In today’s newsletter we discuss the Streaming Wars vs. Cord Cutting, Celebs Skinnydipping, FAA vs. SpaceX, Barbie’s $1.38 Billion shopping spree, and skyhigh mortgage rates.

Business

Traditional TV is dead (or maybe that's a little bit of hyperbole, but it's definitely not where the cool kids hang out). Streaming is where it's at in the sports world, and the NFL gets it. They are leading the streaming revolution with partnerships with Disney's ESPN+, Google's YouTube TV, Amazon's Prime, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

I consider myself a bit of an early adopter. Our family's house cut the cord from cable about 2 years ago. I figured I could get by with an over-the-air HD antenna, but I quickly realized the signal was spotty and I was missing Thursday night games that aired on Amazon's Prime starting last year. So looking at the options I went with Google's YouTube TV which we signed up for and kept for the entire NFL season until the super bowl had aired in February, at which time we paused our subscription only to be renewed in August so we could again start with the NFL's preseason games. And I'm hardly alone. Over the last year I've had dozens of conversations with friends and family who made a similar switch. And these big media companies get it. They might have been slow to acknowledge the change, but change they have. In many cases they are not only airing NFL games on traditional TV, but also on the various streaming services each media company owns and are promoting.

Like I said earlier, streaming is where it's at, and that NFL is determined to lead from the front.

NFL games are shifting away from traditional TV. Are you ready to stream some football?

Tech

A star-studded roster of A-list celebs have invested in startup SkinnyDipped’s Series A venture round. Founded by Mother-and-daughter Val and Breezy Griffith in 2016 the team has taken Skinny Dipped from humble beginnings to more than 25,000 retail stores nationwide, including Target, Walmart and Kroger.

Celebrity investors in their Series A funding round include Amy Schumer, Mark Wahlberg, Becky G, Post Malone, Tan France, Odell Beckham Jr., Frances Tiafoe, Alesso, Kevin Durant, Kaskade, Steve Aoki and Marshmello.

Amy Schumer, Mark Wahlberg among SkinnyDipped’s star-studded $12M Series A

Space

Calling the FAA! Anyone there? SpaceX has taken all of the required corrective actions required by the FAA, but still they haven’t received approval to launch another test flight of its Starship Super Heavy launch vehicle. In a not so subtle jab at the FAA Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X “Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval.” (Hint Hint Hint).

What I always find ironic is when it comes to the government one hand doesn’t always know what the other one is doing. So let me break it down for you. On one hand you have the FAA taking its own sweet time in approving every new launch of SpaceX’s Starship Super Heavy launch vehicle, but on the other hand you have NASA who wants to return to the moon as early as 2025. Now in my opinion NASA is never going to return to the moon if they rely solely on their Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, which seem to be delayed indefinitely versus SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets that launch multiple times a week. This is the same cadence that SpaceX is building towards with their Starship Super Heavy launch vehicles. Now if only the FAA could move out of the way.

SpaceX is not yet cleared for another Starship Super Heavy test flight, FAA says

Entertainment

You know I’m a sucker for a good business story about a franchise, and the Barbie movie does not disappoint. With its blockbuster haul of over $1.38 billion at the global box office you just know they’ll be coming out with a never ending line of sequels. But Mattel, the company behind Barbie who’s owned the IP since 1959, is no one-hit wonder. The company has no less than 14 movies in development (which I mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter) (INSERT LINK).

Mattel is slated to earn 5% of Barbie’s box office revenue, which for the math-challenged like me that comes out to roughly $69 million. When all is tallied up including direct movie participation plus sales of toys and consumer products, they are projecting a haul of $125 million when all is said and done.

Mattel CEO Talks ‘Barbie’ Economics, Calls Film A “Template” For Toymaker’s IP Strategy

Real Estate

Have you been wondering why that house down the road has been on the market a lot longer than you thought it would take to sell? Thank skyhigh mortgage rates of 7.35% for taking homeowners long to sell. And now these high mortgage rates have resulted in mortgage demand dropping to a 27 year low even as rates have begun to drop ever so slightly in recent weeks.

According to Joel Kan, an MBA economist, “Mortgage applications declined to the lowest level since December 1996, despite a drop in mortgage rates. Rates remained more than a full percentage point higher than a year ago, despite mixed data on the health of the economy and signs of a cooling job market.”

Just about the only good news as a result of high mortgage interest rates has been the cooling of the real estate market which have been rising ever since the early dates of Covid, but now appear to be easing.

Mortgage demand drops to 27-year low as interest rates pull back

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris