Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Sources: the expectation at Paramount Global is that neither of the two offers in play, Skydance-RedBird and Sony Pictures-Apollo, will come to fruition — After months of M&A talks, Paramount Global and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone might be going it alone after all.
Discussion:
@willsun_1, Rich Greenfield on LinkedIn, Variety, Reuters, CNBC, Quartz and The Wrap
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New York Times:
Sources: Sony Pictures and Apollo Global formally express interest in acquiring Paramount for ~$26B; Paramount's negotiating period with Skydance ends May 3 — Paramount has been exploring a potential deal for months, talking to suitors including Skydance, producer of “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Wrap, CNBC, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Quartz, Los Angeles Times, Advanced Television, @sherman4949, The Guardian, LightShed Partners, Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, Liz Spaulding on LinkedIn, Inside Radio, ComingSoon.net, The Information, Media Play News, Financial Times, The Streamable, The Desk, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Radio & Television …, Variety, Next TV and Cord Cutters News
Tom McArthur / BBC:
RSF publishes its World Press Freedom Index and places Norway, Denmark, and Sweden in the top three, the US down 10 spots at 55, and Eritrea in last place — Gaza is one of the deadliest places in the world to be a journalist, according to Reporters Without Borders
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Elon Musk says he wants Grok to create news summaries by relying solely on X posts, without looking at article text, and improved story citations are coming — Musk emails with details on AI-powered news inside X. An AI bot will summarize news and commentary, sometimes looking through tens of thousands of posts per story.
Financial Times:
An interview with UK culture secretary Lucy Frazer on blocking RedBird IMI's Telegraph takeover bid, plans to cap foreign state ownership at 5%, and more — Culture secretary says UK ‘not stopping’ foreign investment as she defends blocking sale to Abu Dhabi-backed company
Discussion:
City A.M.
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
The Guardian outlines plans for a “small number of voluntary redundancies”, says it is 60% funded by readers, and had a £39m loss in the year to March 2024 — Editor Katharine Viner said the business foresees revenue pressures continuing into the next year at least.
Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
Sources: MLB is in advanced talks to make Roku the new home for Sunday morning baseball this season, in what would be Roku's first major live rights deal — Major League Baseball and Roku are in advanced talks to make the service the new home for Sunday morning baseball this season …
Discussion:
The Streamable, Awful Announcing, @andrewmarchand, @keshavbhat, @svg_brandon, @tvmojoe, The Desk, Bleacher Report, Barrett Media and Sports Media Watch
Steven Levy / Wired:
Jeff Lawson's Global Tetrahedron plans membership tiers for the Onion and doesn't plan to put up a hard paywall as it moves away from G/O's ad-focused approach — Entrepreneur Jeff Lawson's plan to revive venerable satirical outlet The Onion involves borrowing from the playbook of the founders of WhatsApp.
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Fubo reports 1.51M FuboTV subscribers at the end of Q1, down from 1.61M in Q4, revenue up 24% YoY to $394M, and a $56.1M loss, down from $83.6M a year ago — The streaming platform shrunk its losses on higher subscription and advertising revenue. — Sports streaming platform FuboTV …
Discussion:
StreamTV Insider, MediaPost, Next TV and The Streamable
Clare Malone / New Yorker:
A look at Hunterbrook, whose hedge fund makes trades based on investigations by its newsroom, and well-connected founders Sam Koppelman and Nathaniel Horwitz — The hybrid media-finance company wants to monetize investigative journalism in the public interest. Is it a visionary game changer or a cynical ploy?
Discussion:
@sammykoppelman, @pkafka, @pkafka, @bgrueskin, @claremalone, Business Insider and Talking Biz News
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: the NBA is close to signing deals that would pay the league ~$76B over 11 years, including $2.6B and $1.8B a year from Disney and Amazon, respectively — The National Basketball Association is close to signing new long-term broadcasting agreements that would pay the league …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Sports Media Watch, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @dylanbyers
Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:
For weeks, grad students at The Columbia Journalism School have chronicled protests, and professors worked to ensure access and safety as the campus locked down — They've gotten a crash course in breaking news, capturing the Hamilton Hall occupation and the NYPD's crackdown, while surviving on pizza and operating on little sleep.
Discussion:
NBC News, @azmatzahra, @charlottetklein, @jordangreennc, Free Press, @misstessowen, @mathewi, The Intercept, Slate, Poynter, Washington Post, New Yorker, The Hill, Media Nation, Associated Press and Rolling Stone
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