Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
The FCC approves the Paramount-Skydance deal, granting the transfer of licenses for 28 CBS-owned local TV stations to the Skydance-led ownership group — The FCC has granted approvals necessary to clear the way for the $8 billion merger of Paramount Global and David Ellison's Skydance Media.
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CNN, New York Times, NPR, Motley Fool, CNBC, Watcher Guru, Puck, BMI, IJR, @kryton3298.bsky.social, @agomezfcc, @agomezfcc, MarketWatch, @cjsprigman.bsky.social, Front Office Sports, New York Sun, @agomezfcc, Australian Financial Review, @agomezfcc, Breitbart, Deadline, @jonathancohn.bsky.social, @agomezfcc, @brendancarrfcc, @michaeljstern.bsky.social, @agomezfcc, The Verge, Reuters, Mediaite, Adweek, @cdarwin@c.im, Financial Times, Awful Announcing, @juliezebrak.bsky.social, The Information, Cord Cutters News, Newsbusters, Bloomberg, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, The Ankler, Forbes, CBS News, Globe and Mail, Washington Examiner, Los Angeles Times, Fox Business and Salon
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Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC, dissents against the Paramount-Skydance merger and says the FCC made “unprecedented” moves to help broker the deal — “Despite this regrettable outcome, this Administration is not done with its assault on the First Amendment.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, Deadline, Radio & Television …, Los Angeles Times, Mumbrella, Variety, C21Media, Washington Examiner, Business Insider, Impakter, Raw Story, MediaPost, TrekMovie.com, Newser, Salon, TV Tech, Baller Alert, Benzinga, Wall Street Journal, @carlquintanilla.bsky.social, CBS News, TheDesk.net, The Wrap, NPR, Bloomberg Law, The Independent, WORLD SCREEN, NewsMax.com, Breitbart and Adweek
Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Chris McCarthy, co-CEO of Paramount Global and president of Showtime/MTV, plans to depart the company once its acquisition by Skydance is completed — Chris McCarthy, co-CEO of Paramount Global and president of Showtime/MTV Entertainment, has opted to depart the company once its acquisition by Skydance is completed early next month.
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TVNewsCheck, Media Play News, TV Blackbox, @sarafischer, The Guardian, Screen, TheDesk.net, Variety, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety
Peter White / Deadline:
Source: E! News, the long-running celebrity news show, will end on September 25; its digital brand will continue with a focus on social platforms — Versant, the nascent company that oversees E! as well as a number of former NBCUniversal cable networks, is axing the show, which first launched in 1991, in September.
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Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, TV Insider, People, TODAY.com, NBC News, Newser, Adweek, Entertainment Weekly, Cord Cutters News, KSDK-TV, The Cut, The A.V. Club, The US Sun, Us Weekly, New York Daily News, The Wrap, Radio & Television …, KRON4, KTVU-TV and Oh No They Didn't!
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Donations to US public media surge amid funding cuts, up by ~$70M YoY so far in 2025, but still fall well short of the annual $550M that Congress has cut — Donors are turning out to support local stations, but those contributions so far fall well short of the annual $550 million that Congress cut.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta will end political, election, or social issue ads in the EU from October, like Google, with both citing incoming regulation — Meta on Friday said starting in October it will no longer accept political, election or social issue ads in the European Union, in response to new regulation …
Discussion:
Reuters, Euractiv, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, Financial Times, WinBuzzer, Meta Newsroom and Meta for Government …, more at Techmeme »
Melissa Heikkilä / Financial Times:
Q&A with Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju on taking over from Emad Mostaque, his movie background, data and copyright, working with creative industries, and more — The boss of the company behind Stable Diffusion insists film industry fears about the impact of the popular image-generating AI model are misplaced
Discussion:
implicator.ai
Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:
Muck Rack analysis of 1M+ citations by Gen AI models; journalistic content was cited 27% of the time, rising to 49% for queries implying “a level of recency” — Muck Rack found that major models cite journalism in nearly half of responses that require “recency.”
Discussion:
Muck Rack PR Software, @pressgazette.co.uk, Unite.AI, Library Journal infoDOCKET, Axios and Entrepreneur
Jenna Amatulli / The Guardian:
One day after signing a $1.5B deal with Paramount, South Park satirizes Paramount's settlement with Trump, pro-Trump PSAs, and the cancellation of The Late Show — Show begins 27th season covering Trump's lawsuit against Paramount and cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show, depicting Trump in bed with Satan
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Amy Walker / BBC:
BBC News, AFP, the AP, and Reuters say they are “desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves” — BBC News and three leading news agencies have expressed desperate concern for journalists in Gaza, who they say are increasingly unable …
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The Guardian, The Guardian, The Guardian, Time, ABC, Washington Post, HuffPost, @lizszabo.bsky.social, Middle East Monitor, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Associated Press, @bbcnewspr, @cpjmena, @cpjmena, @abiwilks, @reuterspr, @scottygb, The Times of Israel, Telegraph, France 24, Associated Press, BBC, The Free Press, European Federation …, The Wrap, Al Jazeera, سبأ …, Mirror, Press Gazette, TVNewsCheck, Politico, The Associated Press, Deadline, Reuters, RTÉ, WTOP News, Semafor, WWL-TV, Committee to Protect … and Arab News
Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
Sony acquires a ~2.5% stake in Tekken and Pac-Man owner Bandai Namco for $464M, to expand “the fan community for IP such as anime and manga around the world” — Sony Corp. has taken a small stake in Tekken and Pac-Man games giant Bandai Namco, as part of a strategic business alliance.
Discussion:
C21Media, PocketGamer.biz, Sony Group PortalSony …, Game Developer, Shacknews, IGN, The Verge, GamesHub, TweakTown, Kyodo News, Screen Rant, KitGuru, Hürriyet Daily News, HotHardware, Eurogamer.net, Game Rant, TechRaptor, GamingBolt, Pure Xbox, Engadget, Variety, Video Games Chronicle, VideoGamer, Game World Observer, Push Square, Morningstar, Inc., GamesRadar, MarketWatch, Gamereactor UK, r/playstation and r/gaming
Allan Lengel / Deadline Detroit:
In a memo to staff, Gannett CEO Mike Reed offered employees voluntary buyout packages “to reduce our overall cost structure as we strive for revenue growth” — The Detroit Free Press, which has offered multiple buyouts over the years and has seen its staff shrink dramatically since …
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The Wrap, @bymikedavis, @gaufre, @benmullin and Bloomberg
