Entertainment business, explained by the people inside it.
Strictly Business tracks the deals, platforms, partnerships, and creative businesses shaping entertainment. Its strongest episodes put industry leaders, founders, filmmakers, and Variety editors into measured conversations about strategy, technology, consumer habits, and industry pressure points.
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Strictly Business is Variety’s industry-facing forum for the mechanics behind media and entertainment. It looks past premieres and headlines toward the decisions underneath them. The show’s center of gravity is the interview. A typical episode opens with a polished setup, names the business question at hand, and then gives an industry leader, founder, filmmaker, or Variety colleague room to explain the operating reality behind the public story. Recent Cannes Lions episodes focus heavily on AI, data, marketing, audience fragmentation, and partnerships. The tone is measured. The subjects are current. Kat Vernon talks about marketing through a difficult crypto cycle and narrowing priorities when budgets demand discipline. Jonathan Adeshock addresses how companies are actually using AI and why the rollout of new tools has to be managed carefully. Sony Pictures conversations connect streaming services, Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures Core, PlayStation devices, and international scale to a larger strategy of partnering across the industry. The Betches Media episode brings the same business lens to a different kind of company, tracing Aileen Drexler’s path from a couch-based college start to a digital hub built around comedy, community, pop culture, health, sports, and entertainment. The feed also includes Daily Variety briefings, which compress entertainment business news into fast, insider-oriented reports on mergers, layoffs, box office, guild negotiations, festivals, antitrust pressure, and television renewals. That mix gives the show a wider utility than a single executive-interview format. It can move from a conference-stage discussion of enterprise technology to a morning rundown on Hollywood’s opposition to a Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery transaction. It is strongest when a guest’s corporate language becomes grounded in examples: services in 83 countries, post-deal workflow friction, the role of AWS partners, or the practical effects of layoffs and consolidation. The show does not chase intimacy or irreverence. It values access, context, and useful explanation. Listeners get a trade-publication sensibility in audio form, with enough narrative shape to make business strategy feel connected to the shows, films, platforms, and communities people actually follow.
Made for: Strictly Business suits media professionals, entertainment-industry watchers, creators, marketers, and listeners who want Hollywood news connected to strategy, technology, and market behavior. It is especially useful for anyone tracking how companies adapt to AI, streaming, consolidation, and changing audiences.
What sets it apart: The show’s edge is Variety’s access to working industry figures and editors who can connect strategy to live events, daily headlines, and concrete business examples. It feels less like commentary from the sidelines and more like a structured conversation inside the trade press room.
Industry leaders converse about business deals, strategy and the future of media and entertainment.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Executive interviews reveal how commissioning, distribution, technology and corporate partnerships shape television and entertainment.
Strictly Business follows the decisions behind what reaches the screen, using executive interviews to connect programming choices with distribution and audience strategy.
Strictly Business puts the people approving television on mic, so you can follow the logic behind the greenlight.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Cannes conversations on marketing, AI, and ad partnerships.
Strictly Business turns its Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity stop into a brisk gathering of marketing, media, business, tech, and creator-economy voices on the beach in Cannes.
Cannes Lions executives talk AI as an operating problem with real platform stakes.
Strictly Business uses its festival stop to treat AI as an operations question across media and entertainment. Todd Spangler keeps the focus on partnerships, data, and process, while Cynthia Littleton frames the hour as a live conversation presented by AWS and Deloitte.
A trade-minded Hacks season-five discussion, with entertainment law folded in.
Daily Variety brings together Michael Schneider's report on the fifth season of Hacks and a Power of Law conversation about entertainment and media law.
A measured, trade-minded look at how Beyond the Gates is finding viewers across broadcast and streaming.
Sheila Duxworth frames Beyond the Gates as both a daytime serial approaching its one-year anniversary and a case study in how a new soap builds an audience.
BritBox lays out how its U.S. audience can shape British television commissioning.
BritBox emerges here as more than a home for familiar British imports. Robert Schildhaus frames the service as a platform trying to broaden its reach beyond anglophiles and expats, while taking a firmer hand in development, commissioning, and co-production.
Industrial LinkedIn signals, stress-tested for reality.
Bourbon talk with industry teeth.
Australian beer, with the paperwork left in.
Sheila Duxworth, executive producer of CBS daytime soap Beyond the Gates and president of the CBS Studios NAACP content partnership, discusses the show's one-year anniversary.
BBC Studios direct-to-consumer CEO Robert Schildhaus discusses BritBox's strategy for growing a British TV streaming service in the US market.
Daily Variety host Cynthia Littleton and Variety senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson examine Travis Scott's expansion from music into acting, producing, directing, retail, and business.
Daily Variety, dated July 20, 2026, examines Christopher Nolan's $264 million worldwide opening for The Odyssey.
Strictly Business goes to Cannes.
Strictly Business goes live from the CanLion Festival of Creativity in the south of France.
This episode features an interview with Aileen Drexler, founder and CEO of Betches Media, discussing the company's growth from a college startup to a digital hub for women focused on comedy and community, including its recent acquisition and future drivers.
This episode of Daily Variety covers Hollywood's opposition to the Paramount-Warner Bros.
This episode analyzes the Writers Guild of America's four-year contract with studios and streamers, focusing on health care funding, alongside entertainment industry news including renewals, layoffs, and endorsements.
Variety's music experts analyze the first weekend of Coachella, featuring performances by headliners like Sabrina Carpenter and Carol G., while also covering entertainment industry news such as Disney layoffs and AI discussions at CinemaCon.
This episode of Daily Variety covers box office analysis with 'Super Mario Galaxy Movie' holding strong, an interview with John Waters, and breaking news about Hollywood opposition to Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros.
Filmmaker Paul Feig discusses test screenings, his love for popcorn movies, and strategies to bring audiences back to theaters in a conversation from Variety's Power of Law event.
Cindy Lin says UCLA Law is teaching AI inside every class, not as a single standalone course.
This episode features an interview with Robert Schildahaus, CEO of BBC Studios' Direct-to-Consumer division, discussing how BritBox has successfully targeted American audiences with British TV content and original programming.
This episode features an interview with producers Brad Simpson and Nina Jacobson discussing the success of the FX limited series 'Love Story', their collaboration with Ryan Murphy, and their involvement with Producers United.
This episode explores Google TV's push into microdramas, featuring interviews with industry leaders discussing the business potential of vertical drama formats and AI-powered production.
This episode features an interview with Sheila Duxworth, executive producer of the CBS daytime soap 'Beyond the Gates', discussing the show's first year, its innovative partnerships, and the broader impact of the CBS Studios NAACP content venture.