Mediagazer: Iger plans to make Hulu the outlet for Fox's more “adult-oriented product”; whether Disney will try to buy out Comcast's and TimeWarner's stakes remains unclear (Todd Spangler/Variety)

5:30 PM ET, December 15, 2017

Top News:

Tom Kludt / CNNMoney:

Trump congratulated Rupert Murdoch on Disney deal; there's no admission or denial he spoke with Murdoch ahead of the deal to confirm Murdoch would keep Fox News — Disney-Fox deal gets White House praise — Disney's $52.4 billion deal to acquire a significant portion of 21st Century Fox …

Discussion: Sky News, Washington Post, CBS San Francisco, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Fast Company, Bloomberg, TVNewser, The Daily Caller, Variety, Politico, Business Insider, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times and Mediaite

Michael Wolff / Hollywood Reporter:

A look at the dynamics among Rupert Murdoch and his children, and how their business interests may have influenced the Disney deal — When the media titan unloads the bulk of Fox to Disney rather than letting it pass to his heirs, it proves he has always has had a favorite Murdoch — himself.

Discussion: CNNMoney, Bloomberg, The Wrap and Broadcasting & Cable

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Iger plans to make Hulu the outlet for Fox's more “adult-oriented product”; whether Disney will try to buy out Comcast's and TimeWarner's stakes remains unclear — Nothing will change immediately at Hulu in the wake of Disney's $52 billion deal with 21st Century Fox.

Discussion: The New York Observer, Recode, The A.V. Club, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Los Angeles Times

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Post-merger, “New Fox” to include live news, sports, and the Fox brand, as a return to “our roots as a lean, aggressive, challenger brand”, per Lachlan Murdoch

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, Deadline, Variety, The New York Observer, Boing Boing, The Wrap, TVNewser, /Film and TVSpy

David Folkenflik / NPR:
Disney-Fox deal gives Disney controlling Hulu stake, a Sky stake, a network of local sports cable channels; Fox gets to cash out and resolve succession plans

Discussion: The Wrap, New York Times, TVNewsCheck, Fox Business, Media Matters for America, Variety, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, The Week, Deadline, The Guardian, Radio & Television …, Hollywood Reporter, Bustle, New York Times, Washington Post and Vox

The Walt Disney Company:
Disney to acquire 21st Century Fox, including stakes in Sky and Hulu, after spinoff of certain businesses like Fox News, for $52.4B in stock

Tony Romm / Recode:

A coalition of state attorneys general, led by the New York AG, pledge to sue the FCC for repealing net neutrality rules — States like Washington and New York are gearing up to fight the FCC's recent repeal — The United States is about to go to war with itself over net neutrality.

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
The inability of Ajit Pai and Republican FCC commissioners to make a fact-based case for repeal of popular net neutrality rules will be a problem for GOP

Discussion: The Wrap, VentureBeat, Digital Commerce 360, Washington Post, Forbes, New York Times, @robbymook, AOL, UPROXX, Metro, kottke.org, France 24, Bustle, naked capitalism, @matthewstoller, bookforum.com, Highsnobiety, Quartz, Adweek, Fast Company, Roll Call, FierceCable, The Daily Beast, ThinkProgress, BuzzFeed, The Hill, Ars Technica, Mother Jones, Search Engine Land, PAPERMAG, Fortune, The Drum, Motherboard, thecut, Rolling Stone, Business Insider, Denver Westword, ZDNet, Vox, Hit & Run, New York Magazine, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, The Guardian, The Mozilla Blog, USA Today, @bitchesthecat, @baratunde, @zeynep, Senator Scott Wiener, Mashable, Footwear News, Polygon, @parkermolloy, @jrosenworcel, The Gateway Pundit, @waltshaub, Axios, New York Times, Deadline, @fcc, @chillmage, Light Reading, @fcc, IndieWire, @jcstearns, @zeynep, Broadband TV News, @seanmcelwee, Slate and CBS San Francisco, more at Techmeme »

Dave McNary / Variety:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened with a box-office gross of $45M, the second-largest Thursday preview in North America, behind The Force Awakens — The Force remains unstoppable as Disney-Lucasfilm's “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” opened with $45 million on Thursday night.

Discussion: /Film, Deadline, Box Office Mojo, The New York Observer, CinemaBlend, IndieWire, Forbes, The A.V. Club, Fortune, UPROXX and Polygon

Isaac Stone Fish / Washington Post:

After China's Integrated Whale Media bought a majority stake in Forbes in 2014, several cases of editorial meddling have raised questions about independence — When a Chinese company buys a major American magazine, does the publication censor its coverage of China?

Discussion: @mathewi, @stinson, @gwbstr, @raykwong, @raju, @bethanyallenebr, @anderscorr, @john_hudson, @melissakchan, @whitebison66 and Talking Biz News

Shruthi Muraleedharan / Facebook:

Facebook debuts Snooze, a News Feed feature to temporarily unfollow a person, Page, or group for 30 days — One of our core News Feed values is giving people more control. Over the next week, we're launching Snooze, which will give you the option to temporarily unfollow a person, Page or group for 30 days.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Forbes, The Guardian, TechCrunch, The Ringer, UPROXX, CNET, Daily Mail, TIME, Variety, VentureBeat, The Verge, Engadget, Business Insider, Mashable, iDownloadBlog.com and Axios, more at Techmeme »

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Snap launches Lens Studio, a Mac and Windows app that lets users build their own AR lenses — Let a thousand hot dogs bloom — Snap's second official app is a tool that lets you design and build augmented reality lenses for Snapchat. The company today announced Lens Studio, a design app for Mac and Windows desktop computers.

Discussion: Digiday, Forbes, Snap Inc., TechCrunch, HYPEBEAST, xda-developers, Business Insider, The Next Web, Adweek, MacRumors, Ad Age, 9to5Mac and VentureBeat

Rebecca Leber / Mother Jones:

Environmental Protection Agency signed a no-bid $120K contract with Republican opposition research firm Definers Corp., to help track and shape press coverage — It promises “war room” style media monitoring. … Using taxpayer dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency has hired …

Discussion: Fast Company, Washington Examiner, The Hill, @weareoversight, @amy_siskind, E&E News, Mashable, ThinkProgress, Grist and Washington Post

David Shepardson / Reuters:

Sources: FCC to fine Sinclair Broadcasting $13.3M after it failed to disclose programming that aired on local TV stations was sponsored by a cancer institute — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission plans to fine Sinclair Broadcasting Corp $13.3 million after it failed …

Discussion: Multichannel News, Axios and @hshaban

Steve Dent / Engadget:

YouTube debuts 360-degree YouTube VR app on Steam in early access for HTC Vive, but users of the beta are reporting several problems from bugs to crashes — There's a lot of VR content out there, but much of it is for one platform or another — what works on Gear VR may not on Daydream, the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift.

more at Techmeme »

Jamie Grierson / The Guardian:

BBC appoints Fran Unsworth, currently director of BBC World Service Group, as director of news and current affairs, replacing James Harding — Head of World Service Group to take up role as director of news and current affairs after departure of James Harding

Discussion: Press Gazette

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