Mediagazer: Sky to sell 80% stake in its betting unit Sky Bet to CVC Capital for up to $1.13B (Georg Szalai/Hollywood Reporter)

9:00 AM ET, December 4, 2014

Top News:

Dish, Writers Guild, Glenn Beck's TheBlaze, consumer groups, and more launch Stop Mega Comcast coalition to fight $45B TWC merger — Coalition Opposes Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger — A group of companies, public interest groups and labor unions have joined forces to urge regulators …

Discussion: Consumerist, The Wrap, FierceCable, Multichannel News and Variety

Adweek:

Newly Released FCC Documents Show Just How Frustrated Comcast Is With Netflix — Giant cable merger under fire — Comcast is tired of Netflix, that's for sure. The cable giant had to answer a number of difficult questions from the Federal Communications Commission last week …

Ted Johnson / Variety:
FCC resumes AT&T/DirecTV and Comcast/TWC merger reviews, establishes new deadlines for comments

Discussion: Comcast Voices, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters, Gigaom, Home Media Magazine and Broadcasting & Cable

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

BuzzFeed expanding San Francisco bureau to 20 staffers, hires Mat Honan from Wired as bureau chief — Wired's Mat Honan Hired to Run New Buzzfeed Silicon Valley Bureau — Matt Honan, the high-profile Wired writer and editor, has been hired by Buzzfeed to be its new Silicon Valley bureau chief.

Discussion: @rafat, @strngwys, @emilydreyfuss, @jguynn, @blam, @mat, @karaswisher, @peretti, @jessmisener, @reckless, @mathewi, @buzzfeedben, @jmbooyah, @fmanjoo, @digiphile, @davidbauer, @antderosa, @mikeisaac, @mattbuchanan, @zpower and @walldo

Human Rights Watch:

Iran extends Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian's pretrial detention for two more months — Iran: Journalist's Detention Extended — Washington Post Reporter Held 4 Months, but Not Charged — (Beirut) - Iran's judiciary has extended Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian's pretrial detention for another two months.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Voice of America, Agence France-Presse, Middle East, Daijiworld, @cathtaibi, @kooyjan, The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed

Courtney Sherwood / Reuters:

U.S. broadcaster intends to test newsgathering drones in Oregon — (Reuters) - A U.S. media company said on Wednesday it wants to be among the first broadcasters to launch news-gathering drones once the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues new policies governing the unmanned remote-control aircraft …

Discussion: eandt.theiet.org, AllAccess.com and KOIN-TV

ABC News:

Al Qaeda Group Threatens American Hostage Luke Somers in New Video … Al Qaeda's Yemen affiliate Wednesday night showed an American hostage on camera for the first time, who officials say was the objective of a U.S. rescue attempt last week, threatening to kill him in three days if President Obama doesn't “meet our demands.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Press Association, The Independent, CBS News, International Business Times, @mlcalderone, Telegraph and New York Times

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Sky to sell 80% stake in its betting unit Sky Bet to CVC Capital for up to $1.13B — Sky to Sell Controlling Stake in Betting Unit for Up to $1.13 Billion — The deal with private equity group CVC values Sky Bet at $1.3 billion — European pay TV giant Sky has agreed to sell …

Discussion: International Business Times, The Independent, BBC, Broadband TV News, New York Times, Telegraph, Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, Life Style Extra, The Drum, Wall Street Journal, RTTNews, Insider Media Ltd and Advanced Television

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Top Bloomberg Pursuits editors leave abruptly amid shakeup — The two top editors at Bloomberg Pursuits, the luxury personal finance magazine from Bloomberg LP, left the company on Wednesday. — Ted Moncrieff, the editor of Bloomberg Pursuits, had joined the magazine in December 2012.

Discussion: @joepompeo and @aubernalevy

Jim Romenesko:

TheStreet.com investor urges Jim Cramer to take a 70% pay cut or sell the company — The head of Cannell Capital hedge fund wants Jim Cramer to consider two options: quit CNBC and focus on TheStreet.com at significantly reduced pay; or sell the 18-year-old financial news website. — J. Carlo Cannell writes:

Discussion: @aaronlucchetti, @romenesko and @pkedrosky

Jeff Elder / Wall Street Journal:

Lawyers say Apple deleted music from rival services on users iPods between 2007-2009 — Apple Deleted Rivals' Songs from Users' iPods — Apple deleted music that some iPod owners had downloaded from competing music services from 2007 to 2009 without telling users, attorneys …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Radioandmusic.com, Trakin' the india …, Indian Television Dot Com, bgr.in, dna, TechTree.com, BGR, MediaNama, Engadget, SlashGear, Neowin, Gizmodo, VatorNews, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, The Next Web, MacRumors and App Advice

Gustavo Arellano / Navel Gazing:

Layoffs at Freedom's OC Register, Riverside Press-Enterprise, affecting 100, mostly in sales — 100 Layoffs Happening at OC Register, Riverside P-E TODAY: UPDATE — 1ST UPDATE, 11:40 A.M.: Here's a note from new Orange County Register publisher Rich Mirman explaining the layoffs to his crew.

Discussion: Orange County Register, Associated Press, @melendezsports, @talkingnewmedia, @gustavoarellano, Los Angeles Times and LA Observed

Mike Shields / Wall Street Journal:

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Dismisses Yahoo Rumors, Talks Up HuffPo — To hear AOL CEO Tim Armstrong tell it, a merger with Yahoo might slow down his ongoing plans for an AOL turnaround. — Speaking during a keynote interview at Business Insider's Ignition conference in New York …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Capital New York, Mashable and Business Insider