Skydance Acquires Paramount, DCU Critiques, and Audible AI

Sentinel Online. Now loading the Geekcast radio

network of podcasts. Welcome to Altered Geek.

I'm your host, Steve Megatron Phillips. And joining

me on this adventure in geekdom is TFG1 Mike.

Hello. He's not waiting. Anyways. No, because

Gen Z has killed the art of everything. Oh no,

we might have a Gen Z war here. gen x versus

gen z why i don't know millennial versus yeah

gen z i'm an elder millennial so i can i can

talk smack you ruined my alphabet joke you stupid

elder millennial you ruined my alphabet joke

i'm an old man you stupid putz uh get off my

lawn you stupid redneck uh Anyways, yeah, what's

prompted that joke is there was a thing on social

media by Trevor Noah. It was like two months

ago. Yeah. We'll cover that in a later episode.

But yeah, it pertains to the art of waiting.

So you'll have to wait until that episode. So

until next time, we have been TFGO and Mike and

Steve Megatron. Yes. Long. Shortest episode ever.

Yeah. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween -er. This

week, there's been some interesting dynamics.

We have a lot. Yeah. And I think we can't really

talk about the first story without bringing up

one of the other stories. Okay. The Hundred Years.

yes yes yes that story I feel like we have to

cover first because otherwise this next one you

know also because they're all kind of tied true

very true so this week officially Skydance owns

Paramount and Warner Brothers like both of them

they owned Paramount before but they've merged

the two and their brand new company name is Skydance

which is kind of anticlimactic now it it's a

little weird but at the same time Viacom used

to own CBS and Paramount and Time Warner used

to own Warner Brothers so it's really not as

big of a deal as what everybody's making it out

to be I mean yeah it sucks that you know the

legacy name is now a subsidiary again but as

long as they don't dissolve the two brands and

keep them active underneath the, you know, the

parent brand, I think that's all that matters.

Cause I mean, they can, they can retitle it,

you know, instead of saying a Viacom company

or a Time Warner company or a, you know, discovery

company, just, you know, they can, they just

put, you know, a Skydance corporation, you know?

Yeah. So, I mean, it's not really that different.

They're just retitling the subtitle, letting

people know, Hey, we own this. Yeah, but it is

also kind of a big deal because you look at over

a hundred years ago when Warner Brothers and

Paramount were two individual studios warring

against each other, trying to get movies for

each for themselves. You go to Warner Brothers,

you had this set of movies. You go to Paramount,

you had this set of movies. You go to Warner

Brothers Television, you had this set of TV shows.

You go to Paramount and whatever it had under

its umbrella, you had this set of TV shows. Same

thing for animation and whatever else. That's

really not going to change other than the streaming

platform it goes under. Right. Well, that's a

whole other... kettle of fish but it my point

is is that yeah under skydance it's the difference

for me is that now that it's all under skydance

everything is going to co -mingle everything

is going to exist there is no more war there

is true competition in Hollywood media with these

two specific giants of movie and television animation,

whatever you want to say, media. Whereas a hundred

years ago, that's my point. They were fighting

for everything they could build up. A hundred

years later, here we are. dancing in the sky

kind of thing and i don't know i i watched a

youtube video earlier maybe i'll i'll shoot it

to you kind of speculating of how the whole streaming

thing is going to work and the streaming thing

isn't going to happen the streaming thing together

it's still currently as of right now in october

of 2026 it's still going to be hbo max it's still

going to be paramount plus until probably early,

mid -2027, they're not going to rush to create

an immediate streaming service that is separate.

Part of the issue, too, that I see with this,

so it's not like Amazon, where they own MGM,

or Sony, where they own Columbia, a bunch of

these legacy ones. Disney is a legacy one, but

they also own New Line, Fox, you name it. They've

got probably 50 other titles that are under them.

Netflix doesn't own any. You look at Comcast

owns NBC Universal, which is much similar to

the CBS Paramount. The only difference is they

made it profitable and they're going to spin

it off onto its own thing. Kind of like, all

right, we've helped you. Now you're back on your

own feet again. I could possibly see Netflix

purchasing that at this point because then you'd

have Amazon, Skydance, Disney, and Netflix. I'm

not asking for that. I'm saying I could see it

happening. I'm still holding out that I think

Netflix will buy Disney by like 2029. But that

being said, Skydance does have too many big labels

under it. They have Nickelodeon, they have Paramount,

they have Warner Brothers, they have DC, which

was bought by Warner Brothers at some point.

They have CBS, which if you're going to own CBS

and Paramount, great, whatever. I feel like it's

a little bit much to have the rest of them. The

HBO Max, HBO and Cinemax both used to be separate,

and then they got absorbed into Warner Brothers.

And then... Then you've got CNN, which I think

is Warner Brothers. Yeah. And I mean, it's I

don't know. It's just weird. It's every time

it's for media. Yeah, it's everything, dude.

It's I don't see it being a bad thing necessarily.

It just depends what they do now. Anybody that

thought they weren't going to lay people off.

are clueless because any company is going to

do that. First, they're going to make the purchase.

Second, they're going to cut costs. And they're

going to do it by combining the streaming services.

They're going to combine production teams, I'm

sure. They'll probably cobble from here and there.

I don't... Now, granted, Skydance has been in

co -production with Paramount on a buttload of

stuff for years. And for them to kind of be the

underdog and come out and just purchase them

is... of itself uh well i mean the the article

that i linked from nbc news specifically states

in just 16 years skydance has gone from an independent

studio to the center of one of hollywood's biggest

power plays founded in 2010 by the son of oracle

co -founder larry ellison it built its reputation

on financial backer and producer blockbuster

top gun maverick like 16 years that's because

daddy warbucks had the money to get him started

yes obviously but like 16 years like yeah whereas

it you know okay yeah i'm out was not was not

doing good no and neither was cbs and then the

fact that neither one of them were doing good

and then they re -merged they still not do good

There had to have been some insider trading on

this. Allegedly, there had to be some among all

of this because why else did it get to the point

that Skydance bought them and then Skydance throws

a hissy fit when Netflix was in the running to

buy Warner Brothers. And through this colossal

all year long tantrum until they finally succeeded.

