Latest / Studio Signal / Studio Signal — Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Transcript
- Good morning, I'm Kai Rivers and this is Studio Signal — your daily M&E intelligence briefing, brought to you by Harkins Capital. Let's get into it. Alright studio fam, it is Tuesday, April 28th, and we are kicking off with a massive deal in the music world. BMG and Concord are merging. This is a huge tie-up in the indie space, creating a new powerhouse that will operate under the BMG name. The new company is projected to have an estimated two billion dollars in revenue, and it brings an incredible collection of catalogs under one roof. We're talking artists like Jelly Roll and Tina Turner alongside the catalogs for classics like The Sound of Music. BMG's parent company, Bertelsmann, will own about two-thirds of the new entity. This isn't about creating another major label... they're saying the strategy is to use their new scale to strengthen their independent, artist-first model. A very big move to watch. Next up, let's talk earnings. Comcast is having a pretty good morning after beating Wall Street's expectations for revenue in the first quarter. But the real story here is broadband. They saw a significant improvement in customer losses compared to last year, suggesting their new strategy is starting to work. It's a sign of life for a legacy business that has been under pressure for years. The company's stock is up a little over one percent on the news, as investors are clearly happy to see some stabilization in that core connectivity business. Meanwhile, the Tribeca Festival is leaning hard into a mix of nostalgia and current-gen star power. The 2026 festival is set to feature reunion conversations for iconic films like 'Taxi Driver' and 'Bridget Jones's Diary.' But it's not all about looking back. Katy Perry is also set to premiere her new concert film, 'Lifetimes Tour – Live in Paris,' followed by a conversation with the pop star herself. And they've booked a whole slate of live talks with names like Sean Penn, Paul Rudd, and Keke Palmer. It's a classic festival strategy... use the legends to bring in one audience, and the current A-listers to grab another. And just a quick heads up for all you theater fans... the Tony Award nominations are coming up fast. Tony winner Darren Criss and nominee Uzo Aduba are set to announce the contenders live next Tuesday, May 5th. It is a lot to keep track of, and if you want this level of intel every single morning, we've got you. The first one thousand users get their first month of Studio Signal Pro completely free. Just use the promo code STUDIO at checkout. Alright, let's check the pulse of the M&E market before we wrap up. It's a rough day out there for the sector, which is down over one percent on average, with about twenty-one companies in the red. The biggest story by far is Spotify, which is getting hammered today, down a massive thirteen and a half percent. That's a direct reaction to their earnings report this morning. Even though they beat on profit, they missed on revenue and gave a weak outlook for subscriber growth in the next quarter, and Wall Street is punishing them for it. Following that trend, we're seeing other tech and streaming names get hit. CoreWeave is down more than five percent, Nvidia is down just over three percent, and Roku is down almost two and a half percent. Even AMC is down a little over two percent. It’s a pretty clear risk-off day, driven by that weak guidance from a major streaming player. That's your signal for today. I'm Kai Rivers — thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you tomorrow.