Mediagazer: Spotify plans to cancel the Gimlet Media podcasts Heavyweight and Stolen after their current seasons, as the company retreats from in-house productions (Ashley Carman/Bloomberg)

8:20 AM ET, December 5, 2023

Top News:

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Spotify lays off ~17% of its workforce, or ~1,500 staff, to “rightsize” its costs, citing slow economic growth and rising capital costs, its third cut in 2023 — Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or about 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year …

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Spotify plans to cancel the Gimlet Media podcasts Heavyweight and Stolen after their current seasons, as the company retreats from in-house productions — - Shows will finish out work on current, in-production seasons — Programming decision coincides with company's latest job cuts

Discussion: @thejakewarren, @dada_drummer, @craftworksxyz, @mmegdriscoll, @amil, @ashleyrcarman, @cady_stanton, The Verge, @ashleyrcarman, @ashleyrcarman, @kallipearl, The Hollywood Reporter and TechCrunch

Jake Kanter / Deadline:

Amazon fails to renew its live English Premier League rights deal, as part of Sky and TNT's new £6.7B TV rights deal for four soccer seasons from 2025/2026 — - BBC Names Royals Accused In Omid Scobie Book Of Commenting On Skin Color Of Harry & Meghan's Son

Discussion: @aquinas82nd, @frankdalleres, @jackgen0vese, @novy_williams, @rltsports, London Evening Standard, Daily Mail, @dantracey1983, @philblundell, The Desk, @seaningle, Awful Announcing, @graemebailey, Financial Times, Broadband TV News and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Paul MacInnes / The Guardian:

The English Premier League signs a new deal with Sky and TNT Sports under which the soccer competition will receive £6.7B over four years for its UK TV rights — - Number of live games set to grow substantially as part of deal — Match of the Day to continue after BBC buys highlights rights

Discussion: Bloomberg, Broadband TV News, The Information, @skysports, @robharris, @sam__carp, @willohara, @sistoney67, @tariqpanja, @simonlester24, @david_conn, BBC and Sky News

Catharine Tunney / CBC News:

CBC/Radio-Canada plans to cut ~10% of its workforce, or 600 workers, and cut CA$40M in programming over the coming year to cope with a CA$125M budget shortfall — Public broadcaster says most cuts will take effect over the coming year — The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada announced Monday …

Discussion: CBC News, @melissambarki, @mickeydjuric, @parismarx, @cbcdaveseglins, @maritstiles, The Desk, @mickeydjuric, @mickeydjuric, @jonkay, @keithdunnenl, @carolemacneil, Reuters and Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media

Perry Bacon Jr / Washington Post:

MSNBC should be careful not to become the TV arm of the Democratic Party leadership, as shown by some of its recent moves, like canceling Mehdi Hasan's show — The cancellation of Mehdi Hasan's show is the latest in a series of recent moves by MSNBC that are pushing the network in the direction …

Discussion: @kenhuur, @jayrosen_nyu, @froomkin and @drericding

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

The Sun publisher News Group Newspapers pays out “substantial damages” to a group of celebrities and apologizes over unlawful information-gathering practices — News Group Newspapers apologised to the claimants, who include Mel C and Catherine Tate.

Max Tani / Semafor:

An interview with Megyn Kelly about co-hosting the Dec. 6 GOP presidential primary debate on NewsNation, her pivot to audio, being “un-cancellable”, and more — The News — After Megyn Kelly left her high-profile Fox News perch for a $69 million, three-year NBC contract …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Adweek, @jeremymbarr, @stevekrak, Mediaite, The Hill, New York Post, al.com and Poynter

Jody Rosen / New York Times:

Behind the scenes of a Sunday Night Football broadcast, which is one of the most inventive and artful uses of the TV medium — Months of preparation, hundreds of staff, convoys of cutting-edge gear: inside the machine that crafts prime time's most popular entertainment.

Discussion: @canonusa, @jodyrosen, @brianstelter, @fordm, New York Post, Awful Announcing and Syracuse Post-Standard

Timmy Shen / The Block:

Sources: as part of its January 2023 merger with CryptoSlam, Forkast Labs laid off the majority of its editorial staff and suspended operations in November — - The crypto news site wound down editorial operations on Nov. 30, sources close to the matter said.

Discussion: Web3 is Going Just Great

Will Sommer / Washington Post:

Ex-Fox News employee Andrew Delancey sues the network and top producer Justin Wells over an alleged sexual assault; Wells now works on Tucker Carlson's X show — A former Fox News staffer is suing the producer — who was fired last spring along with the host — over the alleged assault …

Discussion: The Messenger, Rolling Stone, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, New York Times and Boing Boing

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast president Mike Cavanagh says Peacock now has 30M paying subscribers, with an ARPU of $10 per month, and saw $2.8B in losses in 2023 — “We collected an eight and a half billion dollar check on Friday,” Mike Cavanagh said, adding that Disney's payment for Hulu has cleared.

Discussion: Broadband TV News, @lmoses, @sherman4949, @aaronklein, BGR, MediaPost, The Desk, Simon Rice on LinkedIn, Next TV, Deadline, Media Play News, The Wrap, Streaming Better, Variety, Tv Technology and Cord Cutters News

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

Source: Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes will remain recused from the watchdog's probe into the sale of The Daily Telegraph as the Lloyds Banking employs her husband — Dame Melanie Dawes will play no role in Ofcom's inquiry even after Lloyds, which employs her husband, is repaid a £1.16bn loan later on Monday, Sky News learns.

Discussion: Bloomberg

Rob Davies / The Guardian:
The Barclay family regains control of Telegraph, after an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium helped pay off its £1.2B debt; the deal still requires government approval

Discussion: Press Gazette, Telegraph, Reuters, Financial Times and Media Makers Meet

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