CEO, All Elite Wrestling (AEW)

In October, 5 years to the week after Khan launched skilled wrestling promotion AEW as a direct competitor to Vince McMahon’s long-dominant WWE, he closed a multi-year media rights cope with Warner Bros. Discovery, price a reported $185 million a 12 months, that requires AEW’s exhibits and occasions to be broadcast on TBS and TNT and stream on Max. The corporate is now valued at greater than $2 billion, making it the third-most-valuable fight sports activities firm on the earth.

Ain’t bragging if it’s true: “Our new association signifies that AEW will make historical past as the primary skilled wrestling promotion to simulcast occasions weekly on high cable channels and a high streaming platform,” says Khan.

Chris Spicer
Marissa Román Griffith
Alissa Miller
Vanessa Roman
Companions
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

The Akin group closed greater than $3.5 billion in offers up to now 12 months, spanning media, leisure and sports activities. Not too long ago, it repped CAT5, an motion movie label backed by Fifth Season, in its preliminary undertaking, “Levon’s Commerce” (Black Bear Footage), written by Sylvester Stallone, and suggested HarbourView Fairness Companions on its funding in Mucho Mas Media, producers of the movies “Rosario” and “The Lengthy Sport.”

Be open-minded: “AI will clearly have an effect on all aspects of the media and leisure trade, however how a lot and to what extent remains to be TBD,” says the group in a joint assertion. “Our recommendation for anybody within the trade, be it authorized, monetary, inventive, and so on., is to discover ways to use the expertise to be extra environment friendly and higher at your job versus be petrified of it. Embrace the change and search for methods to make use of it to your benefit.”

Companions
Alter Kendrick & Baron

Alter and Baron closed nearly $1 billion price of music publishing and grasp recording catalog acquisitions and gross sales up to now 12 months, representing Main Wave Music Publishing (Neil Sedaka), BMG Rights Administration (Peter Frampton), Reservoir Media Administration (Louis Prima), Iconic Artists Group (Rod Stewart) and Affect Media Companions (Enrique Iglesias).

Highlight shining brighter on NIL offers: “There are a selection of consumers which are — if not getting unique rights in that space, as a result of it’s arduous to worth, significantly if these sorts of rights haven’t been traditionally exploited — not less than getting the chance to carry issues to the desk,” says Alter. “Some sellers are in search of companions to assist them make the biopic they’ve all the time wished to make or the Broadway jukebox musical they’ve all the time wished to do.” 

Pat Shah
World head of content material acquisition, technique & partnerships
Rhonda Adams Medina
Head of enterprise affairs
Kristin Lang
Senior director of content material acquisition
Audible

If there was doubt that Audible isn’t nearly audiobooks and podcasts anymore, it was put to relaxation when Shah’s group lower a deal for the corporate’s first musical, “Lifeless Outlaw,” which premiered Off-Broadway and gained a Drama Desk Award. In addition they negotiated pacts with MGM Studios to develop TV diversifications of authentic Audible audio titles and Think about Leisure to supply a fictional audio sequence exploring unsolved murders by means of the lens of church confessions, in addition to conventional audiobook offers, together with the acquisitions of multi-language audio rights to Andy Weir’s subsequent novel and Matt Dinniman’s “Dungeon Crawler Carl” sequence.

Hear the chances: “Audio is a definite and differentiated technique to broaden the canvas of what’s attainable storytelling-wise, [and] the inventive group is keen to discover tips on how to join with audiences each new and current by means of this format,” says Shah.

Robyn Polashuk
Associate; co-chair, leisure and media trade group
Adrian Perry
Associate; co-chair, leisure and media trade group and music trade group
David Lefebvre
Mike Hill
Particular counsel
Covington & Burling

Calling Covington & Burling’s Perry, Polashuk, Lefebvre and Hill a dream group may very well be an understatement, given the multi-billion-dollar influence of the offers they construction. They represented the Walt Disney Co. within the media licensing elements of its settlement to merge Disney Star India’s $8.5 billion with Reliance’s Viacom 18, and suggested Paramount World on community distribution issues concerned on its proposed $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. On the sports activities facet, Hill suggested the NBA on an 11-year, $76 billion media rights settlement with the Walt Disney Co. (ABC/ESPN), NBCUniversal and Amazon.

Higher dealmaking by means of science: “This 12 months is marked by the acceleration of coaching, deployment and adoption of AI applied sciences, which has opened up a brand new content material licensing and monetization marketplace for media and different purchasers,” says Polashuk.

Companions
Davis Wright Tremaine

The Davis Wright Tremaine quartet had a busy 12 months, dealing with the whole lot from expertise offers to litigation. Miller suggested on above-the-line contracts, tax incentives and manufacturing companies on Seasons 2 and three of Amazon MGM Studios’ “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Energy.” Zee dealt with greater than 60 growth offers for ITV Studios America’s partnerships with Tomorrow Studios and Bedrock Leisure. Wei tackled distinctive manufacturing authorized points, together with the vetting of “Final Week Tonight With John Oliver’s” supply to offer Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas $1 million a 12 months and a brand new RV in alternate for his resignation from the Supreme Courtroom. Palacios suggested on quite a few documentaries for studios together with Think about Leisure and Netflix and is lead protection counsel for the Cinemart in a defamation swimsuit arising from its docuseries “Bug Out.”

Pre-strike greenlights turned to pink: “Expertise hoped they might instantly go into manufacturing, however so many months had handed throughout the strike interval that the studios began to take a second take a look at these initiatives, and in some circumstances scrapped them and began over,” says Miller.

