Raphael Stevens

The MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates and the NHL’s Penguins are the latest teams to offer local games on a streaming service — and outside of the pay-TV bundle — in their market.
SportsNet Pittsburgh’s streaming offering will cost $17.99 a month.
The launch makes it the latest regional sports network to find a streaming home as the cable TV bundle bleeds customers.

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes. 
Diamond Images | Diamond Images | Getty Images

The regional sports network that airs Pittsburgh’s MLB and NHL teams is launching a direct-to-consumer streaming service, the latest to take the step as more fans cut the cord.
SportsNet Pittsburgh on Monday unveiled SNP 360, which will cost fans in its local market $17.99 a month to watch Pirates and Penguins games outside of the pay-TV bundle. Viewers with pay-TV subscriptions will also have access to the app.

The streaming offering for the Pirates and Penguins — the highest-rated NHL team in the 2023-24 regular season — comes as the regional sports network business, a key piece of the professional leagues’ media rights model, takes a hit from the shift to streaming. It also follows a shakeup at SportsNet Pittsburgh last year.
The network came under new ownership last year when Warner Bros. Discovery exited the regional sports network business, which it inherited in the 2022 merger between Warner Media and Discovery.
The network is now owned by the Pirates and Penguins. Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Boston Red Sox, agreed to acquire a controlling stake in the Penguins in 2021. Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, also the parent company of the Boston Bruins, own the regional sports network NESN, which manages SportsNet Pittsburgh.
“Our desire has been to reach fans wherever they are and give them options to access our clubs’ telecasts,” said NESN and SportsNet Pittsburgh CEO Sean McGrail. “There are many people now who don’t subscribe a linear TV bundle, and we wanted to make sure they had the opportunity to engage with our teams and be part of the fan base.”

Pittsburgh Penguins Left Wing Jake Guentzel (59) celebrates a first period goal with the team bench during the regular season NHL game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Toronto Maple Leafs on November 20, 2021 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, ON.
Gerry Angus | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

SNP 360 came together quickly over the last six months when NESN took over operations of the Sportsnet Pittsburgh, McGrail said. He said the network is offering the service at “an aggressive price point,” lower than the cost of most other regional sports streaming plans, while it builds up its content beyond the Pirates and Penguins.

NESN, which broadcasts Red Sox and Bruins local games, was the first regional sports network to offer a streaming alternative for its market in 2022. NESN 360 is available for $29.99 a month, or $180 for the first year on the annual plan through a current promotional offer. It otherwise costs $329.99 per year.
Last year, the YES Network, home of the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, launched its streaming service for $24.99 a month. MSG Network, which airs New York Knicks, New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils games, launched a new streaming service in 2023 and charges $29.99 a month.
Regional sports networks, once a lucrative business, have been particularly squeezed as consumers opt out of the traditional pay-TV bundle in favor of streaming.
Many now offer streaming options to recapture those customers. The networks remain careful about pricing in order to avoid further disrupting the pay-TV model and breach contracts with distributors.
The contracts with pay-TV distributors help support the billions of dollars in fees that the networks pay professional sports teams to air their games.
Diamond Sports, the owner of the largest portfolio of regional sports networks, also launched streaming services for some of its teams before filing for bankruptcy protection in 2023. During the bankruptcy proceedings, Diamond has exited contracts with some teams to avoid paying high rights fees.
“It has certainly been challenging times,” said McGrail. “But those are the times that bring opportunity, and you have to actively think about your distribution strategy and how you’re going to handle distribution in the future. This addresses the needs of a certain group of people who don’t live in the linear world anymore. We’re trying to be flexible and make sure we’re supporting these fans.”

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Paramount Global is set to remove Bob Bakish as CEO ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings report, which is after the market close Monday.
Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is now open to a “majority of the minority” vote on a Skydance merger deal that will give common shareholders a say in the company’s future.
By removing Bakish, Redstone and the Paramount Global board are throwing the status quo into chaos, which could help force through a deal with dissenting shareholders.

Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount, speaks with CNBC’s David Faber on Sept. 6, 2023.

