Top News:
Bloomberg:
Sources: Netflix has told WBD management that it will honor WBD's contractual agreements to release movies in theaters if it's successful in buying the company — Netflix Inc. has told management of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. that it will keep releasing the studio's films in theaters …
RELATED:
Hugo Lowell / The Guardian:
Sources: a White House official discussed cutting CNN hosts that President Trump loathes, with Larry Ellison and running CBS assets like 60 Minutes on CNN — Senior officials indicated favorability toward Paramount Skydance to acquire Warner Bros Discovery
Discussion:
Daily Caller News Foundation and TheStreet
Financial Times:
A look at the WBD bidding process ahead of a November 20 deadline; sources say Paramount CEO David Ellison and Larry Ellison enjoy an advantage in Washington — Father-and-son tech billionaires flash cash to overcome rivals Netflix and Comcast as they pursue a Hollywood empire
Discussion:
Benzinga, Bloomberg, Washington Times and Deadline
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
The White House sends out a press release calling ABC News “a Democrat spin operation masquerading as a broadcast network” and cataloging perceived offenses — A day after President Donald Trump blew up at ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce and called for the network to lose …
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Reuters:
The FCC opens a review of agreements between national networks and local TV stations, including about rules controlling how stations preempt network programs — - FCC reviews network-affiliate agreements after Trump's ABC license comments — FCC to ask whether national broadcasters …
Nicholas Hune-Brown / The Local:
How a freelancer's suspicious pitch led an editor to dig into past work, finding inconsistencies and falsehoods, as tech makes falsifying writing trivially easy — A suspicious pitch from a freelancer led editor Nicholas Hune-Brown to dig into their past work.
Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:
All four reporters at Suncoast Searchlight, a nonprofit news site, accused their EIC of using generative AI tools without disclosure; one reporter was fired — Suncoast Searchlight's four reporters told the board their editor-in-chief was using AI editing tools and inserting hallucinations into drafts.
Paul Roberts / Seattle Times:
Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen plans to step down December 31 after four decades, to be succeeded by his son, Ryan Blethen; Alan Fisco will become CEO — Ryan Blethen will serve as the next publisher of The Seattle Times, the daily newspaper his great-great grandfather founded in 1896, the company announced Wednesday.
Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
MLB finalizes deals with NBC/Peacock, Netflix, and ESPN; sources: NBC/Peacock pays ~$200M/year, Netflix pays $50M/season, ESPN maintains $1.65B over three years — Major League Baseball announced its new TV deals with NBC, Netflix and ESPN on Wednesday, restructuring its broadcast future.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Sportico, ESPN Press Room U.S., Sports Business Journal, NBCSports.com, mxdwn Television, @espnpr, MacTrast, The Mac Observer, Cord Cutters News, Front Office Sports, San Diego Union-Tribune, iDrop News, Awful Announcing, Axios, Plain Dealer, UPI, TV Media Blog, True Blue LA, New York Daily News, The Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The US Sun, Barrett Media, MacTech.com, Engadget, CNBC, Reuters, New Jersey Online, MacRumors, Sports Video Group, ESPN.com, USA Today, Washington Post, Associated Press, The Wrap, Bloomberg, Deadline, NBC News, Variety, Sports Illustrated, MLB.com, TVNewsCheck, The Japan Times, Daring Fireball, The Big Lead, Sporting News, Fox Business, The Streamable and Android Authority
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: UMG, WMG, and Sony Music have licensed their works to Klay, which is building a streaming service that will let users remake songs using AI tools — The world's largest music companies have licensed their works to a music startup called Klay, which is building a streaming service …
Discussion:
Music Business Worldwide, NextBigWhat and Reuters
RELATED:
Letterboxd:
Letterboxd plans to launch the Letterboxd Video Store, a curated rental platform with undistributed festival standouts, restorations, and more, in December 2025 — Coming in early December: Letterboxd Video Store, our latest feature to get you adding films to your watchlist and, crucially, checking them off.
Discussion:
Engadget, @autismronin, @stevenwallaby, @evenstqrs, @scaredchris, @transyapper7781, @mikeisaac, @ali_sivi, @maicasx, @wickskiller, @wengelll, @merphed, @letterboxd, The A.V. Club, CNET, Gizmodo and IndieWire, more at Techmeme »
The Japan Times:
A Japanese court orders Cloudflare to pay a ~$3.2M fine to four major Japanese publishers for its role in hosting servers for manga piracy sites — The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered Cloudflare to pay ¥500 million ($3.2 million) to major Japanese publishers after the U.S. firm …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon launches a Video Recaps feature on Prime Video that uses AI to summarize a show's key plot points with snippets and music, available in beta for US users — Feature debuts after streamer introduced text-based AI recaps last year … Now Amazon is using AI to add sight, sound and motion to the mix.
