{"id":2230951,"date":"2026-01-12T01:37:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T01:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2230951"},"modified":"2026-01-12T01:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T01:37:35","slug":"ai-sports-and-creators-change-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/ai-sports-and-creators-change-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"AI, Sports and Creators Change Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe struggle is real but so are the opportunities \u2014 and the potential to drive profits and growth are an order of magnitude larger than anyone can predict at this fraught moment for media, entertainment and technology.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThose central business dichotomies and much more were unpacked by an A-list roster of top executives, creators, entrepreneurs, investors, analysts and talent who took part in Day 1 of <em>Variety<\/em>\u2018s two-day summit at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 7.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"pmc-polymarket\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\" title=\"pmc-polymarket\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.polymarket.com\/market.html?market=will-kpop-demon-hunters-win-best-motion-picture-animated-at-the-83rd-golden-globes&amp;features=volume&amp;theme=light&amp;width=Infinity&amp;features=volume&amp;theme=light&amp;height=170pxl\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 170px;margin-top: 15px !important; border: 0px;&#10;&#9;padding: 0px;\"><br \/>\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe conversations were sharp and focused, and panelists went deep on the complexities that the entertainment industry faces amid the disruption that has been unfolding for a decade. And more change on the horizon as AI tools become even more baked in to Hollywood\u2019s workflows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Joseph Gordon-Levitt<\/strong>, the actor and filmmaker who has been pushing the boundaries of tech and media with his HitRecord content venture, crystallized the sentiment that Hollywood has reached an important crossroads with the advance of generative AI tech. He didn\u2019t shade what he sees as the downside of instantaneous, 24\/7 connectivity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI was as optimistic as anybody, and during the rise of social media, that\u2019s what HitRecord came from. So much good stuff happened and continues to happen on social media,\u201d Gordon-Levitt said. \u201cBut what did happen is a small handful of these gigantic walled gardens came to dominate what was the internet and their advertising business model necessitated these algorithms, these engagement optimization algorithms, and I think it\u2019s those algorithms, frankly, that are causing so many of the damaging side effects that we\u2019ve seen from social media, whether it\u2019s mental health, it\u2019s the backsliding of democracy, and we\u2019re about to see that all happen again with AI, but worse, because there\u2019s so much more compute power now and so much more money at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Breckin Meyer<\/strong>, actor and producer, and <strong>Jonathan Yunger<\/strong>, CEO of production-focused AI firm Arcana, also addressed the AI boom from the perspective of creative talent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Kelly Day<\/strong>, VP of Amazon\u2019s Prime Video International, brought the perspective of how local-language originals are both widening the playing field and competing with even Hollywood\u2019s strongest output.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Anthony Wood<\/strong>, founder, chairman and CEO of Roku, offered fascinating perspective on the evolution of subscription and free streaming platforms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Danielle Carney<\/strong>, director of U.S. video and live sports for Amazon Ads, and <strong>Marty Blich<\/strong>, executive director and head of U.S. sports investment and partnership for WPP Media, spoke about how sports and sports-related content has become even more important as connective tissue for media platforms and brands as the landscape for sports rights goes far beyond ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe impact of cutting-edge distribution platforms and data analytics tools on brand marketing was chopped by a quartet of chief marketing officers. <strong>Allison Stransky<\/strong> of Samsung Electronics America, <strong>Grace Kao<\/strong> of Snap, <strong>Monica Austin<\/strong> of Blizzard Entertainment and <strong>Darren Schillace<\/strong> of Fox Entertainment talked shop with <strong>Andrew Wallenstein<\/strong>, chief media analyst for Luminate, <em>Variety<\/em>\u2018s sibling data, audience measurement and analytics firm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tWallenstein also spoke in a separate session with <strong>Khurrum Malik<\/strong>, CMO of Walmart Connect, and <strong>Ian Colley,<\/strong> CMO of the Trade Desk, about how their firms have worked together to leverage Walmart\u2019s considerable reach with consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAn equally impressive assembly of TV and brand advertising sales chief tackled the questions of how streaming and AI has transformed the business once defined by \u201cspots and dots\u201d in the analog realm. <strong>Tim Natividad <\/strong>of TelevisaUnivision, Fox\u2019s <strong>Jeff Collins<\/strong>, Disney\u2019s <strong>Rita Ferro<\/strong>, NBCUniversal\u2019s <strong>Mark Marshall<\/strong>, Netflix\u2019s <strong>Amy Reinhard<\/strong> and <strong>Mike O\u2019Donnell<\/strong> of Walmart\u2019s Vizio spoke with<strong> Danny Ledger<\/strong>, who leads telecom, media and entertainment for Consulting Services at Deloitte.