In what could easily be a plotline from HBO’s hit show “Succession,” Paramount Global plans to replace Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish with a cohort of existing division heads on Monday in a chessboard-altering move designed to accelerate the company’s future — one way or another.
Paramount is expected to announce Bakish’s departure Monday before reporting earnings, which is after the markets close, according to people familiar with the matter.

The decision to remove Bakish as CEO comes as Paramount Global closes in on a merger agreement with Skydance Media. His departure could help force through a deal.
A number of large common shareholders, including Gamco Investors, Ariel Investments, Matrix and Aspen Sky Trust have publicly criticized the deal, arguing it destroys value for common shareholders. The Skydance offer would include billions of new equity that would dilute common holders.

Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements and controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, walks to a morning session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, July 12, 2023.
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Meanwhile, Skydance would pay about $2 billion to controlling shareholder Shari Redstone for her 77% voting shares in the company by acquiring her holding company National Amusements, CNBC has previously reported, marking a significant premium for Redstone, whose economic interest in the company has fallen to less than $1 billion.
The imbalance has led many at Paramount, including Bakish, to speak out against the deal, which they see as only benefitting Redstone.
“There’s no question I’d rather see no sale,” Gamco chairman and CEO Mario Gabelli told The New York Post earlier this month.

Majority of the minority

That’s where Monday’s CEO drama begins.
Redstone is now open to a so-called “majority of the minority” vote on the Skydance deal, according to a person familiar with her thinking. Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal first reported the development on Sunday.
That’s a significant turn in the Skydance talks. It means minority shareholders will now have a say in whether the deal proceeds, giving the deal’s denouncers potential sway in the outcome. Paramount Global shares jumped about 5% in premarket trading Monday.
Typically, Paramount Global shareholders, such as Gabelli, would compare an offer to the standalone company’s prospects — hence his comments about not seeing a sale at all.
But by removing Bakish, Redstone and the Paramount Global board are now throwing the status quo into chaos. The company will no longer have a leader or a clear go-forward strategy. Redstone may be trying to force common holders to choose a sale by effectively destabilizing the company without one.
Exclusivity talks with Skydance are set to end May 3. CNBC reported last week Skydance was inching toward valuation terms but wanted a two-week extension on exclusivity, which the special committee hadn’t yet granted.
“National Amusements specifically requested that the Paramount board form a special committee to exercise their dependent judgment in considering a potential transaction with Skydance,” a National Amusements spokesperson said in a statement provided to CNBC. “National Amusements has no role on the committee, and we respect the committee’s process and ultimate decision on whether the Skydance deal presents an attractive transaction for Paramount and whether they want to continue to move forward.”
With a majority of the minority vote in place, Skydance plans to sweeten its offer to make it more appealing to common holders, Bloomberg reported. It’s unclear if the company will be able to alter terms drastically enough to convince common investors to change their minds.
A joint bid by private equity firm Apollo Global and Sony could serve as a white knight if investors don’t want Skydance and don’t have a viable non-sale option. The New York Times reported earlier this month the two parties have had preliminary talks on a deal.
Shareholders will wait to see if the parties present a formal offer with details about who is funding an acquisition. Regulators could view an acquisition by Apollo and Sony as more of a risk if funding is provided by foreign entities. Sony, too, is a non-U.S.-based company, which could theoretically trigger concerns related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which would likely review the deal.
Meanwhile, Paramount has an important carriage renewal deal with U.S. cable company Charter Communications in the coming days. Bakish has been deep in negotiations with Charter. It’s unclear how his removal will affect those negotiations, which will play a large role in valuing the company moving forward. More

The wealth gap between rich millennials and the rest of their age group is the largest of any generation, creating a new wave of class tension and resentment, according to a study.
While the average millennial has less wealth at the age of 35 than previous generations, the top 10% of millennials have 20% more wealth than the top baby boomers at the same age.
The surge in wealth among millennial heirs is also creating a lucrative new market for wealth-management firms, luxury companies, travel firms and real estate brokers.

