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🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 4.89-minute read.

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“You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.”

–Henry Ford (1863-1947)

The streaming industry rn is similar to a liberal arts major – still trying to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. And two recent moves by streamers speak to this point.

Ads are now the default on Amazon Prime Video. Moving forward, Prime Video members will always see commercials alongside a Reacher or Gen V binge – unless they shell out an additional $2.99/month for the ad-free version. Analysts expect Amazon to be rolling in a Scrooge McDuck pile of money due to the move, estimating that adding ads (lol) to Prime Video could generate $3.2 billion in advertising revenue per year, as well as $1.6 billion per year in additional subscription revenue from the ad-free upcharge ($4.8 billion total).

Warner Bros. Discovery is betting big on gaming. In a recent earnings call with investors, CEO David Zaslav revealed three things about the company’s gaming division: 1) it’s been profitable every year for the last 15 years; 2) it’s generated $400 million in operating revenue the past three years; and 3) it’s an area where WBD sees massive upside. Hogwarts Legacy, the best-selling videogame in the world last year, came out of WBD Games, and the streamer is also sitting on three other gaming IPs it values at $1+ billion: Game of Thrones, DC, and Mortal Kombat.

Big picture: Underpinning both of these moves is a focus on profitability. In 2023, streaming services not named Netflix lost a collective $5 billion, causing many streamers to put at the top of their New Year’s Resolutions: “reevaluate our strategy for 2024.”

Another key point the industry has to address: customer cancellations are rising. With these moves, Amazon and WBD are both wanting to have their cake and eat it too – aka trying to decrease customer churn while simultaneously increasing revenue.

• Amazon sees its Prime bundle, which combines various perks (like fast, free shipping) with its streaming offering, as a way to reduce the likelihood of cancellations because users have more than one reason to keep paying.
• Along the same lines, research indicates live games have a much lower churn rate when compared to streaming. WBD is looking to piggyback off this phenomenon to boost its streaming offering and reduce cancellations.

But whether it’s videogames or TV shows/movies, content is still king. According to a newly released Nielson report, Americans streamed 21 million years’ worth of video last year, a 21% increase over 2022. And this number is only expected to keep going up.

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🇨🇳🇭🇰 Chinese real-estate giant Evergrande was ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court. Chinese regulators cracked down on excessive borrowing in the property industry in 2020, causing Evergrande – previously China’s largest property developer by sales – to default on its $300 billion debt in 2021. The order to liquidate Evergrande came after it failed to agree on a restructuring plan with its overseas creditors. Evergrande currently holds ~$240 billion in assets and has ~$327 billion in liabilities.

🇮🇱🇺🇳 Israel presented evidence accusing members of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency of aiding terrorist groups. A newly publicized Israeli intelligence dossier, which was viewed by multiple countries and independent news orgs in recent days, alleges that ~1,200 of the UN Relief and Works Agency’s 12,000 employees in Gaza have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The dossier also claims 12 UNRWA workers participated in Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed 1,200 Israelis. Nearly a dozen countries, including major donors like the US and Germany, have halted their funding to the UNRWA in response to Israel’s dossier.

🇬🇧 The UK is banning disposable vapes. Officials say the move is aimed at preventing the rising popularity of vaping among minors, with the number of 11-to-17-year-old UK vapers rising ~9x over the last two years. It’s also intended to prevent waste, as the ~5 million disposable UK vapes thrown away each week is equivalent to the lithium-battery waste from 5,000 EVs. The new measure also details the UK government’s plan to gradually raise the minimum age to buy cigarettes, making it illegal for all residents born after 2008.

Many younger Americans aren’t doing so hot compared to previous generations at their age, according to a new report from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation. Or to put it another way: the vibes aren’t great.

Around 4 in 10 Gen Z adults say they’re currently thriving in their lives – the lowest rate across all US generations today, and much lower than millennials at the same age (60%). Gallup also found 15% of Gen Z adults rate their current mental health as excellent, compared to 52% of millennials and 55% of Gen X at the same age.

And when it comes to younger members of Gen Z, measures of well-being and ambition have also declined slightly from the previous generation.

• Americans aged 13 to 17 are less likely to say that they have a friend they can confide in, that they exercise regularly, or that they plan to attend college compared with millennials at the same age, per Gallup.

Other research has identified a similar trend. Less than a third of Americans aged 12 to 17 (30%) say things are going well for kids and teens in the US today, while less than half of that age group (40%) believe they’ll be better off than their parents in adulthood, per a new survey from Common Sense Media.

📊 Flash poll: In your opinion, what can/should be done to reverse the decline in youth well-being?

• Click here to leave a response.

💬 Quoted… “[It] makes it easier for them to think and act like owners because they are.”

• Wanna get rich? Maybe start by looking at Walmart jobs. Starting in 2024, Walmart store managers will be able to earn up to $20,000 in company stock grants, in addition to an up-to-200% bonus each year – good for a maximum annual salary of $404,000. The retail giant, which has thousands of store managers who often climbed the ranks without a college degree, declined to reveal how many managers generally receive the full bonus.

