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The public feud between Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company rages on after Disney invoked a rare legal clause based on the descendants of the British royal family.
Before DeSantis could replace the Reedy Creek district board of directors, a Disney-allied board signed a long-lasting development agreement that drastically limits his control.
Florida legislators have balked at the new agreement, vowing to find a legal way to repeal or void the document. However, Disney says all of its conduct was legal.

Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World.
Roberto Machado Noa | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Forget about Disney princesses. Mickey Mouse might have just proved who’s the real king of Florida.
Disney used a legal clause that name checks King Charles III to apparently thwart Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to strip the company of its self-governance power in the state.

For nearly a year, state legislators, encouraged by DeSantis, have sought to exert more control over the company’s Florida-based theme parks by passing a bill that would dissolve Disney’s special tax district. DeSantis also wanted to rename the area the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and plant a new board to oversee it.
Until recently, there had been no major public discussion about dissolving Disney’s long-established special district, which it’s occupied for 55 years, leading DeSantis’ critics to question its timing and the speed at which the governor acted against the company.
Widely seen as a contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, DeSantis became locked in a bitter and public feud with the entertainment giant over the company’s denouncement of Florida’s HB 1557 law early last year. HB 1557, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, limits early education teachings on sexual orientation or gender identity.
State Rep. Randy Fine told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last April that the bill wasn’t retaliatory, but then said “when Disney kicked the hornet’s nest, we looked at special districts.”
While Disney remained quiet on the matter for months, it seems the House of Mouse had been hatching a plan to retain its control over the land within the outer limits of Orange and Osceola counties.

On Feb. 8, the day before the Florida House voted to put DeSantis in charge, the previous Disney-allied board signed a long-lasting development agreement that drastically limits the control that can be exercised over the company and its district.
As part a 30-year development agreement, Disney no longer needs board approval to build high-density projects or buildings of any height and can sell or assign development rights. It also bans the board from using Disney’s name or any of its characters.

March 30, 2023, Brandenburg, Brodowin: King Charles III. stands next to a cake made especially for his visit in Brodowin ecovillage during the royal visit to Germany. 
Pool | Via Reuters

The agreement includes a royal clause that dates back to 1692 in Britain and would extend its term limit for decades.
This “Declaration shall continue in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, King of England, living as of the date of this declaration,” the document said. This kind of clause is most often used in the UK, typically when it comes to trusts, and provides a buffer against perpetuities.
“So, as long as one of those grandchildren makes it 80, this clause would be there for 100 years,” explained Robert Lord, senior advisor of tax policy at progressive group Patriotic Millionaires.
DeSantis replaced all of the Disney-allied board members with five Republicans on Feb. 27. It was only then that Disney’s new binding agreement was discovered. The clause was so obscure that several journalists who attended the Feb. 8 meeting apparently didn’t pick up on it.
“This essentially makes Disney the government,” Ron Peri, one of the new board members appointed to the CFTOD by DeSantis, said at the Feb. 27 meeting. “This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure.”
Representatives for DeSantis did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Florida legislators have balked at the new agreement, vowing to find a legal way to repeal or void the document. However, Disney says all of its conduct was legal.
“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” The Walt Disney Resort said in a statement.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis answers questions from the media in the Florida Cabinet following his State of the State address during a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, March 7, 2023, at the Capitol in Tallahassee, Florida.
Cheney Orr | AFP | Getty Images

The district in question is the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was established in 1967. It was established by the Florida legislature so Disney could develop the infrastructure for Walt Disney World at no cost to Florida taxpayers.
The arrangement has allowed Disney to build theme parks, hotels and other tourist experiences within the Reedy Creek district with little to no oversight. The company also became the largest employer of Florida residents and helped the Orlando area become one of the largest hubs for tourism in the U.S.
And Disney allies came to the Feb. 8 meeting prepared to defend its special status in the state.
According to the minutes, Board President Larry Hames asked if there was any other business to discuss before closing the meeting.
John Classe, who’s been Reedy Creek’s top administrator since 2016, then quoted famed basketball coach John Wooden: “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” More

Ford has resumed full production of the popular F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.
Production was halted in February after a battery in one of the just-completed EV trucks caught fire.
Ford also said it has once again raised prices for certain versions of the Lightning.