Companions
Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang

These Del Shaw Moonves authorized eagles span the leisure spectrum from movie, TV and docs to the legit stage. Prior to now 12 months, Bobb lower offers for expertise starting from director Malcolm D. Lee (Blumhouse/Common thriller “Assist”) to actor David Oyelowo (starring position in Nationwide Theatre manufacturing of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus”). A significant participant within the unscripted area, Cohan grew his sports-related enterprise, slicing offers for Field to Field Movies, Vox Media Studios, Professional Store and the NFL, whereas repping stars like French chef and chocolatier Amaury Guichon and journalists Soledad O’Brien and Antonia Hylton. Lezcano negotiated Sterlin Harjo’s general pact with FX, which spawned the pilot “The Delicate Form,” starring Ethan Hawke, and producer Gareth Neame’s deal for a 3rd “Downton Abbey” movie and his new multi-year deal to proceed as chairman of Carnival Tv. Along with repeatedly dealing with offers for high leisure execs, Tillers set Quinta Brunson to jot down, produce and star within the Common comedy characteristic “Par for the Course” (with founding associate Nina Shaw), and Becky Hartman Edwards’ showrunner deal for Netflix’s “One Tree Hill” reboot.

Stress-free expertise holding offers: “The general compensation bundle is just not as profitable because it was, nor are they ordering as many episodes as they did historically, so that they should be a bit bit extra lenient,” says Bobb.

Founding associate
Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang

A longstanding chief within the leisure regulation group, Shaw had one other 12 months of massive offers, together with pacts for Lupita Nyong’o to hitch the all-star solid in Christopher Nolan’s subsequent film, Quinta Brunson to co-write, produce and star within the Common characteristic comedy “Par for the Course” (with associate Lily Tillers), Ayo Edebiri to co-star in Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” Victoria Mahoney to direct the Amazon MGM rom-com “Clear Air” and Jurnee Smollett to star within the Apple TV+ sequence “Firebug.”

No revenue participation for you!: “We all the time had actually robust definitions of payouts, however lots of people nonetheless acquired paid,” Shaw says. “Now, increasingly more, we see this idea that folks don’t really need to take part within the upside.”

Associate; international co-chair, media, sport & leisure
DLA Piper

Ara had a busy 12 months repping Caryn Mandabach Prods. in its sale to Banijay U.Okay., animation studio Titmouse (“Huge Mouth”) in an eight-figure renewal of its first-look pact with Netflix and Korean streaming service Coupang Play in its cope with Main League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres to face off in a pair of preseason video games in Seoul in March 2024.

Laying recent income pipelines: “Whereas new dealmaking alternatives in music have emerged from the securitization of royalty revenue streams, financiers are more and more exploring broader sector alternatives,” he says. “This contains consolidating legacy belongings and making certain regular money flows in an trade that’s continually evolving.”

Associate; chair of nationwide promoting group
DLA Piper

Mulcahy has been on the heart of most of the largest transactions on the intersection of sports activities and leisure. Most notably, he repped Amazon Prime Video in its 11-year, $21 billion international media rights cope with the Nationwide Basketball Assn. for an unique bundle of NBA and WNBA video games, working by means of the 2035-2036 season. The deal, which closed in July, marks the league’s first streaming-only media rights settlement.

Package deal it up: “Dwell sports activities is quickly migrating to digital media channels and is getting costlier to accumulate and exploit. So in an effort to construct the dimensions wanted to cowl these prices, we’re seeing opponents group as much as bundle their services and go to market collectively,” says Mulcahy.

Stacy Marcus
Katherine Imp
Michael Isselin
Companions
David Markman
Associate; co-chair, leisure transactions observe
DLA Piper

This DLA Piper group has been a key participant in issues which have widespread influence on the trade, most notably negotiations for SAG-AFTRA’s commercials contract, the place Marcus serves as chief negotiator for the Joint Coverage Committee representing the promoting trade, assisted by Isselin as authorized counsel. Imp’s obligations embody serving as lead outdoors counsel for iHeartMedia’s podcast slate with Shondaland and repping Lego Group within the negotiation of content material manufacturing and distribution preparations with studios together with Disney and Netflix, whereas Markman handles all elements of Jeanie Buss and David McLane’s all-female wrestling promotion Girls of Wrestling, together with the negotiation of its multi-year distribution cope with Paramount/CBS Studios.

See AI from either side now: “AI is an umbrella and there are a lot of actually nice makes use of for it that may enhance creativity and efficiencies,” says Marcus, whether or not the customers are manufacturers, movie and TV producers, creators or performers, so long as they’ve correct protections.

Robert J. Sherman
Associate; co-chair, leisure finance observe
Richard Petretti
Claire Corridor
Companions
DLA Piper

Sherman and Corridor are on the glowing heart of the red-hot music catalog market. In March, the duo secured roughly $500 million in financing for shopper HarbourView Fairness Companions, backed by its music royalty catalog, which incorporates titles by artists together with Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, Wiz Khalifa and Brad Paisley. In addition they repped main impartial music firm Harmony in its issuance of $850 million in asset-backed notes, which will probably be used for extra music acquisitions. In the meantime, Petretti served as administrative agent on JPMorgan’s modification of its $675 million time period mortgage and revolving credit score facility (expandable to $875 million) for Arnon Milchan’s Regency/Monarchy Leisure group of firms.

Enterprise is sweet: “We see a maturing of the marketplace for music securitizations and imagine that music acquisition platforms sponsored by institutional traders and different subtle capital suppliers will proceed to entry and develop this subsector of the esoteric ABS [asset-backed securities] market,” says Sherman. 

