Mediagazer: GB News says it now has 10,000 paying members, after soft launching its membership scheme with £5, £10, or £20 per month tiers in November 2023 (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Disney reports Q3 revenue up 4% YoY to $23.2B, operating income up 19% YoY to $4.2B, DTC revenue up 15% YoY to $6.4B, and a $47M DTC profit as Disney+ grows — Company warns weak theme park demand could extend into the ‘next few quarters’ … That said, there were some mixed emotions …

Discussion: Reuters, Business Wire, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times and Deadline, more at Techmeme »

Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:

Disney reports Disney+ Core subscribers up 1% YoY to 118.3M and its combined streaming business turned a profit, a first, but without ESPN+ reported a $19M loss — WATCH NOW — Disney reported its fiscal third-quarter earnings Wednesday, topping analyst estimates as its combined streaming …

Discussion: IndieWire, The Wrap, The Verge and Bloomberg

Justine Fisher / CNBC:
Starting October 17, Disney will raise the cost of most plans for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ by $1 to $2 more per month, as it pushes customers to bundles

Discussion: The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, PhoneArena, Axios, TechRadar, Kotaku, Decider, The Hill, Deadline, Cord Cutters News, New York Post, Ars Technica, Engadget, New York Daily News, IndieWire, Quartz, CNN, 9to5Mac, Digital Trends, The Desk, BGR, TVLine, @2xaught7.bsky.social, Variety, Bloomberg and Consequence

The New York Times Company:

The NYT reports Q2 revenue up 5.8% YoY to $625.1M, subscription revenue up 7.3% YoY to $439.3M, and operating profit up 13.6% YoY to $104.7M — NEW YORK, August 7, 2024 - The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) announced today second- quarter 2024 results. Key Highlights

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

The NYT reports adding 300K digital subscribers in Q2, for 10.8M in total, and digital ad revenue up 7.8% YoY to $79.6M; The Athletic losses fell to $2.4M — The publisher added about 300,000 digital subscribers in the latest quarter, and now has more than 10.8 million subscribers.

Discussion: The Wrap, Bloomberg, @pkafka, @nkulw and @katie_robertson

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:

Reddit says it plans to test AI-powered search result pages later in 2024, using a combination of first-party and third-party tech to power the feature — Reddit users will soon see AI-generated summaries at the top of search results. — Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told investors during …

Discussion: PhoneArena, @karissabe@threads.net and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:

Reddit reports Q2 revenue up 54% YoY to $281.2M, vs. $254M est., Daily Active Uniques up 51% YoY to 91.2M, and net loss down from $41.1M in Q2 2023 to $10.1M — Reddit reported second-quarter results on Tuesday that topped analysts' estimates. — Here are the key numbers:

Discussion: AdExchanger, Reddit Upvoted, @jonathan_vanian_1@threads.net, Gordy H. on LinkedIn, The Information, Reuters and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: the NBA's deal with Amazon has several provisions that WBD can't match, including promotion of the NBA during Amazon's NFL streaming telecasts — League's media deal with tech giant included provisions Warner couldn't match, setting stage for legal fight

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Sports Media Watch and USA Today

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Charles Barkley, a mainstay of TNT's Inside the NBA, reverses plans to retire and says he will keep working with WBD, which is fighting to keep NBA media rights

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Disney says the “outcome of the Hulu deal arbitration is uncertain” and it might have to pay up to $5B more to complete the buyout of NBCUniversal's 33% stake — Dispute over fair value of Hulu entered arbitration in May 2024, according to Disney

Juby Babu / Reuters:

IAC reports Q2 revenue down 15% YoY to $949.5M and profit up 24% YoY to $87.3M; Dotdash Meredith reports revenue up 3% YoY to $425.2M and ad revenue up 16% YoY — IAC (IAC.O) posted a 24% rise in its core profit in the second quarter, banking on advertising and licensing revenues of Dotdash Meredith, its biggest business.

Discussion: IAC and MediaPost

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

GB News says it now has 10,000 paying members, after soft launching its membership scheme with £5, £10, or £20 per month tiers in November 2023 — Broadcaster also says it has passed the 100 million monthly page views mark based on internal figures.

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:

Sony Pictures reports Q1 revenue down 7% YoY to $2.2B and operating income down 36% YoY to $73M, despite strong movie debuts and streaming subscriber growth — Sony Pictures Entertainment posted first quarter operating income of $73M, down over 36% year-on-year on a U.S. dollar basis.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Catherine Perloff / Adweek:

Some ad buyers say Netflix is now charging CPMs between $20 and $30, after originally seeking $65 in 2022 and a reported $39 to $45 in 2023 — The streaming platform initially came to the market with $65 CPMs in 2022 — Netflix is further lowering the prices of its ads …

Discussion: Advanced Television, @catherineperlo1, AdExchanger, Gabriela Domanico on LinkedIn, Catherine Perloff on LinkedIn, TVNewsCheck, The Sun and Digiday

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:

Division in Hollywood's approach to AI is growing, as some studios want to use AI tools more often in production, while unions aim to establish guardrails — While unions aim to establish guardrails and artists are going to court, studios are looking to use AI tools more often in production.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck