Mediagazer: Sources: HuffPost EIC Danielle Belton, who has served as EIC since 2021, is leaving the BuzzFeed-owned outlet; her last day is at the end of the month (Oliver Darcy/@oliverdarcy.bsky.social)

5:05 PM ET, January 9, 2025

Top News:

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 …

Discussion: Business Insider, TVNewsCheck, Reuters, The Desk, Radio & Television …, Latest from Tv Technology, The Wrap, Awful Announcing, The Verge, Light Reading, Bloomberg, @tvgrimreaper, The Streamable, Streaming Better, Roger Mitchell on LinkedIn and NewscastStudio

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: Adweek, The Information and @bristei

Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy.bsky.social:

Sources: HuffPost EIC Danielle Belton, who has served as EIC since 2021, is leaving the BuzzFeed-owned outlet; her last day is at the end of the month — HuffPost Editor-In-Chief Danielle C. Belton is exiting the outlet, with her last day at the end of the month, I'm told. More details in @status.news tonight.

Discussion: The Wrap, @maxwelltani, MediaPost, RedState, Fox Business, New York Post and @benmullin

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: Awful Announcing, @katie_robertson, @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 …

Discussion: @hayley__harding, @rcmacleod, @mclannahan.bsky.social, @genepark, @mikeisaac, @scottnover, @jillpantozzi.bsky.social, @maxtani.bsky.social, @karlbode.com and Mediaite

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+.

Discussion: Broadband TV News, Deadline, Storyboard18, Proactiveinvestors UK, 9meters, The Streamable, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn, Bloomberg, Benzinga, The Desk, Media Play News, TVNewsCheck, Adweek, The Wrap and r/technology, more at Techmeme »

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

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.

Discussion: Advanced Television, Variety, Awful Announcing, Latest from Tv Technology, About Netflix, Associated Press, Front Office Sports, TVLine, Deadline, Media Play News, @prowrestletimes and The Wrap

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: Project Liberty, CNN, UPI, HuffPost, Forbes, London Evening Standard, Quartz, The Information, CNBC, 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, more at Techmeme »

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

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

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