Yep. which just goes to show if you've got enough

money, you've got enough time, and you throw

a big enough tantrum, you get what you want.

So, saying it as it is. But they named, I think

it's funny too, that they named the former Mattel

CEO as Skydance's co -CEO to run the day -to

-day operations and lead the integration, while

Ellison oversees creative direction and overall

strategy. Who knows where this is going? Well,

I'm sure this is going to be a fun developing

story over the next year. Yeah, the next year.

Let's see how this goes. Very interesting. Yeah.

So with that being said, we've also got, you

know, other news that's kind of in the realm

of Warner Brothers and DC specifically. And that

is the Batman Part 2 production. Yeah. Paused

as Matt Reeves steps away for personal reasons.

A studio on Monday released a statement on the

matter. Production on The Batman Part II has

been temporarily paused while Matt Reeves focuses

on a family matter. It said Matt has the full

support of DC Studios and we look forward to

continuing the journey soon. Prior to the pause,

filming had been underway and the film is set

to bow on February 18th, 2028. Sources say it

is too early to say whether the stoppage will

have an effect on the release date. I hope everything's

okay with him personally, whether it's him or

his family or whatever. I think it's a curse

of DC and the Bat films, to be honest. Because,

I mean, if you look at it like Justice League.

Yeah. What happened to... Snyder. Yeah. So I

hope it's nothing that serious, but... Yeah,

I hope it's nothing very serious at all. I just,

you know. But it seems like there's been a lot

of studio intervention, too, and that's why it's

been pushed out and pushed out and pushed out

and pushed out. It's like the thing that everybody's

asking for, but they're refusing to give anyone.

Yep. And so I'm sure there's been other culminations

on this that are unforeseen that nobody knows

about. Yeah. On other news, before we get to

the one on Gunn, have you seen the news about

Paramount? Specifically Spielberg and Michael

Bay? Yes. That they're going to put Spielberg

in a primary creative producer role, which I

hope that they get rid of Lorenzo. And then they

need to get rid of Bay, too. They need to just

reboot it, because without Cullen, these are

going to be really weird. The continuum. I...

I think they need to start over. And I think

that they need to take the aesthetics that they

had in the Bumblebee film. Yeah. I agree. These

messes of what look like garbled pieces of sheet

metal that turn into something solid of a robot

with an itty -bitty head. Yeah. It just doesn't...

I don't know. And each film got progressively

worse. Yeah. I forget who, who said it online.

So I'm sorry. I can't give you the proper credit

or whatever, but somebody was like, Oh, so Spielberg

and Bayer coming back to do the sequel to the

last night. And my first thought was, Oh, was

it Mike? Okay. Yeah. Of course it was earlier.

Yeah. Of course it was Mike. My first thought

was, Oh, so this is going to be the final night.

Oh, God. Michael Knight. No, don't you dare.

Don't you dare disrespect that name. Anyway.

They'll end up rebooting it and casting Stephen

Amell in that role because, you know, he's taking

over on Baywatch. I mean, you never know. It

may be that. You never know. It'd be like, oh,

he's going to take over all of those roles. You

know, if they would have just named Tyrese and

Duhamel, Conrad and Roadblood. Who was it? It

was Duke and is it not Ripcord? It's either Duke

and Roadblood. I forget. Somebody was like, oh,

the new G .I. Joe movie. If they would have just

named Josh Duhamel's character Duke and Tyrese's

character. it was either roadblock it wasn't

roadblock okay yeah they would have just done

that in the beginning and saved everybody some

time but then again the transformers gi joe oh

i don't know this whole hasbro thing the movies

like oh god can we just like take a moment to

breathe and like you said with with peter cullen

gone it's like how are they even going what are

they going to do with a transformers movie at

all like you i don't know no clue no clue whatsoever

yeah yeah and then and then we of course get

to the james gunn story yes so i was on instagram

and i was girl i was doom scrolling one night

and i found um the pod you were looking for podcast

instagram page with samuel kondracki and josh

gwent sorry josh if i screwed your last name

up uh james gunn and the cu uh well this is a

mouthful so i transcribed their video we will

have a link to their video in the show notes

they go ahead and say in this video James Gunn,

three years ago, came out and announced that

the first phase in the DCU, something he dubbed

Gods and Monsters. Oh, everybody sit down, boys

and girls. We're diving into Gods and Monsters.

Here's the slate that James Gunn read three years

ago to raving audiences. Are you ready for this?

Superman Legacy, underperformed by around $4

million. The Authority, canceled. Brave and the

Bold, production hell. Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow,

the biggest superhero flop of all time. Swamp

Thing, Creature Commandos, Waller, canceled.