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe audacity that it takes to succeed in the cut-throat, ever-changing world of Silicon Valley is on display in AMC Network\u2019s upcoming dramedy \u201cThe Audacity.\u201d Summit attendees got a sneak preview of the series, which bows April 12, from stars <strong>Simon Helberg<\/strong> and <strong>Billy Magnussen<\/strong>, executive producer <strong>Gina Mingacci<\/strong> and <strong>Dan McDermott<\/strong>, chief content officer for AMC Networks and president of AMC Studios.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Fandom in the Zeitgeist<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSometime over the past decade, the word \u201cfandom\u201d became a verb. From tech launches to entertainment ballyhoo to brand marketing, tapping into the passionate fanbases that flock to things that speak to them. Sometimes it\u2019s a big crowd of enthusiasts, sometimes its a tight-knit group of mega-fans who engage deeply. That dynamic was brought out as panelists offered granular examples of how they engage existing communities. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Pat Shah<\/strong>, global head of content acquisition, strategy and partnerships for Audible, spoke of how new audio renditions of the original Harry Potter books have skyrocketed for the Amazon-owned serivce, while <strong>Nadine Zylstra<\/strong>, global head of programming and originals for Pinterest, spoke of how consumer trends are evident in the content that drives the service\u2019s crafty consumers. <strong>Jonathan Adashek<\/strong>, senior VP of marketing and communications for IBM; <strong>Thai Randolph<\/strong>, CEO of LL Cool J\u2019s, Rock the Bells; <strong>Mitchel Berger<\/strong>, executive VP of global commerce for Crunchyroll; <strong>Farzeen Ghorashy<\/strong>, president of Overtime, add to the lively discussion of strategies to reach and motivate fans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Decoding the Feed: How Zefr Leverages NVIDIA Technology to Analyze Social Content at Scale<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Jamie Allan<\/strong>, global head of business development, Streaming, Sports, AdTech and Nvidia, and <strong>Jon Morra<\/strong>, chief AI officer of Zefr, go super-deep on how AI tools and platforms are helping the entertainment industry in myriad ways. But first, people have to embrace the technology.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Be Everywhere, Be Premium, Listen to Your Consumer and Iterate, Iterate, Iterate<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe summit began at 9 a.m. sharp with a session featuring top programming and production executives from heavyweight Hollywood studios and platforms. The discussion revolved around the challenges of adapting traditional business models and practices to the new demands of content distribution and \u2014 of course \u2014 monetization. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Alison Hoffman<\/strong>, president of Starz Networks, emphasized the benefit that her platform has in focusing on premium series and primarily scripted content. Not trying to be everything to every consumer \u201callows us to be a great partner\u201d to Starz\u2019s wide range of distribution partners around the world. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Julian Franco<\/strong>, president of strategy and operations for Fox Entertainment, detailed how the vision for content distribution has changed at Fox in the half-dozen years since Disney bought the 20th Century Fox studio, Hulu and cable channels. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really a platform agnostic ecosystem where we test, we produce, and we scale IP and we\u2019re not trying to play a game of four-dimensional chess,\u201d Franco said. \u201cWe\u2019re just being really pragmatic and simple in our approach and saying, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re going to go where audiences exist.