Mediagazer: Rogers Communications, Canada's largest cable provider, closed its ~$15B merger with rival Shaw on April 3, 2023, after announcing the deal in March 2021 (Craig Lord/Global News)

4:45 PM ET, April 4, 2023

Top News:

Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:

Endeavor acquires the WWE in a deal that values Vince McMahon's company at $9.3B including debt; Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel will lead the combined $21B+ company — Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. in a deal that values the company at $9.3 billion including debt.

Discussion: Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Bloomberg, @sarafischer, New York Times, New York Times, Broadband TV News, @business, Sportico, Japan Times, Insider, @chrisvannini, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, Boing Boing, @benmullin, @sherman4949, @lanceulanoff, The Week, @jimpethokoukis, @alexweprin, Investis Digital, Fox Business, @jonalba, Observer, Endeavor, Variety, The A.V. Club, MediaPost, Barrett Media, @fightoracle, New York Post, Media Play News, @claytravis, @sherman4949, @abrahamjoseph, @lucas_shaw, @dennyburkholder, @brentsobleski, The Information, Pro Wrestling Torch, The FADER, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Forbes, New York Daily News, CNBC, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, Gadgets 360, Financial Times, Barrett Media, Reuters, IGN, Sportico, Fox Business, The Comeback, Awful Announcing, Pro Wrestling Torch, Front Office Sports, Deadline, New York Post, Variety, ClutchPoints, The Wrap, Popverse Latest, Front Office Sports and CNBC

Sara Fischer / Axios:

An interview with WWE President Nick Khan on the WWE and UFC pursuing separate linear TV rights negotiations, continuing the WWE's Saudi relationship, and more — WWE and UFC will pursue separate media rights negotiations for linear TV, but there could be an opportunity to pursue a combined streaming deal …

Discussion: @sarafischer, OutKick, @sarafischer, Barrett Media, Insider, Awful Announcing, @brandonthurston, @aaronbronsteter, Sportico, Front Office Sports, Financial Times, The Streamable, Pro Wrestling Torch and Los Angeles Times

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Sources: Warner Bros. Discovery is close to a deal for a Harry Potter TV show with one season based on each book, a cornerstone of HBO's new streaming strategy — Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is close to a deal for a new online TV series based on Harry Potter, the best-selling young adult books …

Kim Masters / The Hollywood Reporter:

Many current and former Amazon executives, showrunners, and agents say Amazon Studios is confusing and frustrating; one showrunner says Studios has “no vision” — Despite ambitious bets like ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ and the upcoming ‘Citadel,’ insiders complain that there's still …

Remy Tumin / New York Times:

Nielsen: the 2023 NCAA women's basketball tournament final averaged 9.9M viewers, up 103% YoY; ESPN: the game was the most viewed college event ever on ESPN+ — The average 9.9 million viewers for Louisiana State topping Iowa was significantly more than the previous record of 5.7 million …

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

Spotify shuts down its Clubhouse-style audio app Spotify Live, previously called Locker Room, acquired as part of its €57M Betty Labs deal in March 2021 — Spotify is shutting down its live-audio app Spotify Live, but says it will continue experimenting with live features in its main service.

Discussion: The Verge, Music Business Worldwide, Complete Music Update, @glenngabe, @billboard, @andysternberg, @pjbrown_iii, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Engadget, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac and TechCrunch

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Tom Krazit, a former editor at now-defunct Protocol, bought Protocol's enterprise newsletter list of 20K+ emails to help launch Runtime, his newsletter on Ghost — A news organization shuts down, and its writers move to Substack while they're trying to decide what to do next: We've seen that before.

Discussion: Runtime, Mostly Cloudy, @laurahazardowen and Protocol

Pew Research Center:

A survey finds men make up 83% of US journalists covering sports and 60% of those covering government and politics, while 64% of those covering health are women — The beats American journalists cover vary widely by gender and other factors, according to a new analysis of a Pew Research Center survey …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @gottfriedjeff, @howardbeck, @chriskirschner, @pewjournalism, @djbienaime, @pewscience, @michaelmcgee, @alexanderrusso, @marlyriveraespn, @andrewgiambrone, @jimlaporta, @bepryor, @natosource, @seungminkim and The Reynolds Center

Maya Salam / New York Times:

A profile of Hot Ones, a YouTube show with millions of views from its nearly 300 episodes where stars eat 10 increasingly fiery wings while answering questions — This YouTube talk show's premise is simple: Disarm celebrities with deep-cut questions and scorchingly spicy wings.