Booster Gold being rewritten and canceled. Lanterns

releasing on TV when it probably should have

been a movie. Paradise Lost, canceled. I forget

which one. I think it might be Samuel. saying

this but i've been saying for the last year or

two year and two months now that uh james is

undoing would be what makes james gunn james

gunn i will be seated for man of tomorrow i'll

be seated for lanterns but when you don't understand

that the way this universe succeeds is in the

cinematic format is setting up the characters

that people know and you insist to us that we

would rather see a paradise lost show and three

seasons of creature commandos before we ever

see a cinematic version of your batman you lost

me and i'm the diehard and you're gonna lose

other people too i mean we keep talking about

there being no direction there is none well there's

a direction it's just the wrong one well yeah

he's prior he's prioritizing like obscure experimental

projects instead of building on major characters

that are known to make bank and why would you

make multiple seasons of shows that ultimately

are going to get forgotten from like third fourth

tier characters that while some you know a fringe

group may enjoy them and i can see peacemaker

people enjoying just because it's you know john

cena but But the other ones, like, I really don't

know what went through their skull. And I've

watched Lanterns. It's not very good. It's, they,

and I follow all the little critiques and everything

else online from people. And, you know, I've

seen people that enjoy it. I've seen people that

hate it. And the biggest gripe I have is it pits

Jon Stewart and Hal Jordan against each other

like enemies. and he calls him trainee and there's

a lot of swearing and then there's a lot of brutality

and then they barely use the rings. They've shown

the lanterns a couple times or the fact that

they can have holograms or the other one that

actually did constructs with Hal and then they

brought in Guy Gardner from the other one and

then he's been in there like guested twice for

like three minutes at a time and then it went

off on the other direction of finally passing

the torch and then like the season ends but like

the whole season just was a mess yeah yeah it's

like it's not what you'd expect either from the

characters like i it's it's totally different

like i feel like and this is this is a critique

on dc i feel like they should just stick with

animation they know animation they do it well

it's filmed they can flesh things out a little

bit better they can play around And they can

do things visually that they're apparently incapable

of doing on film in live action. And they get

the characterizations correct in animation. But

in live action, they're like, oh, we're going

to tweak this because, you know, assuming people

don't. It's like, OK, if Marvel can pull this

off, then why can't you? And Marvel's been pumping

out garbage for the last five years. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that was one of his other points. Now,

this. This post from the pod you're looking for

podcast came out before the Skydance thing went

through. So he does mention in the video about

David Zaslav and what else, but one of his other

points was just because Marvel was above mistakes

at the point that he was involved does not mean

that just because you got a piece of that pie

that it ends and you go out on your own. try

to do your own thing it's not gonna same way

you have to build yourself up to are you as a

creative are invincible kind of thing where yeah

he got a piece of that pie and he did well with

guardians for what the story was that he wanted

to tell with but yeah i don't know i'm not the

biggest james gunn fan i don't sing his praises

and for me it's what i've said for the last almost

18 years that i've been podcasting i don't follow

the people that like i don't follow the directors

i don't really i mean i follow some writers but

like it's what the writers do with the characters

it's the characters that i follow it's like like

if you tell me oh there's a new Nightwing comic.

OK, sure. I'm checking it out because there's

a new Dick Grayson Nightwing comic. And then

after that, I will look into who's writing it

and I will then fall in love with what the writer

is creating. Or maybe I won't. But you know what

I mean? It's but it's mainly because of, oh,

there's a new Nightwing thing. Oh, that's cool.

Let me check it out. It's because of the character

that I'm interested. It's not because of insert

person's name here is writing this. Exactly.

And it's almost like James Gunn is building it

around what audiences already, you know, instead

of building it around what they already want,

he's building it around the kinds of projects

that made him successful. Yeah. But not here.

No. If he wanted the creatures and the weird

stuff, he should have stayed where he was at

at Marvel. He did well with it with Guardians

and for what it was, it worked. I watched the

Matt Reeves one for the first time over the last

couple weeks. I can't remember what day I watched

it, but it's not my favorite either. There were

elements I liked. I liked a little bit of the

detective part. I liked a little bit of the thing

that stuff that he had in it. And each actor

brings something different to the role. I'm not

denying that or knocking Pattinson for his role.

I didn't love the film in general. Or the portrayal

of the Riddler. The whole... None of the backdrop.

I didn't really love... Plus, it was so dark.

I would like something that's kind of a happy

medium between Keaton's and West's something.

I mean, for crying out loud, and I've had this

discussion with people on Twitter, why can they

not take the ideas and the characterizations

from the Timverse, the DCAU, and just replicate

it? It's not difficult. They have the master

blueprint right there. Take that. Take the costumes.

Take the designs. Take the acting. of course

put their own spin on it, but at least you have

the bones. You literally have the bones there.

Why? I don't know what to tell you, dude. They

want to do their own separate thing in live action.

And they wonder why it's all flopping. Like a

dead fish. And then they try and say, oh, it

performed well. Okay, on what standard? like

if you look at nielsen it's not it's not performing

it may perform on the streaming platform because

people don't have to pay to watch it yep so it's

it's one of those things for me like it's like

okay can we can we do this right like i don't

know like we'll i guess we'll see and on the

flip side of the superhero coin on the marvel

side speaking of superheroes Avengers Secret

Wars filming delay reports spark concern that

the Marvel's Marvel Saga finale may be postponed

again. You mess with time, it tends to mess back.

Reports of an Avengers Secret Wars filming delay

have sparked concern among Marvel fans that the

date could be pushed back. saga finale will now

be planned after previously being set to start

last month. Serial MCU tipsters Daniel Richman,

Alex Perez, and Apocalyptic Horseman appear to

have independently verified the secret shooting

will now take place in early 2027, likely in

January, sparking concern among fans about the

impact this holdup will potentially have. So

this story, I found this on IGN, and everyone

should know the sound of my podcast after all

these years, the history that this network has

with IGN. But the only, I don't know, the only

real source I found in this article is Reddit.

I don't trust that hive of scum and villainy

as an actual news story. They are. I'm not saying

they aren't, but as a corroborating source, I

don't know. They're MCU tipsters. Yeah, I don't

know. I don't know. I've heard of Alex Perez

before. The other names, they don't sound familiar.

Okay. Either way. If it is delayed, and it does

delay the release, because here's the thing,

if the Secret Wars filming delay happens the

other the reason why the filming delay is possibly

going to happen is because people going to be

what's the cast going to be doing the cast is

going to be doing doomsday press right but why

would they be doing it after like like a long

time after like that's that's what i'm wondering

Plus, Secret Wars was rumored to get delayed

anyway because Anthony Mackie is doing a play

until June. Yeah, that's true. I would believe

that more than I would believe this random...

