Mediagazer: ViacomCBS bundles Paramount+ and Showtime for a promotional price of $10/month with ads and $13/month without (Dade Hayes/Deadline)

10:40 PM ET, September 21, 2021

Top News:

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

ViacomCBS bundles Paramount+ and Showtime for a promotional price of $10/month with ads and $13/month without — ViacomCBS has officially begun marketing Paramount+ and Showtime's streaming service as a combined offering, with an initial promotion starting at $10 a month.

Mark Savage / BBC:

UK government asks its competition watchdog to review Sony, Warner, and Universal Music and weigh YouTube's streaming dominance, amid poor returns for musicians — The UK's major record labels could face an inquiry into whether their practices are distorting the music market.

Discussion: Billboard, Variety, Financial Times and musically.com

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Fortune hires Alyson Shontell, previously the number two editor at Insider, as editor-in-chief, reporting to CEO Alan Murray starting October 6 — Digital-media veteran plans to focus on increasing business magazine's online readership and subscriptions — Fortune hired digital-media …

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Disney CEO Bob Chapek says Disney+ global subscriber growth slowed this quarter, citing production delays and challenges for Latin America's Star Plus launch — Disney Plus global paid subscribers will increase by “low single-digit millions of subscribers” for the quarter ending September 2021, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said.

Discussion: The Wrap, MediaPost, @richlightshed, Hollywood Reporter, Ad Age, The Verge, The Wrap, @richlightshed, CNBC, The Streamable, Deadline, Hollywood Reporter, @richlightshed and Insider

Knight Foundation:

Survey: adults 18 to 34 years old care most about outlets' transparency and fact-checking; older adults care deeply about reputation and “no political slant” — - Differences in citizens' trust in the national media and attitudes about the media's role in democracy vary not just by political partisanship but age as well.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @knightfdn and @gallupnews

Panyi Szabolcs / Direkt36:

Photojournalist Dániel Németh is the latest to join the list of Hungarian journalists surveilled using Pegasus spyware, very likely by state actors — Have a good story? Contact us! — On June 24, 2021 in Amalfi, near Naples in Southern Italy, Lő …

Discussion: The Guardian, @jsrailton, @ryp__, @skirchy, @botherder, @hneumannmep, @talkopan, @dangillmor, @skirchy, @jsrailton, @evacide and @jsrailton

Matthew Keys / FierceVideo:

YouTuber Bill Omar Carrasquillo and two others indicted on charges of copyright infringement, wire fraud, and more for allegedly offering pirated streaming TV — A popular YouTube personality and two other individuals are facing criminal charges for allegedly operating a large-scale pirate television service over the Internet.

Discussion: @sixfever and @matthewkeyslive

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Business outlet Industry Dive, which expects ~30% profit margins and $80M in revenue in 2021, buys trade pub PharmaVOICE, its fourth acquisition in 18 months — Industry Dive, a Washington, D.C.-based business journalism outlet, is acquiring PharmaVOICE, a trade publication …

Discussion: @seangriffey, @joshsternberg, @seangriffey, @sarafischer and Talking Biz News

Tatiana Cirisano / Billboard:

Twitch and NMPA reach deal after tensions over takedown notices; sources: deal doesn't include music licenses, and Twitch will issue warnings before suspensions — Twitch and the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) have reached a long-awaited agreement focused on building …

Discussion: PC Gamer, The Verge, GameSpot, @verge, Variety, Music Business Worldwide, Tubefilter, @colinstutz, @devolore, @concordmusicpub and Forbes, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Local newsletter network 6AM City raises $5M+, is expecting $5M in revenue this year, and plans to have launched in 24 cities by Thanksgiving — 6AM City, a newsletter-driven local news company, has raised a new round of funding north of $5 million, Axios has learned.

Discussion: GlobeNewswire News Room, @samhoisington, Poynter, @wihbey, @hksperl, @michael_mazzara, @6amcity, @dankennedy_nu, @ryanheafy and @axios

Andy Meek / Forbes:

Maven, owner of Sports Illustrated and TheStreet, rebrands as The Arena Group and says it's generated $142M in revenue in the year ending on June 30, up 53% YoY — 2021 has proven to be one of the most consequential in recent memory for the publishing company behind Sports Illustrated …

Discussion: Digiday

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Sources: Netflix is in talks to buy the full works of Roald Dahl, expanding on its three-year deal to make animated shows based on his material — Netflix Inc. is in talks to purchase the works of the late British novelist Roald Dahl, according to people with knowledge of the matter …

Discussion: @newsynick, @erinbiba, Gizmodo, @loudmouthjulia, @silviakillings, @jay_kotakone, The Streamable, @nkulw, @bigblackjacobin and The Verge

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John Jurgensen / Wall Street Journal:
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Earlier Picks:

Corin Faife / The Markup:
Analysis: Facebook appears to be adding code to interfere with automated data collection of News Feed posts by journalists and researchers

Discussion: @mattblaze, Engadget, @corintxt, @lauraedelson2, @suryamattu, @juliaangwin, @tonyromm and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
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Discussion: MediaPost, FierceVideo, nexttv.com, Radio & Television … and Insights - Nielsen

Natasha Turak / CNBC:
Universal Music Group shares rose by about 36% in its market debut in Amsterdam, valuing the company at over €46B, after being spun off from Vivendi

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Variety, @runciedan, @lesliepicker, @runciedan, Billboard, Music Business Worldwide, Forbes, The Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, Billboard, Rolling Stone and Variety

Amit Gurbaxani / Billboard:
Gaana, India's leading music streaming service, has seen low paid sub growth; India's audio streaming market is 38% ad-supported, behind only China, Venezuela

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Michael King / The Streamable:
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Pew Research Center:
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Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
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