Top News:
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
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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 …
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 Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, TV Insider, Sports Media Watch, Sportico, ESPN Press Room U.S., Sports Business Journal, NBCSports.com, @espnpr, MacTrast, The Mac Observer, mxdwn Television, 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, Los Angeles Times, The US Sun, Barrett Media, Wall Street Journal, MacTech.com, Engadget, CNBC, The Japan Times, Reuters, New Jersey Online, MacRumors, ESPN.com, Sports Video Group, USA Today, Washington Post, Associated Press, The Wrap, Bloomberg, Deadline, NBC News, Variety, Sports Illustrated, MLB.com, TVNewsCheck, Daring Fireball, The Big Lead, Sporting News, Fox Business and Android Authority
Defector:
Defector reports Year 5 revenue up 1% YoY to $4.65M, including $3.8M from subscriptions; all 19 original co-founders continue to work at the worker-owned outlet — Purpose of this report — Defector celebrated our fifth birthday in September 2025. It is a great honor, and something of a burden …
Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:
IAB: ad spend in the creator ecosystem in 2025 is expected to rise 26% YoY to $37B, vastly outperforming ad spend in media overall, set to grow 5.7% YoY — Investment has increased 26% year-over-year, a level of growth that is four times faster than growth in the overall media industry
Discussion:
Interactive Advertising Bureau, Deadline, Business Insider and Digiday
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 …
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:
Gizmodo, The Hollywood Reporter, Music Ally, Warner Music Group, Music Business Worldwide, NextBigWhat and Reuters
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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, PCMag, The A.V. Club, @autismronin, @merphed, @stevenwallaby, @evenstqrs, @scaredchris, @transyapper7781, @mikeisaac, @letterboxd, @ali_sivi, @wickskiller, @wengelll, @maicasx, CNET, Gizmodo and IndieWire, more at Techmeme »