It's being delayed, but there's no reason of

why. It's probably also, if they're delaying

it, it's going to give it time if there's backlash

that they can fix something. True, yeah. That's

my other thing is I think that they're hedging

their bets on this movie and hoping that it makes

bank. And it will because people are going to

be curious what they're doing with it. Bringing

back all the legacy characters that they can

and going from there. But it begs to differ of

what they're going to do. Yeah, we'll see. We

will see. There's that. And then you use letterbox.

You mentioned to me off. Do you use it? I don't

know. I have used it. Okay. I don't. So this

is the, this is the thing. Like it's, it's basically

like a social media platform for films. Yeah.

Just to track what you've watched, which in that

regard, like, okay. Like I've probably forgotten

more movies than I've seen. You know, I I've

seen probably I've had it backwards. I've seen

more movies than I probably remember, but. in

this regard like this type of a site is great

and I do have a membership here that being said

if you're trying to go back in time it's a little

tedious plus you can also mark you know the films

as like you know I've you know add it to a watch

list you can review it so a lot of people what

they do is they review it and go from there and

so it's like okay you know is is what it is there

But I also was able to take and import majority

of the movies that I had on my owned list into

it. Okay. But I also foresee this being a prime

example of something. Because it's powered by

TMDB, the movie database. It's using an API from

that. Yep. There's been rumors of it getting

bought out by Paramount. There's rumors of it

getting bought out by Amazon. There's been rumors.

Now, if it got bought out by Amazon, it's just

further building the IMDb engine. And IMDb basically

pulls the same data that IMDb does minus, you

know, it's missing some data. And so does OMDB.

And like for our site, we use OMDB for the coming

soon or the reviews or whatever. for film and

television. For them, they use TMDB. But if they

merged with IMDB, a lot of DB, it would basically

just build out their platform with free reviews

and free their own basically rotten tomatoes,

as it were. Because some sites do rank based

on Letterboxd. Some do rotten tomatoes. A lot

of them, I have a feeling, because of all of

these... sites wanting to charge i'm sure rotten

tomatoes to get their tomato meter charges of

licensing fee now to have it listed for reviews

and things like that a lot of them are just building

their own screen rant has their own valnet uh

as its parent company uh ign us uh and and you're

able to like i mean ours isn't as comprehensive

of like adding a list or yeah um you know, doing,

adding it to a list or a watch or, or having

random reviews or, uh, sharing the review. Like

none of that's there. Like we do have the ability

to have, you know, the trailer and some of the

information about it. And yeah. And some of these

reviews on their site are block luster. Like

they're like a one liner, maybe two. And then

other ones are comprehensive. So, I mean, it's

a whole bag of one thing and a different bag

of another. A lot of movie critics do love Letterboxd.

I can somewhat understand it. However, I don't

ever keep up with it because I feel like anymore

there's so many blasted websites to update or

keep up with. I just don't have time for it.

And this site even uses Just Watch and API from

that to fill out. where you can watch the show

okay on on their platform and so like everything

is an api now like it's all tied into everything

yeah our i mean even even our stuff for instance

it ties into different things however because

it i mine actually pulls data from imdb for like

the coming soon intelligence in theaters if it's

in theaters if after the theater date It switches

to a streaming thing. It can list the streaming

platforms. Yeah, so I mean, mine essentially

does the same thing, just in a different capacity.

So like, yeah, I mean, you can have the trailer,

you can have the platforms it's on, where to

watch it. I don't know. I feel like this is an

easy thing to replicate anymore with modern AI

tools. So I don't know. I feel like if it gets

bought up, it will strictly be a data, like an

opportunity to be the owner of all of this data.

It has nothing to do with the site. It has to

do with the data. And as long as people keep

feeding it. Yeah. And I've read that Sony is

interested. Netflix is interested. I've heard

things that Paramount's interested. Technically,

it would be Skydance that would be interested

now. Now, yes. It'll be interesting to see if

anybody does buy it because it's very much a

bootstrap community -run site. Now, mind you,

there is a campaign, grassroots campaign, for

the site's users to pool their money, make a

bid, and buy the site themselves. So it's community

-owned. Yeah. Which, you know, if it... succeeds

great but i don't foresee that happening when

these companies can pony up you know million

billion dollar paychecks yeah exactly like um

and unfortunately money will talk oh yeah yeah

so the story folks letterboxd users investors

launch campaign to buy site community owned i

don't know that's that's kind of why like i feel

like ours is different in some degree. Cause

like our, even our coming soon, like when we

did the, the masters of the universe, for instance,

says now streaming says when, you know, it was

released in theater as our score has the, you

know, about the film, the trailer, all the little

details, view it on Amazon or view it on IMDB,

go to Amazon prime. And then there's like a nice

little, here are take button that takes you to

the podcast episode. Cause you can link it to

that. Yep. So, I mean like, As much as I like

these sites, I would rather pump my own energy

into the Geekcast Radio Network and the GCRN

website on a whole rather than this. But I honestly

think it's going to get bought out. I think it's

going to be literally a data transfer so that

they get everybody's data and what their preferences

are. And then they'll know how to market better

to people and know what people are going after.

Probably also turn it into the next rotten tomatoes.

No. So, yeah, I'm it's the collaboration and

the consolidation of media anymore is getting

just absolutely ridiculous and weird. Yeah, it's

just crazy. So moving onward, we have other topics

pertaining to different things. two from amazon

actually yeah let's start with the six -year

global deal yeah the emmys do you even watch

this oh when when i looked at the thing i'm like

so you sent me the the dailies in an email the

dailies is a newsletter thing that you get that

people can get and when you sent me this email

i'm like Amazon has the Emmys. Oh, great. I'm

not watching. So Amazon won the Emmys this year.

