| Most of the companies vying to be the next home of the Oscars won't surprise you. Walt Disney's ABC has aired the show for almost five decades. Comcast's NBCUniversal is hungry for more live events. Netflix is Netflix. Amazon is spending a lot of money on live programming and original movies. And Paramount's CBS just lost the Grammys. But there is one surprise: YouTube. The Google-owned video site has inquired about buying the rights to the Academy Awards, according to two people familiar with the matter. YouTube has demonstrated a growing interest in live events, acquiring the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket and bidding on other live sports. Just this week it crowed about how many people watched the New Heights podcast live, thanks to Taylor Swift. Supplanting ABC and Disney as the official home of the Academy Awards — Hollywood's most prestigious awards show — would be a huge statement from YouTube and a shock to the industry. YouTube was considered a thieving pariah not too long ago. It would also be very loud, which is the whole point. Shifting the program to YouTube would generate a lot of attention for a show that has been losing relevance each year. YouTube is the single most-watched video platform in the world and the king of all media. It could deliver eyeballs and offer a giant global platform. That doesn't mean YouTube will get the rights. The show will air on ABC through at least 2028, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences is in the middle of negotiations. Many of the bidders can offer both a broadcast network and a streaming service. At least three of the bidders own major movie studios that prioritize theaters. But the Oscars is a TV show and Hollywood is all about the bottom line. Stay tuned. Netflix won the summer movie season?Happy Gilmore 2 delivered the biggest opening weekend ever for a streaming movie, according to Nielsen. The picture generated 2.9 billion minutes of viewing the week it debuted. Given the two-hour run time, that equates to about 24 million people in the US watching the film. (For the sake of an unfair comparison, about 11 million people went to see the biggest movie in theaters that weekend, the new Fantastic 4.) We can put all sorts of caveats on this. The number is US-only. The movie garnered 46.7 million views worldwide that week, per Netflix. But a hit is a hit. It's worth noting that despite all the hysteria about Netflix movies having no cultural impact, the streaming service had two of the biggest films of the summer — Happy Gilmore 2 and KPop Demon Hunters. The latter is on pace to be the most-watched Netflix original movie ever. That is more big pictures than Paramount or Sony, which produced Demon Hunters, and is about equal to Warner Bros., Disney and Universal. (Matt Belloni has a fun read on why Sony didn't release the project itself.) Certain filmmakers still want their film in theaters. See the Greta Gerwig kerfuffle. Avid moviegoers, like me, still prefer to go to a theater. A lot of customers watch at home. The best of Screentime (and other stuff) | David Ellison invited about two dozen members of the press to the Paramount Pictures lot this past week for a dog and pony show. The new CEO hosted a press conference, flanked by three deputies on each side, and then a lunch. Reporters and executives picked up food from a few stations — La Scala chopped salads, super food bowls, tacos — and scattered across several tables outside to interrogate executives, all of whom were flanked by PR handlers. Everyone was very on message. They answered every other question with "Well, it's only the first week." If they said something interesting that elicited a follow-up, they tended to fall back on that same opening. Still, give Ellison credit for putting the full leadership team out there in front of the lions. Ellison is trying to communicate that it's a new day at Paramount. The company is going to spend money and make bold decisions. He re-upped South Park in a $1.25 billion deal. He just committed $7.7 billion to UFC. And he's taking the creators of Stranger Things away from Netflix. Ellison wants to communicate that the place is open for business and will be releasing more movies and producing more TV shows (at least for streaming). At the same time, he is going to cut costs dramatically. Paramount will fire hundreds, if not thousands of people, in one fell swoop. The company is going to cut back on programming for linear TV and sell non-core assets like real estate and international TV networks. Everyone in Hollywood is rooting for this guy to succeed. Paramount has been a sad story for many years. Spotify makes another play for videoSpotify signed a new deal with music publisher Kobalt earlier this week. What it didn't say is that it obtained the rights to show premium music videos in the US. Spotify has been trying to introduce music videos but needs songwriters to approve that in the US. The company now has deals with most of the major publishers — but not all of them. What's hot in South KoreaWhile the US has done a great job of exporting its programming all over the world, it faces growing competition from local producers. That is especially true of South Korea, which produces some of the most popular TV shows all over the world. The country has exported its hits across Asia and even into the US. South Koreans mostly watch their own products. Korean programming accounts for 88% of viewing on major Korean streaming services. The US is second — at just 8%, per Media Partners Asia.  Media Partners Asia Deals, deals, deals - Fox and ESPN are bundling their streaming services together for $40 a month. Pay half price for half the sports.
- Sinclair Inc., one of the largest TV station owners in the US, has begun a strategic review that could result in sale or breakup of the company. Add them to the list of station owners looking to take advantage of a new day at the FCC.
- PBS is cutting its budget by 21% after federal funding cuts.
- Netflix's head of consumer products, Josh Simon, is becoming CEO of Funko Inc.
- Roblox has been sued (again) for failing to protect children. The shares tumbled.
A shoutout to my former editor Lew Harris, who has me listening to Charlie Mingus while I write. | 
Mashadipati Location Hotel Clove is located in the heart of Bandung, in a ...
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