Mediagazer: In a lawsuit, a Disney employee claims she was sexually assaulted by former VP of distribution Nolan Gonzales and that management didn't escalate concerns to HR (Winston Cho/The Hollywood Reporter)

11:40 PM ET, January 3, 2024

Top News:

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 …

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Variety:

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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.

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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

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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 …

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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

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Advanced Television:

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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

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:

In a lawsuit, a Disney employee claims she was sexually assaulted by former VP of distribution Nolan Gonzales and that management didn't escalate concerns to HR — The plaintiff, suing as a Jane Doe, claims she was assaulted by former vice president of distribution Nolan Gonzales …

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadline and Bloomberg Law

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

MPA: the Asia Pacific video industry grew 5.5% in 2023 to hit $145B in revenue, with a 13% jump in online video sales to $57B; TV revenue grew under 1% to $98B — The video industry in the region grew by 5.5 percent in 2023 to hit $145 billion in revenue, says research firm MPA.

Discussion: Livemint, @livemint and WORLD SCREEN

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 …

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, The Hollywood Reporter and @wgawest

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: safety.twitch.tv, Gizmodo, @MikeElgan@mastodon.social, TechCrunch, ClutchPoints, @carnage4life@mas.to and Forbes, 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 Streamable, BGR, The Information, 9to5Mac, Variety, MediaPost and Cord Cutters News

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Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
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Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
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Richard Lawler / The Verge:
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Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
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