Mediagazer: Senator Warren urges the US DOJ to scrutinize Disney's deal to acquire a controlling stake in Fubo and merge it with Hulu + Live TV, citing antitrust concerns (Gene Maddaus/Variety)

8:25 AM ET, February 21, 2025

Top News:

Memo: MLB and ESPN mutually agree to end their national television deal after the 2025 season; ESPN was due to pay MLB around $550M/year in 2026, 2027, and 2028 — Major League Baseball and ESPN have “mutually agreed” to end their national television deal after the upcoming 2025 season …

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

Similarweb: traffic from ChatGPT to the top 14 publishers globally rose 8x from 435,000 in August to 3.5M in January, but is still less than 0.1% of all visits — The amount of referral traffic to top news sites from ChatGPT is increasing quickly, new data from Similarweb shows, but still accounts for a miniscule proportion of visits.

Discussion: CNBC, The Wrap and TechCrunch

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

If X threatened an ad group with US government interference, we've hit a high level of coercion, and conservatives who complained of Big Tech bias should object — - Elon Musk's X — the thing we used to call Twitter — lost lots of advertisers after he bought it.

Discussion: Kennon Fleisher on LinkedIn, @pkafka, @fricker.bsky.social, @businessinsider.com, @briantylercohen.bsky.social, @joshsternberg.com, Gizmodo, @gsarafanpolitic.bsky.social, @ianb@mastodon.well.com, The Information and Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »

Deadline:

Sources: Amazon paid $1B+ to gain creative control of the James Bond franchise and plans to expand it into its own universe akin to Marvel or Star Wars — Amazon originally overpaid on its purchase of MGM in a deal orchestrated by then-MGM board chair Kevin Ulrich.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, RTÉ, The Wrap, RADAR, Collider, Washington Post, Comic Book, Variety, World of Reel, SlashFilm and FemaleFirst

Justin Kroll / Deadline:

Amazon MGM Studios, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli form a JV to house James Bond IP rights, under which Amazon gains creative control of the franchise — In news that will send shock waves through the industry, longtime James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli …

Discussion: Puck, @jeffbezos, Screen Rant, BBC, Variety, About Amazon, The Hollywood Reporter, Mirror, The Register, @joerussotweets, Variety, Breitbart, GB News, @cpmaz.bsky.social, @librarythingtim.bsky.social, FemaleFirst, Frontpage Mag, @autismsupsoc.bsky.social, @marcusjdl.bsky.social, @richlightshed, Entertainment Weekly, @mgsiegler, @deeketweak, @jacobkleinman, @nextbestpicture, @benroyturner, @bunndumm, Vanity Fair, @sonnybunch, NPR, CBR, @courier12.bsky.social, Geoff Hollingworth on LinkedIn, The Daily Wire, @bennomatic@appdot.net, SlashFilm, @autismsupsoc.bsky.social, @illdave.bsky.social, @_patmurray@mastodon.social, Forbes, Gizmodo, Syracuse Post-Standard, Rolling Stone, Esquire, @billhuntbits.bsky.social, Engadget, GQ, Steve Siskind on LinkedIn, New York Times, @mutarada.bsky.social, Town & Country, Business Insider, Fortune, @benschwartz.bsky.social, The Playlist, @nedraggett.bsky.social, CNN, Yahoo Finance, LADbible, @vinzenzhediger.bsky.social, Axios, @davidjcourt.bsky.social, Financial Times, @michaelthec@poweredbygay …, Bloomberg, Carlo Bertucci on LinkedIn, CNBC, WPXI-TV, The Verge, The Information, Quartz, Wall Street Journal, @mrfengi.bsky.social, Los Angeles Times, Cord Cutters News, @taraconlan.bsky.social, WFAA-TV, Comic Book, @ronmarz.bsky.social, LADbible, CBR, Consequence, IndieWire, Gizmodo, Reuters, @moviessilently.bsky.social, Collider, World of Reel, @gigawattconduit.bsky.social, @jjdotbiz.bsky.social, @josie.zone, The Wrap, Screen Rant, @caseym.org, @gigawattconduit.bsky.social, Just Jared, NDTV, Oh No They Didn't! and Tatler

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Senator Warren urges the US DOJ to scrutinize Disney's deal to acquire a controlling stake in Fubo and merge it with Hulu + Live TV, citing antitrust concerns — Sen. Elizabeth Warren has urged the Justice Department to carefully scrutinize Disney's deal to acquire a controlling stake in Fubo …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Cord Cutters News, Reuters, Awful Announcing, The Desk, Business Insider, Benzinga, Light Reading, Deadline, Media Play News, The Wrap and Yahoo Finance

