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Variety:
Disney names Josh D'Amaro, head of its theme parks and consumer products division, as CEO, replacing Bob Iger, effective March 18; D'Amaro joined Disney in 1998 — Dana Walden named president and chief creative officer of the company — The Walt Disney Co., after a more than two-year saga …
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Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney says new CEO Josh D'Amaro's initial annual package is set at ~$38.4M, with a $2.5M base, and President Dana Walden's is set at ~$24M, with a $3.75M base — Disney has set the pay packages for its newly appointed top executives: CEO Josh D'Amaro and president and chief creative officer Dana Walden.
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Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney names Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, as its president and chief creative officer, a newly created role, effective March 18 — Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D'Amaro has been elevated to CEO of the Walt Disney Co., capping a closely watched multi-year process of identifying Bob Iger's successor.
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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.
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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
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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 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
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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
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
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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.
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Hannah Abraham / Forbes:
Reliance's Jio Studios acquires a 50.1% equity stake in Sikhya Entertainment for ~$16.7M, uniting India's largest studio with the Oscar-winning production house — Sikhya Entertainment co-founders Guneet Monga Kapoor and Achin Jain with Jio Studios President Jyoti Deshpande
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
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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
DMGT reports revenue down 1% YoY to £1.1B, adjusted operating profit up 11% to £97M, and digital ad revenue down 15% to £148.3M due to Google's AI Overviews — Digital advertising revenue at the publisher of the Daily Mail fell by 15% last year.
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 …
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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 …
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MediaPost, IAB and TVNewsCheck
Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
Amazon Ads announces the open beta of its Model Context Protocol server, which lets advertisers connect AI agents to Amazon Ads through a single integration — At IAB ALM, the retail giant pitched MCP as infrastructure for AI agents to run advertising workflows more efficiently
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Peter White / Deadline:
Versant-owned E! acquires the US broadcasting rights for the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards, taking over from previous rights holder BritBox — It will air the ceremony, which is hosted by Traitors host Alan Cumming, on Sunday, February 22 at 8pm. It will not air the event live given that it is set …
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Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun says the company is among the few in the sector to crack the use of generative AI, and pledges another €1B for AI and data operations — Chief executive says French ad group is among sector's few companies to have figured out how to scale the technology
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