Great. That's where all the, I'm like, nope,

not watching that. And then I looked at the email

again and I'm like, what is this? And then I

clicked on it and I'm like, oh, it's an actual

news article at deadline. And I'm like, oh, that's,

are you kidding me? amazon strikes six -year

global deal for emmys worth more than 20 million

per year will make event free to view on prime

video will make event free to view on quote prime

how is that free to view on prime video if you

have to pay to get prime video because you're

an amazon prime member so you're technically

paying That's an honestly moron if I ever heard

one. So there is a Prime video can be watched

without payment. It can? Yes. They have, and

I only know this because iHeartRadio promotes

stuff through Amazon's ad network. Like they

partnered with them a few years ago. Anyways,

we were, long story short. They were trying to,

they put us on a webinar trying to pitch us on

something. And Amazon used to have, I forget

what it was. It was like a, a free streaming

platform. And I can't remember. Yeah. Yeah. Freebie.

Anyways, they had that and they were promoting,

you know, Oh, people, a lot of people use this

blah, blah, blah. Advertise on this. You'll get

the best bang for your buck. And I was like,

I'm sitting there on the call and like, I was

already. on Apprehensive because iHeartRadio

was tied to it. And I'm like, okay, there's got

to be something with this. My hackles are going

up. My spidey sense is going off. I don't know

what's going on. And our rep asked us what our

thoughts were on it on the following Monday.

And mind you, this was like a Thursday that this

thing happened. Well, over the weekend, Amazon

announced freebie was, or no, it wasn't even

over the weekend. It was the very next day. Yep.

Freebie. Dead. No, it wasn't the very next day.

It was the same day because I was Googling it

while I was sitting there watching the webinar.

And I was sitting there telling my boss while

we were watching it. And I was like, well, this

whole webinar is a waste of time. And he's like,

why? And I said, freebie doesn't exist anymore.

And he's like, what do you mean? And I said,

he says, they're talking about on the webinar.

I said, and Amazon just announced they're phasing

it out and merging it into Amazon Prime. Yep.

So long story short, they merged it into Amazon

Prime. Now, granted, I'm sure there's some content

you cannot watch without, you know, actual Prime

video. Yeah. The full paid stuff. But I think

this will be on their free one. And then they

get special clips. I'm sure you'll have to be

a Prime subscriber. So the Emmys officially have

a new rights holder. Amazon on Tuesday closed

its deal with the Television Academy as. Reviewed

last month, it's a significant pack. The partnership

gives Prime Video the right to stream the annual

TV Awards ceremony for the next six years and

is thought to be worth north of $120 million.

The streamer has taken global rights to the event.

Make it free to view on Prime Video service each

September. Uh, the deal is deadline understand

20 million and 25 million a year with one source

pegging the value at formula per year. The deal

succeeds the broadcast wheel, which has seen

broadcast network, CBS, Fox, and NBC rotate the

right to air the ceremony year. That system has

been in place for over 30 years since 1995. Mike

Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon and videos

deadline to create a global event on Prime Video.

Well, yeah, you need some. We thought we could

increase the viewership, bring in a younger audience,

work with the Academy to put a lot more energy

and maybe look at the production itself and try

to innovate. Basically, their entire premise

with this is because younger generations do not

watch television, present company included. It's

mostly our parents' generations that watch television

anymore, and most of us stream. And it especially

did well with Amazon because they won awards

for Spider Noir, which also aired on MGM+. and

won 10 awards or you know scored 10 wins and

then last year won five awards at the creative

arts emmys and then uh in 2024 it won four so

it's been showing progressively that people are

paying more attention to the streaming platforms

than the the dedicated traditional television

which honestly makes a lot of sense to move to

streaming because honestly i don't have cable

i'm not gonna pay for cable and i don't really

care about the emmys or these award shows where

yeah you get these guys getting up there like

i don't mind them winning an award i think that's

awesome like everybody loves to be patted on

the back loves the awards yeah i get it however

when they get up there it's i i almost feel like

the ricky gervais thing like thank your family

thank you know yeah and and then like get your

award shut up and sit down like yeah i i agree

with that like i don't don't get up there and

pontificate like make a joke or something and

then get out like don't no need to drag it out

or tell your life story or your belief system

like just get your award thank whoever you need

to thank you know maybe make a comment about

the production or the team that helped you get

there yeah uh and then sit down but uh but yeah

i mean i i think that in order for this this

you know the oscars the emmys any of these award

shows to survive they need to go to streaming

or they're gonna die And they haven't performed

well anyway in the last 10 years. So I think

that this is kind of the wave of the future.

It's either join the streaming platforms or die.

Television Academy Chair Chris Abrego added that

he didn't want to just renew the wheel deal.

It felt strong. I felt strongly from the outset

that this was an opportunity. To rethink the

model, he said, starting every year with a new

partner, trying to find a production partner,

a brand partner, trying to bring even the simplest

of learning from the past event into the next

year didn't matter because the different institutions.

That was very challenging. As television and

the industry is evolving, the telecast and much

like the Academy needed to well so having a singular

home was my goal from the outset well you got

a home for the next six years then now don't

you yep yep all right where's the other well

the other amazon one was i i saw this today and

it kind of struck me funny it was by dexerto

.com oh yeah it was about the user discovered

a bizarre uh about you page detailing their their

interests and and how to check your own i looked

at that i checked my own and i was like i after

you pointed that out to me i looked at it and

i'm like this is just like me going to my previous

orders in doordash like there was nothing on

that page for me and i order a lot of stuff from

amazon i don't order as much as maybe the next

person does but I do order a lot of stuff and

none of their stuff in there was like shocking

to me. But like the fact that somebody just found

this out, that Amazon is tracking the stuff you

buy and building out interests for you. Like

part of my page was like, oh, here are all the

authors that you follow on Amazon. Of course,

I'm going to follow Kelly Thompson, who wrote

the Gem comic 11 years ago, or Kyle Higgins,

who wrote Nightwing or currently writes the Radiant

Black comic for Image. Like, it just really felt

like I was expecting to find some weird Amazon

hidden trick. Oh, my God, here's all the porn

you bought from us last month. Like, no, there

wasn't like. The way that article makes it out

to be like, oh, my God, here's all the hidden

stuff Amazon did. That isn't at all. Unless you're

doing weird, freaky stuff on Amazon, unless you're

buying weird, freaky stuff on Amazon and they're

tracking that for you and then suggesting the

weird, freaky stuff that you previously bought

to have you buy new weird, freaky stuff. That's

on you, Craig. So I find it funny, though. This

person, it said under like product preferences.

