Mediagazer: 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 (David Shepardson/Reuters)

4:40 PM ET, December 15, 2017

Top News:

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

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: Recode, The A.V. Club, CNBC, Business Insider and Polygon

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: Bloomberg

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, Vanity Fair, Fast Company, TVNewser, The Daily Caller, Variety, Politico, Business Insider, The Wrap, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite and Bloomberg

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

Michael Farrell / Broadcasting & Cable:
“New Fox” might add to portfolio of local TV stations, Rupert Murdoch says in analyst call; it now owns 28 stations in 17 markets, comprising 37% of US TV homes

Discussion: Ad Age, Crain's New York Business, Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap

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: CNNMoney, The Wrap, Media Matters for America, TVNewsCheck, The Atlantic, Fox Business, Los Angeles Times, Variety, New York Times, Forbes, The Week, Deadline, The Guardian, Radio & Television …, 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

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
Robert Iger's contract as Disney Chairman and CEO is extended from 2019 to 2021 as a condition of Disney-21st Century Fox deal

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Quartz

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

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, The Guardian, Forbes, TechCrunch, The Ringer, UPROXX, VentureBeat, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, CNET, Daily Mail, Variety, TIME, Business Insider, Engadget, Mashable 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, Business Insider, xda-developers, The Next Web, Adweek, MacRumors, Ad Age, 9to5Mac and VentureBeat

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

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 and Washington Post

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 »

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Vevo CEO Erik Huggers is stepping down; CFO Alan Price will be interim CEO while the company is looking for new leadership — Erik Huggers is stepping down as the president and CEO of the major-label-owned music video platform Vevo, the company announced Friday.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Music Week and Axios

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More News:

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

Discussion: Press Gazette

Sid Bedingfield / Washington Post:
How John G. Briggs Jr., a reporter for The New York Times in the 1950s, secretly held a side gig attacking perceived liberal bias including that of his employer

Discussion: @notjessewalker, @sopandeb, @madebyhistory and @zwoolfe

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
BT and Sky sign content-sharing deal: BT customers get access to Sky Atlantic, among other channels; Sky, BT customers gain access to all Premier League matches

Agence France-Presse:
Norway becomes the first country to shut down national broadcasts of its FM radio network after an eleven month transition

Discussion: Daily Mail, The Independent, DailySabah and Huffington Post Australia

Earlier Picks:

Jason Koebler / Motherboard:
Motherboard and Vice to build and document a Brooklyn community internet that will connect to NYC mesh network and will not rely on a traditional ISP

Discussion: @catfashionshow, @mathewi, @tjl, @karlbode, @jason_koebler, @ameliainahurry, @jason_koebler, @igorclark, @joshcogs, @camcameroncam, @jbrodkin and @vruz, more at Techmeme »

Ben Fox Rubin / CNET:
Amazon says it will start selling Apple TV and Google Chromecast again, two years after removing them

Discussion: Mashable, Reuters, Fortune, The Verge, GeekWire, xda-developers, The Next Web, TechCrunch, ZDNet, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, AppAdvice.com, Fast Company, @cnet, @jank0 and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Ted Johnson / Variety:
FCC votes 3-2 to launch review of rule that limits the number of TV stations that a single entity can own, now set at 39% of US TV households

Discussion: Radio & Television … and @fcc

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple launches its podcast analytics service in beta, which only tracks data from iOS 11 and iTunes 12.7 users

Discussion: RAIN News, iDownloadBlog.com, MacStories, The Verge, 9to5Mac, Publishing Executive and MacRumors

From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

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