Hello!

Welcome to OUT OF SCOPE, the C-Suite cheat sheet for the week ahead.

It’s March, and there’s only good things ahead. The rest of this month is Women’s History Month. Daylight savings ends this weekend. Spring officially kicks off in just a few weeks. Spring Training is in full swing. Awards season is done. And you have this newsletter to read. What a treat.

**THE CHEAT SHEET

Three things to bring up in your meetings this week:

1. How Diesel cracked Gen Z Five years ago, the fashion brand Diesel was on life-support, but Belgian designer Glenn Martens has successfully turned things around. His recent Milan fashion show reflects how he’s created steady growth and a robust (36% of sales) Gen Z customer base: flash, fun, and a bit of cheek (in every sense of the word). The industry has noticed his success: he’s set to take the helm at Maison Margiela later this year.

2. Skype's last call After revolutionizing how to talk without paying the phone company, Skype is logging off for good. Microsoft’s 21-year-old VoIP pioneer will disconnect on May 5, redirecting users to Teams once and for all. Once valued at $2.6 billion, Skype couldn’t quite translate its desktop dominance to mobile success a-la WhatsApp and FaceTime and failed to capitalize on pandemic WFH culture at the rate its competitors did (hello, Zoom). For a platform that helped invent digital communication as we know it, Skype's quiet retirement feels like watching the disruptor get disrupted—a cautionary tale in big tech’s eat-or-be-eaten ecosystem.

3. What do legacy media outlets and a cheating ex have in common? Apparently, they’re not trustworthy. Americans’ trust in legacy media to report news fairly and accurately is at its lowest low in over five decades, according to Gallup’s latest survey. With Republicans and young adults leading the charge, data showed overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward traditional media; a third of respondents said they have minimal trust in the media, while another third said they have none at all. As our own Evan Leatherwood said, the legacy media is dead, making way for the growing creator economy to dominate Americans’ media diets.

**OUT OF OFFICE

one weekend news story in-depth: HULU, SHOWSTOPPER

Hulu’s first-ever Oscars livestream blacked out at the climax of last night’s Academy Awards. The stream crashed for many during the Best Actress segment. Frustrated users were met with error messages claiming the livestream had ended, sparking outrage on social media. Disney, Hulu’s parent company, quickly apologized and promised a full replay, but the damage was done— viewers missed out on real-time action and the actually very exciting upset that was Mikey Madison’s first Oscar win.

The issues weren’t isolated to the best actress category. Earlier in the evening, more than 30,000 users reported login and streaming problems as the show began. Hulu acknowledged the glitches on social media, urging users to reboot their devices after resolving the issue. While the platform eventually stabilized, the later outage was a major blow to Hulu’s reputation, especially as it competes in the cutthroat streaming wars. Live events like the Oscars are a golden opportunity to attract advertisers and viewers, making this stumble all the more costly.

Hulu isn’t alone in facing livestreaming challenges. Rival Netflix has also struggled with technical hiccups during high-profile events, like the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match. Livestreaming demands immense infrastructure to handle viewership spikes, pushing platforms to their limits.

The incident highlights the growing importance— and difficulty— of live events for streamers. With traditional TV viewership declining, live broadcasts are a key strategy for the platforms to draw advertisers and subscribers. Hulu has been on an upward trajectory as of late, boosting Disney’s streaming profitability since its meld with Disney+, but this Oscars slipup underscores the challenges of transitioning from on-demand to live content and calls into question which streamer, if any, will crack live programming first.

**POWER LUNCH

five quick consumption recs for the time between meetings:

1. Will Ben and Jerry buy Ben & Jerry’s back? The founders of the beloved ice cream brand are apparently looking to buy it back from Unilever.

2. Stellantis running on empty. The world’s fourth largest automaker reported a staggering 21% drop in revenue.

3. Cuomo gets in the game. Revisit a great Vanity Fair long-read about the former governor turned NYC mayor hopeful from the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Women are taking up space. The first all-female crew is headed to space aboard Blue Origin’s tourism rocket, with singer Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King among the celestial sisterhood.

5. The rise and fall of NBA Centel. Everyone’s favorite parody/gimmick/trickster account on NBA Twitter briefly vanished from life last week, prompting mourning from teams and commentators alike.

We’ll see you online and on LinkedIn. Thanks for reading!

HL