| Good afternoon from Los Angeles, wherever you may be. Bob Iger shocked the town this week by stepping down as Chief Executive Officer of Disney, ceding the most powerful job in entertainment to Bob Chapek, the head of Disney's parks business. Many Disney employees were surprised Chapek got the nod. The recent fuss about Disney+ had convinced many that Kevin Mayer, the head of Disney's streaming services, was next in line. But Mayer was Iger's strategy chief until just a year or two ago, and has little experience operating Disney's collection of assets. Chapek, in contrast, has run a few Disney divisions in 27 years at the company. The bigger surprise was the timing. Iger had postponed his retirement many times before. There was a sense among some industry figures that Iger would never leave. Now he is departing more than a year ahead of schedule? On a quiet Tuesday in February? And yet, true to form, Iger is leaving at the perfect time. His acquisition of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm positioned his movie studio to dominate the industry for years. His acquisition of assets from 21st Century Fox positioned Disney to contend with Netflix in streaming on a global basis. The development and launch of Disney+ was a big success, distracting investors from the decline of the company's cable networks. The only way for Iger to go from here was down. -- Lucas Shaw 20 Questions with… Jason Blum  Jason Blum Jason Blum sits where he has so many times before: the proud father of the No. 1 movie in North America. "The Invisible Man," based on H.G. Wells' 1897 novel, grossed $29 million this weekend, outpacing holdovers "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Call of the Wild." The success of "The Invisible Man" comes at a crucial time for Universal Pictures and Blum. In May 2017, Universal announced a plan to revive classic monsters Dr. Jekyll, Frankenstein, and the Mummy in a new series of movies called the Dark Universe. But Universal's first attempt at establishing the franchise, "The Mummy," starring Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe, was a bomb, losing a reported $95 million. Universal then revamped its strategy by asking filmmakers to come up with their own ideas. Blum, meanwhile, is coming off of a run of stinkers – "Fantasy Island," "Happy Death Day 2U" and "Black Christmas" – at least by Blum's lofty standards. Over the past 15 years, Blum's movies, which include "The Purge," "Paranormal Activity" and "Get Out," have collectively grossed more than $3 billion at the global box office. Blum has in many ways become a victim of his own success. Rival companies have rushed to copy his success in low-budget horror, saturating the market. That means he's got to be more careful about the movies he makes, and look to another industry for growth. This past month, I spent a couple hours talking to Blum about the evolution of his company: his rise to Hollywood acclaim, how he dealt with that success, and how he's now reinventing his business for the age of Netflix. While I encourage you to read the whole thing, I did want to highlight one answer I found very revealing about the current state of the entertainment business. Blum's claim to fame is his efficiency. He makes movies for almost no money ($1 million to $10 million), thus minimizing his risk and increasing his potential windfall if he makes a hit. Most Hollywood producers start off making inexpensive movies. But as they get to be as prominent as Blum, they have people throwing money at them. So, would Blum ever want to take more risk? I'm not interested in making expensive movies. It pulls too many levers for it to be fun.. I could do it if I wanted to do it. If I called up and said to Jeff [Shell} and Donna [Langley] I want to make a $100 million movie. I'm sure they'd say 'what a pain in the ass,' but would let me do it. I'm not interested in making that call. TV is another story all together. In the movie business, artists are financially incentivized to keep budgets low. The lower the budget, the bigger the pie of profit and whatever percentage you have is bigger. Right now, because the world is upside down and backwards, what the streamers are telling us by the way they pay us is make your TV and movies as expensive as they possibly can be. And that's what everybody does. If you have a movie for $15 million and make it for streaming, you make it for $40 million. Why wouldn't you? You get no percentage of the profit, and your fee is based on a percentage of the budget. So my caveat is: For streaming, I'd like all our movies to be $350 million which is insanity. But it's how the world works at the moment. Insanity is right. You can read more here. Local sports fans are suffering  CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - SEPTEMBER 21: Manager Joe Maddon #70 of the Chicago Cubs stands in the dugout during the game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field on September 21, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images) Photographer: Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images North America A growing number of fans are unable to watch their local sports team because of disputes between pay-TV operators and regional sports networks, Gerry Smith reports. In Chicago, Comcast isn't carrying a new network jointly owned by the Chicago Cubs and local TV giant Sinclair. Comcast it the largest pay-TV operator in the nation's third-largest media market, serving 1.56 million customers. YouTube TV, a smaller pay-TV operator, just dropped all of Sinclair's regional sports networks, including YES, the home of the Yankees. Los Angeles Dodger fans are familiar with this situation. Most of us haven't been able to watch the team for years. 7 stories you might have missed  - CBS is paying Tony Romo $17 million a year to call NFL games for the network, the highest annual salary ever paid to a football analyst.
- U.S. music sales climbed 13% last year, reaching their highest level since 2006. Streaming now accounts for 79% of all sales (see the chart above).
- "Law & Order" creator Dick Wolf signed a new deal with Comcast's Universal TV. He's signed two deals in the last few months worth as much as $1 billion.
- Advertisers are starting to experiment on TikTok, the short-form video app owned by China's ByteDance Inc.
- A music startup is offering artists interest-free loans to fund their next song or tour.
- Roman Polanski won best director at the Cesar Awards, France's equivalent of the Oscars. Several actresses walked out of the ceremony in protest of the director, who admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old in the 1970s.
- Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape. Who am I kidding? No one missed this.
Weekly Playlist The No. 1 album in the U.S. is Justin Bieber's "Changes," but I have spent all week listening to Raphael Saadiq. I'm pretty sure I have recommended him before, but I feel obligated to do so again after watching him performing at the Wiltern last night. Listen to his work with Tony! Toni! Tone! Listen to his early solo work. And definitely listen to his latest album. Jamila Woods opened for Saadiq. Give her a listen as well. | 
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