Klaus Vedfelt | Digitalvision | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The wealth gap between rich millennials and the rest of their age group is the largest of any generation, creating a new wave of class tension and resentment, according to a recent study.

Even as the vast majority of millennials struggle with student debt, low-wage service-jobs, unaffordable housing and low savings, the millennial elite are surpassing previous generations. According to the study, the average millennial has 30% less wealth at the age of 35 than baby boomers did at the same age. Yet the top 10% of millennials have 20% more wealth than the top baby boomers at the same age.
“Millennials are so different from one another that it is not particularly meaningful to talk about the ‘average’ Millennial experience,” wrote the study’s authors, Rob Gruijters, Zachary Van Winkle and Anette Eva Fasang. “There are some Millennials who are doing extremely well—think Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman—while others are struggling.”
The study finds that millennials — typically defined as those between the age of 28 and 43 today — have faced repeated financial headwinds. Coming of age during the financial crisis, they have lower levels of homeownership, larger debts outweighing assets, low-wage and unstable jobs, and lower rates of dual-income family formation.
At the same time, the authors say the top 10% of millennials have benefited from greater rewards for skilled jobs. As they put it, “The returns to high-status work trajectories have increased, while the returns to low-status trajectories have stagnated or declined.”
The millennials who “went to college, found graduate level jobs, and started families relatively late,” ended up with “higher levels of wealth than Baby Boomers with similar life trajectories,” according to the report.

The great wealth transfer

There may be another factor creating so much wealth among millennials: inheritances. In what’s known as “the great wealth transfer,” baby boomers are expected to pass down between $70 trillion and $90 trillion in wealth over the next 20 years. Much of that is expected to go to their millennial children. High-net-worth individuals worth $5 million or more will account for nearly half of that total, according to Cerulli Associates.
Wealth management firms say some of that wealth has already starting trickling down to the next generation.
“The great wealth transfer, which we’ve all been talking about for the last 10 years, is underway,” said John Mathews, head of UBS’ Private Wealth Management division. “The average age of the world’s billionaires is almost 69 right now. So this whole transition or wealth handover will start to accelerate.”
Tensions between millennial classes are likely to escalate as more wealth is transferred in the coming years. Wealth displays on social media by millennial “nepo babies” could add to the intra-generational class war and drive nonwealthy millennials to overspend or create the appearance of lavish lifestyles to keep up.
A survey by Wells Fargo found that 29% of affluent millennials (defined as having assets of $250,000 to over $1 million of investible assets) admit they “sometimes buy items they cannot afford to impress others.” According to the survey, 41% of affluent millennials admit to funding their lifestyles with credit cards or loans, versus 28% of Gen Xers and 6% of baby boomers.
The battle between rich millennials and the rest could also shape their attitudes toward wealth. For over four decades, the vast majority of millionaires and billionaires created in America have been self-made, mostly entrepreneurs. A study by Fidelity Investments found that 88% of American millionaires are self-made.
Yet inherited wealth could become more common. A study by UBS found that among newly minted billionaires last year, heirs who inherited their fortunes racked up more wealth than self-made billionaires for the first time in at least nine years. And, all the billionaires under the age of 30 on the latest Forbes billionaires list inherited their wealth, for the first time in 15 years.

‘Extreme’ wealth

The surge in wealth among millennial heirs is also creating a lucrative new market for wealth-management firms, luxury companies, travel firms and real estate brokers.
Clayton Orrigo, one of the top luxury real estate brokers in Manhattan, has built a thriving business on moneyed millennials. The founder of the Hudson Advisory Team at Compass has sold over $4 billion in real estate and regularly brokers deals over $10 million. He says the “vast majority” of his business lately is from buyers in their 20s and 30s with inherited wealth.
“I just sold a $16 million apartment to someone in their mid-20s, and the buyer accessed the family trust,” he said. “The wealth that is behind these kids is extreme.”
Inherited wealth has become Orrigo’s specialty. He says he works on forging close relationships with family offices, trusts and young money elite mingling at New York membership clubs like Casa Cipriani.
The pattern is familiar: A wealthy family calls wanting a rental for their son or daughter; a few years later, they want a $5 million or $10 million two-bedroom condo to buy in a new, high-security building downtown.
“My gig is working very quietly and very discreetly with the wealthiest families in the world,” Orrigo said.
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American is reducing service on a host of long-haul routes, citing Boeing’s delivery delays.
Boeing Dreamliners and 737 Max aircraft are arriving late to customers due to supply chain issues and the plane-maker’s safety crisis.
Among the changes are reduced international service from New York and Dallas/Forth Worth.

Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, from American Airlines company, taking off from Barcelona airport, in Barcelona on 24th February 2023. 
JanValls | Nurphoto | Getty Images

American Airlines on Friday said Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner delivery delays are forcing it to cut some long-haul flights in the second half of the year and into early 2025, the latest carrier to change its schedule tied to the plane-maker’s production problems.
American expects to receive three Dreamliners this year, down from six, it said in a filing Thursday. Boeing said earlier this week that parts shortages will prevent it from ramping up production of the wide-body planes.

“We’re making these adjustments now to ensure we’re able to re-accommodate customers on affected flights,” American said in a statement. “We’ll be proactively reaching out to impacted customers to offer alternate travel arrangements. We remain committed to our customers and team members and mitigating the impact of these delays while continuing to offer a comprehensive global network.”
American will suspend some routes to Europe at the end of the summer. Here’s what’s changing:

Flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Athens will be suspended on Sept. 3. The seasonal route was previously scheduled to end Oct. 26.
Flights from New York to Barcelona will be suspended Sept. 3. The route was previously year-round, and will resume next year.
Flights from Dallas/Fort Worth International to Dublin and to Rome, which were both scheduled as year-round flights, will now be suspended on Oct. 26, and return next year.
Flights from Chicago O’Hare to Paris will end Sept. 3 and resume next year.

American will also offer just a single daily flight between New York and Rome, instead of twice daily, starting Aug. 5, and service between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Kona, Hawaii, won’t operate this winter.
American said it will continue to offer 55 long-haul international routes this winter and that it will add nonstop service between Philadelphia and Barcelona on a daily basis starting in January, as well as seasonal service between Miami and Montevideo, Uruguay. It will also add three-times-a-day flights between Miami and Sao Paulo.
The airline is further evaluating its schedule because of Boeing’s 737 Max delays, it said.

Boeing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Correction: American Airlines will add three-times-a-day flights between Miami and Sao Paulo. A previous version of this story mischaracterized the schedule. More

A CVS Omnicare pharmacy in Las Vegas has become the first location to join a new national pharmacy union.
It’s a huge step in a broader effort to help thousands of U.S. pharmacy workers organize to address what they call unsafe working conditions.
Nearly 30 pharmacy staff at the Las Vegas branch of CVS’s Omnicare will now join the Pharmacy Guild, which will represent them in labor negotiations with CVS. 

A general view shows a sign of CVS Health Customer Support Center in CVS headquarters of CVS Health Corp in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, U.S. October 30, 2023. 
Faith Ninivaggi | Reuters

A CVS Omnicare pharmacy in Las Vegas has become the first location to join a new national pharmacy union, a milestone for organizers trying to help thousands of U.S. pharmacy workers address what they call unsafe working conditions. 
Nearly 30 pharmacy staff at the Las Vegas branch of CVS’s Omnicare won their union election on Thursday by a landslide margin of 87% to 13%, according to a press release from the guild. The pharmacists and pharmacy technicians there fill prescriptions for the elderly and other vulnerable patients at long-term care facilities across Nevada. 