Ford F-150 Lightning trucks manufactured at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn Michigan.
Courtesy: Ford Motor Co.

Ford Motor said that it has resumed full production of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup following a February battery fire — and that it’s once again raising prices on the popular truck.
Ford said the standard-range Lightning Pro, a lower-cost version of the truck optimized for fleet use, will now start at just under $60,000, not including shipping. That’s roughly 50% higher than the Lightning Pro’s original starting price at launch last spring. Ford noted that the 2023 Lightning Pro is sold out for retail customers; order banks for fleet customers will reopen in April, the company said.

Ford also raised the price of the mid-level Lariat trim with standard-range battery from about $74,500 to just under $76,000. The starting price for a Lightning in the top-line Platinum trim also increased, from about $96,900 to just over $98,000.
News of the price increases and the resumption of Lightning production was first reported by Automotive News.
Ford has raised Lightning prices several times since it first announced the truck’s pricing in 2021. The standard-range Pro version was originally set to start at just under $40,000, but fast-rising costs of critical raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel — and unexpectedly high demand for the electric pickup — led Ford to increase prices several times in 2022.
Ford halted production and shipments of the Lightning in February after a just-built truck awaiting a quality check caught fire in a Ford holding lot. The company subsequently identified a potential battery cell defect and recalled 18 Lightnings that may have had the same issue.
No other fires were reported, and Ford said at the time that it was unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the defect.
Shipments of the Lightning will also resume this week, a Ford spokesperson told CNBC. More

Bed Bath & Beyond said Thursday it is offering $300 million in stock as the company warns, once again, it may need to file for bankruptcy protection.
The troubled retailer has been searching for buyers in order to stave off a bankruptcy filing.
In February Bed Bath & Beyond proposed a stock offering that would infuse $1 billion into the company, then considered a last-ditch effort by the retailer to stay out of bankruptcy court.

An exterior view of a Bed Bath & Beyond store on February 7, 2023 in Clifton, New Jersey. 
Kena Betancur | Corbis News | Getty Images

Bed Bath & Beyond is warning of a bankruptcy filing — again — if a proposed $300 million stock offering doesn’t pay off.
The beleaguered retailer said if it doesn’t receive proceeds from the stock offering, announced Thursday, it will likely need to file for bankruptcy protection.

In addition, the company disclosed that the loans it secured last year were downsized. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said its $565 million revolving loan was decreased from $565 million to $300 million. As part of the amendment to its loans, Bed Bath will now be on the hook for monthly interest payments.
The latest updates come after Bed Bath finalized what was then-believed to be a Hail Mary stock offering in February that had been expected to infuse more than $1 billion in equity into the company. From that offering Bed Bath brought in $225 million, which it used to pay some of its debts.
Yet Bed Bath’s stock price has been on a precipitous decline in recent months, weighing on its fundraising efforts. On Thursday its stock was down roughly 17% to below 70 cents a share.
On Thursday the company also reported preliminary results for its fiscal fourth quarter, with net sales of roughly $1.2 billion and comparable store sales declining in the range of 40% to 50%. The company noted negative operating losses have continued, although it noted it hasn’t depleted its free cash flow.
The company reported $2.05 billion in revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2021.
Bed Bath has been desperate to stay out of bankruptcy court. It has been searching for buyers and investors in recent months, CNBC previously reported. More

New listings continued to fall in March, according to Realtor.com, down 20% from the same month last year.
The active inventory of homes for sale is, however, 60% higher than the start of last spring, but that is only because homes are taking longer to sell.
Mortgage rates, having dropped slightly in early March due to the stress on the banking system, are now, moving higher again.

A for sale sign is posted in front of a home for sale on February 20, 2023 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

It might seem like a great time to list your home for sale. Buyers are flooding back into the market, mortgage rates have fallen off their recent highs, and there are still far too few homes for sale to meet demand. But potential sellers aren’t budging.
New listings continued to fall in March, according to Realtor.com, down 20% from the same month last year. That decline in new listings outpaced the 16% drop posted in February. New listings in March were nearly 30% below pre-pandemic levels.

