Top News:
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: WBD forecasts 2023 adjusted EBITDA down by $300M-$500M to $10.5B-$11B, citing strikes, and $1.7B+ in Q3 2023 free cash flow due to Barbie and strikes — “The company now expects to exceed $1.7 billion in free cash flow for the third quarter of 2023, in part due to the strong performance …
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Ted Johnson / Deadline:
NPR President and CEO John Lansing, who has led the organization since 2019, plans to retire at the end of 2023; NPR plans a national search for his successor — - U.S. Economy Adds 187,000 Jobs In August, Entertainment Employment Continues To Decline Amid Strikes
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NPR, NPR, RADIO ONLINE, @benmullin, @hollyedgell, Current, The Desk, CNN, The Wrap and Inside Radio
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Wall Street analysts say the Disney-Charter dispute could be a tipping point for cable TV and adds uncertainty to the industry even if it's resolved quickly — Wall Street analysts debate whether the standoff between the studio and the cable giant is “the end of the end,” …
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Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Elon Musk threatens to file a defamation lawsuit against the ADL for “falsely accusing” X and him of antisemitism and blames the ADL for X's falling US ad sales — In the newest uproar you might have missed, Elon Musk says X, formerly Twitter, will file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League.
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Wall Street Journal:
How Spotify's $1B+ bet on podcasts has not paid off: most shows aren't profitable and the company has considered an ad revenue-sharing model akin to YouTube's — The prospect of podcast riches led to aggressive investments in celebrity deals and original programming for what appeared a sky's-the-limit media frontier
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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Email: Spotify raises the listener threshold for creators in Ambassador Ads from 100 to 1,000 over 60 days, and plans to cut ad support for white noise podcasts
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TechCrunch, CMU, On Substack, @bartona104, @ashleyrcarman, Insider, Digital Music News, Engadget, The Verge, Podnews and Music Ally
Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Antenna: MLS Season Pass had 110K+ US signups on July 21, the day of Messi's first MLS match, up from 6,143 on July 20; July was TV+'s best signup month in 2023 — Soccer superstar attracts over 110,000 sign-ups to MLS Season Pass on day of first game — Soccer superstar Lionel Messi helped drive a surge in U.S. subscriptions to
Jem Aswad / Variety:
WMG launches a joint venture with 10K Projects, a record label founded by the son of UMG CEO Lucian Grainge; 10K will be a standalone label in WMG's ecosystem — After weeks of rumors, it's official: Elliot Grainge's 10K Projects, home to releases by Trippie Redd, Ice Spice, Iann Dior and more …
Discussion:
Billboard, Warner Music Group, Financial Times, Music Business Worldwide and @warnermusic
Miles Klee / Rolling Stone:
Sean “Diddy” Combs returns the music publishing rights from his label Bad Boy Records to artists, including the Notorious B.I.G.'s estate, Mase, and Faith Evans — In an “unprecedented” move, the estate of Notorious B.I.G. is among those to reclaim songs from the iconic label's catalog
Discussion:
Deadline, Variety, The Fader, Billboard, Variety, Forbes, New York Post, @phil_lewis_, Next TV, The Wrap and Digital Music News
Financial Times:
eMarketer expects US podcast ad spending to hit $2.2B in 2023, up from $1.7B in 2022, or ~10% of radio; Edison: 80%+ of Americans listen to radio weekly — The rise of podcasts has not fully cannibalised other forms of entertainment — The audience for podcasts is younger …
Discussion:
RAIN News and Inside Radio
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
OANN and one of its on-air personalities, Chanel Rion, settle a defamation suit by a Dominion Voting executive over false claims he helped rig the 2020 election — - Proud Boys Leader Enrique Tarrio Sentenced To 22 Years In Prison For Role In January 6th Conspiracy
Discussion:
Insider, The Daily Beast and CNN
Jon Lafayette / Next TV:
Allen Media Group's Local Now streaming service adds Washington Post Television, which offers breaking news, interviews, and in-depth reporting, to its lineup — Newspaper started channel in May — Allen Media Group said its Local Now digital platform had added Washington Post Television to its channel lineup.
Discussion:
Washington Post and TVNewsCheck
Meta:
Meta plans to deprecate the Facebook News tab in the UK, France, and Germany in early December 2023 and won't sign new deals for news content in those countries — Today, we are announcing that in the UK, France and Germany we will deprecate Facebook News - a dedicated tab on Facebook …
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