Friday’s here again, and so is another episode of our podcast, Future Forecast. We have a special guest this week — Tastemade CEO Larry Fitzgibbon. We dive into everything at the intersection of food and media, so give this one a listen and tell us what you think!

In other news… Paramount wipes its websites, social media is about to get an AI population, and the NFL gets slapped with a multi-billion dollar fine.

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• YouTube – Red One

• X (Twitter) – #Debates2024 

• Google – My Lady Jane

• Reddit – The Price Is Right

• TikTok – “The Boat Beat” - Ricky Desktop

• Spotify – “No Such Thing” - Paul Meany

.MEDIA.

Paramount Global memory holes its various brand websites

The Future. Paramount Global has surprisingly deleted decades worth of content — show reruns, articles, etc. — from its brands’ websites. It just goes to show that nothing on the internet lasts forever. The move rings back to Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney canning movies and shows last year to help their balance sheet, which could spark a revolution to collect physical media once again.

Clip catastrophe
If you were hoping to watch an old clip of The Daily Show, you better hope it’s on YouTube.

• Over the past few days, the entertainment conglomerate has cleared the sites for MTV News, Comedy Central, CMT, Paramount Network, and TV Land of all their content (BET, Nickelodeon, and VH1 were still active, and MTV.com still had some videos).

• The sites now redirect people to check out that content on Paramount+... or through their TV provider for those who haven’t cut the cord yet.

• The problem is that Paramount+ has only a fraction of the content that was on these sites. For example, the streamer only carries the two most recent seasons of The Daily Show, while the oldest clip of the show on YouTube is from 2016.

The deletions come in the wake of Paramount’s new co-CEOs (George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins) announcing their ambition to cut $500 million in costs. Those savings are expected to come from the sale of various assets, layoffs, and apparently, gutting the digital archives.

Or as former Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood, Jr. posted on X: “Gotta bring back the bootleg DVD man.”

76.8% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Will you watch the Paris 2024 Olympic Games?

“Literally the ONLY time I watch sports.”

“Nothing beats the Summer Olympics. I was lucky enough to attend the 1976 games in Montreal. The city was abuzz with events at the stadium and basically all over. 👍🏻”

“I can't wait for this year’s games! There is something incredibly human about the Olympics and watching people work their whole lives for achievement like that!”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT HUBSPOT.

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Media, Music, & Entertainment

• The NFL has been hit with a $4.7 billion antitrust fine over its NFL Sunday Ticket… which could force the league to change its entire broadcast model. [Read More]

• The Los Angeles Lakers picked Bronny James during the NBA Draft, putting the 19-year-old on the same team with his dad — LeBron. [Read More]

• Cirque du Soleil has launched its own film and TV division and has enlisted Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions to help develop a film around its show O. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Elton John has put up pieces from his wardrobe — including a royal blue Versace tracksuit and customized Prada loafers — on eBay to raise money for his AIDS foundation. [Read More]

• Levi’s collabed with McLaren F1 on a new racing-inspired capsule collection. [Read More]

• Vans brought skateboarding to Paris Fashion Week. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• Amazon hit a $2 trillion valuation for the first time in the company’s history, thanks to its push into AI. [Read More]

• The same day OpenAI struck a licensing deal with TIME, the Center for Investigative Reporting sued the firm for copyright infringement. [Read More]

• SpaceX has won an $843 million contract from NASA to develop a spacecraft that can de-orbit the International Space Station and crash-land it into the Pacific Ocean. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• TikTok Shop is launching a discounted “Deals For You Days” next month to compete with Amazon’s Prime Day sales. [Read More]

• Bluesky is introducing a new feature that allows current users to create “starter packs” of friends and feeds for new users to follow once joining. [Read More]

• YouTube channel Unspeakable is debuting a new app that allows its content to be packaged and distributed to FAST channels. [Read More]

.ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

AI is getting social

The Future. Tech companies, big and small, are generating a world where AI likes, comments, chats, and messages you on social media. Most of the features are still in beta and will be clearly marked as AI, but we may soon be in a world where most of the posts that we see while scrolling — even from existing creators and brands — were put up by chatbots.

Chatbot friend request
Social media is about to get a lot more crowded, thanks to AI.

• Meta is beta testing AI characters on Instagram, which were made by 50 creators (including Wasted and Don Allen Stevenson III) and can interact with fans —  mostly via messaging. It’ll be fully launched by August.

• Character.AI is rolling out the ability to have voice calls with AI characters in a variety of languages. Three million people used it during a beta test.

• Butterflies, an app created by a former engineering director at Snap, gives people the ability to create AI characters that can autonomously start posting and engaging with other users — both humans and other AI profiles.

The chatbots are sure to be wonky to start, something Mark Zuckerberg admits, but it’ll be fascinating to see how people deploy them… or how many people simply log off in frustration.

• Watch: Mark Zuckerberg chats with YouTuber Kane Kallaway about Meta’s AI Studio and ambitions in wearables.

• Learn: EDITED has a new report about the current state and future of streetwear, which is now leaning towards simple, premium essentials that mimic luxury brands.

• Read: Variety interviews Amazon Games chief Christoph Hartmann about the division’s strategy of making AAA games focused on marquee IP.

We’re hungry to watch more of The Bear.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Larry Fitzgibbon, the co-founder and CEO of Tastemade. Tastemade is an independent media company that creates award-winning video content and original programming in the food, travel, and home & design space.