It said has flat buttocks on the clip. It says

home and family probably owns a shark robot vacuum.

Product preferences consistently repurchases

cat hairball treatment. Prepared for bluey themed

second birthday shops from women's department.

post -themed celebration owns a kindle like it's

it's almost borderline like creepy but at the

same time it's not it's not literally it's just

showing you what you ordered now what i find

hilarious mine cannot figure out anything because

i have no tracking turned on yeah that's the

thing you have to turn the tracking on amazon

didn't yeah Yeah, the only things mine has is

like authors and brands. Yeah. The rest of it,

you cannot figure out anything. Yeah, that's

the same thing with my page. My page is like

practically empty. And like I just mentioned,

authors I follow or brands I follow, like that

was the only thing that was turned on. Like,

oh, really? I figured out if you click a different

thing when you do explore your recommendations

down at the bottom. It does come up to another

page. It says about you. Oh, what's that? It

does come up with stuff. I'm going to read mine

just because I think it's funny. I don't know.

Product preferences because like we share the

same account in the house. Obviously. So product

preferences. This is like shops from women's

clothing. Well, my wife orders a lot. Obviously.

Family. It knows what city we live in, which

is obvious because it's programmed. Brands prefers

any cubic for 3D printing filament. Yep. product

preferences, consistently repurchases protein

supplements. And then it's got that another for

departments. In the departments, it's got outdoor

recreation, interests and hobbies, goes camping

regularly, home and family, has a school -aged

child around 12 years old, which is accurate.

Home and family, has one child. Wrong. Likely

has a home desk computer set up, regularly replaces

personal care items, likely owns a Chrysler Pacifica,

which we do, uh, prepared for outdoor activities,

favorite, uh, nutritional stuff has paddle boarding,

uh, gear, kitchen tools. Uh, and yeah, it's got

water bottles, ceiling, water bottles, lawn care

stuff, outdoor stuff. Uh, yeah, a lot of lawn

stuff. Yeah. But this, this is funny. It just

goes on though. And it has like, you know, has

a dog, has exercise equipment, has, you know,

reads books, prefers pla filament for 3d printing

like yeah it's funny the amount of stuff that's

in there likely has a garage you know yeah um

it yeah it has but it goes by based on what you

purchase and yeah but again it's going by based

on what you purchased in the past and it's building

a profile of interests and likes because it apparently

seemed like look for me on amazon either i go

with what i like The buy it again page or the

previous orders page or wish lists or whatever.

Like websites, purchasing websites specifically

where you buy things from that website. I already

know they're going to track the stuff that I

do on their website. Like I expect that because

that's the point. Like again, take DoorDash.

I know that when I go to the McDonald's page

or the Dairy Queen page or the whatever page

at the top, the first thing they're going to

have is items I bought before. Like, no shit,

I bought a large fry from McDonald's. No shit.

Like, come on, guys. Like, of course. Like, the

way this article made it sound was like, It was

like Amazon turning on features and building

features that weren't like, I don't know. It

just come to find out it's just based on what

you've already purchased and they're building

things. Now, it would be different if it was

Amazon doing nefarious thing saying, oh, you

bought this. Let's say, for example, you bought.

Let's. I don't know, a new pair of pajamas or

something. And you're like, oh, I bought, I needed

a new pair of pajamas or needed a new pair of

running shoes. Or I needed, just because I bought

a new pair of running basketball gear, whatever.

I needed a new kayak. Oh, well, you spelled that

wrong in the web search. So we're going to have

you buy this new, or we're going to suggest to

you that this other thing that is not a kayak

that is. something more phallic or whatever you

know what i mean like i don't know it just seems

like it's one big nothing burger to me because

again it's a website where you buy products and

based on your purchases they are suggesting to

you and build a profile of what they think you

are going to want to buy future based on things

you've already bought now if it's something that

They suggest that you're not interested in. I'm

sure you can go to that and say, yeah, I'm not

interested in this. And they'll adjust to that

accordingly, hopefully, because after all, isn't

that why we're here? We're supposed to be teaching

the artificial intelligence to make it better.

It's funny you mention that because... Uh -oh.

Those that listen to... The previous episode

that I'll release before this one will have released

because we're recording them on the same day.

I talked to author Vincent Ryland, who lives

in, funny enough, my stomping grounds in Michigan.