The active inventory of homes for sale is, however, 60% higher than the start of last spring, but that is only because homes are taking longer to sell. Inventory is also half of what it was at the start of spring in 2019, before the Covid pandemic caused an unprecedented run on housing.
Homes are now sitting on the market an average of 54 days, up from an average of 36 days at the start of last spring. Time on market was longer in all of the top 50 metropolitan markets, but the greatest increases were in Raleigh, North Carolina (up 42 days), Kansas City, Missouri (up 37 days), and Austin, Texas (up 37 days). 
“Amid fewer new choices on the market and still rising home prices, home shoppers have shown that they are very rate sensitive, only jumping back in the market when rates dip, and so what happens with rates this spring will likely play a strong role in determining whether the housing market bumps along or picks up speed this year,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com.
Mortgage rates dropped slightly in early March, due to the stress on the banking system from bank failures. They are now, however, moving higher again, although not quite as high as they were last fall. The average rate on the 30-year fixed is now 6.61%, according to Mortgage News Daily, just about 2 percentage points higher than it was a year ago.
At a recent open house in the suburbs of Cleveland, house hunters Vince and Katie Berardi said they were concerned that the market is still overpriced. The sellers of the three-bedroom home they were touring had just dropped the price from $450,000 to $350,000. It already had several offers on it.

“There’s not as much competition as there was,” said Katie Berardi, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child. “But if there’s a good one on the market, like it’s gone within a week.”
Home prices nationally were still higher to start this year than they were at the start of last year, but they have been falling for the past seven months, according to S&P Case-Shiller. In January, the last reading on that index, prices were lower in some of the local markets that had previously been among the hottest, like Seattle and San Francisco. Prices are now flat in Phoenix, another market where prices had been surging. Other markets, especially in the South, like Atlanta and Miami, are still seeing big price gains.
List prices in March, according to Realtor.com, were down in Austin and Las Vegas, two markets that were particularly popular with transplants in the first years of the pandemic. More

Under Armour and Steph Curry have reached a new long-term deal.
Curry, a four-time NBA champion, will take on a new role as president of the Curry Brand.
Under Armour and Curry are building off a pre-existing 10-year relationship.

Under Armour and Steph Curry are entering into a long-term partnership.
Source: Under Armour

NBA superstar Steph Curry and Under Armour are once again betting big on each other.
The Baltimore-based sports apparel brand and the four-time NBA champion announced Thursday they are building on their decade-long relationship with a new long-term partnership. The deal will ensure that Curry, 35, will remain with Under Armour long past his playing career.

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Financial terms of the performance-based deal were not disclosed.
Curry will take on a new role as president of Under Armour’s Curry Brand and will work across categories such as basketball, golf, women, youth and sports style to deliver new products.
The nine-time NBA All-Star first signed with Under Armour in 2013 in a deal worth about $4 million per year.
His current contract with Under Armour is worth $215 million and includes an equity stake in the company. Over the course of their partnership, Curry and Under Armour have launched 10 signature shoes together. Curry’s the only athlete in Under Armour history to do so.
“If the past 10 years have shown me anything, it’s that Under Armour and I can build great things together,” Curry said. “In 2013, we bet on each other, and I’m all in on taking this next step together.”

The new deal signifies the importance of the Curry Brand for the future of Under Armour, as the company transitions to its new leadership of CEO Stephanie Linnartz, who took the helm at the end of February. Similar to Nike’s lifetime deals with Michael Jordan and LeBron James, Under Armour is banking on their biggest basketball star to be involved in all aspects of his brand even after his playing days.
Linnartz said she’s looking forward to working closely with the Curry team as they focus on the next chapter of growth.

