Mediagazer: 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 (Rebecca Rubin/Variety)

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.

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

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, New York Post, TVNewsCheck, Screen Rant, @bloomberg.com, @lucas_shaw, Decider, @lucas_shaw, SlashFilm, Cord Cutters News, Forbes, Rolling Stone, New York Times, The Wrap, Deadline and Semafor

Chris Welch / The Verge:

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.

Marc Tracy / New York Times:

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: Dazed, Al Jazeera, Mirror, Associated Press, The Wrap, Reuters, GoldDerby, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Forward, NPR and New York Daily News

Julia Jacobs / New York Times:

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: Deadline, SlashFilm, Us Weekly, The Hill, Vanity Fair, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, IndieWire, Variety, Orange County Register, Screen Rant, Business Insider, Extra, Washington Examiner and CNN

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:

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 Hollywood Reporter

Wall Street Journal:

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: The Streamable, @vtuss and Awful Announcing

Dawn Chmielewski / Reuters:

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: WPXI-TV, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Deadline

Kendra Barnett / Adweek:

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 …

Ben Mankiewicz / CBS News:

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!

Jason Leopold / Bloomberg:

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, Reason and C-SPAN.org

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:

Prime Video UK Director Chris Bird, one of Amazon's longest-serving streaming executives, plans to leave this month after 14 years — Chris Bird is leaving his role as Director of Prime Video UK after 14 years. — In the past few minutes, head of Prime Video's EU Established division …

Discussion: Variety

Kerry Flynn / Axios:

Vermillio, whose TraceID tool monitors online content for the use of IP, name, image, and likeness, raised a $16M Series A co-led by DNS and Sony Music — Vermillio, the Chicago-based AI licensing and protection platform, has raised a $16 million Series A co-led by DNS Capital and Sony Music, executives exclusively tell Axios

Discussion: Music Business Worldwide and @kerrymflynn