Mediagazer: Disney will pay $1.58B to acquire additional 42% stake in BAMTech, making it a majority stakeholder (The Walt Disney Company)

12:05 AM ET, August 9, 2017

Top News:

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Disney to end Netflix film distribution deal in 2019, will launch ESPN streaming service in 2018 and Disney streaming services in 2019 — Disney will end its distribution deal with Netflix and launch its own streaming service, the company announced today. It intends to launch the service in 2019.

The Walt Disney Company:

Disney will pay $1.58B to acquire additional 42% stake in BAMTech, making it a majority stakeholder — The Walt Disney Company announced today that it has agreed to acquire majority ownership of BAMTech, LLC and will launch its ESPN-branded multi-sport video streaming service in early 2018 …

Discussion: TechCrunch, TechCrunch, The New York Observer, Financial Times, CNBC, Fortune, The Hill, GeekWire, LAist, Gizmodo, Forbes, The Verge and @mattzeitlin, more at Techmeme »

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Disney's Iger: strategic shift to streaming is both a defensive and offensive move that will include sacrifices, but is ultimately a better model — Disney is ready to deploy some of the company's crown jewels — Disney- and Pixar-branded movies and ESPN — in an effort to position itself …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Ad Age, The Guardian, The Verge, Wall Street Journal and The Week

David Uberti / Splinter:

Breitbart names a NYT reporter working on story about government secrecy, lists those who received email from her, and says the reporting demonstrates collusion — Wow, a true shocker. Breitbart's Washington political editor, Matthew Boyle, let the New York Times have it in his lede:

Discussion: Breitbart, @jdawsey1, @bradheath, @ggreenwald, Media Matters for America, @postscottwilson, Washington Post, @ryansabalow, @janemayernyer, @samuelaadams, @andrewperezdc, @nickconfessore, @johnmcquaid and Mediaite

Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

UK Culture Secretary Karen Bradley asks regulator Ofcom to review Murdoch's bid for Sky again, following the Seth Rich controversy — The Government has erected a new obstacle to the Murdoch family's pursuit of full control of Sky, after asking the media regulator to look again at 21st Century Fox's record as a broadcaster.

Discussion: New York Times, GOV.UK, The Daily Beast, @davidfolkenflik, The Guardian and @davidfolkenflik

Graham Ruddick / The Guardian:
British regulator Ofcom and the UK govt are facing calls to scrutinize Murdoch-Sky bid further in the wake of Rod Wheeler's lawsuit

Discussion: Mediaite, @akikofujita and Talking New Media

Sydney Ember / New York Times:

Sinclair's bid to buy Tribune Media draws opposition from advocacy groups, Dish Network, and conservative outlets including Newsmax, OANN, and The Blaze — The Sinclair Broadcast Group's proposed acquisition of Tribune Media has ignited expected opposition from left-leaning advocacy groups …

Discussion: Free Press, HuffPost and Media Matters for America

Ted Johnson / Variety:
Progressive organization Allied Progress sends letters to Sinclair and Tribune employees, warning them against merger

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Amanda Holpuch / The Guardian:

Less than 24 hours after criticizing the NYT on Monday night for using anonymous sources, Trump tweeted a link to a Fox News segment citing anonymous officials — President shares segment about North Korea that cited ‘US officials’ who ‘requested anonymity’ less than a day after calling out the New York Times

Discussion: @realdonaldtrump, MSNBC, Washington Post, Bustle, Press Association, Fox News, CNNMoney, @ddale8, Axios, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, AFF and Deadline

Samuel Gibbs / The Guardian:

HBO hackers demand a multimillion-dollar ransom and release emails, scripts, and personal phone numbers of GoT stars in latest dump of stolen data — Group tells company CEO to pay multimillion-dollar ransom or else risk 1.5TB of shows and confidential corporate data being released online

Discussion: Wired, New York Times, Variety, Polygon, Vanity Fair, The Verge, Fortune, Ad Age, The Week, The Next Web, Business Insider, Associated Press, Hollywood Reporter, Engadget and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

Michelle Castillo / CNBC:

David Letterman to return to screens with a six-episode series on Netflix in 2018, where he will interview notable people — - David Letterman will star in a six-episode Netflix series where he will interview notable people and on-the-scene segments. — David Letterman will return to TV in 2018 in a new Netflix series.

Discussion: The New York Observer, The Wrap, Adweek, Rolling Stone, Forbes, Variety, Crain's New York Business, @chicobarney and Splitsider

Franklin Foer / The Atlantic:

Franklin Foer, former editor of the New Republic, on Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes' failed attempt to turn around the magazine's fortunes — Chris Hughes was a mythical savior—boyishly innocent, fantastically rich, intellectually curious, unexpectedly humble, and proudly idealistic.

Discussion: @ennisnyt, @juliaioffe, @bethanymac12, @hillarykelly, @monikabauerlein, @monikabauerlein, @timothynoah1, @brucebartlett, @jeremymbarr, @margarita, @bendreyfuss, @richarddeitsch, @franklinfoer and @emilybell

Alvin Chang / Vox:

Analysis of 17 months of Fox and Friends transcripts shows how hosts speak to Trump, including using “we” statements, using “the president” not by name — How the Fox morning show evolved into Donald Trump's posse. — It was 6 am, just a few weeks after Donald Trump …

Discussion: Washington Post and @jayrosen_nyu

Dallas Morning News:

Belo, parent of Dallas Morning News, says it will outsource much ad creation and production work to Gannett, resulting in 45 layoffs — A. H. Belo Corporation, parent of The Dallas Morning News, announced plans Friday to outsource much of its advertising creation and production work to the parent of USA Today.

Discussion: News & Tech

BuzzFeed:

Study of 450+ websites, associated Facebook pages, and their owners reveals inner workings of partisan pages: FB is kingmaker, right-wing's more prolific, more — How ideologues, opportunists, growth hackers, and internet marketers built a massive new universe of partisan news on the web and on Facebook.

more at Techmeme »

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From Techmeme:

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