Mediagazer: After a WGA protest, the Television Academy and Fox reverse an earlier plan and return the Emmy for variety series outstanding writing to the Emmys telecast (Michael Schneider/Variety)

8:40 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, @xpangler, Radio & Television … and Reuters

Kim Masters / The Hollywood Reporter:

A look at the men allied with Nelson Peltz and their histories with Disney: Ike Perlmutter, the ousted Marvel chairman, and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo — As ousted Marvel mogul Ike Perlmutter and activist investor Nelson Peltz enlist former Disney exec Jay Rasulo in their quest to reshape the studio …

Discussion: @kimmasters, @thr, @erik_hayden and Puck

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

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, Next TV, Variety, Deadline, Reuters, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and The Hollywood Reporter

Oliver Darcy:

Internal note: Alex MacCallum, who became The Washington Post's chief revenue officer in July 2023, is leaving; sources: she's in talks to join CNN — News: Alex MacCallum, the digital product whiz who I've confirmed is in discussions with CNN about joining the org under network chief Mark Thompson …

Discussion: Puck, @dylanbyers and Oliver arcy

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

Michael Schneider / Variety:

After a WGA protest, the Television Academy and Fox reverse an earlier plan and return the Emmy for variety series outstanding writing to the Emmys telecast — In a joint release sent out today, the Television Academy, Fox and the WGA said they were “happy to announce they have reached …

Discussion: IndieWire, The Wrap, @wgawest and The Hollywood Reporter

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, Gizmodo, safety.twitch.tv, Forbes, @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, 9to5Mac, The Streamable, BGR, Variety, MediaPost and Cord Cutters News

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: New York Post, The Wrap, @grahamstarr, @josephfcox, The Daily Beast, @pkafka, The Information, @mekosoff, Mediaite, @caleweissman, @maxwelltani, @mediaevan, @thestalwart, @justinbaragona, @maxwelltani, @scottnover, @jbenton and New York Times

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.

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More News:

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

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

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

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

Discussion: @pressgazette

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 »

Earlier Picks:

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: The Guardian, @dankennedy_nu@threads.net, 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: @tvgrimreaper, Simon Owens on LinkedIn, The Hill, MediaPost, @trengriffin, Digiday, Dan Goman on LinkedIn, @danilo@hachyderm.io, Breitbart, New York Post and The Streamable

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

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: Simon Owens on LinkedIn, @chrisharihar, @benmullin, @sherman4949, Adweek, New York Post, The Desk and Variety

From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

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

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