Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix and WBD say Netflix revised its WBD offer to an all-cash deal for $27.75/share, with the same $82.7B value; its original bid had $59B in debt financing — Netflix and WBD announced Tuesday that they amended their definitive agreement for Netflix's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. assets …
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, Advanced Television, The Guardian, Deadline, Screen, CNN, New York Times, About Netflix, The American Bazaar, Agence France-Presse, mxdwn Television, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Fast Company, TheStreet, Reuters, CBS News, The Independent, The Wrap, Barrett Media, Investing.com, AfroTech, Bitcoin Insider, NewsMax.com, UPI, primetimer.com, Pulse 2.0, Cartoon Brew, @brianstelter, The Post Millennial, Blockonomi, Sharecast, Benzinga, WebProNews, The Verge, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Caller, EasternEye, StreamTV Insider, Washington Examiner, Far Out Magazine, Cord Cutters News, The Standard, iPhone in Canada, Miami Herald, TechCrunch, The Irish Times, Proactive, CNBC, @sarafischer, Radio & Television …, Axios, New York Daily News, Outlook Business, Screen Rant, Thurrott, Barron's Online, Broadband TV News, FX Empire, Forbes, Fox Business, The Hollywood Reporter and The Daily Upside, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Sources: banks including Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas, and HSBC began selling an extra $8.2B of short-term loans to help Netflix fund its WBD purchase
Discussion:
New York Post
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Netflix's ad revenue hit $1.5B in 2025, up by more than 2.5x vs. 2024, and viewing hours grew 2% YoY in H2, driven by a 9% rise in viewing of branded originals
Netflix's ad revenue hit $1.5B in 2025, up by more than 2.5x vs. 2024, and viewing hours grew 2% YoY in H2, driven by a 9% rise in viewing of branded originals
Discussion:
Business Insider, Adweek, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Variety, Yahoo Finance, Axios, Benzinga, The Information, The Verge, Bloomberg, @xpangler and Associated Press
Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Greg Peters says Netflix plans to bring new content types like video podcasts to its vertical video feed, and plans to roll out a new mobile UI later in 2026 — The streamer plans to add video podcasts into its mobile feed and upgrade its mobile user interface.
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Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $12B vs. $11.97B est., 325M paid subs, 2025 revenue up 16% to $45.2B, plans to increase content spend by 10% in 2026
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $12B vs. $11.97B est., 325M paid subs, 2025 revenue up 16% to $45.2B, plans to increase content spend by 10% in 2026
Discussion:
TV Tech, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Advanced Television, The Wrap, TheDesk.net, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Watcher Guru, Yahoo Finance, Associated Press, Front Office Sports, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, Netflix Inc., The Hollywood Reporter, Cord Cutters News, Proactiveinvestors UK, Media Play News, Coinpaper, CNBC and Morningstar, more at Techmeme »
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filings: WBD projects CNN will generate $1.8B in revenue and $600M in adjusted EBITDA for FY 2026; docs show CNN had revenue of $2.2B in 2021 and $1.8B in 2023 — Warner Bros. Discovery is revealing financial details in connection with its planned spinout of Discovery Global.
Discussion:
Deadline, Bloomberg, @kbandersen, The Wrap, @pkafka, @benmullin, Cord Cutters News, @kurtandersen.bsky.social and Variety
Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:
Beehiiv expects to nearly double its annual revenue to $50M in 2026; it has 40K+ MAUs, including 15K paying subscribers; 1 in 7 new writers come from Substack — Beehiiv expects to nearly double annual revenue to $50 million this year as the newsletter startup challenges larger rival Substack …
Discussion:
WebProNews, @denk_tweets and @loudmouthjulia, more at Techmeme »
Peter White / Deadline:
Alan's Universe creator Alan Chikin Chow, whose YouTube channel has 99M subscribers, is working on a Netflix show, joining other major YouTubers at the streamer — He is working with Hybe America, the U.S. arm of the Korean entertainment company responsible for BTS, on the untitled project.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Forbes, Tubefilter, The Movie Blog, Variety, What's on Netflix and The Hollywood Reporter
Katie Atkinson / Billboard:
Penske Media names Leila Cobo and Jason Lipshutz as co-chief content officers of Billboard, overseeing editorial content and newsroom operations — The pair will share oversight of Billboard's editorial content and newsroom operations. … Leila Cobo and Jason Lipshutz have been promoted …
Discussion:
Talking Biz News, The Wrap, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter
@erikwemple:
The US House Armed Services Committee formally asks the Defense Department how it plans to safeguard Stars and Stripes' congressionally required independence — A little followup on the Pentagon's move to “refocus” Stars and Stripes: The House Armed Services Committee has sent a bipartisan query to the Defense Department asking how it plans to safeguard the publication's congressionally required independence, among other questions.
Discussion:
Stars & Stripes, NPR and Business Insider
Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Adobe pledges ~$10M in grants and product donations in 2026 to support filmmakers, including funding creators directly for the first time — The software company is launching new partnerships with organizations including Dimoldenberg's Dimz Inc. Academy and Rideback RISE.
Discussion:
@davelee.me
Kerry Flynn / Axios:
Pitchfork launches a $5 per month or $50 per year subscription that lets readers comment on reviews, rate albums, and access its archive of 30,000+ reviews — Pitchfork is launching a new subscription that lets readers comment on reviews, rate albums themselves and access its full archive …
Discussion:
Pitchfork, Motley Fool and The A.V. Club
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen: Christmas Day 2025 set a record for US streaming usage with 55.1B minutes, or 54% of all TV viewing for the day, beating Christmas 2024 by 3.9B minutes — The month of December also marked another all-time high for streaming usage. — With three streaming-exclusive NFL games …
Discussion:
TheDesk.net, MediaPost, Nielsen, Media Play News, Front Office Sports, Reuters, Deadline, Barrett Media, The Wrap and Awful Announcing, more at Techmeme »
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
A jury has found Edo, a TV ad measurement company, liable for breach of contract and says Edo must pay $18.3M in damages to rival iSpot; Edo plans to appeal — EDO, an advertising technology firm co-founded by actor and filmmaker Edward Norton, has been found liable for breach of contract by a federal jury.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Adweek and AdExchanger
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Snap reaches an agreement to settle a social media addiction lawsuit, a week before the start of a trial in the first of several such lawsuits — The settlement means Snap will avoid a trial where plaintiffs had planned to argue that social media platforms are inherently defective and subject to personal injury liability.
Discussion:
Bloomberg Law, more at Techmeme »
