Mediagazer: UK magazine publisher Future names its EVP of B2C Kevin Li Ying as its next CEO, succeeding Jon Steinberg, effective from March 31 2025 (Charlotte Tobitt/Press Gazette)

10:00 AM ET, January 30, 2025

Top News:

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.

Discussion: Advanced Television, Variety, Reuters, CNBC, @dvdnddiplomats, @sherman4949, Barrett Media, @bristei, Barron's Online, Bloomberg, Deadline, @tvgrimreaper and Comcast

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast reports Peacock's Q4 losses fell to $372M from a $825M loss in Q4 2023 and revenue rose 28% YoY to $1.3B; Comcast didn't disclose a subscriber count — Comcast, led by chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, reported fourth-quarter and full-year results for its entertainment unit and other operations.

Discussion: IndieWire, The Wrap, Media Play News and @tvgrimreaper

Wall Street Journal:

Meta agrees to pay ~$25M to settle Trump's 2021 lawsuit against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg after the company suspended his accounts following the January 6 riot — The president had sued the social-media company after his accounts were suspended following Jan. 6 riot

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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 …

Discussion: The Guardian, Variety, Us Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Mail, The Independent, The i Paper, Sky News, The Mirror US, The Mirror, The Sun, Deadline, Irish Mirror, GB News and Irish Independent

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: @sidhubaba

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

Discussion: @mediaevan.bsky.social, @kurtwagner.bsky.social, @kurtwagner.bsky.social and The Root

NewsGuard's Reality Check:

NewsGuard: with news-related prompts, DeepSeek's chatbot repeated false claims 30% of the time and provided non-answers 53% of the time, giving an 83% fail rate — Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek's new chatbot failed to provide accurate information about news …

Discussion: Politico, @firstadopter, The Mirror, TechNode, @brianfung.me, @newsguard.bsky.social, @peark.es, BGR, Interesting Engineering, Gizmodo, Fortune and Reuters, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK magazine publisher Future names its EVP of B2C Kevin Li Ying as its next CEO, succeeding Jon Steinberg, effective from March 31 2025 — Jon Steinberg will remain a senior advisor until June to help with the transition. — Future has named its executive vice president of business …

Discussion: @futureplc and DirectorsTalk Interviews

Julia Alexander / Posting Nexus:

How Epic is transforming Fortnite into a content platform, paying $350M to creators in 2024; 36.5% of the total playtime was spent in games made by creators — What are creator made islands competing for players' attention if nothing but decentralized channels in a centralized ecosystem?

Discussion: @loudmouthjulia, @michaelmartinez.co, @simonowens.bsky.social, The Mirror US and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter

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 …

Discussion: @authorsguild, The Authors Guild, Associated Press and r/artificial

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

The co-founder of the nonprofit National Trust for Local News, Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, is stepping down as the organization's CEO after four years — Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, who co-founded the National Trust for Local News four years ago, is stepping down as the organization's CEO.

Discussion: Press Herald, The Maine Wire, NTLN and @dankennedy.net

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:

Influence Media Partners secures ~$360M in debt financing through private securitization, collateralized by music royalties from its portfolio of music rights — Rights-backed securitization deals are becoming increasingly common in the music industry. — Today (January 29) brings the latest news from this space.

Discussion: Music Ally, Billboard, Digital Music News, Influence Media Partners and Variety

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Jordan Valinsky / CNN:
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Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
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Meta Investor Relations:
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Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
US Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduces the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act that would require US ISPs to make “a good faith effort” to block foreign-run piracy sites

Discussion: Ars Technica, @misctakes.com and CMU

Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Trump Media unveils fintech brand Truth.Fi with an investment of up to $250M, which can be allocated to various investments, like bitcoin and other crypto

Elsa Keslassy / Variety:
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Discussion: Advanced Television, Broadband TV News, @revan.social and Deadline

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Fox EVP of Ad Sales Mark Evans says there is an increase in Super Bowl ad buys from AI companies, while ad buys from movie studios and streamers are down

Discussion: Sportico, Adweek, TVNewsCheck, Sports Business Journal, CNBC, RetailWire, Benzinga, @alexweprin, Gizmodo, The US Sun, Us Weekly, The Wrap, The Verge, Awful Announcing, @mousterpiece.bsky.social and Ad Age

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Aisha Counts / Bloomberg:
The NFL plans to let retired players use official game footage on their YouTube channels, part of its strategy to draw in younger, more diverse audiences

Discussion: Tubefilter

Taylor Lorenz / User Mag:
Candace Owens launches Club Candace, a women-focused media platform featuring YouTube videos, podcasts, exclusive content, a fitness app, a book club, and more

Discussion: @bcc_mitchell, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @mmmccarthy.bsky.social, @the-k-syndicate.bsky.social, @sarablade.bsky.social and @taylorlorenz.bsky.social

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Apple partners with DirecTV and Comcast to offer the MLS Season Pass through their platforms, starting with the 30th season kickoff on February 22, 2025

Discussion: Advanced Television, Sports Business Journal, @tvgrimreaper, @great_katzby, @tvgrimreaper, Awful Announcing, TV Tech, BGR, Media Play News, USA Today, @matthewkeys.net, The TV Answer Man!, Apple and 9to5Mac

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix now lets iPhone and iPad app users download an entire TV show season with one tap, a much-requested feature that launched on Android in 2021

Discussion: The Sun, Advanced Television, Deadline, Engadget, Variety, TVNewsCheck, MacRumors, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Streaming Better, BGR, The Wrap, The Verge and Media Play News, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Prime Video signs a deal with Lionsgate to get exclusive streaming rights to Lionsgate films after an initial run on Starz, starting with its 2026 slate

Discussion: The Streamable, @tvgrimreaper, The Verge, IndieWire, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, WORLD SCREEN and Media Play News

Gene Maddaus / Variety:
The US Copyright Office says using AI tools to assist in creative processes doesn't compromise copyright protections as long as the content has human authorship

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Qianer Liu / The Information:
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Annmarie Hordern / Bloomberg:
President Trump reiterates he's open to tariff relief for China if it approves the sale of TikTok's US operations; the app faces an April 5 divestment deadline

Washington Post:
US officials say NSA director and Cyber Command head Timothy Haugh was fired on April 3, along with his civilian deputy Wendy Noble and at least five aides

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