Top News:
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
BBC reports BBC Commercial revenue of £1.9B in 2023/24, down from £2.1B in 2022/23, and 3.8M BritBox International subscribers, with a 25% annual growth rate — BBC Commercial, the revenue-generating arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation, has revealed a dip in sales and earnings for the 2023/24 fiscal year.
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Broadcast, BBC, Broadband TV News, The Hollywood Reporter, Advanced Television and The Hollywood Reporter
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Huw Edwards tops the list of BBC's highest paid journalists for 2023/24 despite being off-air since July 2023; 46 BBC journalists earned above £178K — Forty-six BBC journalists earned above £178,000 last year from their work for the corporation, according to the BBC's annual report …
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The Independent, London Evening Standard, RTÉ, GB News and Deadline
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
BBC plans to lay off 500 more staff by March 2026 and reports a £263M operating deficit in 2023/24, up from £193M in 2022/23, projected to be £492M in 2024/25 — The BBC will lay off 500 more staff by March 2026 as its annual report paints a worrying financial picture including …
Discussion:
Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, TVNewsCheck and BBC
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Spotify reports Q2 revenue up 20% YoY to €3.8B, MAUs up 14% YoY to 626M, subscribers up 12% YoY to 246M, above est., and €266M operating income; SPOT jumps 14%+ — Spotify Technology SA, the Swedish audio-streaming giant, reported second-quarter subscriber growth …
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Fast Company, Billboard, Reuters, Spotify, Quartz, Music Ally, @sarafischer, Music Business Worldwide and @eldsjal, more at Techmeme »
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Comcast reports Peacock Q2 revenue up 28% YoY to $1B, a $348M loss, down from $651M in Q2 2023, and paying subscribers up 38% YoY to 33M — Comcast and its entertainment unit NBCUniversal report second-quarter results, including the “best year-over-year improvement” in quarterly streaming losses since launch in 2020.
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IndieWire, The Wrap, Variety, Deadline, Bloomberg, Barron's Online, CNBC, MarketWatch and Comcast Corporation
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Bloomberg:
A look at Comcast's bet on the Paris Olympics, which executives hope will greatly elevate Peacock against Netflix and Disney+; Peacock has exclusive US rights — - US viewers will be able to see every Olympic event on Peacock — Coverage of Games will promote Peacock original programming
Discussion:
Reuters, Slate, @lucas_shaw, E! Online, IndieWire, Rolling Stone and The Streamable
Digiday:
Google says it won't be “deprecating third-party cookies” in Chrome and will instead keep working on “privacy-preserving alternatives” via Privacy Sandbox APIs — After much back and forth, Google has decided to keep third-party cookies in its Chrome browser.
Discussion:
Privacy Sandbox, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, @cmagovuk, Press Gazette, @ryanbarwick, @torgo@mastodon.social, @vtoubiana, @jeffjarvis, @keithepetri, @lukolejnik, @lukolejnik, @glenngabe, @michaelmiraflor, @murakamiwood, @alextcone, @pedrodias, @paperghost, @ngriffin_uk, @simoahava, @levie, @chronotope, @jdaykin, @dalmaer, @edzitron, Information Commissioner's …, @sarafischer, @robinberjon, @ariellesgarcia, @aripap, @simonw, @samueljscott, @thezedwards, @aripap, @kendraebarnett, @mattlanza, @rowan_m, @incloud, @wolfiechristl, MediaPost, Silicon Republic, Mark McEachran on LinkedIn, The Register, The Information, Financial Times, GOV.UK, Search Engine Land, Mumbrella, Fast Company, James Rosewell on LinkedIn, Marc Majewski on LinkedIn, Mahesh Narayanan on LinkedIn, Reuters, The Verge, @mysk@mastodon.social, Inside Radio, Simo Ahava on LinkedIn, @wchr@mastodon.social, Axios, W Media Research, The Drum, The Media Leader, Angelina Eng on LinkedIn, Adweek, Matthias Cada on LinkedIn, Engadget, Oliver Klander on LinkedIn, Rio Longacre on LinkedIn, @lauren@mastodon …, 9to5Google, @jaffathecake@mastodon.social, Paul Bannister on LinkedIn, Alex Cone on LinkedIn, The Drum, AdExchanger, Ad Age, @LukaszOlejnik@mastodon.social and CBS News, more at Techmeme »
Reuters:
The US calls on Russia to free Russian-American RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was jailed last week in what RFE/RL said was “a mockery of justice” — The U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Tuesday called on Russia to free Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist …
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Semafor, Reporters Without Borders and European Federation …
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Dylan Donnelly / Sky News:
A Russian court sentences Russian-American RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six and a half years in prison for spreading “false info” about the Russian army
A Russian court sentences Russian-American RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six and a half years in prison for spreading “false info” about the Russian army
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Associated Press, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, TVNewsCheck, @freedomofpress, @samberkhead, @bentavener, @reidstan, @rebecca_vincent, @janlipavsky, @samagreene, @pressgazette, CNN, @bbcstever, @hadas_gold, New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, Voice of America, Reuters, Committee to Protect …, CNN, CBS News and USAGM
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
TelevisaUnivision reports Q2 revenue up 3% YoY to $1.3B, ad revenue up 6% YoY to $785M, and operating expenses up 6% YoY to $896M — The Spanish-language media giant, led by CEO Wade Davis, reports its second-quarter financials. … The company also reemphasized that its streaming business …
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Variety, Next TV, TelevisaUnivision and TVNewsCheck
Mike Scarcella / Reuters:
A US judge rules that Nina Jankowicz, a former Biden anti-disinformation official, could not back up her defamation claims against Fox News and parent Fox Corp — Fox News Media and its parent Fox Corp (FOXA.O) won a ruling on Monday dismissing a lawsuit by a former Biden administration official …
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The Hill, Mediaite, NPR and Los Angeles Times
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD says it intends to match one of the offers for NBA rights; a source says it is targeting the package from Amazon, which is for about $1.8B per year — TNT has held NBA rights for 35 years. What happens next will determine if the network keeps them.
Discussion:
@tntsportsus, Deadline, Variety, New York Times, CNBC, @mattbelloni, @benjstrauss, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, @mgsiegler, @alexweprin, Front Office Sports, @ourand_puck, Sports Media Watch, MediaPost, Adweek, Awful Announcing, USA Today, Cord Cutters News, Sportico, The Information, The Streamable, Media Play News, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, CNN, The Wrap, Next TV and Sports Business Journal
Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Vivendi plans to list its French TV business Canal+ in London and advertising company Havas in Amsterdam, as part of a drive to break up the media conglomerate — Media group controlled by Vincent Bolloré to break up, with advertising company Havas to list in Amsterdam
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Reuters, Financial Times, The Media Leader, Broadband TV News, Advanced Television and Bloomberg