Mediagazer: Filing: Disney agrees to pay $43.25M to settle a 2019 lawsuit over pay equity for up to 14,000 female Disney employees; the trial was set to begin in May 2025 (Dominic Patten/Deadline)

7:40 AM ET, November 26, 2024

Top News:

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 …

Discussion: The Independent, Associated Press, New York County Supreme Court, Variety, AV Club, Rolling Stone, The Wrap, @desusnice, @daviddennisjr.bsky.social, @phil_lewis_, New York Daily News, @mford.bsky.social, @mannyfidel, @annaknicolaou, @myfakeironlung.bsky.social, Sandra Rose, @annaknicolaou, @janecoaston, Bossip, Los Angeles Times, Stereogum, Entertainment Weekly, @casey_evans_, UPROXX, @kashana.bsky.social, @brianzisook, @_zeets, @joshgondelman, @dragonflyjonez, @hebennigatu, @fadamgotdajuice, @billdonahue.bsky.social, @darrylc.bsky.social, @theneedledrop, @wowthatshiphop, CBS News, @markroebuck.bsky.social, @mikemadden.bsky.social, @nhoodpublicist, @wowthatshiphop, @wickednfine, @skrappy83, Digital Music News, TMZ.com, @mrmedina, @dragonflyjonez, @big_business_, People, @arianfoster, theJasmineBRAND, @umg, @_zeets, @variety, @gothamhiphop, @phil_lewis_, @engineeringbae.bsky.social, @britticisms.bsky.social, Music Business Worldwide, The Verge, Forbes, Deadline, Consequence, Fox News, Just Jared and Oh No They Didn't!, more at Techmeme »

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

Dominic Patten / Deadline:

Filing: Disney agrees to pay $43.25M to settle a 2019 lawsuit over pay equity for up to 14,000 female Disney employees; the trial was set to begin in May 2025 — We now know how much Disney is writing a check for to end the pay equity class-action suit that has loomed over the company for the past five years.

Discussion: CNN, Wall Street Journal, @rwhelanwsj, Variety, @barkjack_, The Wrap and TVNewsCheck

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, Reuters, The Times, Deadline, City A.M., Advanced Television, Bloomberg and RTÉ

Carmen Reinicke / Bloomberg:

Conservative video streaming platform Rumble hires Guy Beahm, aka Dr Disrespect, to lead Rumble Gaming; RUM rises 13%+ to its highest level since May 2024 — - Amazon's Twitch platform banned Guy Beahm four years ago … Guy Beahm will stream both free and premium content on the platform …

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:

Italian private equity firm Bending Spoons plans to take cloud video management and monetization platform Brightcove private in a deal valued at $233M — Brightcove, a cloud platform that helps businesses manage and monetize video content, is being taken private by Italian technology company Bending Spoons …

Discussion: Brightcove Inc., Steven Vonder Haar on LinkedIn, The Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal, The Information, Bob Mason on LinkedIn, Daniel Triplow on LinkedIn and Reuters

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: Music Business Worldwide, Billboard, MediaPost, RedState 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, @jemimahsteinfeld.bsky.social, @brianone.bsky.social, Telegraph and The Times

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 …

Ben Smith / Semafor:

Public figures are asking their PR advisers to reach out to podcasters like Joe Rogan and other right-leaning platforms after Trump's success in the US election — The News — Corporate executives and other public figures emerged from this month's election with a new task for their handlers …

Discussion: @dannygroner.bsky.social, @cbalfe and Jaime Medovitch Smith on LinkedIn

Jason Zinoman / New York Times:

A look at Disney's plans to compete with Netflix in standup comedy through Hulu, emphasizing quality over quantity while largely avoiding controversy — Under the Hulu banner, the company says it will offer quality over quantity while largely avoiding controversy. Many comedians are ready to give it a shot.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Deadline and IndieWire

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

A UK House of Lords committee warns that UK news coverage is at risk of “fracturing irreparably” within 10 years as people rely on “dubious online sources” — Lords communications committee calls on government to take steps to avert ‘two-tier’ media environment

Discussion: Press Gazette, HoldtheFrontPage and UnHerd

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Marc Fisher / Nieman Reports:
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Anna Marie de la Fuente / Variety:
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Discussion: The Desk and TVNewsCheck

Brian Stelter / CNN:
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Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @elonmusk, The Wrap, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, PolitiFact, Cord Cutters News, @passantino@threads.net, Mediaite, HuffPost and New York Post

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
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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

Discussion: MediaPost

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

Discussion: Pivotal Economics, Virgo Sillamaa on LinkedIn, Benzinga, CMU, Will Page on LinkedIn, Music Ally and Billboard

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

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw

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Discussion: Associated Press, Voice of America and Kathleen Moore on LinkedIn

Max Tani / Semafor:
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Discussion: New York Post and TVNewsCheck

Reporters Without Borders:
Investigation: how hack-for-hire Appin tried silencing 15+ outlets since 2022 over articles, newsletters, and podcasts covering Appin's “ethical hacking”

Discussion: @rsf_inter and Reporters Without Borders on YouTube

Financial Times:
Similarweb: Bluesky's US and UK app usage grew ~300% to 3.5M DAUs after November 5; Threads has 1.5x Bluesky's DAUs in the US, down from 5x before November 5

Discussion: CNBC, PR Daily, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Washington Post, @digiphile@threads.net, Ian Betteridge, The Desk, The Colorado Sun, @jaypeters.11@threads.net, The Guardian, Twitchy, @metasynthesis.net and @carnage4life.bsky.social

From Techmeme:

Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
An undisclosed 2023 agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI defines achieving AGI as the point when OpenAI develops AI systems that generate $100B+ in profits

Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
How H-1B workers from India and other countries help the US remain dominant in tech, as some on the new “Tech Right” discover MAGA's racial-nationalist bigotry

Shubham Sharma / VentureBeat:
DeepSeek unveils DeepSeek-V3, a mixture-of-experts model of 685B total parameters, with 37B activated per token, claiming it outperforms top open-source models

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