Mediagazer: Drake launches legal action against UMG and Spotify for allegedly using bots, payola, and more to inflate Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us, a track attacking Drake (Bill Donahue/Billboard)

Bill Donahue / Billboard:

Drake launches legal action against UMG and Spotify for allegedly using bots, payola, and more to inflate Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us, a track attacking Drake — Drake has initiated legal action against Universal Music Group (UMG) and Spotify over allegations that the two companies conspired …

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

Sources: CVC Capital Partners and a major European broadcaster, thought to be France's Groupe TF1, are among those considering a takeover of the UK's ITV — The commercial broadcaster is back on alert for takeover approaches as financial and industry players evaluate offers which could lead …

Discussion: The Guardian, The Times, Deadline, City A.M., Bloomberg, Advanced Television and RTÉ

Brian Stelter / CNN:

As Elon Musk posts memes about buying MSNBC, sources say one liberal billionaire expressed interest in buying the channel; Comcast is not looking to sell MSNBC — Elon Musk has called MSNBC “the utter scum of the Earth.” He has said the channel “peddles puerile propaganda.”

Discussion: The Wrap, The Independent, PolitiFact, HuffPost, TVNewsCheck, @brianstelter, @elonmusk, Raw Story, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @passantino@threads.net, @brianstelter, Cord Cutters News, Mediaite, New York Post and The Gateway Pundit

David Gilmour / Mediaite:

Elon Musk appears to confirm that posts containing links in their main text are deprioritized on X, saying it is to stop “lazy linking” — Elon Musk confirmed that posts containing links in their main text are deprioritized on X in a revelation that renews criticism that the platform …

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

Trade body data: copyrighted music revenue was $45.5B in 2023, above cinema box office spending of $33.2B in 2023 and $41.9B in 2019; record labels made $28.5B — Annual revenues from copyrighted music hit almost $46bn last year, against $33.2bn for cinema

Discussion: Pivotal Economics, Benzinga, Music Ally, Billboard, CMU, Will Page on LinkedIn and Music Business Worldwide

Geneva Abdul / The Guardian:

Internal email: the UK's Reach plans to merge staff at The Daily Mirror and celebrity magazine OK! to cut costs, but the move won't result in cutting of roles — Merging of daily newspaper and celebrity magazine employees is latest move by owner, Reach, to cut costs

Discussion: MediaPost and Telegraph

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

The music industry is entering a cycle of consolidation, driven by a slowdown at the major labels, the growing market for independents, and the rapacity of PE — The music industry is entering new era, one driven by a slowdown at the major labels, the growing market for independents and the rapacity of private equity.

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw

Max Tani / Semafor:

Sources: CNN is considering making network anchor Kaitlan Collins its chief White House correspondent and relocating her show from New York to DC — The Scoop — CNN's leadership says it doesn't want to go back to its wall-to-wall 24-hour coverage of Donald Trump when he returns to the White House in January.

Discussion: New York Post and TVNewsCheck

Anna Marie de la Fuente / Variety:

NBC News launches its 24/7 streaming service NBC News Now in Latin America in two of its biggest markets, Mexico and Brazil — NBC News' 24/7 streaming platform, NBC News Now, is launching in Mexico and Brazil, Latin America's biggest markets, as it continues to expand across the world.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck and The Desk

Washington Post:

The US DOJ and Google made their closing arguments in the ad-market antitrust case before Judge Leonie Brinkema, who expressed some skepticism toward both sides — Federal prosecutors say Google's dominance of online advertising illegally hurts consumers and small businesses, while the company says it earned its place by being better.

Discussion: Adweek, The Information, The Hill, The Verge, Ars Technica, Bloomberg, New York Times, Reuters, Associated Press, Digiday and Benzinga, more at Techmeme »

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:

SCOTUS seeks the US government's views in the $1B copyright fight between Cox Communications and Sony, Warner Music, Universal Music, and other music companies — - Sony among companies suing Cox over customer song downloads — Appeals court tossed out big 2019 jury award against Cox

Discussion: Billboard, MediaPost, Ars Technica and Reuters

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Press freedom groups send six questions to the Scott Trust over The Observer sale, including why there is only one bidder and why staff can't speak out freely — The chair of the Scott Trust has offered to meet a consortium of press freedom groups which has raised concerns over the sale of The Observer.

Discussion: UnHerd, @brianone.bsky.social, Telegraph, The Times and Financial Times

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: NBC's new deal with Macy's to keep the Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC and Peacock has an average annual fee of $60M+, up from ~$20M in the current deal — Macy's and NBC near pact that would raise the spectacle's annual average price to $60 million.

Discussion: Benzinga, TVNewsCheck, New York Post, @wsj.com, @bsdtectr.bsky.social and Just Jared

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

PlayAI, which uses AI to clone voices for $49 or $99 per month and recently rolled out AI agents, raised a $20M seed co-led by 500 Startups and Kindred Ventures — Back in 2016, Hammad Syed and Mahmoud Felfel, an ex-WhatsApp engineer, thought it'd be neat to build a text-to-speech Chrome extension for Medium articles.

Discussion: PlayAI Blog, more at Techmeme »

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:

IMAX partners with Dubai-based startup Camb.ai to use its AI speech models to translate original content, including documentaries — With global content consumption rising and demand for non-English content surpassing that for English movies and shows, IMAX is leveraging AI to scale localization on its original content.