Top News:
New York Times:
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told CEOs of NPR and PBS that he had ordered a probe into whether member stations are airing commercial ads when they air sponsorships — Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said the inquiry could help Congress decide whether to continue funding local stations.
Discussion:
Variety, The Hill, @agomezfcc, Deadline, NPR, Federal Communications Commission, @ryanjhaas.bsky.social, @ryanbeckwith.bsky.social, @jetjocko.bsky.social, @pamspaulding.bsky.social, @hallijayne.bsky.social, @bee990.bsky.social, @ndhapple.bsky.social, @mediaevan.bsky.social, @timbays.bsky.social, @onthemedia.bsky.social, @ppopiel.bsky.social, @joesonka.lpm.org, @brendannyhan.bsky.social, @mattdpearce.com and @benmullin.bsky.social
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Comcast reports Q4 revenue up 2% YoY to $31.92B and media revenue, including its TV networks, up 3.5% to $7.22B; Comcast lost 311K cable TV customers — Comcast topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates on Thursday as revenue from the company's broadband business gave it a boost despite losing customers.
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Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
Mike Cavanagh says Comcast is “not really running a Peacock-only strategy. We're running a broadcast-plus-streaming strategy”, as NBCU prepares a spin off — NBCUniversal executives offered one statistic during the company's Q4 earnings call that explains everything …
Discussion:
StreamTV Insider, Deadline, Adweek, @tvgrimreaper and @tvgrimreaper
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Comcast reports Peacock's Q4 losses fell to $372M from an $825M loss in Q4 2023 and revenue rose 28% YoY to $1.3B; subscribers stood at 36M, unchanged from Q3
Discussion:
MediaPost, The Streamable, Yahoo Finance, The Information, @tvgrimreaper, The Wrap, Streaming Better and Media Play News
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon sues Washington state to limit the release of public records to The Washington Post about Jeff Bezos' Amazon Project Kuiper satellite facility in Seattle — In-depth Amazon coverage from the tech giant's hometown, including e-commerce, AWS, Amazon Prime, Alexa, logistics, devices, and more.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Yahoo Finance, Talking Biz News, @damon.kiesow.net, TVNewsCheck, The Wrap and r/Journalism
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon is ramping up ad spending on X, as companies re-evaluate their stances in a changing political climate; source: Apple considers a return to X — Shift occurs after many brands cut advertising on the platform over hate-speech concerns; Apple considers a return to site
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Amazon hikes prices of Amazon Music Unlimited for Prime and non-Prime members by $1 to $10.99 and $11.99 per month, and Unlimited Family Plan by $3 to $19.99 — The higher prices come just a few months after market leader Spotify adjusted subscription prices of its own.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Android Authority, Tom's Guide, Digital Music News, Pocket-lint, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard and Digital Trends
Yasmin Rufo / BBC:
The BBC apologizes to staff after an internal review found employees felt unable to raise concerns about Russell Brand's misconduct during his tenure at BBC — The BBC has apologised to staff who felt they could not speak up with concerns about Russell Brand's behaviour because he was seen as …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Court filing: Elon Musk, seeking to dismiss Don Lemon's lawsuit, blames an “invasive and charged interview” for canceling Lemon's $1.5M partnership with X — - Former CNN star is suing Musk over failed $1.5 million deal — X owner says journalist's interview led to ‘sour’ relationship
Washington Post:
The Washington Post names Peter Spiegel as its new managing editor; Spiegel most recently was the Financial Times' US managing editor for nearly six years — The veteran, award-winning journalist will oversee the National and Local newsroom departments, including coverage of politics, national security and immigration
Discussion:
The Wrap, @dsquareddigest.bsky.social and @sidhubaba
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
The Authors Guild launches a project for writers to certify their books as human-authored and not AI generated, initially for members and single-author books — Books not created by AI will be listed in a US Authors Guild database that anyone can access. — Books not created by AI …
Helen Corbett / The Independent:
A Russian court issues an arrest warrant for Jerome Starkey, defense editor at the UK's Sun, for entering Russia from Ukraine; Downing Street condemns the move — The Kursk regional court accused Jerome Starkey of illegally crossing the border into Russia. — Your support helps us to tell the story
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
SiriusXM reports Q4 revenue down 4% YoY to $2.19B, vs. $2.17B est., FY 2024 self-pay subscribers down by 296K, and 33M total subscribers at the end of 2024 — SiriusXM, which has been trimming staff and regrouping in several areas in a bid to reverse subscriber losses, reported better-than-expected results in the fourth quarter.
Discussion:
Billboard, Reuters, SiriusXM, Benzinga, Advanced Television, Inside Radio, Barrett Media and The Hollywood Reporter
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