💰 Stat of the Day: In 2022, the median single parent in America had a net worth of $50,750 – up from $18,023 a decade earlier, per recent data from the Fed. Meanwhile, the net worth of single non-parents in the US consistently hovered around $20,000 over the same period. Experts say the discrepancy can largely be attributed to rising home values, since parents are more likely to be homeowners than single folks.

🤔 Did You Know?... There have been at least 68 cases of murder while sleepwalking that have been tried in courts around the world. Maybe that Gilly and Keeves skit is accurate after all.

📰 Worth a Read: The Most Important Man in Finance You’ve Never Heard Of → (WSJ)

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• ☝️ You’re looking at what scientists believe to be the first-ever images of a newborn great white shark in the wild; the newborn was identified by its odd coloring, which comes from a thin, white film over its body that exists shortly after birth.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with Spotted Bear Ranch

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.8%; Dow: +0.6%; Nasdaq: +1.1%); the S&P 500 notched its sixth record close in the past seven trading days.
• 🚫🤖 Amazon agreed to terminate its $1.7B acquisition of Roomba-maker iRobot due to regulatory scrutiny; iRobot also announced plans to lay off 31% of employees, and that its CEO will be leaving.
• ⚖️🌱 Bayer was ordered by a jury to pay $2.25 billion in damages to a Pennsylvania man who said he developed cancer from the company’s Roundup weedkiller. | 🚗 Ford is recalling 1.9 million older Explorer SUVs in the US over a piece of trim that could detach from the vehicle.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎤🏈 Taylor Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has generated an equivalent brand value of $331.5 million for the Chiefs and the NFL, per Front Office Sports.
• 🎙️ SmartLess, the hit podcast hosted by actors Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, is headed to SiriusXM as part of a three-year, $100+ million deal.
• 🥩 Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion’s rap beef, explained.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Binoid

• 🚀🌕 Japan’s robotic Moon explorer is back in action; scientists resolved a power issue that forced the spacecraft to shut down hours after landing on the Moon earlier this month.
• 🏹 Ice Age hunters in Europe had at least nine distinct cultures, contrary to previous scientific belief that they had a homogenous society, per a new peer-reviewed study published in Nature Human Behavior.
• 🥬 Lettuce grown in space is more susceptible to dangerous bacteria like salmonella and E. coli, according to new research from the University of Delaware.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 😴 Philips, a Dutch health technology company, will stop selling its CPAP devices in the US following a 2021 recall of millions of its breathing machines.
• 🪖 The enemy drone that killed three US troops in Jordan this weekend may have been mistaken for an American drone and allowed to enter the military base unchallenged, per a preliminary US government report cited by multiple news orgs.
• 🧾 An ex-IRS contractor was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking the tax records of former President Trump and other wealthy Americans.

CLICKBAIT

• 🤔 Are humans the only animals that keep pets?

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

• 🦗 An estimated 1+ trillion cicadas are expected to be buzzing around a 16-state area this coming year due to a rare “dual emergence” that last occurred in 1803. (Read more)
• 👤 60% of millennials and 56% of Gen Z say most people in their social circle would prefer to be single. (Read more)
• 🎰🃏 Americans spent a record $160.9 billion on casino gambling last year. (Read more)
• 🏀 There have been eight instances of an NBA player scoring 70+ points in a single game since 1963 – and four of those came within the past 13 months. (Read more)
• 🏡🏢 White-collar employees who worked exclusively from home last year were 35% more likely to be laid off when compared to workers who put in office time. (Read more)

Yesterday, we covered the Biden admin’s temporary halt on the approval of new US licenses to export liquefied natural gas, which was enacted due to environmental concerns related to climate change.

❓ Our question to you: Do you agree with the Biden admin’s decision to pause new licenses for natural gas exports to non-allied countries?

• 👍 Yes: 33%
• 👎 No: 48%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 19%

Click here to read some of the best longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 6,820 votes and 476 longform responses.

Tyler Bass was met with overwhelming criticism and backlash after he missed a game-tying 44-yard field goal late in a recent 27-24 playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Buffalo Bills kicker ended up deleting his social media accounts due to the amount of online hate thrown his way. But one organization came to his rescue: Ten Lives Club, a nonprofit cat rescue.

🏈 Animals + football... Tyler has volunteered with Ten Lives Club in the past, and the organization asked people to donate $22 in support of the player. The calls came flooding in, and the cat rescue has raised more than $250,000 for their cause to date.

Guess the definitions of the following Greek/Latin root words.

1. Argent
2. Bon
3. Coll
4. Plan
5. Rept

(keep scrolling for the answers)

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1. Argent = Silver (e.g., Argentina)
2. Bon = Good (bonify)
3. Coll = Neck (collar)
4. Plan = Flat (plane)
5. Rept = Creep (reptile)