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Val Boreland<\/strong>, president of entertainment for Versant Media, is also in the throes of transformation following the split from NBCUniversal to form Versant, which is home to USA Network, Syfy, Oxygen, CNBC, MS Now and other assets. The slimming down of the company\u2019s asset base will help the focus in on what each brand does best \u2014 and hopefully find partnership opportunities within the portfolio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI had been at NBCUniversal for nine-plus years and barely interacted with the Rotten Tomatoes people. And I was like, We\u2019re both entertainment brands. Why haven\u2019t we leaned in on each other more, collaborated more,\u201d Boreland said. \u201cThe consolidation or the transformations, it\u2019s really just forcing us to think differently.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Jay Levine<\/strong>, chief strategy officer and business operations for Sony Pictures Entertainment, noted that the marketplace has never been wider for a studio that works with nearly every major platform.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cAs an independent, we have a unique position because we sell to all platforms, we\u2019re not beholden to one buyer. We\u2019re not even beholden to our own network strategy, because us at Sony don\u2019t have a general entertainment service and we\u2019re flexible about it,\u201d Levine said. \u201cSo there\u2019s times that we want to deficit finance things, there\u2019s times that we can tailor deals and we want to co-produce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>Jon Liebman<\/strong>, CEO of Brillstein Entertainment Partners, brought the perspective of the creative community that has grappled with big changes in how Hollywood gets paid. That\u2019s one reason why packaging of big-ticket projects is more important than ever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cWe all have to figure out as representatives of artists \u2014 we don\u2019t deal algorithms. We deal in creative concepts. And so what our clients are doing more and more of is packaging, putting things together so that by the time we come to the folks on this stage with pitches and ideas and people who work for them, they are a little bit more baked,\u201d Liebman said. \u201cYou can see what it is and that way when you all go through the metrics and try to figure out, is this gonna work on our platform and how would we make this work, you have a bit more meat on the bone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>How IP drives cross-platform opportunities beyond the screen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe world of live experiences, brand extensions and e-commerce has greatly expanded the potential for IP to drive wholly new businesses. This fertile territory was explored by <strong>Kim Boyd<\/strong>, Habro\u2019s president of licensing and entertainment, <strong>Javi Borges<\/strong>, EY\u2019s global U.S. media and entertainment sector, <strong>Jenefer Brown<\/strong>, president of global products and experiences for Lionsgate; <strong>Kevin Chernett<\/strong>, Live Nation\u2019s executive VP and head of global media partnerships; and <strong>Sandra Douglass Morgan<\/strong>, president of Las Vegas Raiders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<strong>The big picture outlook: What trends will drive business in 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe event wrapped with some crystal-ball gazing into the future as independent companies tap into direct connections with fans and consumers to make inroads in a marketplace dominated by media and tech giants. <strong>Nikki Santoro<\/strong>, CEO of IMDB, <strong>Chris McGurk<\/strong>, CEO of Cineverse, <strong>Maureen Polo<\/strong>, CEO of Hello Sunshine, <strong>Yong-yi Zhu<\/strong>, VP and head of business operations, strategy and compliance for Tencent Games, and <strong>Jim Squires<\/strong>, executive VP of business marketing and growth for Reddit, offered practical examples of how their businesses have grown through ingenuity and listening to their consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<em>(Pictured top: Variety\u2019s Cynthia Littleton, Reddit\u2019s Jim Squires, Cineverse\u2019s Chris McGurk, IMBD\u2019s Nikki Santoro, Tencent Games\u2019 Yong-yi Zhu and Hello Sunshine\u2019s Maureen Polo)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The struggle is real but so are the opportunities \u2014 and the potential to drive profits and growth are an order of magnitude larger than anyone can predict at this fraught moment for media, entertainment and technology. Those central business dichotomies and much more were unpacked by an A-list roster of top executives, creators, entrepreneurs, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2230952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[427731],"class_list":["post-2230951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ces"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AI-Sports-and-Creators-Change-Entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2230951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2230953,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2230951\/revisions\/2230953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2230952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2230951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2230951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2230951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}