, suggestions and comments. 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