Discussion: @joelleeman, @firstwefeast, @dealbook, @kimseverson, @shwinyo, @maya__salam, @richantoniello and @kerrymflynn

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

A Meta-commissioned report argues Facebook is not a “must-have” for publishers, saying news links account for less than 3% of posts users see in their feed — News links account for less than 3% of posts people see in their Facebook feeds. — A report commissioned by Meta …

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @jamesrbuk, @dkiesow@social.kiesow.net and Nieman Lab

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Bob Iger says Disney is “not looking to license core Marvel, Disney, Pixar, or Star Wars” content to third parties but may “on occasion” license other content — Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company has reached a new stage of its evolution in streaming and will consider …

Discussion: The Streamable and Miami Herald

Craig Lord / Global News:

Rogers Communications, Canada's largest cable provider, closed its ~$15B merger with rival Shaw on April 3, 2023, after announcing the deal in March 2021 — Rogers must fulfill list of conditions in Shaw merger or face stiff financial penalties — Rogers Communications Inc. has closed …

Discussion: @globalleth, Bloomberg and Reuters

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More News:

Lydia DePillis / New York Times:
How the FTC's efforts to severely limit noncompete clauses could help reporters, anchors, sportscasters, meteorologists, producers, editors, and others in media

Discussion: American Press Institute, @kristenbarbar, @pmathew814, @drjmarine, @danielmwoodruff, @serwer, The Information, @normative and @lydiadepillis

Lucy Knight / The Guardian:
Book Depository, whose acquisition by Amazon in July 2011 sparked worries over Amazon's “stranglehold” on the UK book trade, is closing at the end of April 2023

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Daily Dot, @franwritesstuff, @frogdisco, @amivireads, @qospress, @mcelhearn, @fannaforbooks and @kalventure

Al Jazeera:
An Algerian court sentences prominent journalist Ihsane El Kadi to five years for “foreign financing of his business” and shuts down his two independent outlets

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, @article19org, @ajenglish, Financial Times, Reporters Without Borders and Associated Press

Dhruv Mehrotra / Wired:
FOIA docs: ICE used custom summonses 170K+ times from January 2016 to August 2022, seeking data from organizations, like to get outlets to reveal their sources

Discussion: @wired, @hannahdreier, @shrekfromdonkey, @neveragainactn, @pabloreports, @pamacious, @haleaziz, @lisaquestions, @eff, @froomkin@journa.host, @blackamazon, @dmehro and Gizmodo

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
How Netflix, which long thought ad spending doesn't increase viewers, shifted its strategy under new marketing chief Marian Lee to push content that can “pop”

Discussion: @mediasnarking, @raypride, The Wrap, @snyderqueen_, @thealikarimi, @nytimesbusiness, @papi_thegreat and @rachelmercer

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Post, a Twitter alternative that pays publishers via microtransactions, launches in public beta and says outlets get an average $25 CPM for a paywalled article

Discussion: @devonheinen and The Information, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Peter White / Deadline:
Vice Media signs a deal with Fox-owned Tubi to make eight documentaries for the ad-supported streamer, starting with The Cult of Elon, set to debut on April 24

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, The Streamable, The Wrap, The Desk, MediaPost, Broadband TV News, Fox Corporation, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News

Reuters:
The Financial Times acquires a majority stake in Kansas-based medical news publication Endpoints News, which launched in 2014 and has over 163,000 subscribers

Discussion: Financial Times, @armstrongdrew, @armstrongdrew, @markstenberg3, Press Gazette, ENDPOINTS NEWS, ENDPOINTS NEWS and Talking Biz News

Max Tani / Semafor:
A look at the fissures within The Guardian after years of infighting over its trans coverage, as the anti-trans wing is widely viewed internally as ascendant

Discussion: @maxwelltani, @mattzeitlin, @jbenton, @brokenbottleboy, @bigmeaninternet, @rswirling, @paulduanefilm, @transscribe, @semaforben and @ginarush

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Cineworld announces a restructuring agreement with lenders, reducing its debt by ~$4.53B, and expects to emerge from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in H1 2023

Discussion: Business of Fashion, The Wrap, Media Play News, CNN and Variety

Thomas E. Patterson / Nieman Lab:
A survey of 253 NPR member stations finds that 60% have 10 or fewer news staff and average just over one hour of locally produced news programming per day

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, @anelsona, @kennedy_school, @stphnfwlr, @stphnfwlr, @dhiott, @johnupton, @stevenwaldman, @jimallthetime, @lauren_bavis, @niemanfdn and @spj_tweets

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

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

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
The UK plans to draft a regulatory framework to oversee stablecoins and staking services as part of a single overarching regime for cryptoassets in early 2025

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