Mediagazer: Sources: Disney and Reliance executives signed a non-binding term sheet in December and both have hired law firms to do antitrust due diligence for their merger (Aditya Kalra/Reuters)

7:30 AM ET, January 4, 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 …

Discussion: @kimmasters, @thr and @erik_hayden

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”

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

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

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The A.V. Club, UPI, Reuters, IndieWire, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, The Information, The Wrap 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 Information, The Walt Disney Company, Next TV, Variety, Deadline, Reuters, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

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, Oliver arcy and @benmullin

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

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

Aditya Kalra / Reuters:

Sources: Disney and Reliance executives signed a non-binding term sheet in December and both have hired law firms to do antitrust due diligence for their merger — Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) and Walt Disney (DIS.N) have appointed law firms …

Discussion: Variety

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:

BOA analysis: Amazon's video ad push will boost annual revenue by up to $5B, comprising $3B in video ad sales and $1.8B in Prime users paying to avoid ads — - Subscribers can pay extra $3 per month for ad-free streaming — Amazon.com Inc.'s push into video advertising will boost annual revenue …

Discussion: Beyond Search

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

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

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 …

Kari Paul / The Guardian:

Q&A with Jacob Bakkila, who ran the popular @Horse_ebooks Twitter account for two years, on the inspiration for the language bot, AI chatbots, and more — By reusing and repurposing existing writing into viral fragments on Twitter, the account functioned like today's chatbots.

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

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: Bloomberg Law and Deadline

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

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

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More News:

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

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

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

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: Thurrott, Advanced Television, Gizmodo, Next TV, BGR, The Streamable, TechCrunch, The Verge, 9to5Google, Cord Cutters News and Media Play News

Earlier Picks:

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

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, Variety and The Desk

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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