Those workers now join the Pharmacy Guild, which will represent them in labor negotiations with CVS. 
“We’re going to try to get a best-in-the-industry contract for these people that have trusted our union to represent them. It’s a historic win and a very decisive one,” Shane Jerominski, a community pharmacist and co-founder of the Pharmacy Guild, told CNBC.  
Jerominski and other organizers of a recent nationwide walkout of pharmacy staff partnered with IAM Healthcare – a union representing thousands of health-care professionals – to launch the Pharmacy Guild in November. That work stoppage in late October, which organizers dubbed “Pharmageddon,” spanned major drugstore chains like CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, drawing widespread media attention to the scope of workers’ concerns.
Like the walkout effort, the Pharmacy Guild aims to help pharmacy staff address what many employees call unsafe staffing levels and increasing workloads throughout the industry that put both employees and patients at risk. The guild also calls for legislative and regulatory changes to establish higher standards of practice in pharmacies to protect patients. 
The unionization effort is the culmination of years of growing discontent among retail pharmacy staff, who often grapple with understaffed teams and increasing work expectations imposed by corporate management. The Covid pandemic only exacerbated those issues, as new duties like testing and vaccination stretched pharmacists and technicians even thinner. 

In a statement, a CVS Health spokesperson said the company respects its employees’ right to unionize or refrain from doing so, including the decision of Omnicare Las Vegas workers to choose union representation. The company added that it will work “closely and collaboratively” with its employees to address their current and future concerns and is “committed to providing a positive and rewarding work environment.” 
Omnicare, acquired by CVS in 2015, is not a public-facing pharmacy like most of the chain’s nearly 10,000 locations. There are Omnicare pharmacies in 49 states, according to CVS’s website. 
But Omnicare and other pharmacies share the same issues that range from staffing levels to low starting pay for technicians, Jerominski said. 
“It’s not specific to Omnicare, the problems they were expressing were the same problems I’m hearing across the country. It’s ubiquitous across all major chains,” Jerominski said. “You can only ask a company to support you for so long. … This is the reason why the walkouts happened. They finally said ‘No, we are going to get the help that we demand.'” 
The Pharmacy Guild will now work to strike a union contract with CVS to address the concerns of Omnicare workers in Las Vegas. Jerominski said those employees want consistent work schedules that guarantee pharmacy technicians 40 hours a week year-round.
“You can’t retain individuals with a skill set and a family, especially with the stress level that this job has, if you don’t even just guarantee them their 40 hours,” Jerominski told CNBC. 
The Pharmacy Guild is seeing momentum build in other parts of the country. Pharmacy staff at two retail stores in Rhode Island have officially confirmed that they filed to unionize with the guild, according to Jerominski.
CVS’s headquarters is based in the state.

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Starbucks and Workers United said they made “significant progress” in this week’s contract talks.
The two-day session marked the first time in nearly a year that Starbucks and Workers United came to the bargaining table.
Starbucks and the union plan to meet again in late May to keep working on the framework that will inform every single-store contract.

A Starbucks worker boards the Starbucks union bus after Starbucks workers stood on the picket line with striking SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America (WGA) members in solidarity outside Netflix studios on July 28, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images

Starbucks and Workers United, representing roughly 400 of its cafes, said Friday in a joint release that they made “significant progress” in their contract talks this week.
The two parties discussed a process to resolve grievances, details related to the union’s representation of Starbucks baristas, and other topics on Wednesday and Thursday in Atlanta, according to the press release.

The two-day session marked the first time in nearly a year that Starbucks and Workers United came to the bargaining table. It followed a February announcement that the two sides were ending their bitter stalemate.
The coffee giant spent more than two years battling the union, which is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. Workers United has broadly pushed for higher wages and more consistent scheduling, among a range of other priorities.
This week’s talks are the closest that any of the unionized locations, which make up a small fraction of Starbucks’ total U.S. footprint, have come to a collective bargaining agreement.
Yet, there’s still a long road ahead.
“There’s more to do, but we are committed to working together,” both sides said in a joint statement.

Starbucks and the union plan to meet again in late May to keep working on the framework that will inform every single-store contract, according to the release. Individual stores will still have to negotiate and ratify their contracts once that foundation has been built.
Labor laws do not require that the employer and union reach a collective bargaining agreement, only that both bargain in good faith. After a year, workers who lose faith in the union can petition to decertify, putting a ticking clock on negotiations. 
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Starbucks and Workers United represent about 400 cafes. An earlier version misstated the number.

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