| Good afternoon from Los Angeles, wherever you may be. I waited a day so as not to interrupt the Super Bowl. Congrats to the Kansas City Chiefs, and thank the stars the Bay Area didn't win another title. When Walt Disney Co. reports earnings tomorrow, Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger is going to tout the growth of Disney+, which most analysts forecast has already amassed at least 25 million customers. But he's also got another growth story to talk about: Hulu. Hulu grew twice as quickly as Netflix in the U.S. this past year, and surpassed 30 million customers. While Disney gained full operational control of the company through its acquisition of most of Fox and a deal with Comcast, the company has largely left Hulu alone while it focused on the rollout of Disney+. No more. Disney's streaming boss Kevin Mayer visited Hulu's headquarters in Santa Monica Friday afternoon to deliver a message: Disney's takeover of Hulu is officially under way. All of Hulu's divisions will now report into Disney, which means Hulu's technology, advertising, marketing and publicity engines will blend with their counterparts. Though not a shocking development, it marks the end of an era. Along with Netflix and YouTube, Hulu was one of the pioneers of streaming video. It operated as an independent company, at least to some degree. Now it's a part of the Disney machine. In the long term, Hulu will benefit from having one owner. With multiple owners, came endless headaches. Its owners wasted years fighting over the proper strategy, and never gave Hulu the resources to compete worldwide with Netflix. Hulu was independent in the sense that it had its own CEO, but that CEO couldn't make major moves without the approval of its board members. Those board members agreed that Hulu was a sound investment in TV's future, but couldn't agree on what that future was. Hulu picked up momentum in the past couple of years, but it took a while to get there. Disney has a clear strategy. It will direct all adult programming to Hulu, including original series from FX, and reruns from FX, Freeform and ABC. In March, Hulu will release its first original show from FX, "Devs," created by Alex Garland. Disney is also bundling Hulu with Disney+ and ESPN+, creating a $13 package that is every bit as compelling as most of the other services out there. That bundle has already boosted sales of Hulu. But in the short term, this will get messy. While it makes corporate sense to have one technological and advertising infrastructure, Disney will have to meld two very different cultures. Hulu is an engineering-led organization whose employees refer to themselves as "Hulugans" and take pride in having built one of the best streaming services out there. Will they want to report to the leaders of BAMTech, which runs Disney's streaming services? And while most Hulu executives are genial, approachable and a little nerdy, Disney is as corporate and centralized as they come. People don't speak out for fear of upsetting the all-seeing eye in Burbank. Disney is taking control of Hulu at a good time. The service started to grow in the past three years through a mix of original programming, steep discounts and lots of unglamorous work building algorithms and improving the customer experience that doesn't get much attention. Now Iger and Mayer have a simple sounding job: Don't screw it up. -- Lucas Shaw Fox's big bet on the Super Bowl  MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA - JANUARY 25: Cyclists ride past the FOX Sports South Beach studio compound prior to Super Bowl LIV on January 25, 2020 in Miami Beach, Florida. The San Francisco 49ers will face the Kansas City Chiefs in the 54th playing of the Super Bowl, Sunday February 2nd. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) Photographer: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images North America Sunday's Super Bowl was Rupert Murdoch's chance to prove his smaller, leaner TV company is still big enough for the NFL. After selling most of his media assets to Disney last year for $71 billion, Murdoch and his son Lachlan have structured Fox around live sports and news. That strategy will only work if they retain NFL rights in the next wave of deals, which is a big reason Fox pulled out all the stops this weekend. At a nine-acre compound Fox created in Miami Beach for the event, team officials, NFL executives and fans could ride a Ferris wheel based on Fox's hit show "The Masked Singer." Or can get their pictures taken with Lego versions of Fox Sports personalities. "Lego Masters," a new competition show, debuts on Wednesday following the Super Bowl. The NFL is auctioning its media rights at a good time. Viewership of the league has climbed two years in a row, and the Super Bowl audience was up over the year before. A tale of two mergers AT&T reported earnings this week, and despite reporting higher profits than anyone expected, shares in the company fell following the news. That's due to two factors identified by Scott Moritz: AT&T's pay-TV business lost 1.2 million customers in the quarter (and more than 4 million last year), and AT&T said it is forgoing $1.2 billion in revenue to build out its streaming service HBO Max. Headlines aren't that important in the long run, but it's worth noting the public's reception of AT&T's streaming plans relative to Disney. Disney too is forgoing lots of licensing money to keep shows and movies for Disney+ and Hulu. Disney too is suffering declines at its cable networks because of cord-cutting. Disney too is getting rid of a lot of senior executives at both its own company and from Fox. But while Disney is cheered for its huge investment in Disney+, AT&T is burdened by the perception that it is mismanaging its new toy. What is a Grammy worth? Artists that won Grammys last week experienced a 153% boost in sales in the two days after the show, according to BuzzAngle Music. The biggest beneficiary was Demi Lovato, who released a new song the day of the show, followed by Blake Shelton and Camila Cabello.  - The No. 1 album in the U.S. is from Roddy Rich, followed by Eminem's "Music to Be Murdered By." As someone who grew up on Eminem's rap, his staying power is remarkable. Some facts about the Detroit rapper, courtesy of Billboard:
- Eminem is the only act ever to release 10 consecutive No. 1 albums. Kanye West is second with 9.
- Eminem is one of six acts to release 10 or more No. 1 albums. The other five: The Beatles, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley. Good company.
- Fans streamed this album's tracks 217.6 million times its opening week, the biggest streaming week for an album in four months. (Another white rapper: Post Malone.
 - "Palm Springs" scored the biggest deal in the history of the Sundance Film Festival: $17,500,000.69. "Minari" and "Boys State" won the top awards.
- Bryan Curtis wrote about Super Bowl's radio row, a "weeklong carnival of promoters and product placement."
- Amazon said it now has more than 150 million Prime customers . The company crushed its earnings this past week, boosting Jeff Bezos' personal fortune by $13.2 billion.
- Netflix is opening its first Latin American headquarters in Mexico City. The streaming service already has 31.4 million customers in the region, and plans to spend $200 million on Mexican productions in 2020.
- Casino operator Penn National Gaming bought a minority stake in Barstool Sports that valued the media company at about $450 million. The deal is all about gambling. Penn will be adding the Barstool name to as many as 20 casino sportsbooks.
Apologies to Jessica Toonkel, whose name I misspelled in the last newsletter. Typo! Weekly playlist I saw New York-based singer-songwriter Caroline Polachek at the Fonda Theater Saturday night. Polachek was the lead singer in the band Chairlift, best known for the song "Bruises." Her new album, "Pang," is worth a listen. | 
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