Mediagazer: Rogers determined to butt heads with Netflix (Steve Ladurantaye/Globe and Mail)

7:20 AM ET, May 8, 2013

Top News:

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Obama May Back F.B.I. Plan to Wiretap Web Users — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people …

Discussion: @carr2n and @stevesilberman

AllThingsD:

Yahoo's Mayer Has Met With Hulu Execs in a Preliminary Look-See at Premium Video Unit — According to numerous sources close to the situation, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently met with top execs at Hulu, the premium video service whose media company owners have been considering selling it for some months.

Discussion: CNET, Fast Company, Home Media Magazine, Reuters, Softpedia News, The Next Web, VatorNews, Pocket-lint, The Verge, Mercury News, GigaOM and Business Insider

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Former News Corp. Top Executive Tom Mockridge to Become CEO of Virgin Media — He will run the company once John Malone's Liberty Global closes its acquisition of the U.K. cable operator. — John Malone's Liberty Global said Wednesday that it has picked former News Corp. top executive Tom Mockridge …

Discussion: Telegraph, Deadline.com, Guardian, Variety, The Register, London News, Pocket-lint, Bloomberg, Reuters and RTTNews

Steve Ladurantaye / Globe and Mail:

Rogers determined to butt heads with Netflix — Canadian television providers are planning to cut their own cords, with several of the country's largest media companies developing subscription-based services to compete with online rivals such as Netflix Inc.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Most YouTube Subscription Videos Will Have Ads — Love YouTube, but hate the ads? — Then you're not going to be any happier with most of the subscription videos the site is going to start selling. They're going to have ads, too, say people familiar with YouTube's long-awaited plans.

Discussion: The Week, VatorNews, Softpedia News and Marketing Pilgrim

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

No One Watched Howard Kurtz's Apology Sunday — The CNN media critic used the first 15 minutes of his Reliable Sources show Sunday to apologize for a rash of recent reporting errors. Even lower ratings than usual. — How many people do you think tuned in to watch Howard Kurtz's public shaming on Reliable Sources Sunday?

Discussion: The Corsair and @davidfolkenflik

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Do You Still Trust Matt Lauer? ‘Today’ Anchor Rated Low In Reader's Digest Poll — After the year that Matt Lauer has had, you might call it a win that he managed to sneak into the list of the “100 Most Trusted People in America,” as determined by Reader's Digest magazine with the help of the Wagner Group, a market research firm.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, TVNewser, @curtwoodward and The Huffington Post

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes Says CNN's Jeff Zucker Is ‘Working Out Great’ — Ratings at Fox News are bigger because viewers have traditionally tuned into shorter CNN segments, says Bewkes. — Time Warner chairman and chief executive Jeff Bewkes gave an endorsement of Jeff Zucker, who was hired last November to lead CNN.

Kate Kaye / AdAge:

Time Warner Cable, Hearst, HBO and Verizon Fund NYC Media Lab — Time Warner Cable, Hearst, HBO and Verizon Fund Initiative to Encourage Research — Time Warner Cable, Hearst, HBO and Verizon are helping to fund the fledgling NYC Media Lab as part of a media-industry effort to encourage …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

BuzzFeed Expands Business Section With Two New Hires — BuzzFeed hired Reuters' Peter Lauria in March to launch a new business section and added Bloomberg's Sapna Maheshwari a few weeks later. — Now the site is continuing to expand and has added reporters Matthew Lynley, of the Wall Street Journal …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

BitTorrent introduces Bundles to help creators make money with file sharing — BitTorrent wants more artists to give away stuff to file sharers - which is why they just gave those artists an option to also sell stuff to file sharers. — BitTorrent just added another incentive for creators …

Discussion: The Official BitTorrent Blog, The Verge, Wired, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap and CNET

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Evan Williams on Medium: “The magazine is the analog for what we're doing” — Evan Williams sees Medium, the blogging platform that he and Biz Stone launched last year, as a modern-day magazine. While Medium will eventually open to everyone, Williams said he wants the site to be “a great place for professional writers.”

Discussion: CNET, TechCrunch and Fast Company