Mediagazer: Nielsen: Prime Video's Thursday Night Football averaged 11.86M viewers per game in the US during the 2023 season, up 24% from 2022 season's 9.58M viewers (Advanced Television)

6:05 PM ET, January 3, 2024

Top News:

Blackwells nominates three candidates to Disney's board to rival Nelson Peltz's proxy fight, and says Disney's ValueAct deal is “a disappointing defensive move” — Disney and CEO Bob Iger have secured votes of confidence from two key allies in the company's proxy fight with Nelson Peltz.

Discussion: GlobeNewswire News Room, The Hollywood Reporter, @xpangler, Reuters and Radio & Television …

Michael Flaherty / Axios:

Hedge funds vie for power at Disney: ValueAct supports Disney's board slate, Trian and Ancora support Nelson Peltz, and Blackwells pushes other board candidates — Trian, ValueAct, Ancora and Blackwells — it's a fight within a fight. … ValueAct, in turn, said it would support Disney's slate of directors.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, IndieWire, The Wrap, The Information, Wall Street Journal, UPI, The A.V. Club, New York Post and Reuters

Ben Scent / Bloomberg:
Disney signs a confidentiality agreement to share information with shareholder ValueAct, which will support Disney's board nominees and consult with the company

Discussion: The Walt Disney Company, Wall Street Journal, Next TV, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Reuters and Financial Times

Max Tani / Semafor:

Sources: The Messenger's board weighed shutting the site down, at a December 29 meeting, and Jimmy Finkelstein has expressed a willingness to sell the site — The Scoop — The board of the startup news organization The Messenger weighed shutting the publication down at a meeting on Friday …

Discussion: The Wrap, @pkafka, The Information, @jbenton, @caleweissman, @thestalwart, @maxwelltani, @justinbaragona, @maxwelltani, @scottnover, @mediaevan and @mekosoff

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Source: The Messenger is expected to lay off roughly two dozen out of ~300 employees this week; the company says it is “in the midst of a second-round raise”

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Mediaite, The Wrap, @benmullin, @theloniusly, @benjaminopowers, @lmoses, @carlmacgowan, @stufalk, @evolambert, @carloseats, @tomaxwell, @benmullin, New York Post, The Information and The Daily Beast

Advanced Television:

Nielsen: Prime Video's Thursday Night Football averaged 11.86M viewers per game in the US during the 2023 season, up 24% from 2022 season's 9.58M viewers — Prime Video's second season of exclusive Thursday Night Football (TNF) in the US saw substantial viewership gains and set multiple …

Discussion: Amazon Studios, The Streamable, Awful Announcing, MediaPost, Media Play News and Barrett Media

Marc Schneider / Billboard:

UMG and Tencent Music Entertainment renew their licensing agreement, allowing Tencent to distribute UMG content on QQ Music, Kogou Music, Kuwo Music, and WeSing — “UMG will continue to work with TME to bring the very best in music to these passionate music consumers.”

Discussion: Variety, Tencent Music Entertainment … and Music Business Worldwide

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Twitch changes its sexual content policies again and says the platform won't allow streamers to “imply or suggest that they are fully or partially nude” — Twitch is changing its sexual content policies again, this time to prohibit implied nudity on the platform.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Forbes, safety.twitch.tv, @MikeElgan@mastodon.social, ClutchPoints and @carnage4life@mas.to, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

T-Mobile plans to bundle Hulu's ad-supported tier with its Go5G Next plan from January 24; Netflix and Apple TV+ are already free on the Go5G Next plan — The mobile carrier already offers complimentary Netflix and Apple TV+ on its Go5G Next plan. … The telecom giant says that it is …

Discussion: The Desk, The Information, The Streamable, 9to5Mac, BGR, Variety, MediaPost and Cord Cutters News

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Athan Stephanopoulos plans to leave as CNN's chief digital officer at the end of January, the second turnover of digital executives at CNN since WBD took over — Athan Stephanopoulos will leave his role as chief digital officer of CNN as the news outlet's new chief starts to implement …

Discussion: Adweek, Financial Times, @dylanbyers, The Wrap, Deadline, @dylanbyers, @pressgazette, The Hollywood Reporter and @bristei

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

The UK Editors' Code of Practice Committee rejects calls to extend the discrimination clause in the code to cover Jews, Muslims, those with ADHD, and others — Leading editors have rejected new calls to extend the discrimination clause of the Editors' Code of Practice to cover groups.

