Top News:
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
DirecTV and EchoStar's Dish ask a district court judge to reconsider dismissing Fubo's claims against Venu Sports, following Fubo's merger with Hulu + Live TV — The pay TV distributors raised a red flag to a U.S. district judge over a bid to dismiss an earlier injunction against the sports streamer …
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Sources: Amazon is exploring news show concepts, probably tied to events, such as Brian Williams' election special on Prime Video that drew ~4M viewers — As the results of Election Night 2024 became known, Brian Williams looked to the future. “Our country is about to change again,” …
Discussion:
@bristei
Ben Strauss / @benjstrauss:
The NYT declines to recognize Athletic staff as part of the Times Guild but says it would recognize a separate bargaining unit; staff seeks an NLRB hearing — NEW: The New York Times has declined to voluntarily recognize the Athletic as part of the Times Guild. In letter to staffers, Times says it would recognize a separate Athletic bargaining unit, a la Wire Cutter. Staffers have petitioned the NLRB for a hearing.
Discussion:
@nytimesguild, @nytimesguild and @nyguild
Max Tani / Semafor:
Memo: the deputy editor of The Root pressed writers to increase the number of stories they publish a day in part to “offset” a colleague's recent death — The Scoop — The staff of The Root spent the beginning of 2025 mourning the death of a colleague, Stephanie Holland …
Lucia Moses / Business Insider:
Vox.com announces layoffs, WGA East says affecting 12 members; memo: Vox Media names Pam Wasserstein and Ryan Pauley as co-presidents, Wasserstein as vice chair — Vox Media laid off staff on Thursday for the second time in just over a month, this time at its general news site Vox.com.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, @landmanspeaking, @maxwelltani and r/Journalism
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Disney says it has an estimated 157M global MAUs watching ad-supported content across its streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, including 112M US users — Disney said Wednesday it has an estimated 157 million global monthly active users watching ad-supported content across its streaming platforms — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon launches Amazon Retail Ad Service to let companies show ads in search results, product pages, and other areas of their site, initially in the US — Amazon has turned into an online ad juggernaut in recent years, with brands paying big bucks for premium placement on the retailer's websites.
Discussion:
MediaPost, MarTech, Search Engine Land, The Information, Adweek, Justin M. Swagler on LinkedIn, Retail Brew, Ad Age and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix says WWE's Monday Night Raw pulled in 4.9M views in the regions where it's distributed; VideoAmp: Raw averaged 2.6M US households on Netflix — The streamer's debut for the pro wrestling show pulls in more than double its 2024 average in household viewing.
Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat / Reuters:
Frank McCourt's Project Liberty says it made a formal bid to ByteDance to buy TikTok's US assets and keep the app alive without its current algorithm — Entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's Project Liberty and its consortium of partners in The People's Bid …
Discussion:
CNN, Project Liberty, UPI, HuffPost, Forbes, CNBC, The Information, London Evening Standard, Quartz, PhoneArena, Marketplace, USA Today and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
NYC-based Captions, an AI-powered video editing app, introduces a free tier with basic video editing tools, while keeping AI features in the $10/month Pro tier — Video editing app Captions is looking to cash in on uncertainty around TikTok and ByteDance's video editing app CapCut's future in the U.S. by turning to a freemium model.
Discussion:
Android Police
Tom Butts / TV Tech:
Hub Research: 66% of US TV consumers in December 2024 say they prefer to watch TV with ads in exchange for lower subscription costs, up from 58% in June 2021 — Annual survey finds two-thirds of viewers find advertising more tolerable than in on-demand programming
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck
Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
Letterboxd, the cinephile social platform that has become an effective tool to promote independent films, hit 17M members in 2024, up from 11.4M in 2023 — Letterbox, the cinephile social platform that's become perhaps the most effective tool for independent film in a landscape where moviegoers …
Discussion:
Letterboxd, AV Club and The Hollywood Reporter
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Adam Mosseri says Meta is adding political content recommendations to Instagram and Threads; Threads' political content control setting will have three options — It's been nearly a year since Instagram and Threads defaulted to blocking recommendations of “political” content from accounts …
Discussion:
The Guardian, Mashable, New York Post, PhoneArena, @youcaughtscott.com, Meta, @foolishowl@social.coop, Engadget, @harrymccracken@mastodon …, @dannygroner.bsky.social, @thebrianpenny@threads.net, @david_ingram@threads.net, @mosseri@threads.net, @mosseri@threads.net, @jack_toohey@threads.net, @johndellaporta@threads.net, @broken.com, @mosseri@threads.net, Techdirt and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »
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