Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Memo from Disney execs: YouTube pulled Disney channels before the expiration time of the carriage deal with “no advance notice to their subscribers, or to us” — Disney top brass told the troops that the media company's leaders are going to continue to fight for a “fair deal” …
Discussion:
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Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Disney networks including ABC and ESPN go dark on YouTube TV after the two sides failed to reach a new carriage deal — YouTube TV customers have lost access to ABC, ESPN, and other Disney-owned channels this evening as a contract between Google and Disney failed to reach a renewal in negotiations …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, The American Bazaar, PhillyVoice, Breitbart, The A.V. Club, Rolling Stone, CNET, Sportico, al.com, Barrett Media, Cord Cutters News, Straight Arrow News, No Film School, UPI, Times of India, Axios, Nerdist, The Hill, Chrome Unboxed, Dexerto, TheDesk.net, Android Headlines, Sports Illustrated, Android Police, Tom's Guide, Engadget, The US Sun, Proactive, Forbes, Streaming Better, Deseret News, BBC, Syracuse Post-Standard, The Shortcut, The Streamable, Awful Announcing, TV Tech, New Jersey Online, International Business Times, Business Insider, Pocket-lint, Saturday Down South, TVNewsCheck, WPXI-TV, Digital Trends, Android Authority, WTTG-TV, Far Out Magazine, Baller Alert, Advanced Television, New York Times, Broadband TV News, Livemint, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, CBS News, CNBC, Bloomberg, The Wrap, @diversetechgeek.bsky.social, @dtgeek@mastodon.social, Variety, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, Media Play News, The US Sun and The Independent, more at Techmeme »
Justin Baragona / The Independent:
CBS has cut two streaming shows, disbanded its race and culture unit, eliminated the Johannesburg bureau; all eight on-air correspondents cut were women — EXCLUSIVE: Multiple sources told The Independent that senior foreign correspondent Debora Patta was added to the layoff list following …
Discussion:
HEATED, Deadline, International Business Times, The Independent, New York Post, Todd Reubold on LinkedIn, @duncanwrites.bsky.social, @volts.wtf, @joshuafoust.com, @laurenmeidasa.bsky.social, Joe.My.God., @amandabecker.bsky.social, @amyalexca.bsky.social, @dcbigjohn.bsky.social, @robertscotthorton.bsky.social, @kendrawrites.com, @justinbaragona.bsky.social, @paleofuture.bsky.social, Deadline, @justinbaragona.bsky.social and Newsbusters
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: after earlier suing CBS over 60 Minutes, Trump is set to be interviewed for the show by Norah O'Donnell, following David Ellison's Paramount purchase — The Scoop — CBS News is learning that several million dollars go a long way to healing a relationship with President Donald Trump.
Discussion:
Reuters, Mediaite, Columbia Journalism Review, The Wrap, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Raw Story, Deadline, @semafor.com and CBS News
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Bluesky says it has hit 40M users and plans to launch “dislikes” in beta to tailor content rankings and reply rankings — Social network Bluesky, which on Friday announced a new milestone of 40 million users, will soon start testing “dislikes” as a way to improve personalization on its main Discover feed and others.
Brianna Tucker / Washington Post:
An NC Republican Party spokesman appeared to threaten ProPublica, citing party ties to Trump's administration, and tried to coerce the outlet to kill a story — Communications director Matt Mercer later says in a social media post that Trump should “feed ProPublica to the USAID wood chipper.”
Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Indiana University reverses course on its decision to stop student journalists from including news coverage in print editions, after accusations of censorship — The university faced fierce criticism after it fired the director of student media and said that news coverage could be published only online.
Discussion:
Indiana Daily Student, TVNewsCheck, Indiana Daily Student, @mcuban and @caregivertalk
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Ethan Sandweiss / Indiana Public Media:
Jim Rodenbush, Indiana University's former director of student media, is suing the school, after he was fired when he refused to pull news from the school paper — Former director of student media Jim Rodenbush is suing Indiana University for wrongful termination.
Discussion:
NBC News, Indiana Daily Student and Associated Press
New York Times:
Puck acquires Air Mail, the startup founded by Graydon Carter; sources: the deal values Air Mail at $16M, less than the $32M in funding it raised since 2019 — Graydon Carter, the legendary Vanity Fair editor who founded Air Mail, is leaving the company. — The check is in the mail.
Discussion:
Breaker, Mediaite, @benmullin, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap and Axios
Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:
An analysis of AI training datasets, compiled by The Atlantic, shows AI models were trained on hundreds of thousands of YouTube videos from news publishers — YouTube channels from major news publishers and creators were in video data sets used by Microsoft, Meta, Snap, Runway AI, and Bytedance.
Michelle Kim / Rest of World:
A look at the rising popularity of virtual K-pop stars, usually created by artists wearing motion sensor suits, and the labor rights questions they raise — In an industry studded with megastars like BTS and Blackpink, virtual idols are building powerful new fandoms even while their true identities remain obscured.
Discussion:
@restofworld.org
Reuters:
Sources: Netflix is exploring a bid for WBD's studio and streaming business and has tapped investment bank Moelis & Co to evaluate a prospective offer — - Netflix hires Moelis & Co for Warner Bros Discovery bid evaluation — Sarandos confirms no interest in legacy media networks like CNN
Discussion:
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