Mediagazer: 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 (Alex Sherman/CNBC)

Top News:

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 — NBCU already claimed the Jan. 13 playoff game was the biggest live-streamed event in U.S. history — delivering an average audience of 23 million viewers.

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

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

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: 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: Reuters and Bloomberg

David Folkenflik / NPR:

NPR names Web Summit CEO and former Wikimedia Foundation chief Katherine Maher as its 12th permanent CEO and president — NPR has selected former Wikimedia Foundation chief Katherine Maher to lead the network through an era of declining broadcast listenership, financial uncertainty and technological turbulence.

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: The Desk, CNBC, Reuters, @sherman4949, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, @lucas_shaw, The Information, Deadline, @sherman4949, The Wrap, @tvgrimreaper and Cord Cutters News

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 …

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

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

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 — In 2016, seventy-one years after the end of World War II, Harriet Scharnberg, a German historian, published a report alleging …

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:

How the rising prices of streaming services are driving a new era of US pirate sites, bringing ~$2B per year in ads and subscriptions with a 90% profit margin — Illegal subscription services that steal films or TV shows bring in $2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees.

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 — Two decades after replacing Eisner, CEO faces many of the same challenges — Disney's embattled CEO was under fire from activist investors.

Discussion: Business Insider

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 — Mr. Stone will take the helm as the 94-year-old magazine shifts from weekly to monthly publication.

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