I grew up in Detroit, and I'm from Flint, so

it's rather funny. He wrote a book called Memoirs

of the End. And it's a book about AI. And he

wrote it and it was published in March. And he's

been doing like the press circuit. He was on

one of the news stations that I was that I used

to live like 10 minutes from back in Flint and

doing an interview about it. And it was funny

because I read the book and it's it's got all

these different like personalities of like how

people react. But then like how like a cautionary

tale of what happens when AI goes rogue. because

it knows so much about you and I'm just like

yeah that's why I like to keep it guessing but

yeah Amazon any of these things like Amazon's

probably really good at tracking you anyway because

it just correlates what you buy all the time

most of the time you buy the same crap over and

over and when it comes to when it comes to If

you think about it, they do it too. They just

use their Vizio TVs that they bought. It screenshots

that. Every 30 seconds, it screenshots and sends

it back to Walmart so they can re -promote things

to you when you're in store or when you're on

the app. I will never buy a Vizio TV. Ever. Never,

ever, ever. If you think about it, though, Amazon

is essentially chewy for humans. chewy .com that's

essentially what it is because i just thought

of this just now because amazon has if you so

choose to do so a couple of times i've ordered

some stuff recently on amazon and they've made

me do oh would you like this to be a one -time

purchase or would you like this to be set as

subscribe and save literally that's the same

options for chewy .com for your pets I mean,

I don't want to subscribe and save like I've

tried that, but I'm just saying it's the same

thing. Yeah. Regardless. Oh boy. Um, uh, really

quickly. I saw a, uh, I follow the verge on Instagram

about how they fact check and verify their stories

is a very interesting. uh, uh, real, uh, they

go through vigorous things to make sure that

all of their stuff is, is hunky dory before they

ever put a story out, which is why that we here

at the GCRN react to news. We're not newsmakers

at all. We're only just giving our opinions on

the news. Um, but I thought that was a very,

very, interesting thing uh so there's that i

even try to fact check like i don't oh no no

no yeah we will fact check i'm not saying we

won't i'm just saying that i've never seen a

news like i've never seen directly nbc or cba

like i've never seen online a news outlet directly

say on social media I've never seen it the way

that The Verge laid that out. That's all I was

saying. I'm not saying that we don't. I only

reported it because I thought it was funny, and

I'd never found that area before on Amazon of

where it was at. It was interesting. I was curious

what it would say, plus the fact that it told

the woman that she had a flat butt. even funnier

this is likely may have a flat butt and it's

like oh this is interesting can you imagine what

it would have said about oh boy if it really

was really tracking I don't want no please we

don't need that deep level of tracking stop tracking

our bodies Amazon yep stop tracking everything

so We also have, continuing down the rabbit hole,

Audible. Yes. So I think, did I post this or

did you? I think you. I don't remember anymore.

Probably. I think I sent it to you. Probably.

And this, yeah, I think you did send this to

me. This is, I've used, we've both used Audible

in the past, but I listened to. I usually have

one or two books. I usually don't keep an audible

membership active, but I, I currently have at

least two books that I listened to over and over

and over again, mostly for sleep aid. Um, but

through Dexardo, yay, Dexardo, uh, audible will

soon let you talk to audio book characters with

new AI feature. First of all, no, don't. And

stop. Why do I, first of all, before I even read

this story, the just the initial reaction i do

not want to talk to my audiobook characters i

am not here to interact i was gonna say i thought

the whole purpose of listening to an audiobook

is to listen to a book exactly that was exactly

like first of all just off the rip before i even

start because i am going to read a good majority

but just off the headline audible will soon let

You talk to audio book characters with new AI

feature. First of all, why do I want to talk

to my audio book characters? That would be like,

um, what was the, was it the, I forget who was

it? It was, um, there was a audio, there was

a film trailer. There was a movie, something,

uh, there was a trailer a long time ago that

did this. audio interactivity thing and it wasn't

specifically uh it wasn't a interactive there's

a huge difference okay of going to and i'm using

film to to do the comparison because it's much

easier huge difference in going to see honey

i shrunk the kids versus where that's the actual

film and you actually go see rick moranis and

he shrunk he shrinks the kids and whatever versus

going down to Walt Disney World in Florida and

going to see Honey, We Shrunk the Audience. Okay.

Honey, We Shrunk the Audience is basically Honey,

We Shrunk the Kids, but it was this motion ride

where it made it feel and look like they actually

shrunk the audience, which was us, which my mom

and I rode in 1995. 30 something years ago okay

they actually squirted something at us to make

it feel like it was the dog sneezing on us and

everything there's a huge difference in having

films or audiobooks or whatever having us interact

with them no i don't want to talk to okay i'm

just going to start this thing because it's making

me madder and madder before i even give the information

Audible is introducing a new AI -powered feature

that will allow listeners to have real -time

conversations with the characters from its audiobooks.

The feature, called Interactive Stories, is one

of three new experiences announced by Audible

on October 1, 2026. Rather than changing the

original audiobook, Interactive stories will

exist as a separate bonus experience designed

to let listeners step into the story and interact

directly with its characters. Audible says the

feature combines generative AI conversation design

and sound production with creators helping define

each character's personality as well as opening.

scenes, and major turning points of the interactive

experience. Audible's interactive stories let

you spend time. Interactive stories begin with

an audiobook, speaking to the listener and assigning

them a role, goal, and stakes within the scenario.

Listeners can then respond using their own words

with the content and react to what they say in

real time. The first experience will arrive this

fall alongside the Audible original Dracula,

allowing listeners to interact with Renfrew Dracula's

unpredictable, tormented servant. Another interactive

story is scheduled for November and was created

with author Benjamin Percy. It will take place

with the work Audible's Exoplanet, which was

written by Percy. and executive produced by the

Martian and Project Hail Mary author. In this

case, AI is allowing us to create new interactive

experiences that today's especially younger audience

is craving. Chief Product and Analytics Officer

Andy Tsao said, we are opening up entry point

stories that are still part of the mission. but

that make our customers' experiences personal

and unique. So it is a separate thing for the

main audiobooks that Audible will have. That's

a good thing. I still don't like it. Agreed.

Yeah. I feel like if you want something interactive,

just talk to the regular AI. I don't need to

interact with the characters from the book. I

really don't. I've been a voracious reader ever

since I was a kid. For me, when I was a kid,

my main books as a 7, 8, 9, 10 -year -old, 11

-year -old were the Hardy Boys Case Files books,

which was Frank and Joe Hardy as 17, 18 -year

-old. High schoolers who kind of, you know, solved

crimes and their father Fenton was a part of

the FBI and that kind of thing and whatever.

So they were kind of like junior detectives.

