Mediagazer: The EU raises concerns over the independence of Italy's public broadcaster Rai after budget cuts and alleged “intimidation” by Giorgia Meloni's government (Laura Dubois/Financial Times)

9:15 AM ET, July 24, 2024

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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

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The Information:

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Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal:

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Reuters:

A Moscow court finds Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar guilty in absentia of distributing false information about the Russian army and sentences him to 8.5 years — A court in Moscow said on Tuesday it had found Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar guilty in absentia of knowingly distributing false information …

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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”

Laura Dubois / Financial Times:

The EU raises concerns over the independence of Italy's public broadcaster Rai after budget cuts and alleged “intimidation” by Giorgia Meloni's government — European Commission raises alarm over independence of public broadcaster Rai after budget cuts and ‘intimidation’

Judd Legum / Popular Information:

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Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Twitch introduces new policy and moderation updates to curb sexual harassment, including making its policy “easier to understand” and adding moderation tools — Twitch has introduced new policy and moderation updates that aim to help curb sexual harassment.

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Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast reports Peacock Q2 revenue up 28% YoY to $1B, and a $348M loss, down from $651M in Q2 2023; paying subs were up 38% YoY to 33M but down from 33.5M in Q1 — Comcast and its entertainment unit NBCUniversal report second-quarter results, including the “best year-over-year improvement” …

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Comcast President Mike Cavanagh says NBCUniversal expects an 11-year rights deal with the NBA, starting with the 2025-26 season, will be announced “soon”

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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

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Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

BBC reports UK households paying the £169.50 licence fee fell by 500K to 23.9M in 2023/2024; 69% of Britons under 16 consume any BBC content in an average week — Corporation faces stark challenge as it struggles to reach younger audiences who are watching Netflix and YouTube

Discussion: The Sun and GB News

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Though the UK's ICO says it's “disappointed” with Google's not deprecating third-party cookies, the regulator has only weakly enforced data protection laws — In a material development that will likely have a big impact on online business models, Google is no longer proposing …

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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

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Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

A look at The Guardian's recipes app Feast, which costs £2.99/month and has reached 100K+ downloads since April 2024, and how its bundling differs from the NYT — The Guardian says its new recipes app Feast has achieved more than 100,000 downloads since it soft-launched in April.

Jess Jones / City A.M.:

LADbible owner LBG Media reports H1 2024 revenue up 55% YoY to £42.3M, adjusted earnings up 240% YoY to £10.2M, and a global audience of 493M; LBG jumps 11%+ — Shares in LBG Media soared 12 per cent after the company behind popular entertainment channel LAD Bible posted strong revenue …

Discussion: LBG Media

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.

Discussion: Deadline, Broadcast, BBC, WORLD SCREEN, Broadband TV News, The Hollywood Reporter and The Hollywood Reporter

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

Discussion: The Desk, London Evening Standard, Financial Times, The Independent, The Business Times, GB News, Variety, Press Gazette, The Hollywood Reporter, BBC and TVNewsCheck

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