Common counsel and head of enterprise authorized affairs
Fifth Season

Arias assisted in securing a $225 million strategic funding from Toho, Japan’s largest movie studio, which empowered Fifth Season to proceed increasing its premium content material slate. He’s supplied ongoing oversight of enterprise and authorized practices for Emmy-nominated Apple TV+ sequence “Severance” and Max’s “Tokyo Vice,” and on the movie facet overseen the thriller “She Rides Shotgun,” starring Taron Egerton, and the comedies “Friendship,” starring Tim Robinson, and “Nonnas,” starring Vince Vaughn.

Election influence on dealmaking: “We may see an easing of regulation on M&A within the media enterprise, which may result in extra consolidation, whereas probably boosting firms which have confronted challenges being aggressive, which is superb for the trade,” Arias says.

Associate; founding chair, leisure & sports activities regulation division
Fox Rothschild

Miller repped husband and spouse purchasers Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance in quite a few issues, together with pacts for her to return for “Mission Not possible — The Remaining Reckoning” and for him to take over the position of Zeus in Season 2 of the Disney+ sequence “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” in addition to a first-look deal for the couple’s manufacturing firm with twentieth Tv. He additionally closed offers for Chris “Ludacris” Bridges (2024 Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present efficiency), Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph (starring roles in A24 rom-com “Eternity” and Michel Gondry’s Common musical “Golden”) and comic/host Taylor Tomlinson (Netflix particular “Have It All”).

One door opens and …: “I see a paradigm shift breaking apart the monopolies, creating extra methods to generate income and a chance for these nimble sufficient to discover a new mannequin and create their area of interest and construct their viewers,” Miller says.

Companions
Fox Rothschild

Katz and Vaquerano have been working with HarbourView Fairness Companions since its founding in 2021, dealing with all levels of negotiations — from due diligence to post-closing — on greater than a billion dollars-worth of offers. This 12 months, they had been instrumental in securing $500 million in financing for HarbourView, backed by its music royalties catalog, which incorporates titles by artists equivalent to Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie, Wiz Khalifa, Brad Paisley and James Fauntleroy. The bicoastal duo (Katz is in New York; Vaquerano in Los Angeles) additionally not too long ago represented Merch Collective in its $25 million-plus majority curiosity sale to Sony Music Leisure.

Pondering globally: “There may be heightened curiosity in offers referring to rights originating outdoors of the US,” says Katz. “We have to be positive we’re serving to our purchasers to appropriately analyze the chance vs. reward tradeoff from exploring unfamiliar jurisdictions.”

Associate; chair of leisure & sports activities regulation division
Fox Rothschild

Simon is a drive within the nonfiction area, closing offers for purchasers equivalent to Oscar-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Hulu’s Diane von Furstenberg doc “Lady in Cost”), Alex Stapleton’s Home of Nonfiction Prods. (Netflix docuseries about Sean “Diddy” Combs, produced with 50 Cent), longtime AMC Community exec Josh Sapan (general cope with IFC Movies), the Obamas’ Increased Floor Prods. and Bloomberg Media.

Streaming for the long run: The continued championing of latest expertise is one thing that Simon feels is vitally essential to {the marketplace}. “I want to see the emergence of a robust, consolidated and commercially viable SVOD platform for the sensible and daring impartial voices of our time and people to come back,” he says.

J. Eugene (Gene) Salomon Jr.
Managing associate
Donald S. Passman
Ethan Schiffres
Daniel S. Passman
Companions
Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman

The Gang, Tyre quartet has a roster of celebrity music, movie and tv purchasers starting from Taylor Swift and Stevie Marvel to Timothée Chalamet, Zac Efron and Heidi Klum. Prior to now 12 months, they amplified their repute as headliners within the music area, slicing offers for Inexperienced Day’s “Saviors” album and subsequent stadium tour, P!nk’s $693.8 million-grossing Summer time Carnival World Tour and the sale of Randy Newman’s recorded music and publishing rights to Litmus Music. On the movie and TV facet, they brokered Emma Corrin’s look within the Marvel blockbuster “Deadpool & Wolverine” and Ridley Scott’s producer and director deal for the upcoming Bee Gees biopic “You Ought to Be Dancing.”

Extra cross-cultural alternatives: “You’ve acquired artists from totally different components of the world making an influence,” says Salomon. “It was that Anglo-American repertoire dominated what was common in every single place. That’s changing into much less of the case and also you’re seeing rather more range.”

Kevin Masuda
Associate; co-chair, media, leisure and expertise observe group
Benyamin (Ben) Ross
Associate and co-chair, media, leisure and expertise observe group
Steve Tsoneff
Sarah Graham
Companions
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

The Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher quartet suggested Iconic Artists Group, co-founded by longtime Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff, in its strategic funding from HPS Funding Companions, giving Iconic entry to $1 billion to additional construct out its portfolio. It additionally repped RedBird Capital Companions in its funding in Charles Barkley’s Spherical Mound Media and its acquisition of indie TV manufacturing and distribution firm All3Media, and suggested on the launch of Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop Dogg, an alcoholic beverage firm based by Dr. Dre, Snoop, Jimmy Iovine and Fundamental Road Advisors.

Who says deal move is gradual?: “Personal fairness involvement in M&A within the leisure trade has accelerated, with a specific give attention to catalogs, manufacturing firms, content material libraries and talent-driven companies like expertise companies, administration corporations and talent-founded client manufacturers,” stated the group in a press release.

