Mediagazer: Comcast reports Peacock revenue rose 57% YoY to $1B in Q4, a $825M loss in Q4 and $2.75B in 2023 for the unit, and 31M paying subscribers, a net gain of 3M (Georg Szalai/The Hollywood Reporter)

11:55 AM ET, January 25, 2024

Top News:

Comcast reports Peacock revenue rose 57% YoY to $1B in Q4, a $825M loss in Q4 and $2.75B in 2023 for the unit, and 31M paying subscribers, a net gain of 3M — NBCUniversal parent Comcast, led by chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, reported earnings on Thursday.

Discussion: Adweek, The Streamable, The Desk, Variety, Deadline, @sherman4949, @modestproposal1, @ballmatthew, Media Play News, Broadband TV News and Cord Cutters News

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Comcast reports NBCU revenue rose 3.1% YoY to $6.98B and adjusted EBITDA dropped 50% YoY to $108M due to rising sports and Peacock programming costs — - Comcast revenue rose 2.3% to $31.25 billion in the fourth quarter. — Net income rose 7.8% to $3.26 billion, or 81 cents a share.

Discussion: The Wrap, WORLD SCREEN and NBC 7 San Diego

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Antenna: Peacock's exclusive stream of the NFL AFC Wild Card game drove a record 2.8M sign-ups for the streaming service

Discussion: MediaPost, IndieWire, Media Play News, Antenna, @xpangler, @pkafka, Business Insider, Shannon Boyd on LinkedIn, Awful Announcing, @joelmathis.bsky.social, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn, The Desk and The Streamable

Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:

Unionized Forbes editorial employees plan to start a work stoppage today that will last through Monday, in response to protracted contract negotiations — - First-ever walkout at business magazine to begin on Thursday — ‘They are dragging their feet and slow-walking’ process

Discussion: The Wrap, Axios and nyguild.org

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

NY Daily News journalists begin a one-day work stoppage to protest layoffs and a new overtime policy; a third of union members have left since 2022, leaving 54 — Newsroom workers at The Daily News Union, which formed in 2021, are in negotiations for their first contract.

Discussion: The Wrap and nyguild.org

Barbara Peng / Business Insider:

In a memo, Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng says the outlet is laying off 8% of its staff, part of plans to focus on covering business, tech, and innovation — At the end of 2023, we announced our way ahead: We're Business Insider, our center of gravity is business, tech, and innovation …

Discussion: CNN, The Hill, Talking Biz News, Variety, Semafor, The Wrap, Press Gazette, Reuters, The Messenger, The Daily Beast, @sarafischer, @maxwelltani and @emilybell

Nate Raymond / Reuters:

A US appeals court rules 9-7 that Texas-based citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal cannot sue officials over her arrest for asking a police source questions — A citizen journalist in Texas cannot sue officials over her arrest for asking a police source questions, a divided federal appeals court …

Discussion: The Texas Observer and Fox News

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: BuzzFeed is looking to sell its food sites, Tasty and First We Feast; Fortress Investment Group, which took over Vice, is in talks to sell Refinery29 — Latest sale discussions signal further struggles of once-hot digital media companies — BuzzFeed and Vice Media …

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

Paris-based ad and marketing group Publicis plans to invest €300M in AI, including €100M in 2024, to help improve media planning, buying, and optimization — Decision comes as advertising industry faces existential threats from generative artificial intelligence

Discussion: MediaPost, TechStartups, Bloomberg, Publicis Groupe, Reuters and Ad Age

Bloomberg:

Sources: Skydance CEO David Ellison has made a preliminary offer to buy Redstone family's National Amusements, as a way to take control of Paramount Global — - Both sides have advisers, are sharing financial information — Son of Oracle Corp. co-founder has met with Shari Redstone

Discussion: CNBC, The Streamable, New York Post, The Messenger, Reuters, @sherman4949, @lucas_shaw, The Desk, @sherman4949, @tvgrimreaper, Deadline, The Wrap, The Information, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn and Cord Cutters News

Luke Bouma / Cord Cutters News:

Fubo TV launches Instant Headlines Beta, which uses AI to generate headlines from live news programs on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and other networks — You may be familiar with AI-powered highlights of sporting events. Now, though, Fubo has announced for the first time you will be able to get instant headlines from live news programs.

more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

CUNY's Craig Newmark School of Journalism plans to cover tuition for 50% of students in 2025 and raise money to expand free tuition to all students by 2026 — The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY is going tuition-free, its namesake Craig Newmark and the school's dean, Graciela Mochkofsky, told Axios.

