Sony’s ‘Web’ Disaster, NBA Rights Showdown, Stewart’s Surge

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon inventory of Puck’s finest reporting.

Today, we lead with Dylan Byers’ inside account of the shake-up on West 66th Street: Disney’s promotion of Debra OConnell to oversee ABC News, and the layering of polarizing network president Kim Godwin.

Plus, below the fold: Bill Cohan delivers the kremlinology behind Warren Buffett dumping Paramount. Scott Mendelson runs the numbers on Sony’s superhero strategy after Madame Web’s grim opening. On The Town, Matt Belloni chats with Neon boss Tom Quinn about the fine art of mounting a budget Oscar campaign. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Jon Kelly rummage through a candy bowl of media goodies: Jon Stewart’s revival, the NBA rights showdown, Berkshire’s Paramount sell-off, and more.

DYLAN BYERS

Fresh reporting from inside West 66th Street on Disney’s promotion of Debra OConnell to oversee ABC News—and, of course, the layering of network president Kim Godwin.

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WILLIAM D. COHAN

The Oracle of Omaha, presumably pissed that his underlings did the Paramount deal in the first place, is cutting his losses and apparently voting with his feet on a sale process run by his old banker, Byron Trott. Plus: Peltz’s defeat.

SCOTT MENDELSON

After decades of trying to expand the Spider-Verse into a true Marvel franchise, ‘Madame Web’ should be a wake-up call that it’s time for Sony to move on.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Matt is joined by Neon founder Tom Quinn to talk about the thesis for launching Neon, the difficulty of starting a theatrical distribution company centered around adult-oriented movies in 2017, how they are able to compete financially with other major studios’ Oscar campaigns, and more.