Aleks Chan / The Guardian:

The Guardian US raised $2.2M in its 2023 year-end fundraiser, up 25% from the previous record and the most successful raise since its first appeal six years ago — The Guardian US had its most successful end of year fundraiser ever, raising more than $2m to support our journalism in 2024

Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

Sources: The Telegraph delays its restructuring until January 31, after UK officials asked to wait until Ofcom reviews RedBird IMI's takeover — ‘Hive down’ delayed until after Ofcom delivers review of Abu Dhabi-backed takeover — A corporate restructuring of The Telegraph viewed …

Discussion: @pressgazette

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Roku plans to launch its first 55", 65", and 75" high-end Pro Series TVs in spring 2024, offering improved picture quality and better audio for up to $1,500 — Roku Inc., the maker of TV streaming boxes and software, is debuting its first high-end televisions in a bid to continue sales momentum for the company's devices.

Discussion: Next TV, The Streamable, TechCrunch, The Verge, BGR, 9to5Google, Cord Cutters News and Media Play News, more at Techmeme »

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More News:

Ray Schultz / MediaPost:
Quebec City's Le Soleil newspaper, founded in 1896, ends its print edition, going fully digital; the newspaper started printing on Saturdays only in March 2020

Discussion: CBC News

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
BPI: UK consumers streamed 179.6B audio tracks in 2023, up 12.8% YoY; women artists topped the UK's official singles chart for a record 31 of the 52 chart-weeks

Discussion: BPI, CMU, BPI, Music Week, The Guardian, Financial Times and Music Ally

Jay Peters / The Verge:
X launches a Verified Organizations Basic tier for $200/month or $2,000/year, in addition to Full Access for $1,000/month and $50/month for each US affiliate

Discussion: MediaPost, @adrianpcarbone, TechCrunch, @verified, X and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Casey Newton says Platformer will meet with Substack, hoping Substack will remove pro-Nazi content, and Platformer plans to leave if Substack fails to do so

Discussion: @dankennedy_nu@threads.net, The Guardian, Adweek, @alex.stamos@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @nopipbutcpip.bsky.social, @mmasnick.bsky.social, @marisakabas@threads.net, @marc.e.elias@threads.net, @reporterzoe@threads.net, @brianforrester8@threads.net, @johnbattelle@threads.net, @jacaranda7@threads.net, @marisakabas.bsky.social and @crumbler@threads.net

Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
Antenna: 6.3% of US customers cancelled major streaming services in November 2023, up from 5.1% YoY; 24% canceled three or more services over the past two years

Discussion: @trengriffin, @tvgrimreaper, Simon Owens on LinkedIn, The Hill, MediaPost, Digiday, Dan Goman on LinkedIn, @danilo@hachyderm.io, Breitbart, New York Post and The Streamable, more at Techmeme »

Earlier Picks:

Joe Mandese / MediaPost:
Omnicom closes its $900M acquisition of Flywheel Digital from Ascential; ex-Ascential CEO Duncan Painter will lead Flywheel as a practice area within Omnicom

Discussion: Digiday and PR Newswire

Adam Chitwood / The Wrap:
USC study: women directed 12.1% of 2023's top films, up from 2022's 9%; Universal led with four top films directed by women, followed by Lionsgate and Disney

Discussion: Breitbart, Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, @Lilith111@mastodon.social, ScreenRant and Variety

Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post:
A look at the rise of mini TV series, typically 100+ one-to-five-minute episodes, with the first ~10 free to watch, on Chinese short video platforms like Douyin

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
In an email, Cheddar furloughs at least some employees, effective immediately, and bars them from further work, blaming unforeseen internal and external factors

Discussion: @chrisharihar, @benmullin, @sherman4949, Adweek, New York Post, The Desk and Variety

Kelly Garrity / Politico:
Donald Trump plans to forgo the CNN's GOP primary debate in favor of a town hall on Fox moderated by Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum

Discussion: The Hill, Mediaite, CNN, New York Post, Boing Boing, Fox News, Newser, @brianstelter, Axios, Semafor, Breitbart, Adweek, Washington Post, CBS News, Bloomberg, The Desk, Forbes and Media Matters for America

From Techmeme:

Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony is in the early stages of developing a portable console for PS5 games, building on the PlayStation Portal, although its debut is likely years away

James Hunt / The Block:
MicroStrategy bought 55,500 bitcoin for ~$5.4B cash at an average price of $97,862 between November 18 and November 24, taking its holdings to ~386,700 bitcoin

Sarah Kessler / New York Times:
US coding boot camp graduates are facing a tough job market due to AI coding tools and mass layoffs; CompTIA: developer job listings are down 56% since 2019

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