Mediagazer: Users of the Disney+ trial in the Netherlands like the service but say it doesn't remember where they left off and that volume is low; Disney's working on fixes (Erich Schwartzel/Wall Street Journal)

1:00 PM ET, October 8, 2019

Top News:

Daniel Victor / New York Times:

China's state broadcaster cancels NBA preseason games after a Houston Rockets exec tweets Hong Kong support; 21M watched Game 6 in 2019 in China vs. 18.3 in US — A tweet from the Houston Rockets general manager prompted a backlash in China, making things uncomfortable for a league used …

Bloomberg:

Blizzard Entertainment, part-owned by Tencent, bans player from competing for one year and rescinds prize money he won after pro-Hong Kong comments — - Expressing sympathy for Hong Kong democracy push proves costly — Hearthstone player won't be allowed to compete for a year

Discussion: InvenGlobal, The Wrap, Business Insider, IGN, Variety, VICE, @deezus_walks, Blizzard News, @deezus_walks, @jaldous, @mollymckew and Kotaku, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

South Park creators tweet mock apology to China: “We welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom” — The creators of satirical animated series “South Park” issued a mocking “apology” to China after media reports that episodes …

Discussion: @southpark, @onlyyoontv, New York Times, @becketadams, The Independent and Washington Free Beacon

Hollywood Reporter:
China's censors reportedly scrub South Park clips, episodes, and online discussions from streaming services, social media after critical “Band in China” episode

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

European Commission makes a call for tenders to create the European Digital Media Observatory, the first core service of a platform to fight disinformation — The European Commission has taken the first step towards establishing a new digital platform to help coordinate the fight against disinformation.

Discussion: Digital Single Market, @gabrielmariya, @pcunliffejones, @puzzlesthewill and @marklittlenews

Mike Allen / Axios:

Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg launch The Dispatch, a center-right digital media company with a site, newsletters, and podcasts, in partnership with Substack — Two of the biggest names in conservative journalism — Steve Hayes, formerly of the now-defunct Weekly Standard, and Jonah Goldberg …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @davidafrench, @stephenfhayes, Mediaite, The Dispatch, @stephenfhayes, @scottmgreer, Reason, @jayrosen_nyu, @xtrixcyclex, @mikeallen and @lachlan

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

60 Minutes plans to launch 60 in 6, an original 6-minute weekly program on Quibi in April — The newest edition of “60 Minutes” will have decidedly less time to make its point. — The venerable CBS newsmagazine plans to launch an original weekly program - just six minutes in length …

Discussion: The Wrap, TVNewser, CBS Press Express, Broadcasting & Cable and Los Angeles Times

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
ESPN to make a daily sports highlights show for Quibi, expected to debut alongside the platform in April; ESPN will license the content but retain ownership

Discussion: The Wrap, The Streamable, TechCrunch, @loudmouthjulia, @garystriewski, @grahamstarr and The Wrap

Jason Gurwin / The Streamable:

Hulu enables downloading of shows and movies to watch offline on iOS for those on the $12 per month No Ads subscription; Android support coming soon — The Streamable is reader-supported and may earn an affiliate commission when you sign up with our links.

Discussion: Adweek, TechCrunch, Adweek, Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Engadget, Polygon, Fast Company and Just Jared, more at Techmeme », Thanks:@thestreamable

Wall Street Journal:

Group Nine has agreed to acquire women's lifestyle publisher PopSugar; sources say the all-stock deal is worth $300M and values Group Nine at more than $600M — All-stock deal values women-focused publisher PopSugar at $300 million; follows recent acquisitions involving Vox Media, Vice Media

Discussion: Business Insider, Axios, The Drum, @benjlerer, @rafat, @kerrymflynn, @wsj, Adweek, The Wrap and TechCrunch

The Daily Beast:

RealClear Media, owner of “non-partisan” news site RealClearPolitics, secretly runs a conservative Facebook page with ~800K followers pushing far-right memes — RealClearPolitics has carefully cultivated a non-partisan image—while in the shadows its parent company pushes images …

Discussion: @noahshachtman, @noahshachtman, @murshedz, @davidklion, @a_m_dolan, @johnjharwood, @anniegowen, @brooklynmarie, @jbenton, @downwithtyranny, @joshuahol, @thedailybeast, @brooklynmarie, @rexhuppke, @thedailybeast, @goldietaylor and Gizmodo

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:

Facebook Journalism Project selects ~20 European publishers for a new three-month program on video programming with $300K in funding to be split among them — Facebook's latest gesture to news publishers is a three-month program to help them master video programming that comes with $300,000 in funding …

Discussion: Nieman Lab

Erich Schwartzel / Wall Street Journal:

Users of the Disney+ trial in the Netherlands like the service but say it doesn't remember where they left off and that volume is low; Disney's working on fixes — Testers in Netherlands note flaws but like access to company's movie catalog. ‘I will probably be watching Netflix less’

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:

NBC Entertainment co-chairman George Cheeks shifts to vice chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios in major restructure, leaving Paul Telegdy as sole chairman — NBCUniversal is making sweeping changes, restructuring its broadcast, studio and digital operations and assigning new roles …

Discussion: Variety, Observer and Broadcasting & Cable

Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Matt Strauss to run NBCU's Peacock, replacing Bonnie Hammer, who now oversees Content Studios, a consolidation of Universal TV and Universal Content Productions

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Adweek, @ballmatthew, @awallenstein, @lucas_shaw, The Wrap, MediaPost and The Wrap

Reuters:

Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital has finalized a $150M merger with Firewood, Silicon Valley's biggest independent agency, whose clients include Facebook and Google — (Reuters) - Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital has bought Silicon Valley's biggest independent agency, Firewood, for $150 million …

Discussion: CNBC

Marc Tracy / New York Times:

Filings: Quartz lost more than $16M on $12M in revenue through the first six months of this year — Kevin Delaney co-founded the digital publication in 2012. — Kevin Delaney, the editor in chief of Quartz and one of the digital publication's co-founders is stepping down as part of a shake-up of the company's leadership.

Discussion: @tomgara, @johngapper, @tomgara, @jbenton, @rafat and Talking Biz News

Sara Jerde / Adweek:
Quartz to search for new editor-in-chief as Kevin Delaney steps down; co-founder Zach Seward to replace Delaney and Jay Lauf as CEO, Katie Weber named president