Mediagazer: Experts say the Kremlin's throttling of YouTube is driving Russians to state-controlled platforms; Google data shows Russian traffic to YouTube is down ~66% YoY (Paul Sonne/New York Times)

4:55 AM ET, January 31, 2025

Top News:

Sources: Paramount is in talks with Donald Trump to settle his $10B 60 Minutes lawsuit, believing a deal would persuade Trump to not block its planned merger — A settlement, if reached, would be an extraordinary concession by a major U.S. media company to a sitting president.

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: NPR, Variety, NPR, ZeroHedge News, @agomezfcc, New York Post, Ars Technica, The Bulwark, @stgael.bsky.social, The Wrap, @olivierrupert.bsky.social, Newsbusters, Justin's Political Corner, @evangreer.bsky.social, @fbajak.bsky.social, @Skepticat@mstdn.social, @seth-stern.bsky.social, The Desk, Current, Mediaite, The Boston Globe, USA Today, Fox News, CNN, Cord Cutters News, RadioInsight, @victorpickard.bsky.social, @thebradking@mastodon.social, The Verge, @markey.senate.gov, @plopseven.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, Engadget, Salon, @newsjennifer.bsky.social, Deadline, Federal Communications Commission, New Republic, @monscience.bsky.social, The Gateway Pundit, @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, freebeacon.com, @brendannyhan.bsky.social, @mattdpearce.com, The Hill, @benmullin.bsky.social, Free Press and Radio & Television …

CNBC:

Apple Services revenue reached an all-time high of $26.34B in Q1, up 14% YoY, beating estimates and helping lift the company's gross margin to a record 46.9% — Apple is struggling to squeeze growth out of its flagship iPhone unit, but its profit margin keeps going up thanks to a flourishing services business.

Discussion: TechCrunch, CNBC, Reuters, Apple, City A.M., Reuters, TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, TechCrunch, Media Play News, The Information, 9to5Mac, The Wrap, MacRumors, The Hollywood Reporter and AppleInsider, more at Techmeme »

Paul Sonne / New York Times:

Experts say the Kremlin's throttling of YouTube is driving Russians to state-controlled platforms; Google data shows Russian traffic to YouTube is down ~66% YoY — The Kremlin is trying to cripple YouTube in Russia, internet experts say, pushing some people to state-controlled domestic alternatives.

Chase McCleary / Reposting vs. reporting:

How resident-run Facebook groups in Colorado are filling the void left by shuttered local newsrooms; in three counties, Facebook groups are the only news source — TRINIDAD, Colo. — “Trinidad is a Facebook town,” said Karen Jo (KJ) Agnello, the founder and moderator of The Voice of Trinidad …

Discussion: Sarah Stonbely, PhD on LinkedIn

Tess Patton / The Wrap:

Over 25 streaming partners including Disney+, Apple TV+, Netflix, and Prime Video simulcasted the FireAid fundraiser for Los Angeles, bypassing linear TV — Over 25 streaming partners will simulcast a mammoth five-and-a-half-hour FireAid benefit concert on Thursday to fundraise …

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

Discussion: @dcjohnson.bsky.social, The Wrap, @hallijayne.bsky.social, Benzinga, Patrick Notaro on LinkedIn, Jessica Toonkel on LinkedIn, Reuters, AppleInsider, New York Post, @gregorthemendel.bsky.social, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, @rmac.bsky.social, The Information and Fox Business, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Sources: ITV has been holding early talks with Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI about a potential merger of their production businesses, ITV Studios and All3Media — British broadcaster ITV (ITV.L) has been holding early-stage talks with Abu Dhabi-backed group RedBird IMI about a possible merger …

Discussion: Variety, Yahoo Finance and Deadline

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, @richlightshed, @dvdnddiplomats, @sherman4949, @bristei, @tvgrimreaper, MediaPost, TVNewsCheck, Reuters, CNBC, WORLD SCREEN, Barrett Media, Barron's Online, Variety, Bloomberg, Reuters, Comcast and Yahoo Finance

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: Deadline, The Desk, @tvgrimreaper, Front Office Sports, Sportico, The Streamable, Streaming Better, Media Play News, The Information, IndieWire and The Wrap

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 spinoff

Discussion: Deadline, @tvgrimreaper, @tvgrimreaper, StreamTV Insider, Awful Announcing and Adweek

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, Digital Music News, The Desk, Reuters, SiriusXM, Benzinga, Barrett Media, Advanced Television and Inside Radio

Kelsey Warner / Semafor:

Abu Dhabi's English-language newspaper The National laid off 28 journalists; sources: cuts included employees on the multimedia, digital, and foreign desks — The Scoop — Abu Dhabi's The National laid off 28 journalists Thursday, a spokesperson confirmed, amid a restructuring of the English-language publication.

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, Benzinga, @gerritd.bsky.social, Yahoo Finance, @damon.kiesow.net, TVNewsCheck, Talking Biz News, Status, The Wrap and r/Journalism, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: News UK and The Sun

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More News:

Lily Meier / Bloomberg:
How Barnes & Noble made an unlikely comeback due to BookTok's viral book recommendations driving up sales, which have risen by “mid-single digits” since 2021

Discussion: Jonathan Kramer on LinkedIn, Anne Riley Moffat on LinkedIn and @rawveggies.bsky.social

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon says social media platforms in the UK should promote content from trusted sources to avoid “a slide into an American news swamp”

Discussion: Broadband TV News, @jeffjarvis.bsky.social, The Media Leader, Press Gazette and Deadline

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Threads adds a dedicated media tab globally for photos and video, days after X and Bluesky added video tabs, and will let users tag people in photos

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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

Discussion: Engadget, Variety, The Verge, Digital Music News, Android Authority, Pocket-lint, Tom's Guide, TechCrunch, Music Business Worldwide, Billboard and Digital Trends

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Letter: DMG Media plans to merge Daily Mail's print operations with MailOnline, resulting “in a number of job losses”, as it looks to boost Mail+ subscriptions

Discussion: Financial Times, @imincorrigible.bsky.social, @jim.londoncentric.media and Press Gazette

Sarah Fielding / Engadget:
Netflix is expanding its partnership with WWE by offering exclusive access to the WWE 2K video games on mobile starting in fall 2025

Discussion: What's on Netflix, @netflixgames_, Ray Bautista on LinkedIn, Kirk Lakes on LinkedIn, Vulture, CNET, Insider Gaming and Variety

Earlier Picks:

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

Discussion: @futureplc and DirectorsTalk Interviews

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

Discussion: @sidhubaba, The Wrap and @dsquareddigest.bsky.social

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

Discussion: The Guardian, @authorsguild, Gizmodo, @victoriastrauss.bsky.social, Publishers Weekly, @kathmschmidt.bsky.social, @wendyortiz.com, TechCrunch, The Authors Guild, @tyleraking.com, @tyleraking.com, @tyleraking.com, Associated Press and r/artificial

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

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

Discussion: New York Times, The Wrap, @mediaevan.bsky.social, @kurtwagner.bsky.social, @kurtwagner.bsky.social and The Root, more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta adds Dina Powell McCormick, who served as deputy national security adviser to Trump in his first term, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison to its board

Ellen O'Regan / Politico:
Ireland's DPC opens an investigation into how personal data in public X posts was used to train xAI's Grok, which could stoke tensions between the EU and the US

Financial Times:
Sources: Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence raised $2B led by Greenoaks at a $32B valuation; SSI last raised $1B at a $5B valuation in September 2024

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