Deadline

Deadline, formally Deadline Hollywood, is the United States' leading trade publication covering the entertainment industry, with primary emphasis on film, television, and streaming. Founded in 2006 by Nikki Finke and subsequently acquired by Penske Media Corporation (PMC), Deadline operates as a digital-first breaking-news outlet serving agents, studio executives, producers, talent, and financiers. Its coverage is concentrated on deal news, box-office results, casting and production announcements, and industry disputes, functioning as the entertainment industry's wire service of record.

Deadline's significance in the context of media-AI developments is its position as the first outlet to report or confirm many of the entertainment-industry AI deals and disputes that have defined the genre since 2023. Studios, streaming services, and AI companies routinely place exclusive announcements with Deadline because its readership is the industry decision-maker class directly affected by the news. The publication's reporting on generative-AI adoption by studios, writers' guild negotiations over AI use in scripts, and licensing deals between AI companies and content owners has consistently set the agenda for wider media coverage.

PMC, Deadline's parent, also owns The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Rolling Stone. In June 2026, PMC expanded its digital footprint further by acquiring The Verge, Eater, SB Nation, Popsugar, The Dodo, and Thrillist from Vox Media, folding them into a new subsidiary PMX, with Ryan Pauley named president of PMX Global. That concentration means Deadline's editorial decisions about how to frame AI-in-entertainment stories carry structural weight: PMC's combined reach now spans entertainment, technology, fashion, food, and sport, giving it the largest scope of any trade-media group in the country.