Mickey Mouse puts copyright woes to bed with Disney-OpenAI deal Tech Disney’s $1bn investment in OpenAI, coupled with a three year licensing deal for over 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars characters on Sora, constitutes a seismic shift in how Hollywood thinks about content creation and copyright. Last week’s announcement, long anticipated since CEO Bog Iger hinted at AI plans, marks the first time a [...]
‘Luke Littler is the Tiger Woods of darts. He’s made the sport aspirational’ Sport Business When Target Darts, which supplies and now manages Luke Littler, decided to test the sport’s popularity with younger audiences by exhibiting at the London Toy Fair for the first time earlier this year, the company hit a bullseye. “We made quite a bit of noise,” Target group CEO James Tattersall tells City AM. “We put [...]
The happiest race on earth? My Disney World half marathon Life&Style I’m sweating in more places than I thought possible. I can feel warm, salty beads slither their way from the back of my head to the top of my arse. I’ve been running on a closed Florida highway for four miles since 5am and I’m ready to lie in the middle of the road and [...]
Trump’s film tariffs could be a real test for the UK’s creative economy September 30, 2025 The UK’s film and television sector is a significant component of the national economy, and its future is now a central topic in transatlantic trade talks. US President Donald Trump has proposed a 100 per cent tariff on films produced outside the United States, a move he says is aimed at reversing what he calls [...]
NFL buys stake in Disney subsidiary ESPN in media asset swap August 6, 2025 The NFL is set to buy a minority stake in ESPN as the media giant takes control of American football’s NFL Network assets. The non-binding agreement, confirmed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, will see the NFL purchase a 10 per cent stake in the Walt Disney subsidiary and allow Disney to broadcast more [...]
Disney+ set to stream LaLiga matches in the UK and Ireland August 5, 2025 Disney is close to a deal to show LaLiga football matches to users in the UK and Ireland during the coming season, according to reports. La Liga is in advanced talks for Disney+ to stream one Spanish top-flight match a week, according to people familiar with the matter cited by the Financial Times. Five English [...]
Disney+ adverts help House of Mouse rake in £4bn June 30, 2025 The introduction of adverts on Disney+ has helped sales near the £4bn mark at the House of Mouse’s European arm, it has been revealed. The Walt Disney Company has posted a turnover of £3.9bn for the 12 months to 28 September, 2024, up from the £3.8bn it achieved in the prior year. New accounts filed [...]
Elio review: Pixar is back with spectacular space adventure June 17, 2025 Whisper it: Pixar is back. After a disastrous pandemic period, where quality films like Soul and Turning Red were buried on streaming, followed by the epic failure of 2022’s Lightyear, the iconic animation studio has got back to something like its best. After Elemental became a sleeper hit in 2023, the masterful Inside Out 2 [...]
Pinewood gets Netflix, Disney and Amazon boost amid Trump’s tariffs threat June 12, 2025 Deals with Netflix, Disney and Amazon have given iconic film studio group Pinewood a significant financial boost ahead of US President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs. For the 12 months to 31 March, 2025, Pinewood Group has reported a turnover of £213.1m, up from the £146.4m it achieved in the prior year. Pinewood pointed to long [...]
Why Thunderbolts is the best Marvel movie in ages April 30, 2025 It’s a time of great peril in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The world’s biggest film franchise has struggled ever since Avengers: Endgame, a fact highlighted by March’s Captain America: Brave New World. The drab action thriller that illustrated every superhero trope audiences have tired of. As the MCU looks to reset, could their saviours come [...]