Stephen’s new role will be as President of the Curry Brand
Source: Under Armour

It’s been a tumultuous few years for Under Armour. While Curry has won several championships and awards, becoming one of the greatest players in NBA history, Under Amour’s business has lagged. The brand, which was started by Kevin Plank in 2005, has struggled to gain market share versus Nike and Adidas in recent years.
Last month, the company reported a beat on the top and bottom line for its fiscal third quarter, with revenue coming in at $1.58 billion, but the retailer continues to contend with inventory issues. The stock was down about 9% through Wednesday’s close.
Under Armour’s fiscal third-quarter footwear sales were $354 million. Through three quarters, the segment racked up nearly $1.1 billion in sales. “We are doubtful that Curry is greater than a $250 million business,” said Cowen analyst John Kernan.
For some perspective, Nike’s Jordan brand had its biggest year ever in 2022, with approximately $5 billion in revenue. Jordan retired from the NBA for good in 2003. Nike’s footwear sales for its third quarter totaled $7.97 billion.
Plank said he believes the revamped Curry partnership will give the company the catalyst it needs.
“Stephen is one of the greatest talents of our generation. At his core, he embodies what it means to be an Under Armour athlete and is an integral part of the Under Armour family. We are excited to keep building together, bringing even more innovation and inspiration to athletes across the globe,” said Plank, who’s now the company’s executive chairman and brand chief.
Curry will be tasked with helping drive athlete insights, product development, and strategic business and marketing endeavors.
He will also assume a broad advisory role focused on expanding brand loyalty and recruitment to expand Under Amour’s athlete roster.

The partnership includes funding for community impact efforts to create opportunity, access and equity for the next generation of athletes.
Source: Under Amour

Youth athletics and equity have always been important to Curry, who started the Underrated Tour, which helps underappreciated high school players get more exposure.
As part of his new deal, Under Armour will also provide increased funding for community impact efforts.
“Belief is a big part of who I am on and off the court. I believe in Curry Brand and Under Armour, the team now in place, and what we’re doing together,” Curry said. “We share a vision for a big future ahead.” More

Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio introduced a new rail safety bill.
It marks the latest development in the aftermath of the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.
The Railway Accountability Act comes on the heels of the bipartisan Railway Safety Act, which was introduced by Brown and Republican Sen. J.D. Vance.

General view of the site of the derailment of a train carrying hazardous waste, in East Palestine, Ohio, March 2, 2023.
Alan Freed | Reuters

Three senators introduced new legislation Thursday in a bid to address long-standing rail safety concerns, the latest development in the aftermath of last month’s derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic materials near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
The new Railway Accountability Act – introduced by Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio – would build on provisions of the bipartisan Railway Safety Act. Brown and his fellow senator from Ohio, Republican J.D. Vance, introduced that measure earlier this month. Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw endorsed parts of the bipartisan bill.

The Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, released toxic chemicals into the environment. Shaw said Norfolk Southern would continue to support cleanup efforts in the area. He and government officials have said it’s safe to live in the town, but residents and workers on the cleanup site have complained about illnesses. The state of Ohio has also sued the company.
The new measure would direct the Federal Railroad Administration to study wheel-related failures and derailments, as well as mechanical defects. It would also enact new brake safety measures and improve switchyard safety practices, in addition to ensuring railways provide sufficient reporting and safety equipment to its workers. A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board pointed to an overheated wheel bearing on the Norfolk Southern train that derailed but did not offer an exact cause.
The bill, which has received support from major labor unions, would also require large freight railroad companies to participate in a confidential reporting system where close calls and unsafe events will be evaluated.
As of Thursday, the bill had no Republican sponsors, which could complicate its path through the GOP-controlled House. Some Republican politicians and conservative advocacy groups have argued that more regulations would not prevent derailments and would instead by costly.
“Rail lobbyists have fought for years to protect their profits at the expense of communities like East Palestine and Steubenville and Sandusky,” Brown, who’s up for reelection next year, said in a statement. “These commonsense safety measures will finally hold big railroad companies accountable, make our railroads and the towns along them safer, and prevent future tragedies, so no community has to suffer like East Palestine again.”

Derailed train cars carrying ethanol erupted in flames in Raymond, Minn., on Thursday.

The new bill comes after Fetterman, Casey and Brown introduced the Assistance for Local Heroes During Train Crises Act to support first responders handling the aftermath of hazardous train derailments.
The already-introduced Railway Safety Act, which has faced resistance from some top Republicans, would create stricter safety requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials, as well as increase the frequency of rail car inspections. The bill also would require two-person crews to work aboard trains carrying hazardous materials. Shaw, the Norfolk Southern CEO, opposes that provision.
“We’re not aware of any data that links crew size with safety,” Shaw said during a Senate hearing last week.
The bill from Fetterman, Casey and Brown came on the same day a BNSF Railway train, carrying ethanol, derailed and caught fire in Raymond, Minnesota. The incident led to an evacuation of residents near the site, officials said.
No injuries were reported and the cause is being investigated, according to BNSF. More

Major League Baseball has lined up various media rights deals — its latest with streaming services — in a bid to have a wider reach. It now costs more than ever to be a fan of your local team.
“Friday Night Baseball” on Apple TV+ will now cost a $6.99 a month subscription fee to the streamer after being free for at least half of its inaugural season in 2022.
Disney’s ESPN+ will also carry games, while NBCUniversal’s Peacock will continue airing early Sunday games this season.

Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford (3) slides into third to advance on a sacrifice fly against the Oakland Athletics during the third inning at T-Mobile Park, Sept. 28, 2021..
Joe Nicholson | USA TODAY Sports | Reuters

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack – and a bunch of streaming and TV subscriptions, too.
Major League Baseball’s season opens Thursday, and fans have to navigate various outlets to find their home team’s games this season. This might create some confusion, while causing some viewers to beef up their baseball budgets.

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7 hours ago

MLB teams play 162 games during the regular season, giving the league a lot of runway to sign media rights deals with various outlets in a bid to broaden its reach and audience. In recent years, the focus has been on placing more games on streaming services, while traditional cable TV is needed for a bulk of game viewing.
Here’s a breakdown of how the landscape looks, for now.

Home base plan

For the baseball fan looking to watch as many games as possible, a traditional pay TV service is still the go-to place.
Regional sports networks air the majority of local games during the season. In addition, national networks like Disney unit ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS, as well as Fox Corp.’s broadcast and pay TV networks, take up a decent chunk of the schedule.
There are a few internet-TV bundle competitors that are an option, too. DirecTV’s DirecTV Stream and FuboTV carry most, if not all, regional sports networks. Other providers like Google’s YouTube TV and Disney’s Hulu Live TV+ carry few, if any, of these networks.

The reason for that? The high fees networks charge pay TV operators. A “regional sports network” fee is broken out on pay TV bills. It varies by the market.
The fate of the regional sports networks has been brought into question. Recently, Diamond Sports, which operates a portfolio of regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy protection, toppled by a debt load and the loss of pay TV subscribers.
The networks and the streaming services haven’t gone dark and are still expected to show games this season.
Similarly, Warner Bros. Discovery has been looking to exit the regional sports networks it inherited from the acquisition of Warner from AT&T last year, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. While Warner Bros. sent a notice to the teams looking to transition the network rights over to them, the league and Warner Bros. have been in negotiations to keep the networks running normally for the foreseeable future, people familiar with the matter said.

Streaming options

As the traditional TV audience shrinks, the league and the networks have been looking to streaming services to grow MLB’s audience there. However, as more options are introduced, regional sports networks are getting fewer games and fans have to pay more to watch all games.
“From baseball’s perspective there is not only a need to find new audiences but different demographics,” said Will Mao, senior vice president of media rights consulting at Octagon. “It’s been a longtime narrative the baseball audience is getting older. To find the next generation of fans you need to go where more content is consumed, which is digital streaming platforms.”
With a higher rate of consumers dropping pay TV bundles and opting for streaming services, many networks have created direct-to-consumer streaming app options. Few offset the pay TV losses, but at least provide an option for fans wanting to stream.
New England Sports Network, home of Boston Red Sox games, has a streaming option for fans in its region. Diamond Sports’ Bally Sports+ launched last year, but only offers Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays games as the company negotiates with the league for streaming rights on a team-by-team basis.

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) rounds the bases after hitting home run number sixty-two to break the American League home run record in the first inning against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.
Tim Heitman | USA TODAY Sports | Reuters

