Top News:
Reuters:
Sources: Comcast has hired Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to evaluate a prospective offer for Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming businesses — Comcast has retained financial advisors and gained access to financial information as it explores a bid for Warner Bros Discovery's …
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: Condé Nast fired four staffers who were among a group of over a dozen that confronted its HR head over the Teen Vogue closure and other recent cuts — The Scoop — Condé Nast abruptly fired four staffers who were among a group of more than a dozen employees …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Poynter, The Wrap, @maxwelltani, @kirk_bado, @goodbyealma, @goodbyealma, @goodbyealma, @levinejonathan, @goodbyealma, @condeunion, twitchy.com, @andreachalupa.bsky.social, Variety, Status, @maxwelltani, @nataliekorach, @nataliekorach, @jakelahut, New York Post, The Independent, Allegra Kirkland on LinkedIn, Andrea Riquier on LinkedIn, Jennifer Yeko on LinkedIn, Madeline McGee on LinkedIn, IJR, Deadline, @courtney@pdx.social, The A.V. Club, NewsGuild of New York, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, @dinfontay.com, @thefrontlist.org, The Wrap, @leyrer@23.social and @coreyatad.com
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
AMC Networks reports revenue down 6.3% YoY to $561.7M, operating income down 40.7% to $55.5M, streaming revenue up 14% to $174M, and 10.4M streaming subscribers — The company, led by CEO Kristin Dolan, posted its third-quarter results. — AMC Networks, the company behind such cable channel brands …
Jake Bleiberg / Bloomberg:
WaPo says it was impacted by a series of breaches involving Oracle's E-Business Suite, whose flaws were exploited by a ransomware gang — The Washington Post was impacted as part of a series of breaches involving a popular Oracle Corp. product, the newspaper company said on Thursday.
Discussion:
Security Affairs, Silicon UK and Reuters
Paul Sandle / Reuters:
ITV says it is in preliminary talks to sell its media and entertainment division to Comcast's Sky for £1.6B, a deal that would require regulatory approval — - ITV says in preliminary talks over M&E division sale — Sale would be for free-to-air channels and streaming platform
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, The Guardian, Variety, The Standard, Wall Street Journal, The Independent, Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswires, Telegraph, The Times, Proactive, RTÉ, City A.M., Screen, The Sun, Deadline, Mirror, BusinessCloud, The Hollywood Reporter, Advanced Television, TVBEurope, Broadband TV News and campaignlive.co.uk
Allison Smith / Modern Retail:
Shopify joined Substack in October, the latest and the biggest company to do so and a sign that brands take Substack seriously as a marketing channel — American Eagle. Rare Beauty. The RealReal. These are some of the biggest brands that have, within the past year, launched their own Substack newsletters.
Discussion:
Allison Smith on LinkedIn
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
An interview with SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin on 2026 AMPTP talks, the Jimmy Kimmel suspension, Tilly Norwood AI controversy, the microdrama boom, and more — Veteran actor sounds the alarm on the unchecked spread of generative AI content: ‘We need to protect our very dignity, our humanness’
Juby Babu / Reuters:
News Corp reports Q1 revenue up 2% YoY to $2.14B, above $2.1B est., Dow Jones revenue up 6% to $586M, and News Media with “strong improvement in profitability” — Media conglomerate News Corp (NWSA.O) beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday …
Discussion:
New York Post, Crikey, Mumbrella, Yahoo Finance, Wall Street Journal, Morningstar, MediaPost, The Wrap, News Corp and Capital Brief
Ja'han Jones / MSNBC:
USAGM Acting CEO Kari Lake plans to shut down Szabad Europa, RFE/RL's Hungarian service, for programming that has “undermined” Trump policy by opposing PM Orban — The de facto head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media says she's shutting down the Hungarian branch of Radio Free Europe because it opposed Orban.
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
The owner of the Entrepreneur magazine sues Meta in California federal court, alleging the company used “at least hundreds” of its works to train AI models — The owner of business magazine Entrepreneur sued Meta Platforms (META.O) in California federal court on Thursday …
Discussion:
Retail TouchPoints
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Lionsgate reports Q2 revenue down 21% YoY to $475.1M, net loss of $113.5M, vs. $163.3M a year earlier, $276.4M in motion picture revenue, $198.7M in TV revenue — The Hollywood major released its latest financial results as a standalone film and TV studios company after splitting from its Starz streaming platform.
Discussion:
TheDesk.net, Variety, Lionsgate Studios, Deadline, The Wrap and Media Play News
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Meta launches Vibes, its short-form video feed of AI-generated videos, in Europe through the Meta AI app, following its US debut six weeks earlier — Meta announced on Thursday that Vibes, its short-form video feed of AI-generated videos, is launching in Europe in the Meta AI app.
Discussion:
Thurrott, Meta Newsroom, WinBuzzer and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »
