Mediagazer: Sources: NBC's streaming service will be free to customers paying for live TV; about $10/month for cord cutters and won't include live or same-season shows (Alex Sherman/CNBC)

CNBC:

Comcast agrees to sell its stake in Hulu to Disney in five years at a $27.5B valuation or appraisal amount; Comcast to relinquish voting rights immediately — Comcast has agreed to sell its stake in Hulu in five years to Disney and give up its voting rights immediately.

Discussion: Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, @sherman4949, Fast Company, MediaPost, @stevekovach, TechCrunch, Multichannel News, Vanity Fair, Vox, @xpangler, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Business Insider, @gerberkawasaki and @sherman4949, more at Techmeme »

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Sources: NBC's streaming service will be free to customers paying for live TV; about $10/month for cord cutters and won't include live or same-season shows — KEY POINTS — NBC is purposely making its cord-cutting version of its streaming service worse than the free version that comes with a pay-TV subscription.

Discussion: NBC News

Alex Thompson / Politico:

Elizabeth Warren rejects an invitation to a Fox News town hall, calls the outlet a “hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists” — Elizabeth Warren turned down a Fox News invitation Tuesday for a televised town hall and denounced the cable network as a …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Spotify-owned Soundtrap launches Soundtrap for Storytellers, a cloud-based podcast creation platform with advanced features, for $14.99 per month — In November 2017, Spotify picked up the online music studio Soundtrap as part of its efforts to offer more services to artists on its platform.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Fast Company, VentureBeat, Hot Pod News and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Quartz launched a metered paywall last week, now requires a $15/month or $100/year membership for unlimited access to all of its stories — At its debut nearly seven years ago, Quartz's model was to be everywhere — not behind a paywall, not locked inside a mobile app, ready to build an audience through social sharing.

Discussion: @moorehn, @mariaramirezny, @jbenton, @jbenton, Quartz, @lmoses and Talking Biz News

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Podcast analytics company Chartable launches SmartLinks, which uses trackable URLs and cookies to let creators know how listeners found their podcasts — How effective are links to podcasts in driving listeners? — A recently launched podcast analytics company is debuting its newest product today …

Discussion: American Press Institute and @ashleyrcarman

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

YouTube creators threatened by EU's new copyright directive due to the difficulty of automatically allowing fair use of copyrighted material through filters — KEY POINTS — YouTube creators fear their livelihood and creative outlet could be threatened by a new EU copyright directive …

Amrita Khalid / Engadget:

Report: sources say WarnerMedia plans to prioritize its streaming service, set to launch in 2020, by streaming new episodes of popular shows before they hit TV — AT&T's WarnerMedia may debut new episodes of popular shows on its upcoming streaming service, right before they hit cable.

Discussion: The Information, @richbtig, @theinformation and @richbtig

CNBC:

Bleacher Report will start its gaming-related programming from Las Vegas this summer, says its sports betting category grew 3x faster than any other category — KEY POINTS — Bleacher Report betting big on sports gambling — Sports gambling is about to get a big boost from the Bleacher.

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:

Research group identifies disinformation campaign that published 135 articles on sites impersonating media outlets or on sites where users can post content — An ambitious online disinformation campaign that impersonated major media outlets, used fake Twitter accounts to spread false articles …

Discussion: The Hill, @janelytv, @rondeibert, @ahmed, The Citizen Lab and New York Times

William D. Cohan / Vanity Fair:

Sources: CBS and Viacom boards have been in negotiations regarding a merger, but National Amusements can't initiate merger discussions until September 2020 — The more than $1 billion in “cost synergies” identified by bankers and executives in the long-rumored deal pushed by Shari Redstone is code for “big job losses.”

Discussion: @vanityfair

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Brian Williams' presence at NBCUniveral's upfront programming presentation suggests punishment for his misleading statements, uncovered in 2015, is over — Brian Williams didn't have much to say when he made an appearance Monday at NBCUniveral's massive “upfront” programming presentation.

Discussion: @jasonlynch, @bristei, @mlcalderone, @brianstelter and TVNewser