Top News:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
WWE live events on ESPN's new streaming service will start earlier than expected, with Wrestlepalooza on September 20 and then a Crown Jewel and Survivor Series — ESPN is going to the mat for a special WWE event much sooner than expected. — The Disney sports-media giant will host …
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Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
How bundling ESPN's new streamer, launching August 21, with Disney+ could boost daily engagement with Disney's streamer, reduce churn, and attract sports fans
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Athletic, CNBC, Cord Cutters News, New Jersey Online, Yahoo Finance, Media Play News, @pkafka, Streaming Better, 9to5Mac, Broadband TV News, The Wrap, The Streamable, TVNewsCheck, Sports Business Journal, Awful Announcing, How-To Geek, Digital Content Next and Mirror
Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Unredacted court docs in Smartmatic's Fox News lawsuit show how Maria Bartiromo and other Fox hosts privately aided Trump's bid to overturn the 2020 US election — Hundreds of pages of filings were unredacted this week; each party has asked a judge to rule in its favor without a trial
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Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Newly unredacted documents in the Smartmatic-Fox News defamation case show former host Jeanine Pirro, now a US attorney, bragging about aiding Trump and the GOP
Newly unredacted documents in the Smartmatic-Fox News defamation case show former host Jeanine Pirro, now a US attorney, bragging about aiding Trump and the GOP
Discussion:
al.com, HuffPost, Status, Raw Story, Deadline, @azi, @jeremymbarr, @jeremymbarr, RADAR, @carlquintanilla.bsky.social, New Republic, The Independent, The Hill, @therafischwartz.bsky.social, TV Insider, @farhip, Los Angeles Times, @justinbaragona.bsky.social, Mediaite, @emptywheel.bsky.social, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, @jenhayden.bsky.social, @nasaisright.bsky.social, @Nonilex@masto.ai, @amyewest.bsky.social, @kylegriffin1.bsky.social, @mattortega.com and @washingtonpost.com
Gabriela Pomeroy / BBC:
Denmark plans to abolish a 25% sales tax on books, one of the highest globally, in an effort to combat a “reading crisis”; the measure will cost $50M per year — The Danish government has announced it will abolish a 25% sales tax on books, in an effort to combat a “reading crisis”.
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The Guardian, Publishing Perspectives, @louisemclaughlin.bsky.social, RTÉ and Le Monde
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Fox launches Fox One, its $20/month streamer to reach younger viewers; Fox News' median viewer age is 69, and Emplifi says it had 332M YouTube views in July — App is aimed at growing the network beyond its ageing audience, with ‘modest’ expectations from executives
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The Hollywood Reporter, Mashable, Comic Book, Deadline, StreamTV Insider, Australian Financial Review and Cord Cutters News
Committee to Protect Journalists:
India opens criminal investigations into The Wire editor Siddharth Varadarajan, the outlet's staff, and parent FIJ over articles on April attacks and Pakistan — Two police branches in northeastern Indian state of Assam opened separate criminal investigations into Siddharth Varadarajan …
Discussion:
The Indian Express
John Semley / Wired:
A look at the 2025 AI Film Festival, backed by Runway AI and screened by Imax; some cinephiles deride it while others say it's part of a natural tech evolution — From a POV butterfly larvae doc to something that resembled a perfume commercial, Runway AI's film festival selections did little to convince me of AI's artistry.
Discussion:
TheGamer, @johnsemley3000.bsky.social, @manishakrishnan.bsky.social and Implicator.ai
Zoë Schiffer / Wired:
A profile of Stability AI, which under CEO Prem Akkaraju and Chair Sean Parker has shifted from building frontier AI models to a Hollywood-focused SaaS company — An early winner in the generative AI wars was near collapse—then bet everything on a star-studded comeback. Can Stability AI beat the competition?
Pew Research Center:
A survey of 9,000+ US adults: 59% say journalists are extremely or very important to the well-being of society, while 49% say journalists are losing influence — Americans largely value journalists' role in society but see their influence declining - and often differ over who fits the label
John Koblin / New York Times:
Antenna: Americans buy ~30% of all new streaming subscriptions via third-party apps like Prime Video or Roku, rising 40% from 2023, a new kind of cable bundle — A battle is heating up in the streaming world as millions of Americans sign up for multiple services through a single provider instead of separate apps.
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Yahoo Sports launches a free, ad-supported streaming TV channel called Yahoo Sports Network, featuring original programming covering the NFL, NBA, MLB, and more — ESPN and Fox aren't the only media companies trying to reach an emerging generation of sports fans who are more at home in digital realms then they are traditional ones.
Dylan Byers / Puck:
Sources: CBS News is losing ~$50M per year, as David Ellison plans to right-size the division by reducing salaries, shrinking teams, and repackaging content — Greetings from Los Angeles and welcome back to In the Room. I spent a fair amount of time over the weekend trying to figure …
Discussion:
@calebhowe, @dylanbyers, The Daily Caller and New York Times
Tess Patton / The Wrap:
Ari Shapiro will leave NPR in September after a decade as host of All Things Considered and says it “has nothing to do with the challenges facing public radio” — “The work of public radio is more important today than it has ever been. I intend to continue supporting it," the “All Things Considered” host says
Discussion:
Deadline, al.com, Ari Shapiro, @hadas_gold, NPR, RADIO ONLINE, CNN, Cord Cutters News, Variety, TVNewsCheck, Barrett Media, Advocate and New York Daily News
