Top News:
Lachlan Cartwright / Politico:
A look at the future of MSNBC under Mark Lazarus and Rebecca Kutler once it's spun off from NBC; MSNBC must fill 100 roles to build out newsgathering operations — What becomes of every liberal's favorite TV network once it loses its connection to NBC? — Inside 30 Rock …
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, New York Post, @tvgrimreaper, Alternet.org, The US Sun, @nick_field90, @nick_field90, @lachcartwright and @lachcartwright
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Ziff Davis sues OpenAI, alleging it used Ziff Davis' content to train AI models; sources say Ziff Davis is seeking at least hundreds of millions of dollars — Ziff Davis, which owns more than 45 media properties, is accusing the tech company of infringing on the publisher's copyrights and diluting its trademarks.
Discussion:
Digital Music News, @campuscodi.risky.biz, The Wrap, Reuters, @pixiekate13, @ednewtonrex, @ethangach.bsky.social, XboxEra, @emilyforlini.bsky.social, @jonathanfriedman.com, MEDIANAMA, @marioprime.bsky.social, TVNewsCheck, The Verge, @seldo.com and @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social, more at Techmeme »
Bloomberg:
Sources: Tencent Music is in advanced talks to buy Chinese podcasting startup Ximalaya in a $2.4B deal — An agreement could be reached as soon as the coming weeks, the people said. — Talks are ongoing and no final decisions have been made, the people said.
Discussion:
@jenniferxie12, Reuters and Music Business Worldwide
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Alphabet says it surpassed 270M paid subscriptions, driven by YouTube and Google One, and reports YouTube Q1 ad revenue up 10.3% YoY to $8.93B, vs. $8.97B est. — YouTube continues to rake in money from advertisers worldwide, with the video giant's ad revenue reaching $8.93 billion …
Discussion:
iPhone in Canada Blog, StreamTV Insider, @matthewkeyslive, @tvgrimreaper, Alphabet, The Register, MEDIANAMA, Music Ally, Tubefilter, @munster_gene, Media Play News, Neowin, Fortune, Adweek, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Google, MediaPost, Business Insider, TVNewsCheck, Investor's Business Daily, @crumbler@threads.net, Benzinga, Reuters, The Information, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Desk, The Wrap, Forbes, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and Thurrott, more at Techmeme »
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Charter Communications lost 181K pay TV subscribers in Q1 vs. a decline of 405K in Q1 2024; it had 12.7M pay TV subscribers as of March 31 — The cable giant shed less video customers than last year as overall revenue edge up slightly to $13.67 billion. — Cable and broadband giant Charter …
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, The Desk, MediaPost, Advanced Television, @tvgrimreaper, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, The Wrap and Benzinga
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
The European Commission accepts requests from Austria and the Netherlands to assess UMG's proposed $775M Downtown Music acquisition announced in December 2024 — European regulators are officially preparing to investigate Universal Music Group's proposed $775 million Downtown Music acquisition.
Discussion:
Financial Times, Billboard, Variety, Music Ally, @eu_competition, Reuters, Reuters and Bloomberg
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Vevo unveils Vevo Evolve, a suite of ad products designed to simplify the planning, measurement, and activation processes for advertisers across CTV and YouTube — Evolve lets marketers plan, measure, and activate across CTV, and YouTube — The music video network Vevo is launching …
Discussion:
@markstenberg3, @markstenberg3, Vevo and Music Ally
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
British insurance tycoon and Prospect magazine owner Clive Cowdery takes a minority stake in Tortoise; the Scott Trust has a 9% stake after committing £5M — The 234-year-old Sunday newspaper will produce its first edition under new ownership this weekend
Discussion:
The Times
Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
Docs: X's data licensing and subscriptions revenue grew 32% YoY to $91M in February, ad revenue grew 4% YoY to $146M; Twitter had $4.5B in ad revenue in 2021 — Elon Musk's X Holdings Corp. is evolving from a social media platform powered by mainstream advertisers to one betting …
Discussion:
@simonowens.bsky.social, @simonowens.bsky.social, The Information and Yahoo Finance, more at Techmeme »
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Sources: Spotify plans to raise subscription prices by the equivalent of €1 on individual subscriptions in countries across Europe and Latin America this summer — Moves comes as music-streaming service chases greater profitability as its stock has soared higher
Advanced Television:
Kantar: 33% of new UK paid subscribers chose ad tier in Q1 2025, up from 31% in Q4; Prime Video had the highest share of new paying subs, followed by Apple TV+ — Kantar, the marketing data and analytics company, has revealed growing adoption of ad-supported streaming …
Discussion:
WORLD SCREEN and Broadband TV News
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
A judge dismisses a lawsuit from the estate of Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster that claimed WBD lost international rights but continued to exploit them — The lawsuit from estate of Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster threatened 'Superman's' rollout in several countries ahead of its release.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, Reuters, Comic Book and Deadline