Lauren Easton / Editor and Publisher:

Memo: AP is launching its Local Investigative Reporting Program, to be led by Ron Nixon, to support US state and local newsrooms in investigative reporting — In a memo to staff Thursday, Executive Editor Julie Pace announced AP will launch a Local Investigative Reporting Program led by Ron Nixon:

Discussion: Poynter, Ron Nixon on LinkedIn, @rebuildlocalnews.bsky.social, @sdkstl.bsky.social and TVNewsCheck

Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:

Some journalists are taking freelance jobs with AI training data companies like Scale AI, which recruit them for tasks such as fact-checking and prompt drafting — The gig work platform Outlier is one of several companies courting journalists to train large language models (LLMs).

Discussion: Rest of World

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Bloomberg News promotes Mark Gurman to managing editor for global consumer tech and adds senior editor Dana Wollman and two others to his team — Tom Giles, senior executive editor of global technology coverage at Bloomberg News, sent out the following on Thursday:

Discussion: @whatthebit, @markgurman and @markgurman

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

YouTube plans to add a “premium lite” tier, a source says for the US, Australia, Germany, and Thailand, offering podcasts without ads and music videos with ads — - The service will continue to put ads in music videos — The tier will launch in areas that include the US, Australia

Discussion: The Information, MacRumors, Music Ally, The Media Leader, Beyond Search, Adweek, Cord Cutters News, 9to5Google, The Desk and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

A NY court tells Nexstar to pay DirecTV $26.6M in a case over retransmission fees; a court earlier said Nexstar wrongly received $10.5M in fees in the same case — A New York court on Thursday awarded satellite and streaming television provider DirecTV nearly $27 million in a civil case brought …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck and Cord Cutters News

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:

Former Merit TV employees detail struggles at Dr. Phil McGraw's streaming service, including multiple rounds of layoffs, staff discontent, and low ratings — Merit TV has entered a crowded field of news networks. Can it find its audience? — Phil McGraw strolled onstage and waved at the cheering crowd.

Discussion: The Desk, @thedesk.net, RADAR and TVNewsCheck

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Matt Novak / Gizmodo:
Elon Musk says he will “fix” Community Notes as they are “increasingly being gamed by governments & legacy media”, after disagreeing with notes about Ukraine

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
National Association of Broadcasters CEO Curtis LeGeyt calls for the FCC to end ownership caps that prevent TV and radio conglomerates from growing larger

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Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
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Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Substack adds the ability to post videos from its app and lets creators monetize videos, and plans to add more video tools like trimming and enhanced analytics

Discussion: Fast Company, TVNewsCheck and On Substack, more at Techmeme »

CNBC Press Releases:
CNBC International appoints Spriha Srivastava to oversee digital content, starting from May; Srivastava left BI as its executive editor & UK bureau chief

Discussion: Talking Biz News and Spriha Srivastava on LinkedIn

Michel Rose / Reuters:
A French court upholds TV channel C8's shutdown for failures to protect human rights and protect minors, as right-wing politicians claim a free speech violation

Discussion: Luiz Junior on LinkedIn

Earlier Picks:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: ESPN plans to add some user-generated content to its flagship streaming service, which will debut later in 2025 and could be priced at $25 or $30/month

Discussion: The Desk, @dannygroner.bsky.social, Awful Announcing and Barrett Media

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
A+E Networks launches a digital division to unify its digital efforts, including YouTube channels and SVOD platforms, and plans a History.com relaunch

Discussion: Adweek, Variety, WORLD SCREEN and The Wrap

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Spotify begins accepting AI-narrated audiobooks recorded using ElevenLabs' software; Spotify already allows AI-recorded audiobooks, with several restrictions

Discussion: Anders Larsen on LinkedIn, TechCrunch and Spotify, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Gallery Media Group says it made $50M in 2024 revenue from its women's media title PureWow and 50+ social-only brands on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts

Discussion: Simon Owens's Media Newsletter

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Twitch plans to implement a 100-hour storage cap for Highlights and Uploads from April 19, automatically deleting content from streamers who exceed the limit

From Techmeme:

John Hudson / Washington Post:
Sources: WH national security adviser Michael Waltz and other National Security Council members have conducted government affairs over personal Gmail accounts

CNBC:
Circle files for a US IPO, with plans to list on the NYSE under CRCL; Circle, which issues the USDC stablecoin, is reportedly seeking a $4B to $5B valuation

Reuters:
Sources: Arm decided not to pursue a deal after recently seeking to acquire Alphawave, a UK-listed supplier of semiconductor IP that is exploring a sale

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