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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:
TVNewsCheck, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, UPI, Screen Rant, @bloomberg.com, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, The Sun, SlashFilm, HuffPost, Forbes, The Streamable, Elle, Oh No They Didn't!, New York Times, The Wrap, KIII-TV, Associated Press, Business Insider, Motley Fool, Semafor and Wired
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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:
Adweek, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, People, @john_mike_, IndieWire, Variety, Decider, USA Today, The Independent, @alexanderchee.bsky.social, Hollywood Life, @halloweenyrrnd, @artcandee.bsky.social, StyleCaster, @jostraveler.bsky.social, @bengoggin.bsky.social, @jbillinson@threads.net, Deadline, @georgehahn.com, TVLine, @hulu_support, New York Post, Mirror, Screen Rant, The Hill, Business Insider, Deadline and WMAZ-TV


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 — The Disney-owned service cut off its live feed before the Best Actress and Best Picture winners were announced.


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:
Al Jazeera, Dazed, Mirror, Associated Press, The Wrap, Deadline, The Guardian, IndieWire, Reuters, GoldDerby, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Forward, NPR and New York Daily News
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Trump and politics were largely absent from the 2025 Oscars, as host Conan O'Brien avoided it; Palestinian activist Basel Adra called “to stop the injustice” — The host, Conan O'Brien, avoided politics in his monologue but later made a pointed joke about an “Anora” character who stood up to a powerful Russian.
Discussion:
Variety, SlashFilm, New York Post, Us Weekly, The Hill, Vanity Fair, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, IndieWire, Orange County Register, Screen Rant, Business Insider, Extra, Washington Examiner and CNN


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:
Reason
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Interviews with Ted Sarandos, Sony's Tom Rothman, and Nancy Meyers on how movies have changed in the era of streaming — Hollywood has been re-inventing itself for more 100 years. Change is part of the culture. But a pocket-sized “Sunset Boulevard”? That's not a close-up!


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 …


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:
Awful Announcing, The Streamable and Barrett Media


Amazon is set to launch a dedicated linear channel in the Prime Video app in Germany and Austria, offering a selection of Amazon Originals, sports, and more — Amazon is set to launch a dedicated linear channel in two European countries that will offer a curated selection of Prime Video original series …
Discussion:
Broadband TV News


Sinclair tests AI-driven, live audio translations in Spanish of local newscasts in Baltimore, San Antonio, West Palm Beach, and Las Vegas on their YouTube feeds — Sinclair has made history as the first broadcaster to introduce real-time, AI-powered language translation for local newscasts …
Discussion:
The Desk, StockTitan, Sinclair, Inc, TVNewsCheck, Radio & Television … and NewsBlues.com


Sources: VOA's parent opened probes into VOA journalists for reporting on criticism of Trump or for comments seen as critical; Steve Herman was placed on leave — The broadcaster placed a longtime journalist on leave amid growing concerns about its editorial independence.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, NPR, The Desk, @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social, James Bruno on LinkedIn, @louishenwood.bsky.social, @matthewfraser.bsky.social, @tomaskenn, @kaedotcom, @acarvin.bsky.social, @gentlegardener@mastodon.scot, @mho@social.heise.de, @mareikeohlberg.bsky.social, Raw Story, @lizzieohreally.bsky.social, @noupside.bsky.social, @noupside.bsky.social, @kairyssdal.bsky.social, @pattyshea.bsky.social, @taniel.bsky.social, @ampersine@mastodon.online, @mattmihaly.com, @davidenrich.bsky.social, The Daily Signal, Voice of America and @leahmcelrath.bsky.social


Source: more than 75,000 Washington Post digital subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions following Jeff Bezos' overhaul of the paper's opinion section — More than 75,000 digital subscribers to The Washington Post have cancelled since its owner, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos …
Discussion:
@cgallaher.bsky.social, @marietjeschaake.bsky.social, Breitbart, Stephan A. Schwartz on LinkedIn, Links I Would Gchat …, Mock Paper Scissors, ZeroHedge News, @ctreese2.bsky.social, Business Insider, The Atlantic, The Wrap, @jayrosen.bsky.social, @sleavenworth.bsky.social, @ambientvisions.bsky.social, The National Pulse, New York Post, @kjephd.bsky.social, @qitty1.bsky.social, Celeste Headlee on LinkedIn, @proddev.bsky.social, @timkarr.bsky.social, The Hill, @hammbear2024.bsky.social, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, @picardonhealth.bsky.social, @poohsdaddy.bsky.social, @amandabecker.bsky.social, @npr.org, @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social, @davidfolkenflik.bsky.social and Diane Ravitch's blog
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