Top News:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Disney and Charter reach an agreement that will restore popular channels including ESPN and ABC to the cable operator's nearly 15M subscribers — Disney and Charter have decided to let ESPN sports take the field on traditional cable after all. — The two media giants …
Discussion:
CNBC, Wall Street Journal, CNET, The Hill, Slate, The Desk, @govkathyhochul, @espnpr, The Athletic, @compound248, @jbflint, @aericfisher, @sherman4949, @trungtphan, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, Cord Cutters News, Ad Age, @loudmouthjulia, @jbflint, TVLine, The Wrap, CBS News, The Messenger, @alexweprin, Front Office Sports, @pkafka, @matthewkeyslive, Bloomberg, @dylanbyers, @pkafka, @benthompson, @benthompson, @tvgrimreaper, @lucas_shaw, @modestproposal1, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @patiencehaggin, @lucas_shaw, @jbflint and The Streamable
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Emma Roth / The Verge:
Disney and Charter's deal bundles Spectrum's TV Select Plus plan with ESPN+ and the TV Select plan with the upcoming ESPN streaming channel and Disney+ with ads — Disney and Charter have resolved the carriage dispute that blocked millions of viewers from watching ESPN, ABC, FX, and other Disney-owned networks.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Interviews with Disney Entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro about the Spectrum deal, how it expands ESPN+'s reach, and more — Walden, the co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, and Pitaro, the chairman of ESPN, talk about what the Spectrum deal means for their Disney divisions.
Discussion:
The Hill
Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:
Some Disney-owned channels like Freeform, Disney Junior, Disney XD, and Nat Geo Wild will no longer be carried by Spectrum as part of Charter's new Disney deal — Disney's channels had been blocked for Spectrum customers since Aug. 31, and will return just in time for ‘Monday Night Football’
Discussion:
Crain's New York Business, MediaPost, Mediaite, The Streamable, Gizmodo, TVLine, Rolling Stone, Next TV, The A.V. Club, The Desk, @tvgrimreaper, @spongieupdates, @tvgrimreaper, @tvgrimreaper, Fox Business, Radio & Television …, Awful Announcing, The Information, Deadline, Los Angeles Times, Media Play News, Barrett Media, @dabruzzotweets, Front Office Sports, @kimbenabib, @tvgrimreaper, @xpangler, Cord Cutters News and CNET
Roger Cheng / Cord Cutters News:
Disney offers Hulu + Live TV to new and eligible returning customers for $49.99/month for three months
Discussion:
CNET, The Hollywood Reporter, The Streamable, Awful Announcing, The Verge, TVLine, @tvmojoe, @kathmschmidt, @tvmojoe, Deadline, Media Play News and Variety
Robert Silverman / The Daily Beast:
An investigation finds that Barstool Sports apparently controls 40+ “burner” X accounts to launder viral copyright-protected videos for its legitimate accounts — A Daily Beast investigation found more than forty content-swiping Twitter accounts apparently controlled by Barstool …
Max Tani / Semafor:
NewsWhip data on 300K influential X users: X is throttling posts with New York Times links, with “weekly average shares per article” down 75%+ from a July peak — The Scoop — X, Elon Musk's social media platform formerly known as Twitter, appears to be attempting to limit its users' access to The New York Times.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
The Associated Press says a defunct third-party-managed AP Stylebook site was hacked in July 2023 and the hacker is using the data for targeted phishing attacks — The Associated Press is warning of a data breach impacting AP Stylebook customers where the attackers used the stolen data to conduct targeted phishing attacks.
Discussion:
Insider, @nolongerbennett and @castrotech
Shawn McCreesh / New York Magazine:
A profile of Walter Isaacson, who has written biographies of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and others, edited Time magazine in the 1990s, and was running CNN on 9/11 — It's a Saturday night in August, and Walter Isaacson is sitting in the back of Lilette, a restaurant on Magazine Street in his hometown of New Orleans, swizzling a Sazerac.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Wrap, Financial Times, Mediaite, Observer, CNBC, CBS News, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Post, CNN and The Atlantic, more at Techmeme »
Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:
The Independent Florida Alligator, a student newspaper covering the University of Florida, rejected an ad promoting abortion pill access, fearing a Florida law — An anti-abortion law made Florida's largest college paper go independent 50 years ago. And now that law is back to haunt the paper with serious free-speech restrictions.
Discussion:
@corbinbolies and The Messenger
Adam Gabbatt / The Guardian:
How Tucker Carlson, deprived of the prime-time platform of Fox News, has grown less relevant and more extreme, as he pushes even more conspiracy theories on X — Carlson, once seen as a Republican powerbroker and even a presidential candidate, has grown more extreme and less relevant
Discussion:
@anncygoransson, @1br0wn, @docrussjackson, @feolski and @joelmathis.bsky.social
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The UK government launches a task force to crack down on the growing number of SLAPP legal cases by Russian oligarchs and others to intimidate journalists — Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer writes for Press Gazette about a new task force to tackle the rise of SLAPPs.
Discussion:
The Independent, Reporters Without Borders, HoldtheFrontPage and The Times
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
A deep dive into the NFL's attempts to expand beyond cable, and its YouTube partnership, including YouTube's $14B commitment in 2022 for Sunday Ticket rights — YouTube is now home to NFL games every Sunday. Will it bring more young people into the NFL? Or will it hasten the demise of linear TV networks?
Discussion:
Front Office Sports, Dan Rayburn, Wall Street Journal and Sportico
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