Top News:
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:
The Onion, Washington Post, NPR, CNN, The Hill, The Guardian, Reuters, The Desk, Axios, The Wrap, Associated Press, Variety, CNBC, Status, Business Insider, @maxwelltani, @bencollins.bsky.social, Bloomberg, Mother Jones, Financial Times, Washington Examiner, RedState, USA Today, The Hollywood Reporter, @colbyhall, Rolling Stone, Alternet.org, 6abc, @jamesrbuk, @jamesrbuk, @sherman4949, ZeroHedge News, The Gateway Pundit, @laurenthomanwrites …, @zimbalist, @oneunderscore__, @brianstelter, @bencollins.bsky.social, The Bulwark, @claireatki, RTÉ, @brianstelter, @willguyatt, CBS News, @bencollins.bsky.social, @sherman4949, @pbump, @oneunderscore__, @theonion, @daithaigilbert, @semaforben, @bencollins.bsky.social, @pkafka, @oneunderscore__, @benmullin, @hadas_gold, Barrett Media, Deadline, The Verge, Not the Bee, New York Daily News, Forbes, Consequence, The National Pulse, NBC News, Crooks and Liars, Press Herald, AV Club, Inside Radio, Austin American-Statesman, WHEC.com, UnHerd, Houston Public Media and WFAA-TV
The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney expects to spend $24B on content in 2025, up from $23.4B in 2024, due to sports programming expenses rising after NFL rate increases and NBA contracts — Rate hikes at the NFL and NBA may mean that sports drive the slight spending increase, with the company reporting $23.4 billion for this past year.
Discussion:
@philthepill.bsky.social
RELATED:
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:
The Verge, Fast Company, Reuters, The Wrap, The Walt Disney Company, @pkafka, @jtoonkel, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Benzinga and @thetranscript_
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
Discussion:
IndieWire
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
Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Echoing TikTok's gifting, YouTube is rolling out “jewels” that users can buy to support creators during livestreams, for those in the YouTube Partner Program — YouTube is taking a page out of the TikTok playbook by adding “jewels” you buy to exchange for gifts for your favorite creators during livestreams.
Discussion:
The Verge
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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.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, PennLive, Forbes, Twitchy, Townhall, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, NBC Bay Area, The Independent, Barrett Media, The Daily Beast, The Root, One America News Network, TechCrunch, Sandra Rose, Page Six, CNN, Adweek, TMZ.com, New York Post, The Wrap, The Hill, Washington Examiner and Daily Kos
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
RELATED:
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:
The Wrap, IndieWire, Tubefilter and Cord Cutters News
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.
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:
ai fray, gema.de, Digital Music News, Jeff Rabhan on LinkedIn, The Decoder, CMU, @konkrit@mastodon.social, Billboard and Music Ally
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
Discussion:
TechCrunch, European Commission, Meta, The Mirror, Engadget, City A.M., New York Times, Times of India, RTÉ, Agence France-Presse, CNBC, The Independent, Irish Independent, Associated Press, Türkiye Today, Politico, Bloomberg, WinBuzzer, @metanewsemea, Business Insider, The Verge and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
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 »
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.
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, Cord Cutters News, @pierogie.bsky.social and HotAir
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