ViacomCBS is not a company you think of as one of media’s scrappy underdogs, but when it comes to streaming that’s the position it’s in.

CEO Bob Bakish said the company anticipates reaching $7 billion in streaming revenue from 65-75 million global subscribers by 2024. For comparison, Disney brought in $7.5 billion in its direct-to-consumer programming in the six months ending April 3.

The company is leveraging its sports broadcasting rights, especially soccer, to grow its streaming audience on Paramount+. 

• In addition to U.S. rights to UEFA, home of the Champions League and Europa League, Paramount+ airs the NFL, Masters, PGA Tour, NCAA, NWSL, and SEC.
• ViacomCBS added 6 million streaming subscribers in Q1 to reach 36 million. Streaming revenue grew 65% year-over-year to $816 million.
• TV isn’t dead yet: ViacomCBS’s Super Bowl-driven TV advertising revenue jumped to $1.8 billion in the first quarter, up 40% year-over-year.

In addition to Disney, Netflix, and Peacock, the company will also have to contend with the merging behemoth of Warner Media and Discovery, which brought in a combined $41 billion last year.

“The transaction itself doesn’t change anything about our strategy,” ViacomCBS CFO Naveen Chopra said about the merger at a recent JPMorgan conference. “We’ve been very focused on transitioning our assets to help drive streaming.”

Tom Ryan, the company’s head of streaming, told Yahoo that ViacomCBS “recently raised nearly $3 billion” to grow Paramount+ globally.

British outlet Autocar reported Tuesday that Volkswagen received a $9.2 billion bid for Lamborghini from Zurich-based holding company Quantum Group AG.

Within hours of the report, VW made its position clear: “Lamborghini is not for sale.”

Quantum Group AG recently formed a consortium with London-based firm Centricus Asset Management and saw the Lamborghini brand, including its motorsports division, as a centerpiece for the “technology and lifestyle investment platform” that the two companies are building together.

• Lamborghini, which VW owns through its Audi subsidiary, has come up before as a possible divestment opportunity.
• VW is also the parent company to Porsche, Bugatti, Bentley, Ducati, and several other automakers.

All signs indicate that Lamborghini is committed to a competitive future. Last week, it announced that it’s spending $1.8 billion to develop plug-in hybrids of all its current models and produce fully electric cars by the second half of the 2020s.

It’s not immediately clear how the electric transition will affect the company’s motorsports operations, which include the GT World Challenge and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series.

Some of VW’s other brands have already made the jump on the racing front. Porsche entered the all-electric Formula E series in 2019, and Audi has been a participant since the first season kicked off in 2014.

Earlier in May, VW reported $4.1 billion in Q1 2021 revenue — a significant increase from the $633 million it recorded during the same quarter last year.

For decades, films and shows adapted from video games have mostly flopped. The “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”-level hits are rare, and cringe-worthy productions abound.

Yet, Hollywood is giving video games another chance.

Why? The video game market is riding an unprecedented surge over the last year and is expected to exceed $200 billion in value by 2023.

Successes are happening more often, too. “Sonic the Hedgehog” made $320 million last year on an $85 million budget. “Mortal Kombat” has grossed $80 million since April, despite limited capacity theaters and a same-day streaming release on HBO Max.

Sony’s future lineup includes a TV adaptation of bestseller “The Last of Us” for HBO, and a $120 million film for the “Uncharted” series, which has sold more than 40 million copies since 2007. 

Other studios are getting in on the action:

• A “Halo” series executive produced by Steven Spielberg arrives on Paramount+ next year. The franchise has sold over 80 million copies since its 2001 debut.
• Lionsgate is turning “Borderlands” into a movie starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Hart.
• Netflix has “The Witcher,” an “Assassin’s Creed” show on the way, and many other video game properties in development.
• Nintendo says a “Super Mario” movie is coming in 2022.

Video game stocks are taking a hit right now, with investors worried that the industry’s explosive growth will fade amid a return to normalcy. However, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes the increased interest is “permanent.”

Meanwhile, movie theaters are on track for a major comeback.

“Fast & Furious 9” brought in an estimated $162 million in its overseas debut this past weekend — the best box office numbers since the pandemic started.

The odds of making it to the NBA are slim, but the path to get there has more options than ever.

The National Interscholastic Basketball Conference was announced this week, a 10-game nationwide high school league featuring six prep schools with a long history of churning out future college and NBA stars.

Most of the league’s games will be televised nationally on ESPN. 

• Oak Hill Academy has produced more than 30 NBA players, including Carmelo Anthony and Rajon Rondo. 
• Ben Simmons, D’Angelo Russell, and Cade Cunningham — the projected No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA draft — are all Montverde Academy products.

The NIBC will not pay its players, in case they want to play in college.

Overtime Elite, a league for 16-to-18-year-olds, allows players to skip the college route and earn at least $100,000 per year while becoming eligible for the NBA. It recently signed twins Matt and Ryan Bewley, five-star prospects from Orlando.

Overtime raised $80 million in Series C funding in April and is now valued around $250 million.

Jeff Bezos, Drake, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and NBA stars Devin Booker and Klay Thompson were among investors in the round led by Sapphire Sport and Black Capital.

Last week, 17-year-old Scoot Henderson signed a reported $1 million deal with the G League Ignite — a league launched last year that hosts exhibition games with NBA prospects and veterans. Others, like LaMelo Ball, played overseas before joining the NBA.