Companions
Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger

The Greenberg Glusker group labored collaboratively to chop a wealth of headline-grabbing offers, equivalent to Tom Cruise’s strategic partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery and a subsequent pact to make an Alejandro G. Iñárritu movie for the studio, each of which had been dealt with by Galsor and Muir. The quartet’s purchasers additionally embody actors Tom Hanks, Chris Hemsworth, Vin Diesel and Alice Braga, filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo, James Cameron and David Fincher, authors J.Okay. Rowling and Jocko Willink, Silent Home Prods., costume designer Colleen Atwood, Ubisoft Leisure, Riot Video games, the estates of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ray Bradbury, and Togethxr, (based by feminine athletes Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel and Sue Chicken).

Honest compensation for streaming success: “No person has the suitable system, and I feel the formulation that individuals are discussing aren’t going to be those which are going to be adopted long-term, as a result of they simply don’t work,” says Galsor.

Founder & CEO
HarbourView Fairness Companions

Launched in 2021, Soares’ HarbourView Fairness Companions has established itself as one of many hottest funding corporations within the leisure, sports activities and media markets, with roughly $1.5 billion in belongings presently beneath its administration. Not too long ago, Soares invested in two media manufacturing firms targeted on inclusive storytelling, Charles D. King’s Macro (“Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Mudbound”) and Mucho Mas Media (“The Lengthy Sport, “Rosario”).

Progress creates alternatives: “I’ve been constantly targeted on high-quality IP, whereas bringing an enormous give attention to ROI and utilizing information as forex when it comes to who’s watching and the way typically, which is able to assist to empower all inventive voices,” she says.

Associate
Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole

Johnson has secured over $1 billion in manufacturing commitments for Tyler Perry Studios, together with Netflix offers that closed in 2024 — a multi-year, first-look sequence pact and an settlement to supply a number of faith-based movies — including to a deal he made with the streamer in October 2023, calling for eight movies over 4 years. He additionally dealt with Perry’s BET sequence producing settlement and the launch of two free ad-supported streaming channels that includes all of Perry’s BET output. Johnson’s non-Perry work included a joint-venture settlement between Andy and Barbara Muschietti and Skydance to create horror division Nocturna.

Gaming the deflating manufacturing bubble: “Platforms are being extra discerning in what they’re investing in, so we have to work more durable to point out the worth proposition to safe long-term, multi-part offers,” he says.

Associate
Kirkland & Ellis

Traxler was on the heart of two of the 12 months’s largest music catalog offers, repping Blackstone in its $1.6 billion buy of Hipgnosis Songs Fund in April and Common Music Group in its acquisition of a 25.8% stake in Chord Music Companions for a reported $240 million in February.

Music catalog market comeback: “Most each shopper I’m involved with about acquisitions feels that as rates of interest hopefully proceed to come back down and financial circumstances enhance in several international locations, alternatives will re-emerge to accumulate catalogs,” he says. “There are nonetheless loads of fascinating catalogs in any respect sizes and all ranges to draw totally different sorts of music firms. We have to work more durable to point out the worth proposition to safe long-term, multi-part offers.”

Companions
Latham & Watkins

As companions in Latham & Watkin’s leisure, sports activities and media group, Bruington focuses on debt financing transactions and West handles music catalog acquisitions and represents expertise in IP joint ventures and model sponsorship offers, whereas Johnson and Ranger are transactional generalists. Prior to now 12 months, they helped Blumhouse purchase Atomic Monster and purchase out ITV’s fairness pursuits in Blumhouse Tv; suggested Skydance Media in its merger with Paramount; negotiated KKR’s sale of Chord Music Companions; and represented Brittney Griner in an unique life rights and producing settlement with ESPN and ABC.

Turbulent instances fire up alternatives: “The large means it’s performed out is that non-public capital has turn out to be much more nimble within the leisure [space],” says Ranger. “There are new and extra traders, and so they’re more and more open to deploying capital throughout quite a lot of funding methods, moderately than conventional fairness, conventional debt offers.”

CEO
Legendary Leisure

Grode led Legendary’s buyback of Beijing-based Wanda Group’s remaining fairness curiosity within the studio in October, placing its possession solely within the arms of its administration and personal fairness funding agency Apollo World Asset Administration. Grode says it offers them the liberty to pursue M&A alternatives “with out the augmented regulatory threat that comes from having a international proprietor in our enterprise.” Legendary was capable of do it with money available, because of back-to-back blockbusters “Dune: Half Two” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which grossed a mixed $1.2 billion worldwide.

AI can localize social media posts: “It’s proving to be very environment friendly in getting changes out the door rapidly and at worth level,” he says.

James Feldman
Managing associate
Stephen Clark
Melissa Rogal
Jonathan Shikora
Companions
Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark

Feldman lower characteristic offers for, amongst others, brothers Benny Safdie (write/direct “The Smashing Machine”) and Josh Safdie (co-write/direct “Marty Supreme”). Feldman and Rogal set Viola Davis for the HBO sequence “Waller,” whereas Rogal and Shikora negotiated a multi-script growth deal at Amazon for “Poker Face” showrunners Lilla and Nora Zuckerman. Clark serviced purchasers together with Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman (Will Ferrell golf comedy sequence for Netflix) and “Shōgun” creators Justin Marks and
Rachel Kondo.

Why streamers are actually offering viewer information: In accordance with Feldman, it’s not nearly WGA and SAG-AFTRA contract calls for. “It’s additionally largely pushed by the truth that all of the streamers try to promote adverts now, and these advertisers have much more leverage than the writers did to demand the equal of scores,” he says.

