Mediagazer: Disney Renews Carriage Deal With NCTC, Adding Sports Networks and Digital Rights To Mix (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

6:20 PM ET, August 1, 2014

Top News:

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:

Vivendi Sells Its 13% Beats Stake to Apple for $404 Million — Vivendi SA (VIV) sold its stake in Beats Electronics LLC to Apple Inc. (AAPL) for $404 million as part of the iPhone maker's takeover of the headphone company. — The stake was about 13 percent, Paris-based Vivendi said today …

Discussion: MacDailyNews, TechCrunch, MacRumors, Mashable, AppleInsider and VentureBeat

Andrew Flanagan / Billboard:

Beats and Apple Dispute Reports of Layoffs — Apple and a source close to Beats are disputing the characterization in recent reports that a significant round of layoffs is taking place at Beats, saying there have been no layoffs (save for about five performance-based terminations) …

Discussion: Re/code, Electronista and RAIN News

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:
With Apple-Beats Deal Complete, Ian Rogers To Run iTunes Radio

Discussion: VentureBeat, Softpedia News, @chrissyfarr, Tech Times, AppleInsider, Business Insider, Cult of Mac, Variety, MacRumors, @pkafka, Electronista, 9to5Mac, App Advice, MacDailyNews, VatorNews, Re/code, The Next Web, RAIN News, TIME and Mashable

Don Reisinger / CNET:
Apple closes $3B Beats deal, welcomes the company ‘to the family’

Discussion: Re/code, Daily Dot, Gigaom, The Verge, App Advice and The Daily Caller

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Facebook and fewer stories behind rise in web traffic, says Telegraph chief — Telegraph Media Group editor-in-chief Jason Seiken says a change in focus helped drive up the paper's website traffic in June — The Telegraph website's 20% traffic boost in June has been attributed …

Discussion: @kate_day, @jeffjarvis, @samkirkla, @jeffjarvis, Gigaom, @shanegreer, @marksweney and @chrismoranuk

Charlie Beckett / Polis:

Should news get personal? Emotion and objectivity in the face of suffering — Should journalists covering suffering allow their own emotions to become part of the story? — [see comments and selected tweets at the bottom of this article for reaction] — Jon Snow's heartfelt monologue …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Guardian, @alstewitn, @abuaardvark, @fleetstreetfox and @fox_claire

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Judy McGrath, Former CEO of MTV Networks, Joins Amazon's Board — Judy McGrath, former CEO of MTV Networks, has been elected to Amazon.com's board of directors effective Oct. 1, the company said. — McGrath also was appointed to the Amazon board's leadership development and compensation committee, according to an SEC filing Friday.

Discussion: Forbes, The Wrap, GeekWire and @peterlauria3

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Please Stop Saving Me A Click — Lately, a new behavior seems to be picking up steam. More and more, average men, women, androgynous novelty Twitter accounts, and even brands are bravely butting in, taking up a conservationist cause. It looks like this: … There are clicks in need of saving.

Discussion: Daring Fireball, @acoyne, @harrymccracken, @mikeisaac, @b_fung, @misterjayem, @bydanielvictor, @mims, @glennf, @bydanielvictor, @gaberivera, @nathanjurgenson, @jasondashbailey, @weskroesbergen, @gaberivera, @ourmaninchicago, @timlampe and @6x6pix

BBC:

Russia enacts ‘draconian’ law for bloggers and online media — A new law imposing restrictions on users of social media has come into effect in Russia. — It means bloggers with more than 3,000 daily readers must register with the mass media regulator, Roskomnadzor, and conform …

Discussion: Gigaom, RT, Guardian, @emmamayalex, Ars Technica, ComputerWeekly, The Next Web, @eurohumph, The Moscow Times, rapsinews.com, ITAR-TASS, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, Washington Post and VPN Creative

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

The rewriting of an AP tweet about Gaza shows the costs of avoiding perception of bias — The production of innocence: tale of two headlines over Gaza — “Members of Congress fall over each other to support Israel,” the AP said on Twitter. Then the AP decided that it could not say that. Why?

Discussion: The Dish, @ryanchittum, @jayrosen_nyu, Pressing Issues, @johnmcquaid and @mattdpearce

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Disney Renews Carriage Deal With NCTC, Adding Sports Networks and Digital Rights To Mix — The National Cable Television Cooperative renewed its carriage deal with The Walt Disney Company in an agreement that will add a few of Disney's sports networks to the distribution mix as well as encompass rights for digital distribution.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Guardian, Deadline.com and Radio & Television …

Shelli Weinstein / Variety:

Scout Media Names Ross Levinsohn Executive Chairman, Announces Full Exec Team — Multi-channel, male-focused media network Scout has appointed Ross Levinsohn to executive chairman, announced CEO James Heckman on Thursday. Levinsohn will lead the company's strategic expansion …

Discussion: AdExchanger, FishbowlNY and MediaWire Daily

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

News Corp. closes $416-million deal for romance publisher Harlequin — Rupert Murdoch's publishing company, News Corp., has completed its $416-million purchase of Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar Corp. of Canada. — Harlequin, the world-famous publisher of romance novels …

Discussion: Publishers Weekly and News Corp

Bloomberg:

Aereo Asks Court to Stop ‘Bleeding,’ Allow New Life — Aereo Inc. asked a judge to grant it new life, allowing it to operate like a cable-TV service and stop the “bleeding” after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the streaming video company violated broadcasters' copyrights.

Discussion: VentureBeat, TIME, Businessweek and @joshuabrustein, Thanks:@alexbarinka

Mark Scott / New York Times:

Google Details Problems With Handling Right to Be Forgotten Requests — LONDON - Google says complying with Europe's so-called right to be forgotten ruling is getting complicated. — In a lengthy response to questions from the region's data regulators, the search giant …