Mediagazer: Profit Slides 6% at Disney as Movie and TV Divisions Lag (Brooks Barnes/Media Decoder)

12:20 AM ET, February 6, 2013

Top News:

Bluefin Labs Joins Twitter: Getting to the Future of Social TV Faster — It's a big day for social television and for us at Bluefin Labs - we're announcing today that we're joining Twitter! — We've had an incredible time pioneering the field of social TV analytics over the last few years.

Discussion: Twitter Blog, Media Decoder, Lost Remote, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOM, AllThingsD, Business Insider, CNET, BostInno, Mashable!, @mathewi and Redpoint Ventures

Caleb Garling / The Technology Chronicles:

Twitter buys digital bridge to television — Twitter has bought BlueFin Labs, a software company that analyzes conversations on the Internet about television programming so brands and networks can make intelligent strategy decisions, in an effort to bridge the gap between the micro-blogs presence on the web and the outside world.

Discussion: The Wrap, Bloomberg and Engadget

Agustino Fontevecchia / Forbes:

Liberty Global To Buy Virgin Media For $23B As Billionaire John Malone Challenges Murdoch — Liberty Global announced late Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to acquire Virgin Media of the U.K. for an enterprise value of $23.3 billion. The deal pits billionaire John Malone against Rupert Murdoch …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Wall Street Journal, DealBook, Bloomberg, Business Wire and Financial Times

Dana Rubinstein / Capital New York:

Court rules in favor of NYPD: ‘Times’ can't have addresses of handgun-license holders — Today, an appellate court ruled against the New York Times in a suit about gun permits, and public access to an electronic database containing the addresses of permit-holders, arguing that a lower-court judge had …

Discussion: nycourts.gov, The Wrap and Poynter

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

Profit Slides 6% at Disney as Movie and TV Divisions Lag — LOS ANGELES — Higher costs at ESPN and lower DVD sales resulted in a 6 percent decline in quarterly profit at Disney, the company said late Tuesday. But Disney's video game and Web unit finally swung to a profit …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Broadcasting & Cable, CNET, /Film and Speakeasy

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Super Bowl online streaming viewership grows to 3 million in second year — In the second year the Super Bowl has been streamed online, viewership has grown sharply — even if it's still barely a blip compared to traditional TV viewership. According to CBS, its stream of Super Bowl XLVII …

Discussion: AdAge and Forbes

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

“The brain of the New York Times, the body of BuzzFeed” — Slate's third act — Slate started life as as a scrappy web pioneer under Microsoft in 1996. Since then, it has gone on to carve out an enviable perch in the liberal media establishment as part of the Washington Post Company.

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Notes on the media on the media — Prologue: If you hate-clicked on this so that you can glaze over it quick and then tweet something with words or phrases like “navel-gazing!” or “the media on the media on the media #headache” or whatever, remember that you can hit the back button right now.

Discussion: Daily Download and @megan

Bloomberg:

Murdoch Coveting Papers Must Wait as Rift Stalls Media Rules — A move to make it easier for companies to own U.S. daily newspapers and nearby broadcast stations has stalled amid partisan tension that could prevent deals between companies such as Tribune Co. and News Corp. (NWSA)

Discussion: bizjournals, New York Magazine, Politico and @mlcalderone

Matt Chaban / Crain's New York:

Daily News is coming home, nearly — The Daily News is coming back to Manhattan. The paper, which was washed out of its offices at 4 New York Plaza downtown by Superstorm Sandy, and has been running the bulk of its operations out of its printing plant in Jersey City, N.J. has signed a short-term lease for space at 1290 Sixth Ave.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and FishbowlNY

Ben Flanagan / The National:

Viacom to invest in Arabic content and production — The American media giant behind MTV and Nickelodeon plans to invest in Arabic content as it looks to grow its presence in the Middle East. Viacom, which is listed on the Nasdaq exchange, says local productions and events centered around …

Jasper Jackson / TheMediaBriefing:

Datawatch: News accounts for less then four percent of time spent online — People still want news online - even if they aren't prepared to pay for it. Right? In the context of a widening digital economy it's important to consider just how big a role online news and information plays.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

N.J. judge revives blogger vs. journalist debate — Union County, N.J., prosecutors demanded Tina Renna give them “the names of 16 government officials who she accused online of misusing county generators after Hurricane Sandy,” Lilly Chapa reports. Renna claimed privilege …

Discussion: rcfp.org

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Better together: Colorado nonprofit news site I-News and Rocky Mountain PBS join forces — The three-year-old I-News leaves the ranks of small nonprofit news startups and finds a broader audience by merging with Colorado's largest public TV station. — Nonprofit news sites have a knack for pairing up.

Press Gazette:

Guardian journalists agree to possible strike action in protest at job cuts — Journalists at Guardian News and Media have voted in favour of possible strike action in protest at feared compulsory redundancies. — The move means they now have the legal authority to walk out on strike …

Discussion: Guardian, @andrew_pugh1, NUJ, @andrew_pugh1, @psmith, @andrew_pugh1 and The Huffington Post

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

Hammer to Oversee All NBCU Cable Entertainment Networks in Restructuring — Zalaznick moved to new digital role; Joe Uva to oversee Hispanic nets — NBCUniversal on Monday announced a restructuring of its executive team, with Bonnie Hammer assuming responsibility for its entire cable …

Discussion: Adweek, Media Decoder and AdAge