So as a seven to 11 or 12 year old, I kind of

felt like I was in their world kind of thing.

And I just want to jump into the book and feel

like I was a part of that world. Now at 46 years

old. I don't think this AI generated jump in

and talk to the characters is what seven to 12

year old me is really what I had envisioned back

in the eighties and nineties. Cause from yeah,

87 to 92 is when I was the ages of seven to 12

years old. And Yeah, I don't know about this,

but what do you guys think out there in listener

land? What do you think about Audible soon allowing

us to talk to our audiobook characters with the

new AI feature? And it is called... No, Don't

Stop. That's what it's called. Well, okay, yeah,

it's called No, Don't Stop, but Interactive Stories

is what it is called. audibles interactive stories

let characters respond in real time oh boy audible

what are you doing weird weird yeah so i think

i think that's it did we talk about the film

re -releases no that need no we have not yet

that time yeah We'll save that one. We'll save

that one. We should cover Stuart Fails to Save

the Universe and Lanterns over on Studio. Yeah,

we're going to do that at some point. Just from

the... because I'm going to plug this feature

because I think it's cool. On the website, thegcrn

.com, there's a bunch of different articles over

there, a bunch of different episodes. That being

said, on the Coming Soon section on the right

-hand side, We have, you know, certain movies

listed there. There's a new Santa Claus movie

coming out in December starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What? As Santa Claus on Amazon. What? Yeah. It's

the man with the bag. And it's when Santa's magic

sack. No, I'm just playing. Magic bag is stolen.

He turns to his naughty list to find Vance, a

former thief, to help him get it back. He literally

looks like Santa, though. He looks like the Santa

Claus 2 Santa, though. He's almost got the plasticky

face, but it's not. He's got Alan Richson in

it with him. It comes out December 2nd. I'm actually

kind of excited about it because I like Arnold,

plus the fact that you can tell he's just doing

stuff that he enjoys and just having fun with

it at this point. He doesn't even care. It looks

entertaining. I'm excited for it. And this is

something I'll cover when I start. I'm going

to get a new webcam because I realized when I

was doing... I did a couple of videos recently.

One for an interview. It was like in August I

did the interview for Podcast Networking Insights.

And my video was decent. And then I did the...

the interview with my, my old college professors,

uh, podcasting class last week. And I was sitting

there looking at my video and I'm like, Hey,

it's a little grainy. Uh, and I was like, I don't

know why. And I was playing around. Like I was,

I had to record a clip too. Cause they were doing

like a presentation for him by the end of the

week, last week, uh, like honoring him and his,

you know, uh, educational achievements. And I

was, he's like, I'd love if you could, you know,

record a clip for me. I was like, Oh, totally.

You know, I'm on it. So I was recording it and

I'm looking at the video and I'm like, this looks

like crap. I'm like, I'm supposed to be in video

production and this looks like crap. And I'm

sitting there looking at it and I'm like, why?

And I was doing, I was recording an OBS because

I don't have anything else. Like I don't have

any other software on my computer and realistically

it should be fine. The problem is. I'm using

a 15 -year -old webcam. Now, granted, it's fine

for what it is. It's a Logitech 920C or whatever

the heck it's called. But it's a 1080p HD webcam.

And I'm looking at it and like, okay, it's not

terrible. It's not great. then i got around to

it and i was like i think my problem is the webcam

so i looked at it and i had to ask ai because

i'm like i know nothing about webcams and i'm

like i don't want to spend a lot because like

i just i don't use it that often but i'd like

to be able to record myr and when i do myr i

want to be able to pull from our coming soon

section and so uh long story short like i'm still

hunting for one but i'm trying to spend more

than like 35 bucks because i'm like i don't really

want to spend a lot uh but i'm all the new ones

that come out now are like 4k 60 fps mine's a

30 fps and it's a you know 1080p so it's just

regular hd so now i'm like so do you so do what

do you want i don't know i'm trying to figure

that out okay i'm gonna get a 4k camera they're

not that expensive if if i get like i don't need

anything fancy i'm just trying to find something

that right i just don't know like i don't trying

to pick a brand that's not gonna die because

i've not had great luck with logitech stuff like

with their mice or anything that they've bought

and taken over and then it gets ruined subsequently

so i've had to switch brands on a lot of stuff

so i'm still shopping to figure out what i want

but uh but yeah so i'm I'm planning on doing

that for M wire once I get that going and get

my OBS going again. But yeah, long story short,

I was, I was trying to bring up the coming soon

section, which brings up like, I've got some

movies that are on there for October. I've got

some for November, got some for December. Then

it goes into like March, April, May, June, July

in July. And then it shows, you know, past releases

on there and whether they're in the theaters

or, streaming and if i don't update them they

just say in theaters perpetually yeah uh so yeah

i um i i have a little bit of work to do there

but it's overall it's it's it's cool section

so you can kind of see what's coming down the

pipe and we can tie it into other content no

uh feature i always wanted on the site but could

never get working so um well we will get it functioning

properly yep yep yep So anyways, I think that

about rounds this episode out of Altered Geek

this time. We'll have a plethora of other topics.

Maybe we'll knock out some of these topics so

that we're not just doing news dumps. But a lot

of crap happened since last week. I was going

to say, this was supposed to be oops, all topics.

And then all of a sudden, all this news happened.

Yeah. Damn it. Weird. Yeah. Well, you can't control

the pipeline. Sure we can! We can ignore it!

Well, once I bring M -Wire back, you know, I

can move some of the movie crap there. Anyways,

thank you as always for listening to this episode

of Altered Geek. I've been your host, Steve Megatron,

with TFG and Mike, and you can, of course, interact

with us on the website, thegcrn .com. On the

episode post, should be pretty easy to find there,

or you can con... on all of our social platforms

or feedback at geekcastradio .com. So until next

time, get altered, get geeky with the Altered

Geeks.