The New York Yankees’ YES Network launched its own option the day before Opening Day, priced at $25 a month. Still, for Yankees fans, it can be particularly confusing. Since last year, 20 of its local games have been on Amazon’s Prime Video rather than YES or a local broadcast network, stemming from Amazon taking a piece of ownership in the network.
This will mark the second season that Apple’s Apple TV+ will air two games every Friday night. However this year “Friday Night Baseball” will come at an extra cost – a $6.99 subscription to Apple TV+ – as opposed to when it was free last year.
A set of 19 games will once again air on Sundays on Comcast’s Peacock beginning April 23 of this year, a bit earlier than its May 8 start last year. Peacock, which costs $4.99 a month, will soon have more information about its announcers for the Sunday broadcasts, many of which air at 11:35 a.m. ET or 12:05 p.m. ET, a bit earlier than the typical MLB start time of 1:05 p.m.
Since 2021, ESPN has begun simultaneously airing games on its streaming service ESPN+, which costs $9.99 a month, and also streams a local RSN game most days throughout the season.
“I do empathize now with the rose-colored glasses many have for the traditional cable bundle. There’s value to bundling we’ve learned not just across media but other industries,” said Mao.
These additional streaming bills come as the cost of pay TV subscriptions from satellite and cable providers varies across the U.S. A recent U.S. News report found that an average cable bill costs more than $200 a month, but that could include bundled services, likely broadband service. The Federal Communications Commission’s most recent report from 2018 shows the average of basic cable at $25.40 a month, with the expanded package averaging $71.31. The former is unlikely to include national sports networks.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of Peacock and CNBC. More

Constellation Brands is teaming up with Tastemade to form a content studio that will feed free ad-supported streaming platforms, as well as provide programming to other streaming services.
The companies said it will be a multimillion-dollar, multiyear partnership, building off of a prior deal between the two for social media content.
The partnership comes as Constellation looks to attract younger consumers, especially for its wine category.

Courtesy: Tastemade

Constellation Brands is pouring into the streaming business.
The company, which owns beer, wine and spirits brands, is forming a partnership with media company Tastemade to create a content studio and produce shows that revolve around Constellation’s brands. The companies called it a “multimillion-dollar, multiyear partnership,” but declined to give specific terms.

It builds on a partnership formed between Tastemade and Constellation in recent years when the two collaborated on videos for social media in an effort to attract Generation Z and millennial consumers of drinking age. This is the first time Tastemade has partnered with another company to create a studio. The majority of operations will take place at Tastemade’s headquarters in Santa Monica, California.
Tastemade creates and produces content that centers on food, travel and home and design for its own free, ad-supported streaming channels and social media. It also produces and licenses content to other streaming services, including those owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and Walt Disney Co.
Its partnership with Constellation will take a similar form.
“We have more ideas that Tastemade-owned channels can take at the moment, so we’re developing ideas that we can bring to streamers,” said Tastemade founder and CEO Larry Fitzgibbon. “We’ve already developed a slate of programs and shows, and have started the process of talking to some of the streamers. We’ve gotten pretty good reactions so far.”
The first program will be “Street Somm,” which will be an on-the-go travel series that follows a sommelier to cities throughout the U.S. to explore food and wine pairings. It will air on Tastemade’s flagship streaming channel.

“What was exciting about this partnership is we just got kind of unprecedented access to some story hunting within Constellation Brands,” said Fitzgibbon.
Constellation’s leading brands include Corona, Modelo Especial, The Prisoner Wine Company, Kim Crawford, Svedka Vodka and others.

Constellation Brands product line.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

The partnership comes as Constellation looks to attract younger consumers, especially for its wine business.
“The wine category is not growing very robustly in large part because the wine industry hasn’t done a particularly good job at engaging younger, multicultural consumers,” said Robert Hanson, executive vice president at Constellation.
For the three months ended in November, Constellation’s net wine sales decreased 7% year over year from $506.2 million to $470.5 million.
Following a 2019 divestment of dozens of lower premium brands, mostly wines that cost under $11 a bottle, Constellation has been reshaping its portfolio to focus more on ultra-premium fine wine and craft spirits. The only caveat with this transition, according to Hanson, is younger consumers may not be as familiar with the higher-end brands.
“This partnership enables us to engage younger consumers in ways that they expect to be engaged in today,” said Hanson, who serves as president of the company’s wine and spirits division.
He hopes that through the partnership the brands will broaden their appeal with “culturally relevant,” “farm-to-bottle” stories and perhaps even go “viral.”
Fitzgibbon said viewers of the Tastemade cooking shows often search for the products that are featured.
“A meaningful percentage, like more than half of the consumers who watch us on streaming, seek out additional information,” he said. More