Mediagazer: Disney beats with Q3 revenue up 26% YoY to $21.5B, vs. $20.96B est., 14.4M new Disney+ subscribers, and 221M total streaming subscribers (Sarah Whitten/CNBC)

11:30 AM ET, August 11, 2022

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Disney announces Disney+ Basic, its ads tier for $7.99 per month, launching in the US on December 8, and raises the ad-free price from $7.99 to $10.99 per month — Disney has set pricing and date for the U.S. launch of the version of Disney+ with ads, while also hiking the monthly price of the Disney+ tier with no ads.

Sarah Whitten / CNBC:

Disney beats with Q3 revenue up 26% YoY to $21.5B, vs. $20.96B est., 14.4M new Disney+ subscribers, and 221M total streaming subscribers — - Analysts anticipate the company added around 10 million new Disney+ subscribers during the period between April and June, bringing the total number of users to 147 million.

Discussion: The Wrap, Axios, @loudmouthjulia, @lucas_shaw, Junghoon's Direct Media …, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia, @sarahwhit10, @tvgrimreaper, @thewrap, @kaplansportsbiz, Awful Announcing and The Wrap

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Disney hit 221.1M global streaming subscribers in Q3, surpassing Netflix's 220.7M in Q3; Disney+ had 152.1M subscribers, Hulu had 46.2M, and ESPN+ had 22.8M — The Walt Disney Company reported on Wednesday that total Disney+ subscriptions rose to 152.1 million during the company's third-quarter, posting better-than-expected results.

Discussion: The Walt Disney Company, The Hollywood Reporter, Fortune, Deadline, Boing Boing, Too Much TV Newsletter, CBS News, The Streamable, IndieWire and Decider, more at Techmeme »

Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:

Disney lowers its Disney+ subscriber forecast to between 135M and 165M by 2024, and separates its Disney+ Hotstar subscriber guidance, aiming to hit 80M by 2024 — The Hollywood giant's flagship streaming platform had earlier set guidance of 230 million to 260 million subscribers by 2024 …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, CNBC and Variety

Todd Spangler / Variety:

While Disney now has more streaming subscribers than Netflix, its ARPU is much lower: in Q2, its US ARPU was $6.27/month, compared to Netflix's $15.95/month — But the value of those subscriber bases is much different. — Domestically, for example, Disney+ generated about 39% …

Discussion: Broadband TV News

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

Memo: The Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan is retiring her column at the end of August 2022 and will join Duke University as a visiting professor — New York (CNN Business)Media critic Margaret Sullivan is retiring her column and departing The Washington Post this month.

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

Fortune, Bloomberg, Forbes, Gizmodo, and Money are growing dedicated blockchain and crypto teams, even amid a bear market, to better explain the tech to readers — The week the cryptocurrency market crashed in mid-June, Fortune sent Jeff Roberts an offer to become its crypto editor and oversee building a team of reporters.

Rasha Al Aqeedi / New Lines Magazine:

Veteran Iraqi actress Enas Taleb plans to sue The Economist for using her picture as an example of “fat” women in the Arab world in a July 28 story — The British newspaper ran a story about the epidemic of obesity among Arab women and used the photo of Enas Taleb to illustrate the phenomenon

Discussion: BBC, VICE, Arab News, Daily Mail, Newser, @amadfarouki, @rashaalaqeedi, New York Post, @leloveluck, @newlinesmag, Deadline and @_amroali

Politico:

Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who protested the war in Ukraine during a news broadcast, is charged with disseminating false information — Marina Ovsyannikova, a former editor of the state-run Channel One network who denounced Moscow's war on Ukraine during a live TV broadcast …

Discussion: Associated Press, @sarahrainsford, Meduza.io and The Guardian

Kristin Robinson / Billboard:

Docs and sources detail how two men in Phoenix, Arizona ran one of the largest known YouTube music royalty scams, leading to a wire fraud indictment and more — Inside the brazen but surprisingly simple scheme that took royalties from songs by artists like Daddy Yankee, Anuel AA, Julio Iglesias and more.

Discussion: @davidclowery, @wordsbykristin, @zoecello, @jasonlipshutz, @billboardpro, @edchristman and Music Technology Policy, more at Techmeme »

Bassem Mroue / Associated Press:

Biden marks the 10th anniversary of journalist Austin Tice's abduction by calling on Syria's government to work with the US “so that we can bring Austin home” — President Joe Biden said Wednesday the U.S. is certain that the Syrian government is holding American journalist Austin Tice …

Discussion: The Guardian, @davejorgenson, Washington Post, CBS News, The Hill, @cforman, @cforman, @jmhansler, CNN, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Texas Monthly, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Hill and Next TV

Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple signed a Futuro Studios deal to fund podcast development and production in exchange for the first look to turn any podcast into a film or TV show — Apple Inc., stepping up its spending on original podcasts, signed an agreement with a Pulitzer Prize-winning studio …

Discussion: The Streamable, Engadget, The Verge, @pabloreports, CNET, 9to5Mac and AppleInsider, more at Techmeme »

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Jack Stebbins / CNBC:
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Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
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Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
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Scott Feinberg / The Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: the Golden Globe Awards will return to NBC in 2023; the ceremony did not air in 2022 after the HFPA was criticized for its lack of diversity and ethics

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Earlier Picks:

Brandon Katz / The Wrap:
Fox Corp reports Q4 revenue rose 5% YoY to $3.03B, ad revenue up 7% YoY, and $308M net income; full year revenue grew 8% YoY to $13.97B, with $1.23B net income

Discussion: Deadline, @great_katzby, MediaPost, The Hollywood Reporter, Fox Corp and Variety

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Many small businesses that use personalized online ads are cutting back on marketing, in part due to Apple's ATT, as they face rising customer acquisition costs

Discussion: The Rebooting, @randfish, @shiraovide, @glenngabe, @1br0wn, @nigelbarron and 9to5Mac

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Spotify quietly tests Spotify Tickets, directly selling live music tickets to users in the US, instead of redirecting buyers to Ticketmaster or Eventbrite

Discussion: Music Ally, @indianidle, @musically, @emmaswiftsings, Tubefilter, Music Business Worldwide, Forbes, Billboard, CNET, The Verge, Gizmodo, Engadget and Complete Music Update

Lachlan Markay / Axios:
Filings: Russia-backed TV Novosti and two entities are funding four “news” TV shows from US conspiracy theorist Ben Swann, covering the US, NATO, war, and more

Discussion: American Press Institute, OpenSecrets.org, @lydiatomkiw, MindWar, @ldrogen, @robertcaruso, @m_c_klein, @andrewsweiss, @lachlan and @andrew_danieri

Sophie Fullerton / Washington Post:
YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram travel influencers are documenting trips to Syria, helping burnish the regime's image, often sponsored by brands like Surfshark

Discussion: Digital Threat Digest, @silvermanjacob, @fared_alhor, @talaramadan, @glcarlstrom, @im_pulse and @florida_sophia

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
A UK CMA report finds that Apple's policies hold back innovation in mobile browsers and recommends investigating Apple and Google's mobile ecosystem activities

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered developing a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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