Schrödinger’s Streamers, Haley’s Donor Paradox, Zaz’s WBD Swoon

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon medley of Puck’s latest reporting.

First up today, data guru Julia Alexander circles the five streamers likely bound for the ash heap as the long-promised era of entertainment consolidation finally arrives.

Plus, below the fold: Teddy Schleifer digs into the Nikki Haley donor paradox and the arc of Marc Andreessen’s “radicalization.” Baratunde Thurston pinpoints when Black voters began souring on Biden. On The Town, Matt Belloni and Ben Thompson offer a refreshingly clear-eyed assessment of Hollywood’s latest A.I. freakout. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Dylan Byers ponder Don Lemon’s massive CNN payout, before revealing what the smart money is really saying about David Zaslav’s WBD swoon.

JULIA ALEXANDER

The first real signs of streaming consolidation are upon us. Five niche players, in particular, seem most vulnerable to the next wave.

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TEDDY SCHLEIFER

Nikki Haley is facing zero donor pressure to drop out of the race, but where does this end? Plus, a few new details on Marc Andreessen’s “radicalization” and lunch with Ron DeSantis.

BARATUNDE THURSTON

The president’s reelection problem is deeper than his team realizes. If Biden wants to hold on to the White House, and defeat Donald Trump, he’ll need to understand the Black community in a whole new way.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Matt is joined by Stratechery founder Ben Thompson to discuss Open AI’s new text-to-video model Sora and the ensuing Hollywood freakout. They discuss which departments will be disrupted the most, how Sora and text-to-video models can be used as a productivity tool, and how the major studios should deal with this new era in technology.