Top News:
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
In Q4, Disney added 4.4M Disney+ Core paid subscribers, reaching 120M in total, Disney+ Hotstar subscribers rose 1% YoY to 35.9M, and Hulu subscribers hit 52M — Disney ended its 2024 fiscal year with 122.7 million Disney+ Core paid subscribers, an increase of 4.4 million subs …
Discussion:
IndieWire
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Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Reliance and Disney complete their $8.5B Indian media merger, creating India's largest media group with $3.1B in annual revenue and 50M+ streaming subscribers
Discussion:
The Wrap, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and YourStory.com
Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal:
Disney reports Q4 revenue up 6% YoY to $22.6B, TV network revenue down 6% YoY to $2.5B, and a $321M DTC streaming profit, up from a $387M loss in Q4 2023
Discussion:
Fast Company, Reuters, The Wrap, Forbes, The Walt Disney Company, @pkafka, @jtoonkel, Benzinga, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times and @thetranscript_
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
The Onion, backed by some Sandy Hook families and Everytown for Gun Safety, buys Infowars in a bankruptcy auction, and plans a January 2025 relaunch as a parody — The satirical news site planned to turn Infowars into a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” who peddle conspiracy theories and health supplements.
Discussion:
Status, Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Reuters, The Desk, Axios, The Wrap, Associated Press, CNN, Variety, The Onion, @maxwelltani, The Hollywood Reporter, NBC News, Rolling Stone, Alternet.org, ABC7, @jamesrbuk, @jamesrbuk, @sherman4949, ZeroHedge News, @laurenthomanwrites …, @zimbalist, @oneunderscore__, @bencollins.bsky.social, @brianstelter, @bencollins.bsky.social, The Bulwark, @claireatki, @brianstelter, @willguyatt, CBS News, @bencollins.bsky.social, @sherman4949, @pbump, @oneunderscore__, @theonion, @daithaigilbert, @semaforben, @bencollins.bsky.social, @pkafka, @oneunderscore__, @benmullin, @hadas_gold, Barrett Media, Deadline, Forbes, Consequence, Press Herald, AV Club, Inside Radio, Austin American-Statesman, Mother Jones, WHEC.com, UnHerd, New York Daily News, Houston Public Media and WFAA-TV
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
CEOs at Nexstar, Sinclair, and Tegna, plus some analysts, say they expect deregulation and consolidation in the broadcast TV industry under Trump's FCC — Flush with political ad dollars and anticipating a deal-friendly environment, moguls are eyeing big moves to roll up lucrative local broadcasters.
Discussion:
@mediaevan and @WarnerCrocker@mastodon.social
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Don Lemon, who sued Elon Musk and X after a deal fell apart, says he's leaving X on November 15, citing X's new ToS that moves legal disputes to Texas courts — Don Lemon, a one-time business partner of Elon Musk who's now suing the tech mogul, is done with X.
Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify plans to pay incentives to video creators who hit certain viewing thresholds and, in January 2025, to let Premium users view podcast videos without ads — Audio-streaming giant plans to pay hosts to make podcast videos and allow premium subscribers to watch them without ads
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Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
German royalty licensing group GEMA sues OpenAI and subsidiary OpenAI Ireland in Munich Regional Court, claiming ChatGPT violates copyrights of lyrics — OpenAI, the $157 billion-valued US-based AI giant behind ChatGPT, has been sued by German collection society and licensing body GEMA.
Discussion:
gema.de, ai fray, Digital Music News, Jeff Rabhan on LinkedIn, The Decoder, CMU, @konkrit@mastodon.social, Billboard and Music Ally
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney investor call: Bob Iger says 60% of all new Disney+ subscribers are for the ad tier, and in a hot-mic moment wonders if he should have said the detail — Disney CEO Bob Iger had a “hot mic” moment on the company's fiscal fourth quarter earnings call Thursday morning …
Discussion:
IndieWire, Tubefilter and Cord Cutters News
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
The EU fines Meta €797.72M for tying Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and “imposing unfair trading conditions” on rival websites, the first such fine for Meta — Facebook is undermining rivals by ‘tying’ its free Marketplace services with the social network, Brussels says
Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:
CNN promotes David Chalian, who joined the network in 2013 from Politico, to SVP and Washington, DC bureau chief — The network's political director takes over a role previously held by Sam Feist, who departed earlier this year to take a job at C-SPAN.
Wall Street Journal:
X names former Tubi CFO Mahmoud Reza Banki as its CFO; Trump pardoned Banki in January 2021 for making false statements; a source says he joined X in November — Mahmoud Reza Banki, former Tubi finance chief, joins platform amid financial challenges — Elon Musk's X Corp. named Mahmoud …
Discussion:
Fortune, Business Insider, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
John Koblin / New York Times:
Nielsen: since Trump won, MSNBC has averaged 550K viewers, down 39% on October, and its prime time audience is down 53%; Fox's prime time audience is up 21% — Prime-time viewership at MSNBC has fallen 53 percent from October, and jumped 21 percent on Fox News.
Discussion:
RedState, @pierogie.bsky.social and HotAir
New York Times:
A look at “blind box livestreaming”, an e-commerce trend in China that has become an entertaining and, some users and experts said, addictive pastime — How many plastic trinkets would you end up with? The game keeps many addicted, buyers and spectators alike.
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