Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney reports Q1 revenue up 5% YoY to $26B, driven by Zootopia 2 and a record $10B revenue from Experiences; streaming operating income rose 72% YoY to $450M — Disney beat Wall Street expectations with a 5% lift in revenue for the December 2025 quarter, and its streaming biz continued …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Advanced Television, Deadline, Benzinga, The Wrap, Business Wire, The Streamable, Los Angeles Times, Yahoo Finance, Cord Cutters News, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Streaming Better, Variety, Sports Business Journal, TV Insider, Syracuse Post-Standard, TheDesk.net, Media Play News and Orlando Sentinel
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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney says ESPN is valued at ~$30B and the NFL's 10% equity stake in ESPN valued at ~$3B; Disney has the right to buy back NFL's stake in 2034, per a filing — Disney has the right to buy back the NFL's stake beginning in July 2034, with the league holding an option to acquire more of ESPN.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Sports Business Journal, Cord Cutters News, Awful Announcing and Sportico
Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
ESPN closes the deal to acquire multiple NFL Media assets after receiving US regulatory approval; NFL will get a 10% stake in ESPN as part of the agreement — Share full article — Government regulators have approved ESPN's billion-dollar blockbuster acquisition of multiple NFL Media assets …
Discussion:
Deadline, ESPN, Sports Business Journal, Awful Announcing, TVNewsCheck, Marchand Sports Media, Cord Cutters News, Sportico, TV Tech, The TV Answer Man!, NBCSports.com, Barrett Media, TheDesk.net, The Wrap, Washington Post, Front Office Sports, Variety, New York Post, Cord Cutters News, Daily Mail and Awful Announcing
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Disney reports Q1 operating profit down 9% YoY to $4.6B, weighed down by high movie production costs and a 15-day YouTube TV carriage dispute that cost $110M
Discussion:
Business Insider, Android Authority, Yahoo Finance, Cord Cutters News, The Wrap, Front Office Sports and The Streamable
The Wrap:
Source: CBS News may cut ties with new contributor Peter Attia, a wellness expert, after emails show Epstein links; Bari Weiss sees this as giving in to the mob — In newly released emails, the wellness guru made crude jokes in chummy correspondence with the late convicted sex offender
Discussion:
New York Times, @peterattiamd, New York Post, USA Today, @jonathanjarry.bsky.social, @ariehkovler, @kimmasters.bsky.social, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, @drcamrx, RADAR, @drewmagary.bsky.social, @dinfontay.com, @thedailybeast, @dave_longevity, @cgasparino, @shannonrwatts, CBS News, @aaronl1968.bsky.social, @heerjeet, @sharonwaxman, @samstein, @hshaban, @anakasparian, Deadline, @drcamrx, @mlcalderone, @dave_longevity, @jeremymbarr, @marlownyc, Reuters, The Atlantic, @dave_longevity, @rockrol54750183, @rivertam.bsky.social, HuffPost, @doctortro, @baumann.bsky.social, The Daily Beast, MedPage Today, Raw Story, Mediaite, @sarahweinman.com, @shannonrwatts, @karlbode.com, Variety, Defector and Just Jared
Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
Sources: Disney's board is aligning on promoting theme park division chairman Josh D'Amaro to CEO; Disney says “the board has not yet selected the next CEO” — The board of Walt Disney Co. is aligning on promoting theme-park division chairman Josh D'Amaro to the role …
Discussion:
Reuters, Barron's Online, Variety, The Wrap, New York Post, Sports Business Journal, CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Inc.com, @lucas_shaw, @rogoswami, Florida Politics, Business Insider, Dow Jones Newswires, Cord Cutters News, Deadline, Awful Announcing, Benzinga, Motley Fool, NewsMax.com, Adweek, People, Wall Street Journal, Media Play News and Comic Book
Isaac Rouse / Polygon.com:
Crunchyroll is raising its US prices by $2 per month; the cheapest tier gets its first price increase since 2019 and now offers offline downloads on one device — If you didn't secure a Crunchyroll subscription when it was on sale during Black Friday, we have some bad news, anime fans: The price has officially gone up.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Comic Book, PCMag, Crunchyroll News, Kotaku, The Wrap, IGN, CNET, Screen Rant, Engadget, The Verge and r/anime, more at Techmeme »
Rebecca Rubin / Variety:
Amazon's Melania documentary opens with $7M at the North American box office, above pre-release estimates of $3M to $5M; Amazon spent $75M on the documentary — “Melania,” a documentary that shadows the first lady of the United States in the lead-up to Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration …
Discussion:
The Atlantic, New Yorker, CNN, NBC News, Deadline, Forbes, IndieWire, Blaze Media, Poynter, RedState, @ichotiner, Washington Examiner, One America News Network, Gizmodo, Paste, Dexerto, KTSA, Fox News, @lucas_shaw, The Hollywood Reporter, @benfritz, @ellenenders.bsky.social, @dtgeek@mastodon.social, Screen, Dow Jones Newswires, Vanity Fair, TMZ.com, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Consequence, Rolling Stone, Janet Charlton's Hollywood, Comic Book, Bloomberg, CNBC, Mediaite and People
Kerry Flynn / Axios:
The IAB proposes draft legislation to protect publishers from AI companies using their content to train models and generate summaries without compensation — Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO David Cohen announced proposed draft legislation and plans to push for action to protect publishers …
Discussion:
MediaPost, IAB and TVNewsCheck
Simon Hunt / City A.M.:
Source: the London Stock Exchange cancels hundreds of FT corporate subscriptions in response to the paper's retreat from London markets coverage in recent years — The operator of the London Stock Exchange has cancelled hundreds of corporate subscriptions to the Financial Times …
Discussion:
Ed Cropley on LinkedIn, Adam Taylor on LinkedIn, Talking Biz News and Telegraph
Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
An interview with Christopher Nolan about becoming president of the Directors Guild of America, labor negotiations, studios striking AI deals, and more — In his first interview as president of the Directors Guild of America, the ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Dark Knight’ helmer called a recent downturn …
Discussion:
Variety, @nelsoncarvajal.com, Deadline, The Movie Blog, Screen Rant and @katiekilkenny.bsky.social
Max Tani / Semafor:
A look at the clash between The California Post and Gavin Newsom, helping The Post get more attention for its content while Newsom scores points with his base — Know More — Max's View — The View From Los Angeles — Notable — The California Post is betting its buzzy launch …
Discussion:
@maxwelltani, @maxwelltani and New York Post
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with journalist Danny Funt about his new book on sports betting, news organizations making sports betting deals, parallels with prediction markets, and more — “Sports media is kind of getting bribed,” as one former ESPN reporter told journalist Danny Funt.
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