Discussion: @brizzyc, Dimas Sanfiorenzo on LinkedIn and Newmark J-School

Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:

A look at City Cast, which now has four-person teams producing local news newsletters and podcasts in 11 US cities, after a 2021 launch in Chicago and Denver — This month, City Cast published guest demographic data for podcasts in its 11 cities and analyzed how that data compared to each local community.

Discussion: City Cast

Aditya Kalra / Reuters:

Sources: Zee Entertainment tells Disney that the company does not plan to move forward with a deal to pay ~$1.4B for cricket TV rights, announced in August 2023 — India's Zee Entertainment (ZEE.NS) has told Walt Disney (DIS.N) it does not intend to move forward with a deal to pay around $1.4 billion …

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 11:55 AM ET, January 25, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Bureau Reporter - Vietnam, HCMC — Bloomberg

Curation Editor (Contract), NY — Apple News

Business Editor, CA — TheWrap

Executive Ed. - Tech & Electronics, AZ — AspenCore

Economy & Industry Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Political Enterprise Editor, DC — Guardian US

Housing & Real Estate Reporter, ME — BDN

Associate Reporter - Yahoo Finance — Yahoo

Senior Editor, Remote — Raw Story

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Yona Tr Golding / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with Ann Cooper, co-author of an upcoming book about the AP in Nazi Germany, on AP's choice to submit to censorship, the politics of war reporting, and more

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
How the rising prices of streaming services are driving users to pirate websites with a ~90% profit margin that bring in ~$2B per year in ads and subscriptions

more at Techmeme »

Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal:
Bob Iger's ex-colleagues and others say he is making the same mistakes as his predecessor Michael Eisner, when faced with investor attacks and other challenges

Discussion: Business Insider

New York Times:
How Sports Illustrated, whose cover was once the most coveted real estate in sports journalism, lost its power to set the agenda as its elite photographers left

Discussion: Barrett Media and Orlando Sentinel

Alison Frankel / Reuters:
A US judge denies Smartmatic's motion to dismiss Fox's counterclaim that argues Smartmatic's $2.7B damages claim is baseless and is an attempt to intimidate Fox

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, Courthouse News Service, Deadline, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Messenger and The Hill

Earlier Picks:

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Bloomberg names veteran technology journalist Brad Stone as the next editor of Bloomberg Businessweek, as the magazine shifts from weekly to monthly publication

Discussion: @ericnewcomer, @markgurman, @emilychangtv, @ashleevance, @joelwebershow, @bradstone, MediaPost and Talking Biz News

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Warner Bros. Discovery, which replaced its HBO Max name with Max in May 2023 in the US, plans to expand the change to Latin America on February 27

Discussion: @patrickdehahn, 9to5Mac and Rolling Stone

Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Twitch changes the Prime Gaming subscription payout model to a fixed rate, expands the Partner Plus Program, and removes the $100K cap for 70/30 revenue share

Discussion: @morgan_sung, @twitch, @greibach_vt, @shindags, @morgan_sung, Forbes, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch and Twitch, more at Techmeme »

David Folkenflik / NPR:
NPR names Web Summit CEO and former Wikimedia Foundation chief Katherine Maher as its 12th permanent CEO and president

From Techmeme:

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Nintendo shares Switch 2 details: a 7.9", 120fps, 1080p display, 4K at 60fps when docked, a custom Nvidia processor, 256GB of storage, and a new Pro Controller

New York Times:
Sources: Amazon has put in a bid to acquire all of TikTok, but various parties involved do not appear to be taking it seriously, ahead of the April 5 deadline

Rachael Bade / Politico:
Sources: President Trump told his inner circle, including Cabinet members, that Elon Musk will step back in the coming weeks; Trump remains pleased with DOGE

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page