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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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.
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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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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.
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
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.
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.
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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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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 …
Discussion:
The Wrap, @bymikedavis, @gaufre, @benmullin and Bloomberg
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: the NFL is in talks to take a minority stake of up to 10% in ESPN, which would own NFL Network and RedZone rather than just hold a controlling stake — CNBC's Most Valuable Sports Empires 2025: Here's how the top 20 empires in the world stack up — Eli Manning invests in sports equipment maker XTech
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
CBS News names Tanya Simon as executive producer of 60 Minutes; she has served as interim executive producer since Bill Owens resigned in April — Tanya Simon has been named the executive producer of 60 Minutes, taking the helm of the CBS News broadcast amid the aftermath of Paramount Global's settlement …
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Fortune laid off its European editorial team, including Executive Editor Alex Wood Morton; the layoffs took place before its 10% global workforce cut on July 21 — The redundancies are separate to newly-announced plans to cut 10% of the Fortune global workforce.
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Alex Wood Morton on LinkedIn and Fortune
