Top News:
Lauren Hirsch / New York Times:
WBD says Paramount's new $31-a-share offer could lead to a better deal than Netflix's, potentially triggering a four-day period for Netflix to revise its bid — Warner Bros. Discovery said Paramount's new offer of $31 a share could lead to a “superior proposal” to the deal it signed with Netflix.
RELATED:
The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD confirms that it received a revised bid from Paramount to acquire the company, but says it still recommends that shareholders vote for Netflix's deal — The global streaming giant revised its takeover offer after a recent amended bid by Paramount. … The details of Paramount's revised bid were not immediately known.
Discussion:
Deadline, Advanced Television, Al Jazeera, Business Insider, Paramount Skydance Corporation, Forbes, New York Times, Axios, Blockonomi, @sherman4949, Breitbart, CNBC, The Streamable, Proactive, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, @brianstelter, International Business Times, Bloomberg, @brianstelter, Reuters, CBS News, Sharecast, Media Play News, Benzinga, Business Today, Reuters, Telegraph, Cord Cutters News, Screen, Stocktwits, Los Angeles Business Journal, Variety, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, r/MediaMergers and r/MediaMergers
K.J. Yossman / Variety:
The UK plans to update the Media Act 2024 to bring streaming platforms with 500K+ users under “enhanced” Ofcom regulation, giving it power to investigate them — Streaming platforms in the U.K. are set to come under “enhanced regulation” from media regulator Ofcom …
Discussion:
Advanced Television, Engadget, TVBEurope, The Guardian, Human Events, What's On Disney Plus, Mirror, The Wrap, @alexarmstrong, EasternEye, The Next Web, Prolific North, Agence France-Presse, The Standard, GB News, @prestonjbyrne, Screen, Broadband TV News, Reuters, C21Media and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
The FTC and FCC are engaging in a hostile takeover of the marketplace of ideas by treating editorial decisions as fraud and conditioning mergers on news content — The Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission were designed to be independent stewards of the public interest …
Zac Ntim / Deadline:
BAFTA tells members a “comprehensive review” is underway after a Tourette's campaigner involuntarily said a racial slur during the ceremony — BAFTA told its members this afternoon that it has started what it described as a comprehensive review of Sunday's Film Awards …
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Jake Kanter / Deadline:
Source: Warner Bros. raised concerns about the involuntary racial slur during the BAFTA Film Awards and requested the incident be removed from the BBC broadcast
Discussion:
Forbes, BBC, HuffPost, Daily Mail, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, The Wrap, Screen, Cele|bitchy, The Guardian, @infinitesnow.bsky.social, @pwilson720.bsky.social, E! Online, Dexerto, Mediaite, Al Jazeera and Mirror
Alex Ritman / Variety:
BAFTA says it takes “full responsibility” for putting its “guests in a very difficult situation”, after a Tourette's campaigner made several offensive comments
Discussion:
The Wrap, UNILAD, BBC, The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Cele|bitchy, The Daily Sceptic, Daily Star, Metro.co.uk, TheJournal.ie, Baller Alert, HuffPost, Chicago Tribune, Gold Derby, Mediaweek, Sandra Rose, Page Six, The Sun, Screen, Reality Tea, Reuters, Hollywood Life, Daily Mail, Mirror, Mediaite, Associated Press and FemaleFirst
Katie Campione / Deadline:
NBCU says the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics averaged 23.5M viewers on its platforms for US afternoon and primetime periods, up 96% from the 2022 Beijing Olympics — It appears NBCUniversal gets the gold for its presentation of the Milan Cortina Olympics, which were the most-watched Winter Games in more than a decade.
Tom Singleton / BBC:
The UK ICO fines Reddit £14.47M for unlawfully using children's personal information; Reddit began verifying user ages in July 2025 to comply with the UK OSA — Reddit has been fined £14.47m by the UK's data watchdog for unlawfully using children's personal information.
Discussion:
UK ICO, Engadget, Sky News, Android Headlines, Ars Technica, Biometric Update, @iconews, @timsweeneyepic, The Independent, CyberInsider, The Sun, @aswren, Reclaim The Net, The Register, Cyber Security News, 9to5Mac, The Record, Benzinga, RTÉ, The Guardian, BleepingComputer, Politico, BusinessCloud, UKTN, Telecompaper, r/ukpolitics, r/technology and r/unitedkingdom, more at Techmeme »
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
At a panel, Tubi MD David Salmon said “consumers candidly don't care” if content is professionally produced, creator-produced, or UGC — David Salmon, along with Pluto TV and DAZN execs, discussed sports as a streaming user driver and inspiration for “shoulder content” at MIP London.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
AWS launches Elemental Inference, an AI tool that lets networks convert live video into vertical clips for mobile and social media use in real time — AWS Elemental Inference will let networks and studios convert live sports, news and other content into vertical video in real-time.
Discussion:
MediaPost, TVNewsCheck, Forbes, Amazon Web Services, Deadline and SiliconANGLE
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Mogul, founded by ex-SoundCloud execs to help artists track royalties, raised $5M and says it has helped track $1.5B in lost royalties since 2025 — Music rights and royalties are a complex world. There are multiple types of royalties, and artists need to make sure that their data …
Discussion:
Julie Lein on LinkedIn and Music Business Worldwide
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
TelevisaUnivision reports Q4 revenue down 2% YoY to $1.32B, US revenue down 7% YoY to $777M, and a net loss of $234.7M, down from an $809.7M loss in Q4 2024 — Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivsion said it narrowed its losses in the fourth quarter as it generated profits …
Discussion:
TelevisaUnivision, TVNewsCheck, Deadline, TelevisaUnivision, The Hollywood Reporter, Inside Radio and Telecompaper
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google says AI music generation platform ProducerAI is joining Labs and will be powered by a Lyria 3 preview version; ProducerAI was developed alongside artists — ProducerAI will use Google's Lyria 3 AI model to help users generate sounds, workshop lyrics, remix songs, and more.
Lee Yoon-seo / The Korea Herald:
South Korea's three major terrestrial broadcasters, KBS, MBC, and SBS, sue OpenAI, alleging it used their news content to train AI models without authorization — Korean broadcasters claim that while OpenAI has entered into paid licensing agreements with global media companies, it refuses negotiations with them
Discussion:
알파경 …, Kyungsuk Kim on LinkedIn, Tech in Asia and Korea Joongang Daily
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