Top News:
Andrew Bucholtz / Awful Announcing:
AT&T and Sinclair talks continue over carriage of Tennis Channel and local stations in 86 markets, on U-verse, DirecTV, AT&T TV Now; next deadline is Sept. 27 — There have been plenty of carriage disputes involving AT&T recently, including ones with CBS and Nexstar (resolved) …
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Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:
Disney and AT&T reach a deal that will keep ABC, ESPN, The Disney Channel, and more on DirecTV, U-verse, and AT&T TV Now — The Walt Disney Co. reached an agreement in principle on a new retransmission consent and carriage deal with AT&T that would keep networks including ABC …
Discussion:
Cord Cutters News
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
YouTube CEO apologizes to creators and users over the company's decision to revoke verification statuses and says it is working to address creator concerns — Updates are expected to come — YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has just apologized to the creator community over the company's decision …
Discussion:
@susanwojcicki, Gizmodo, CNET, Mashable, @mattnavarra, @martinsfp, @cobuspotgieter, @slasher and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »
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Janko Roettgers / Variety:
YouTube reverses course, says channels with verification badges will keep them without appeal and channels that reach 100k subs can still apply for verification — A day after announcing significant changes to its verification program, YouTube announced Friday afternoon that it won't be de-verifying existing creators after all.
Hadas Gold / CNN:
Twitter suspends account of a former Saudi royal court adviser suspected of involvement in Khashoggi murder and six accounts linked to Saudi state media — London (CNN Business)Twitter has suspended or removed thousands of accounts linked to governments in the Middle East …
Discussion:
Twitter, NPR, @securedemocracy, @brian_whit, Boing Boing, @jrug, @samuelwoolley, Adweek and Engadget
Patrick Shanley / Hollywood Reporter:
NBCU announces it is shutting down its gaming division, formed in 2017, and laying off 5% of staff in its cable division, which includes E!, Oxygen, Bravo — Universal Games and Digital Platforms, formed in 2017, will no longer publish mobile titles as part of a restructuring plan at the company …
Discussion:
Fox Business, Variety, @pshanley88, MediaPost, Polygon, TVWeek.com and The Wrap
William Zheng / South China Morning Post:
Chinese state media reporters will have to pass an exam testing knowledge of President Xi's philosophy to get press cards; ~10K to take pilot exams in October — About 10,000 reporters and editors in Beijing are expected to take ‘pilot tests’ next month using Xuexi Qiangguo mobile app Nationwide exams …
Discussion:
@suilee, @zhengwei75, @annafifield and The Guardian
Ann-Christine Diaz / Ad Age:
A former chief creative officer of The Martin Agency is suing Adweek, a former editor, and the anonymous Instagram account Diet Madison Avenue for defamation — Suit seeks $25 million; attorney says plaintiff plans to also take legal action against his former employer and parent Interpublic Group
Discussion:
@moorehn
Reuters:
Reuters hires Joyce Adeluwoye-Adams as its first newsroom diversity editor — Reuters today announced that Joyce Adeluwoye-Adams has been appointed Editor, Newsroom Diversity. — Reporting to Simon Robinson, Global Managing Editor, Newsroom, Adeluwoye-Adams will lead Reuters efforts …
Discussion:
Press Gazette, @iron_emu and Poynter
Richard Middleton / TBI Vision:
At TV conference, Reed Hastings says Netflix has spent £400M in the UK in 2019 and plans a “big increase” next year — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said the streamer will spend £400m ($500m) on UK programming this year and added that there would be a “big increase” …
Discussion:
Forbes, Variety, The Daily Dot, @alexgiess, Barron's Online, IndieWire, @ivan_brussels, Reuters and The Guardian
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Jason Schott / Fox Business:
Roku study: 2M people in the US moved from traditional pay TV to streaming in 2019; up to 60M US households will exclusively use streaming in the next 5 years — Television viewing has gradually expanded into streaming, and a new study from Roku makes a dramatic prediction about how people will consume video in the years to come.
Discussion:
MediaPost, @roku, @whatthebit, @raju, Roku and Cord Cutters News
Ana Lomtadze / Global Editors Network:
Interview with Google News VP Richard Gingras on the algorithm change to spotlight original reporting, the difficulty of defining the term, raters, and more — Google's VP of News explains the wider implications of the new search algorithm. — Last week, Google said it had made changes …
Discussion:
@mhbergen, @chrismoranuk, @mattrosoff, @mathewi, ZDNet, @spj_tweets and @mattrosoff, more at Techmeme »
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Kavanaugh book authors say the reason they couldn't agree to terms to interview Kavanaugh was because he wanted them to lie and say he hadn't been interviewed — Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, the New York Times reporters behind the book “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and @erikwemple