Top News:
Charles Gasparino / New York Post:
Sources: Netflix ramps up a charm offensive in its pitch to WBD and is sowing doubts about the inevitability of Paramount's bid from an antitrust standpoint — Netflix is ramping up a major charm offensive with Warner Bros. Discovery and US regulators as it pursues the media giant's streaming service …
Discussion:
International Business Times, TVBEurope, BMI, @devonheinen.bsky.social, @cgasparino, The Wrap, MediaPost and r/MediaMergers
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Bloomberg:
Sources: WBD asks bidders to submit improved offers by December 1 and says it may enter a period of exclusive negotiations with one company after those bids — Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., the parent of HBO and CNN, has asked potential buyers to submit new, sweetened offers after receiving …
Discussion:
Screen, Awful Announcing, Cord Cutters News, TipRanks Financial, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Variety, Media Play News, Deadline and r/MediaMergers
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Warner Music and AI music generator Suno strike a deal, settling previous litigation; Suno will launch licensed AI models and will acquire WMG's Songkick — Warner Music Group and AI music generator Suno have struck what they call a “first-of-its-kind partnership”.
Discussion:
MediaNama, Suno, The Guardian, eWeek, Warner Music Group, @nayakkayak, @koltregaskes, @hersh_desai, @mignano, SiliconANGLE, @mattvidpro, @mikeyshulman, @buckymoore, Digital Music News, @koltregaskes, @matdryhurst, Randy Nichols on LinkedIn, @future_of_music, Tech Times, @gavinpurcell, DNYUZ, @koltregaskes, Sam Tall on LinkedIn, Engadget, Music Ally, Forbes, WinBuzzer, Rolling Stone, The Verge, Variety, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Bloomberg, Billboard and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
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Bloomberg:
In interviews, 22 indie food creators say Google's AI Overviews and AI food pics on Pinterest and Facebook have decimated traffic and yielded unusable recipes — Food bloggers see traffic dip as home cooks turn to AI, inspired by impossible pictures — Eb Gargano has been writing recipes …
Rebecca Rubin / Variety:
Sources: Paramount plans to distribute Brett Ratner-directed Rush Hour 4 after Trump asked it to revive the franchise; Ratner directed Amazon's Melania doc — “Rush Hour 4” is in the works, with Paramount on board to distribute the newest installment in the buddy-cop series.
Discussion:
Dexerto, Deadline, Metro.co.uk, The Wrap, Rebecca Bregman on LinkedIn, Breitbart, HuffPost, The Information, Daily Mail, @mattbelloni, People, @punkonbuslives.bsky.social, Comic Book, IndieWire, The Daily Caller, Hollywood Life, Dow Jones Newswires, Mediaite, Us Weekly, CNBC, Benzinga, @carnage4life.bsky.social, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, Plain Dealer, The A.V. Club, TMZ.com, Puck, @cmewing.bsky.social, @annabower.bsky.social, @fhartunknown.myatproto.social, Alternet.org, @virtualbri@mastodon.online, Screen Rant, @candicefrederick.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, @moongirlsgonemad.bsky.social, @mrbeaks.bsky.social, World of Reel, Oh No They Didn't!, DNYUZ, Just Jared and Decider
@dropsitenews:
Bari Weiss says she wants CBS News to redraw “the lines of what falls in the 40 yard lines of acceptable debate”, such as elevating voices like Alan Dershowitz — Bari Weiss says she wants to use her new perch at CBS News to “redraw the lines of what falls in the 40 yards of acceptable debate” in American political and cultural life. She says the aim is to sideline voices like Hasan Piker, Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, and elevate [video]
Lucy Schiller / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at The Border Chronicle, a subscriber- and grant-supported publication that tells stories from the perspective of people living near the US-Mexico border — “Food is a topic which is like that little string on the sweater,” Pablo De La Rosa, a journalist in South Texas, told me.
Discussion:
@niemanlab.org
Hyung-Jin Kim / Associated Press:
38 North: outside radio broadcasting to North Korea is down 85% since the start of 2025 due to the shutdown of US broadcasters and South Korean policy changes — For two hours every day, Lee Si-young and her colleagues broadcast uncensored foreign news into authoritarian North Korea.
Tony Maglio / The Hollywood Reporter:
Ampere: US sports rights spending expected to increase 20% by 2030 to over $78B; recent NBA and MLB rights deals will account for nearly half of all spend — Ampere Analysis forecasts a 20 percent increase by 2030. — If you thought you were paying a lot for your sports-TV package now, just wait until 2030.
Discussion:
MediaPost, TVNewsCheck, TV Tech, Broadband TV News and Advanced Television
Kai Williams / Ars Technica:
In interviews, an actress, a director, and other creators describe how they are adopting or rejecting AI tools and how they view career prospects in an AI era — I talked with nine creators about economic pressures and fan backlash. — In 2016, the legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki …
Discussion:
StateScoop, Fast Company and The Economic Times
Tyler Falk / Current:
The NPR Network revenue programs brought in $18.3M in FY25, including $9M from NPR Network donations and podcast subscriptions via NPR+, up nearly 5x YoY — NPR's programs to help raise funds for public radio stations have exceeded expectations, network executives reported during a Friday board meeting.
Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: Business Insider quietly lifted paywalls across most of its site after missing H1 2025 revenue targets; Similarweb: traffic fell 38% YoY in September — Earlier this month, Business Insider quietly lifted the paywall across the vast majority of its website.
Discussion:
@status.news, @passantino.bsky.social and @oliverdarcy.bsky.social
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
Memo: the BBC presents plans to save £100M by shrinking its workforce to invest in digital resources and content, potentially affecting jobs in legal and more — BBC chief operating officer Leigh Tavaziva wrote to employees on Tuesday (full memo below) to address Deadline's report …
Discussion:
@nedhamson1@mastodon.social, TVNewsCheck and The Wrap
Emmett Lindner / New York Times:
Charm.io: TikTok Shop reached $10B+ in US sales across 600K creators between January and October, up from $5B YoY; global sales are on par with eBay's — The popular app's online marketplace is growing rapidly in the United States, driven by TikTok's popularity and influencer advertisements that look a lot like TV infomercials.
Discussion:
Alex Nisenzon on LinkedIn and TheIndustry.beauty
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