Top News:
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Disney says it plans to launch ESPN's D2C service in August or the fall of 2025, and include integration with ESPN's fantasy platforms and ESPN Bet — - ESPN will launch its flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service in the fall of 2025, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday.
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Awful Announcing, Sportico, Variety, The Wrap, NBC 7 San Diego, Sports Media Watch, Front Office Sports, AllEars.Net, Engadget, Media Play News, @maccable, @richlightshed, @jtoonkel, @bristei, Cord Cutters News, @bristei, @thebauminator, New York Daily News, @bristei, Hollywood Reporter, @bristei, Gizmodo, @alex_kirshner, @sherman4949, KEYT-TV, Barrett Media and UPROXX
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Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney Q4: 111.3M Disney+ subscribers, down from 112.6M in Q3, Disney+ Hotstar adds 700K subscribers to 38.3M, and expects streaming profitability by Q4 2024 — In its financials, which cover the Mouse House's first quarter for its fiscal year 2024, Disney projects adding between 5.5 million …
Discussion:
IndieWire, The Streamable, AllEars.Net, @bristei, ComingSoon.net, @bristei, Media Play News, @bristei and @bristei
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Disney plans to invest $1.5B for a stake in Epic Games and collaborate on a new “universe” connected to Fortnite with content from Disney, Pixar, and more — - Disney is investing $1.5 billion for an equity stake in Epic Games in its biggest jump yet into the gaming world.
Discussion:
Fast Company, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Bloomberg, Neowin, Variety, Business Insider, @disney, @fortnitegame, @genepark, Ars Technica, @mgsiegler@threads.net, Yonatan Raz-Fridman on LinkedIn, The Information, Neil Duffy on LinkedIn, Polygon, The Verge, Bill Young on LinkedIn, @loudmouthjulia, The Walt Disney Company, @great_katzby, @bristei, @loudmouthjulia, @tomwarren, WORLD SCREEN, Engadget, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
A sports streaming platform jointly owned by Disney, WBD, and Fox could reshape the TV industry but could also anger pay TV distributors and sports leagues — - A new sports-focused streaming platform could anger pay TV distributors and sports leagues. — Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery …
Discussion:
CNBC, CNBC, The Wrap, @sherman4949, @pkafka, @pkafka, Poynter, USA Today and Wall Street Journal
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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: NFL, NBA, and other sports leagues were kept in the dark about the sports streaming platform being launched by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox — NFL, NBA digest details of new platform looming over their businesses — Sports leagues including the National Football League …
Discussion:
The Atlantic, @nikosray.bsky.social, Financial Times, Ars Technica, AllEars.Net, Business Insider, USA Today, Axios, Associated Press, Deadline, Engadget, The Hill, New York Times and Reuters
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Fubo says it is concerned about the “impact on fair market competition” after Disney, Fox, and WBD announced a sports streaming platform; FUBO closed down 20%+ — Streaming pay-TV operator Fubo, after its stock plunged 23%, issued a statement blasting the new sports streaming …
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Claudia Chiappa / Politico:
Tucker Carlson faces backlash from American and Russian journalists after claiming that Western media is not making an effort to hear Putin's side of the story — The controversial pundit is interviewing the Russian leader. Now other journalists are raging at “this SoB.”
