Top News:


Hulu faced technical difficulties during its live airing of the Oscars; in the Oscars' first hour, 34K+ users told Down Detector that the service wasn't working — More than 34,000 users reported the streaming site was down within the ceremony's first hour.
Discussion:
Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, @hulu_support, The Streamable, Cory Parker on LinkedIn, People, @john_mike_, Decider, Variety, USA Today, Cord Cutters News, The Independent, Adweek, @alexanderchee.bsky.social, @halloweenyrrnd, @artcandee.bsky.social, StyleCaster, @jostraveler.bsky.social, The Wrap, @bengoggin.bsky.social, @jbillinson@threads.net, Deadline, @georgehahn.com, Business Insider, New York Post, Screen Rant, The Hill, San Francisco Chronicle, TVLine and WMAZ-TV
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Sources: the Academy has talked informally with Netflix and others about airing the Oscars in future years; its exclusive negotiating window with Disney lapsed — The audience for the Oscars has declined more than 50% over the last decade. Will that lead to a break-up with its home of more than 50 years?
Discussion:
The Streamable, Quartz, New York Post, Boston.com, Screen Rant, @bloomberg.com, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, SlashFilm, TVNewsCheck, Cord Cutters News, Decider, Forbes, Rolling Stone, New York Times and The Wrap

Hulu cut its live stream before the Oscars ended, falsely stating “the live event has now ended” while Best Actress and Best Picture were still to come
Discussion:
Forbes, The Wrap, The Playlist, Advanced Television, MediaPost, Media Thoughts …, HuffPost, IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter, Media Play News, @nymag, @kvanaren.bsky.social, @rachelrowland@threads.net, Decider, @halloweenyrrnd, Hollywood Life, The TV Answer Man!, Just Jared, The Sun, Daily Mail, Mirror, Business Insider, Screen Rant, USA Today and KIII-TV


No Other Land, about Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes, won Best Documentary at the 2025 Oscars, a rebuke after no distributor picked it up in the US — In their acceptance speeches, the Israeli and Palestinian co-directors called for “serious actions to stop the injustice.”
Discussion:
The Forward, The Hollywood Reporter, Mirror, Associated Press, The Wrap, Al Jazeera, Dazed, @tiagodf.bsky.social, @sana.msf.ca, Reuters, GoldDerby, Variety, NPR and New York Daily News
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Patrick Soon-Shiong says LAT opinion pieces will get an AI-generated rating of their political content, and an AI-generated list of alternative political views — Los Angeles paper's ‘Insights’ tool comes after months of public debate between opinion staff and billionaire owner
Discussion:
@brianstorms@mastodon.social and Los Angeles Times


MLB plans a TV model where teams cede local rights to MLB for a unified streaming package; teams get ~25% of revenue from local media, the most of any US sport — The big sports network is walking away from the national pastime, accelerating baseball's need to cope with the demise of the TV economy that fueled its growth for decades.
Discussion:
Cord Cutters News, Gideon Clark on LinkedIn, Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn, The Streamable, Awful Announcing and @vtuss


Business Insider hires former Daily Beast EIC Tracy Connor as the outlet's new standards editor — I'm thrilled to share that Tracy Connor has joined Business Insider as Standards Editor. — In this critical role, Tracy will work with our journalists on questions during the reporting process …
Discussion:
@maxwelltani


Independent films triumphed over more popular titles at the 97th Academy Awards, with Neon's Anora claiming five Oscars and A24's The Brutalist winning three — The 97th Academy Awards marked a celebration of independent film, with Neon's “Anora” claiming five Oscars, including for best film, lead actress and director.
Discussion:
NPR, Billboard, WPXI-TV, Simon Cuthbert on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Deadline


Lachlan Murdoch says Fox Nation has 2M to 2.5M subscribers, suggests a new stand-alone Fox streaming outlet would be aimed at “cord nevers” and “cord cutters” — At Fox Corp., executives are counting more heavily on streaming subscribers.
Discussion:
The Streamable, The Wrap, Reuters, @franmacp.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, @chris_ciaccia and @jbflint


Sources: YouTube is preparing a Netflix-like redesign of its TV app, with paid content from other streamers like Max and Paramount+ on the homepage — It should have been easy. — YouTube in late 2022 began including in its app video-streaming services operated by other media companies …
Discussion:
The Verge, more at Techmeme »


Disney hires ex-Warner Bros. exec Andrew Cripps as head of theatrical distribution, replacing Tony Chambers, who was named the president of Disney in Europe — Walt Disney Studios has hired former Warner Bros. executive Andrew Cripps as head of theatrical distribution.
Discussion:
The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter


Letters: Google, Amazon, and other ad companies respond to US senators' inquiries about ad placement on pages with CSAM, saying they blocked the sites and more — Amazon has issued refunds to affected advertisers — Under pressure from bipartisan lawmakers, Google, Amazon …


How FCC Chair Brendan Carr was cleared by ethics officials to write a chapter for the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 when he was a commissioner — Dozens of pages of emails reveal how Brendan Carr, the FCC's Republican chairman and close confidante of President Trump …
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck and Reason