Associate
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

Chatham repped Dr. Phil (McGraw) within the April launch of his tv community Advantage Road Media, which is accessible to greater than 80 million properties by way of partnerships with a mixture of broadcast, cable, satellite tv for pc and FAST channel platforms. Different purchasers embody Logan Paul, Gabriel Macht, Demi Moore and Gabrielle Reece.

Merchandise positioned just-so: “Now we’re negotiating offers the place content material, commerce and group blur collectively,” he says. “Our purchasers are constructing strong first-party information operations by means of their content material, then leveraging that to launch the whole lot from spirits, sports activities drinks, condiments and way of life manufacturers. The content material is actually a advertising catalyst for his or her broader enterprise empire.”

Associate
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

Meller led the Manatt group that suggested Chord Music Companions on its sale, through which KKR’s majority stake was purchased by a consortium consisting of Common Music Group and Dundee Companions for $240 million, leading to a valuation of $1.85 billion after the deal closed in February. 

Constructing out enterprise: “The music trade continues to development towards artists and songwriters proudly owning and exploiting their very own copyrights and relying much less on firms and gatekeepers,” he says. “Artists can set their very own future. We assist songwriter purchasers self-administer and get probably the most worth from their works. Constructing manufacturers outdoors of the normal leisure trade can be a essential factor to an artist’s long-term monetary success.” 

Associate
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

Over the previous 12 months, Custer dealt with 23 multi-million-dollar music catalog offers, 21 of which had been on the customer facet. Amongst these had been 13 for Reservoir Media Administration (together with publishing belongings of Tupac Shakur producer Huge D Evans) and 6 for Seeker Music (together with royalties for B.o.B.). On the vendor facet, he closed main offers for Pat Benatar and Jay Gruska. He additionally serves as common counsel for artists together with Neil Younger and the Pixies.

These are the great ol’ days: It’s been a rocky highway for the music trade since Custer launched his profession in 1997, however he’s completely happy the place it’s at the moment. “Now with the ascendency of streaming, touring and music asset gross sales transactions, there’s by no means a boring day,” he says.

Associate
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

Stapleton suggested Pophouse Leisure on its $300 million acquisition of the catalog, model identify and IP of rock band Kiss and its buy of a majority share of Cyndi Lauper’s publishing and recording income. He additionally serves as counsel for Jack White’s Third Man Data, recording artists Em Beihold and La Lom, and Emmy-winning director-producer Jeff Zimbalist (“Skywalkers: A Love Story”).

Wolf on the door, thy identify is AI: “Performers and songwriters have been preventing for nicely over a decade to get their fair proportion of streaming revenues,” he says. “Now, with AI applied sciences boosting the incidence of streaming fraud and flooding DSPs with authorless music, artists are going through a brand new menace to their hard-won share of the streaming ecosystem.”

Navid Mahmoodzadegan
Co-founder & co-president
Carlos Jimenez
World head of media, sports activities & leisure
Moelis & Co.

Mahmoodzadegan and Jimenez had been on the heart of Hollywood’s largest deal of the 12 months, advising Skydance Media on its $8 billion merger with Paramount, which closed in July. “There are lot of transactions which are curler coaster rides,” says Jimenez. “This one was most likely the steepest.”

Prospects for the “New Paramount”: “It’s a enterprise that, in totality, clearly has a few of its challenges forward of it,” says Jimenez. “However I’m very bullish about [Skydance’s] David Ellison and the RedBird [Capital Partners] group that they’ve assembled. If anyone’s going to show the Titanic, I feel they may.”

Companions
Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobasser Youthful & Gentle

Earlier than Lifeless & Firm grossed greater than $130 million with their 30-day residency on the Sphere in Las Vegas this previous summer season, Greenspan and Arnst negotiated all-encompassing agreements involving the progressive venue, together with ones that secured varied rights and clearances for merch and visible IP integrated into the live performance. Greenspan additionally repped Purple Scorching Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis in Common’s choice of the film rights to his autobiography “Scar Tissue” and chef and TV persona Giada De Laurentiis in her spokesperson pact with Oceania Vista cruise ships.

Old-fashioned nonetheless guidelines: “There was a second a couple of years in the past that everyone was chasing TikTok artists and it was nearly like TikTok changed the A&R division,” says Greenspan. If you wish to construct an extended and sustained profession, “get out on the highway, play your songs, cope with folks individually, allow them to know who you might be.”

Chairman, international promoting & partnerships
NBCUniversal

Marshall oversaw the group that secured a report $1.25 billion in promoting income for NBC’s Summer time 2024 Olympics and Paralympics protection. Seventy p.c of the advertisers had been Olympics first-timers, contributing $500 million to the ultimate tally, thanks partially to Marshall’s efforts the assistance smaller entrepreneurs break into the once-exclusive tv area by way of programmatic ad buys.

Development spotter: “In measuring the influence of promoting, we’re evolving from proxies to a licensed measurement ecosystem proving the true influence of a shopper’s media goals,” he says. “Because the suggestions loop has strengthened, it’s indeniable that probably the most impactful promoting campaigns are in premium video that’s working throughout linear and streaming.”

Amy Siegel
Associate; co-chair of the leisure, sports activities and media group
Matthew Syrkin
Associate; co-chair of the media tech group
Lindsay Conner
Silvia Vannini
Companions
O’Melveny & Meyers

In response to lingering challenges from 2023’s strikes, this O’Melveny & Meyers quartet acquired inventive to assist purchasers adapt and thrive. With Siegel within the lead, the group repped Fifth Season within the sale of a 25% stake to Japanese studio Toho for $225 million and suggested HighPoint Media Advisors in reference to Shamrock Content material Technique’s acquisition of a media portfolio of greater than 550 characteristic movies, 2,000 hours of TV programming and 450 songs. With Cooper working level, they dealt with a number of transactions for ITV, together with the sell-back of the 45% stake in Blumhouse Tv it purchased from Blumhouse in 2017 and its co-production settlement with Amazon MGM Studios for the tv sequence “The Higher Sister.”