Discussion:
@amanpour, The Wrap, National Review, @albats, @bbcstever, @yarotrof, Mediaite, @sarahrainsford, @anneapplebaum, The Hill, Newsweek, Washington Post, Mediaite, @walshfreedom, @radiofreetom, @repdonbeyer, @jaketapper, @ianbremmer, The Hollywood Reporter, THE DC PATRIOT, @anthony, @adamscochran, @dszeligowski, @decodingfoxnews, @edwardgluce, @abbydphillip, @ggreenwald, El País, @shayan86, @kasparov63, @billbrowder, The Daily Caller, @jakluge, @shteyngart, @darthputinkgb, @iaponomarenko, @phillipspobrien, @fermerzpolissia, @john_mcguirk, @anders_aslund, @2russophobic4u, @elonmusk, @p_kallioniemi, Newser, @oalexanderdk, @saintjavelin, @maxseddon, @dkaleniuk, @jimmysecuk, @florida_sophia, @eliothiggins, @gretagrace20, @growing_daniel, @maxseddon, @ianbremmer, inews.co.uk, New York Post, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg and Reuters
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Meduza.io:
Russia says Tucker Carlson is “not correct” to say no Western reporter tried to interview Putin, and Carlson is different from “traditional Anglo-Saxon media”
Discussion:
Voice of America, Mediaite, Telegraph, The Hill, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Associated Press, Reuters, @michaeldweiss, @apocalypticanow.bsky.social, Barrett News Media, Rolling Stone, @meduza_en, The Daily Caller, @maxseddon, @ronfilipkowski, TechCrunch, @dylanburns1776, VICE, Poynter, Reason, The Daily Beast, CNN, CNBC, New Republic, Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, Media Matters for America, The Guardian, Variety and CBS News
Dave Lawler / Axios:
Former Fox host Tucker Carlson says he has traveled to Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin and will air the interview “unedited” on his website and on X
Discussion:
@tuckercarlson, Mediaite, New York Times, Forbes, BBC, Reuters, @ozkaterji, @maxseddon, THE DC PATRIOT, The Guardian, @ianbremmer, @rferl, Barrett News Media, @jason, @jonathanlanday, @justinbaragona, Politico, BBC, The Wrap, @maxseddon, @karaswisher@threads.net, @karaswisher@threads.net, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, @mediaite@threads.net, The Daily Beast, Deadline, @warrenterra.bsky.social, @everythingism.bsky.social, New York Times, The Kyiv Independent, The Kyiv Independent, The Hill, The Daily Caller, @kevinrothrock@infosec …, The Hollywood Reporter, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos and Columbia Journalism Review
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Memo: Warner Music plans to lay off 10% of its staff, or 600 people, wind down its podcast network Interval Presents, and sell the websites Uproxx and HipHopDX — The tough news continues for the music industry as Warner Music announced that it will lay off 10% of its staff, or 600 people, in the coming weeks.
The New York Times Company:
The NYT reports Q4 revenue up 1.3% YoY to $676M, subscription revenue up 3.3% YoY to $404M, and a $129M operating profit; Athletic revenue grew 31.3% to $38.5M — NEW YORK, February 7, 2024 - The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) announced today fourth- quarter and full-year 2023 results.
Discussion:
@jaguaranalytics, @nataliekorach, @pressgazette and The Wrap
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Katie Robertson / New York Times:
The NYT finished 2023 with 10.36M subscribers, 9.7M of them digital-only, helping push annual revenue for digital subscriptions above $1B for the first time
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @katie_robertson, @palewire, @benjstrauss, @thestalwart, @thestalwart and The Information
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
An interview with Nebojša Vujinović Vujo, who runs 2,000+ AI-generated news sites, often hosted on once-popular domains, and claims to have ~12 human editors — Serbian DJ turned internet entrepreneur Nebojša Vujinović Vujo floods abandoned news sites with AI-generated articles.
Alberto Fittarelli / The Citizen Lab:
How a network of 123+ China-based websites posing as local news outlets in 30 countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America spreads pro-Beijing disinformation — Key Findings — A network of at least 123 websites operated from within the People's Republic of China while posing …
Discussion:
Reuters, @jsrailton, @paper_trail_m, @jsrailton, @citizenlab, @jsrailton and @jsrailton
Kara Swisher / New York Magazine:
An excerpt from Kara Swisher's upcoming book, Burn Book: covering digital media in the '90s, Facebook and Google becoming information gatekeepers, and more — My front-row seat to a slow-moving catastrophe. — In the early 1990s, I was a reporter at the Washington Post.
Ted Lipien / The Hill:
Current and ex-VOA journalists criticize the US agency for uploading propaganda messages from Putin and Alexander Lukashenko on its YouTube without any context — Voice of America (VOA), the U.S. government-funded media agency, created and uploaded to its YouTube channel a video …
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