Top News:
Variety:
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
RELATED:
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
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
RELATED:
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 …
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.