AI drawing trade deeper into uncharted territory: “It’s altering how content material is created and the way Hollywood does enterprise, creating each alternatives and potential liabilities for our purchasers,” says Siegel “We’re carefully following the authorized panorama round AI because it continues to evolve.”

Associate, leisure & media group
Reed Smith

Love’s give attention to the intersection of music, digital media and rising applied sciences makes him a trusted consultant for rising and established musical artists, songwriters, music firms and institutional traders. Whether or not appearing as outdoors counsel to funding collective PleasrDAO, representing South Korea’s YG Leisure, nu steel band Korn and jazz legend Thelonious Monk’s property in transactional music issues or serving as Harmony Music Group’s lead music legal professional on its $468.8 million acquisition of Spherical Hill Music Fund, Love is aware of his success is dependent upon his purchasers’ success.

Doing good works: “We’ve labored on nicely over $1 billion in music catalog transactions this 12 months, however serving to Kesha to ascertain Kesha Data and seeing her thrive as a totally impartial artist is my proudest second,” says Love.

Associate; co-chair, leisure & media trade group
Reed Smith

Sessa spent a big a part of the previous 12 months dealing with main music acquisition offers for purchasers together with Harmony, Sony, Lyric, Kobalt, Hipgnosis, Litmus, Shamrock, Seeker, Pophouse and Flexpoint. Different highlights embody advising the Smashing Pumpkins on a stadium tour with Inexperienced Day and Bon Jovi on varied points (together with his Hulu docuseries “Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story”) and helping Kesha in launching her new report label.

One other report 12 months for music catalog gross sales predicted: “Merely said, music rights are a bankable asset class for the monetary trade,” he says. “The mannequin works so you’ll proceed to see extra consumers enter the area.”

Leif Cervantes de Reinstein
Shaun Clark
Aerin Snow
Companions
Joseph Eire
Affiliate
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton

Cervantes de Reinstein and Snow closed high-profile offers for purchasers together with Lionsgate ($375 million acquisition of indie content material platform eOne from Hasbro), whereas serving as outdoors company counsel dealing with fairness financing transactions and joint ventures for 101 Studios (house to Taylor Sheridan’s “Landman,” “Tulsa King” and the “Yellowstone” franchise), together with a strategic cope with Paramount World for a number of sequence from A-list government producers together with Antoine Fuqua and George Clooney. Clark and Eire had been equally busy, repping Inventive Wealth Media Lending in its acquisition of Bron Studios and Sony Footage in its buy of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Different purchasers embody studios Legendary Footage and Fremantle and iconic manufacturers equivalent to Peloton, Mazda, QVC and the Hershey Co.

Optimistic in regards to the coming 12 months: “[We] anticipate that we are going to proceed to see strategic collaborations between firms in several industries, [including] tech firms working with content material suppliers, manufacturers collaborating with celebrities, sports activities leagues collaborating with entertainers, and networks searching for new methods to generate income,” says Clark. “The M&A market additionally seems extra bullish.”

Robert A. Darwell
Senior associate; head of worldwide media
Ramela Ohanian
Associate
Nicolas Urdinola
Senior affiliate
Tiago Aquino
Affiliate
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton

The multilingual group led by Darwell has been busy dealing with the event, manufacturing and rights agreements on a slew of worldwide initiatives for firms together with Meta, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, Gaumont, Globo and, most importantly, Amazon MGM Studios. As the skin counsel for the latter, they not too long ago labored on offers for the Spanish characteristic “La Virgen Roja,” the Mexican sequence “Cada Minuto Cuenta,” the Colombian movie “Pimpinero,” starring Medellín-born rock star Juanes, and an eight-part restricted sequence adaptation of Chilean-American creator Isabel Allende’s novel “Home of Spirits,” which is Amazon’s highest-budget Latin American manufacturing so far. For Meta, they assisted its in-house authorized group in negotiating the expertise agreements for a sequence of AI chatbots embodying public figures equivalent to Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner and Naomi Osaka.

Search for extra experiential leisure: “It’s bringing new methods for audiences to attach with each other and, on the enterprise facet, there’s ancillary income streams for each studios and expertise,” says Ohanian.

Associate; co-leader, international leisure, sports activities and media observe
Sidley Austin

If Dwayne Johnson had been Thompson’s solely shopper, he’d nonetheless be a really busy man. Prior to now 12 months, the legal professional dealt with the launch of the massively muscled multi-hyphenate’s Papatui line of private care merchandise, the merger of the XFL (which Johnson purchased out of chapter in 2020 with ex-wife Dany Garcia and different traders) with the USFL to create the United Soccer League in partnership with ESPN and Fox, and a deal for him to hitch the board of WWE mum or dad firm TKO Group Holdings, re-enter the ring and take full possession of his nom de wrestling “The Rock.”

Putting extra bets on authentic IP: “Whereas that may not be the wisest transfer from a pure economics standpoint, with a extra numerous panorama of daring new content material, it is going to enhance competitors for folks’s eyes and ears,” says Thompson, who additionally repped “Name Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper in her new $125 million cope with SiriusXM.

Managing Associate
Singh, Singh & Trauben

A onetime in-house lawyer for Common Music, Singh sometimes moonlights as a producer, most not too long ago with the 2024 Peacock docuseries “Reggaeton: The Sound that Conquered the World,” which he exec produced with shopper Daddy Yankee. However his day job is slicing offers for the likes of Missy Elliott (“Out of This World” tour), Latin music star Ozuna (publishing catalog sale to Kobalt/KMR Holdings), Movement La Film (catalog sale to Cinq Music), FloyyMenor (cope with UnitedMasters) and Grupo Firme (new distribution settlement with Virgin and publishing cope with Common).

The facility of music catalog gross sales: “This development has reshaped how legacy artists, songwriters and producers strategy their long-term monetary methods,” he says.

David Eisman
Associate; head of media and leisure group
Glen Mastroberte
Associate, media and leisure group
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom

M&A specialists within the leisure sector, Eisman and Mastroberte stored busy engaged on transactions spanning movie, tv, music, gaming and sports activities because the trade recovered from final 12 months’s strikes. They’ve helped indie music labels like Drake’s OVO Sound and DJ Khaled’s We the Finest Music strike main offers, and represented Parkwood Ventures in Beyoncé’s three way partnership with Moët Hennessy and the event, advertising and launch of her SirDavis whisky model.

Proudest second in 2024: For Eisman, it was dealing with UTA’s acquisition of high European soccer company Roof. “That was the biggest deal that UTA has ever accomplished in its historical past,” he says.

Rick Offsay
Associate; international co-chair, leisure, sports activities & media observe
Justin Hamill
Associate; international co-chair, mergers & acquisitions and personal fairness observe
Latham & Watkins

Hamill and Offsay sort out complicated strategic transactions, like advising Skydance Media in a merger with Paramount and an investor group in a $8 billion-plus funding in Paramount World and the acquisition of Nationwide Amusements. Individually, Offsay suggested Carlyle in offering an $800 million asset-backed credit score facility to Park County (“South Park”), whereas Hamill suggested Endeavor in a $25 billion take-private acquisition of the corporate by Silver Lake.

Staying forward of the curve: “Comcast’s current spin out of its cable networks, and Warner Brothers — [which has gone] by means of numerous transactions, together with with Discovery — now must determine one thing else out,” says Offsay. “All of those legacy media firms try to determine the following factor.”

Exec VP, international head of company
Sony Footage Leisure

Anguelova performed a key position in securing Sony Footage Leisure’s acquisition of the dine-in theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, marking the primary time a serious studio has re-entered the theatrical exhibition enterprise for the reason that 1948 Paramount Consent Decrees had been lifted in 2020. The studio plans to harness Alamo’s 4 million loyalty membership members to “eventize” its IP, together with content material from anime-centric subscription VOD streamer Crunchyroll.

Managing the downturn: “Definitely, our supply constructions are adapting and changing into extra nuanced to be reflective of the brand new realities of the market, and to align with each vendor and purchaser pursuits,” says Anguelova. “The market is exhibiting resilience for premium firms regardless of present challenges, as evidenced by current high-profile transactions just like the All3Media sale to RedBird.”

Greg Akselrud
Associate; chair of web, digital media and leisure observe
Cathleen Inexperienced
Senior counsel
Stubbs Alderton & Markiles

Influential Community may’ve used an enormous white shoe regulation agency to deal with its $500 million acquisition by Publicis Groupe. Ex-Disney exec Ben Sherwood and former Hearst chief content material officer Joanna Coles may’ve accomplished the identical after they took the editorial reins on the Each day Beast in a deal that gave the duo near a 50% fairness curiosity within the publication. As an alternative, they known as on mid-size Sherman Oaks-based Stubbs Alderton & Markiles. In accordance with Akselrud, it’s as a result of not solely are they well-versed within the points, in addition they have the flexibility to see the blind spots in a deal and “assume across the nook.”

Can’t promote a brand new product on stars energy alone: “You have to have a star with a comparatively first rate following to launch the model, however then you definitely actually should have advertising {dollars} to facilitate the expansion,” says Akselrud.

World head of music enterprise growth
TikTok

Obermann performed a key position in bringing Common Music Group catalog again to TikTok in Might 2024 with a brand new licensing settlement that includes enhanced AI protections. He’s additionally supplied promotional and artistic assist for the platform’s partnerships with artists together with Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter and Put up Malone.

No have to panic about AI: “A 12 months and a half in the past, the sensation within the music trade was the sky is likely to be falling as a result of AI is coming at us in a quick and livid means, and we don’t know if now we have the suitable guardrails,” he says. “We had ‘Pretend Drake’ [in April 2023] and a few different cultural moments with AI in music, but it surely’s gone fairly quiet, if you consider it.”

President, platform distribution
The Walt Disney Firm

Disney’s roster of networks (together with ABC, Disney-branded channels, ESPN, FX and Nationwide Geographic) had been darkish on DirecTV for almost two weeks in September earlier than Connolly, serving as chief negotiator, hammered out an settlement. The multi-billion-dollar deal he facilitated lined carriage of the Mouse Home’s linear channel portfolio, as nicely the choice for customers to subscribe to its streaming companies (Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+) by way of choose DirecTV packages or on an a la carte foundation.

The upside to dangerous instances: In accordance with Connolly, the manufacturing downturn “has created better demand for content material within the market and extra alternatives for us to strategically license our best-in-class, non-branded library content material to 3rd events.”

Adam Glick
Exec VP, enterprise operations, Warner Bros. Tv
Matt Matzkin
Exec VP, operations, Warner Bros. Unscripted Tv and Warner Bros. Animation
Shanon Muir
Senior VP, authorized, Warner Bros. Tv Group — Animation
Warner Bros. Tv Group

Collectively, this Warner Bros. trio dealt with the dealmaking for just below 90 sequence for a mess of platforms. Glick lower straight-to-series offers for an untitled HBO comedy from Invoice Lawrence starring Steve Carell and the John Wells’ medical drama “The Pitt.” On the unscripted facet, Matzkin launched the Meals Community’s “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking,” Max’s “Quick Associates” and the syndicated “True Crime Information” and secured renewals for “Additional” and “The Jennifer Hudson Present.” Muir negotiated three new Cartoon Community sequence orders for “Foster’s Funtime for Imaginary Associates,” “Journey Time Facet Quests” and an untitled “Common Present” undertaking.

Dealing digital dietary supplements: “We have now numerous podcasts that we produce on our personal, and we’re additionally collaborating with different podcasts that aren’t produced by us, and attempting to get our expertise on to them,” says Matkzin.

Associate
Weintraub Tobin

Gordon negotiated a number of headline offers for “Name Her Daddy” host and government producer Alex Cooper, together with a brand new multi-year $125 million pact with SiriusXM that can carry Cooper’s Unwell Community household of podcasts to the platform starting in 2025. Different purchasers embody actors Diane Lane and Zosia Mamet, podcasters Man Raz and Caleb Pressley, novelist/screenwriter Maria Semple, dancer/singer/social media persona Niana Guerrero and actress/author/comic Jenny Lorenzo.

Added visuals imply greater bucks: “Video podcasts proceed to achieve reputation, and video has due to this fact turn out to be a key factor, not solely in driving viewers engagement, but in addition offering nice alternative for promotion by way of clips on social media,” he says.

Ariel Emanuel
CEO, TKO
Nick Khan
President, WWE
Mark Shapiro
President & chief working officer, TKO
Andrew Schleimer
Chief monetary officer, TKO
WWE

Final 12 months, Endeavor merged Final Preventing Championship with World Wrestling Leisure beneath the TKO Group Holdings banner. In January 2024, TKO’s management quadrumvirate closed a $5.2 billion, 10-year deal to make Netflix the unique house of WWE’s flagship present “Uncooked” within the U.S., Canada, U.Okay., Latin America and different territories starting in January 2025. As a part of the pact, Netflix would be the house for all WWE exhibits and specials outdoors the U.S. from that date ahead, giving roughly 80% of worldwide territories fast entry to 100% its content material, with the remainder of the globe filling out their WWE lineups as excellent offers expire.

Added worth with Netflix: “Whereas the cash is awfully essential, the downstream influence and ancillary advantages to being with the distributor and simply south of 300 million properties globally was one thing that acquired us very excited,” says Schleimer.

Co-founder & managing associate
Yorn Levine Barnes Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Endlich Goodell & Gellman

Yorn stored his 29-year-old agency on the entrance of the leisure regulation pack in 2024, slicing offers for purchasers together with Scarlett Johansson (starring position in “Jurassic World Rebirth”), Ellen DeGeneres ($20 million pact for Netflix comedy particular), Zoe Saldaña (Golden Globe-nominated position in “Emilia Pérez”), Jonah Hill (write, produce and act in Apple TV+ film “Consequence”) and Matthew McConaughey (Apple TV+ sequence “Brother From One other Mom”).

Belt and suspenders remedy for AI: “We attempt to make it possible for we add further safety on high of what SAG has achieved with respect to studio offers for movie and tv,” he says. “We attempt for a zero-use coverage throughout the board however are all the time open to see if AI could be useful for all involved.”

Associate
Yorn Levine Barnes Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Endlich Goodell & Gellman

Barnes has been within the Snoop Dogg enterprise for greater than 1 / 4 of a century, and enterprise was superb this 12 months, with the legal professional closing offers for the rapper’s high-profile position in NBC’s Summer time Olympics protection and his choose gig on the community’s singing competitors present “The Voice.” He did that whereas concurrently serving to arrange his premium spirits firm Nonetheless G.I.N., launched in partnership with Dr. Dre.

Buckle up for Trump 2.0: “There could also be an preliminary chilling impact on numerous hiring and productions,” he says. “And with such an unlimited ideological divide throughout the leisure trade and past, some could also be denied employment or entry to capital based mostly on their views.”

Associate
Yorn Levine Barnes Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Endlich Goodell & Gellman

Endlich not too long ago negotiated comic Bert Kreischer’s deal for 2 upcoming Netflix stand-up specials, and director/producer pacts for Taika Waititi’s Sony characteristic adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel “Klara and the Solar,” starring Amy Adams, and Jaume Collet-Serra’s Netflix thriller “Carry On,” starring Taron Egerton. He additionally set D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai to star in A24’s “Warfare.”

World domination has its advantages: “Given the worldwide attain of the key streaming platforms, there’s better alternative to work with worldwide purchasers and make progressive offers with international manufacturing firms which have partnered with the streamers to supply applications for each a U.S. and worldwide viewers,” he says.

Associate
Ziffren Brittenham

Because the co-executor and supervisor of Michael Jackson’s property, Branca engineered a 50% sale of the late celebrity’s music publishing and report masters to Sony Music price a reported $600 million, whereas retaining management for the property, which so far has yielded $2 billion from productions together with the Tony-winning “MJ: The Musical.”

Disruption on countless rotation: “Once you hint the impact of expertise within the trade, whether or not it went from piano rolls to wax discs to albums, and 45s to free obtain to streaming, it retains altering the trade,” Branca says. “A very powerful factor that content material homeowners are doing is attempting to guard their IP rights from being mainly taken at no cost whereas any person else creates a brand new asset.”