Top News:
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro details priorities in a staff memo: maintaining creative excellence, leveraging technology, and operating as “One Disney” to align teams — The entertainment giant's new chief says “great storytelling” and “creative excellence” will remain the company's north star
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney CEO Bob Iger officially passes the torch to incoming CEO Josh D'Amaro, who says Disney+ will evolve “to become the digital centerpiece of our company” — At the media giant's 2026 shareholders meeting Wednesday, held virtually, Iger passed the torch to incoming CEO Josh D'Amaro …
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Business Insider, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, IndieWire, Florida Politics, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, WPXI-TV, Fortune, Deadline, CBS News, @disney, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, Media Play News, Reuters, Pulse 2.0, International Business Times, The Walt Disney Company, Benzinga, Bloomberg, The Post Millennial, Cord Cutters News, Barron's Online and Sports Business Journal
Zach Vallese / CNBC:
Facebook launches Creator Fast Track, offering big Instagram, TikTok and YouTube creators guaranteed monthly pay and boosted reach to post on Facebook — Meta on Wednesday launched a new program aimed at luring top creators from TikTok and YouTube to Facebook, offering guaranteed pay and boosted reach.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
MS Now overhauls its lineup from morning through night, including Morning Joe returning to three hours from 6AM to 9AM, as it prepares for the 2026 US midterms — Stephanie Ruhle, Ali Velshi, Jacob Soboroff and Alicia Menendez get new shows, ‘Morning Joe’ cut to three hours …
Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Sources: Sky is in talks with IMI about terminating the Sky News Arabia brand, after accusations the UAE joint venture is involved in broadcasting propaganda — Sky News Arabia has been accused of broadcasting propaganda and whitewashing genocide in Sudan — Sky is considering terminating …
Discussion:
Telegraph
Rob Salkowitz / Forbes:
Comics platform GlobalComix raised $13M, following a $6.5M raise in 2023, and acquires digital manga platform INKR, adding 200K+ volumes of Asian comics — Just when things seemed to be quieting down in the multibillion dollar digital comics space, GlobalComix today announced a series …
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
BMG Rights Management, owned by German media group Bertelsmann, sues Anthropic for allegedly using its copyrighted lyrics to train the LLMs that power Claude — Music company BMG Rights Management has sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in California federal court for allegedly using …
Discussion:
Billboard and Music Business Worldwide
Jake Kanter / Deadline:
Sources: former Google executive Matt Brittin is expected to be named the BBC's next director general as soon as next week; Brittin spent 18 years at Google — The BBC is expected to hire former Google executive Matt Brittin as its next director general, according to insiders at the UK broadcaster.
Discussion:
The Guardian, The i Paper and Freedom News
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
The UK government withdraws a proposal to let AI companies train on copyrighted works unless creators opt out, after backlash from artists like Dua Lipa — The UK Government has withdrawn its support for plans to make it easier for AI companies to steal copyright content.
Discussion:
The Guardian, BBC, UKTN, questions-statements …, National Union of Journalists …, Reuters, Mixmag.net, Screen and Advanced Television, more at Techmeme »
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The Times and Sunday Times had 659,000 digital subscribers at the end of 2025, up 7% YoY; editor says digital subscribers now cover cost of 700-strong newsroom — Gallagher also hit out at government lack of action on SLAPPs and IPSO ‘overreach’. — Times editor Tony Gallagher …
Brent Lang / Variety:
Director Coerte Voorhees says he is using AI to feature Val Kilmer in “a significant part” in an indie film, with the cooperation of the late actor's estate — Five years prior to his death in 2025, Val Kilmer was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave.”
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NBC News, Daily Mail, The Daily Caller, @colehaddon.bsky.social, @culturecrave.co, The Post Millennial, Cord Cutters News, @zeeshanaleem.bsky.social, New York Daily News, Rolling Stone, Us Weekly, Page Six, Forbes, The A.V. Club, Tom's Guide, WPXI-TV, @joshsternberg.com, The Guardian, @rachelleishman, @keithrosson.bsky.social, Hollywood in Toto, IndieWire, IGN, @shineyezehuhh.bsky.social, Kotaku, World of Reel, E! Online, @katienotopoulos, The Daily Beast, @thecinesthetic, @joannefirth.bsky.social, @radiodeadair.com, @zsharf, @davidcornelius.bsky.social, @cadaverdave.com, ComingSoon.net, Consequence, Dexerto, Gamereactor UK, Just Jared, Screen Rant and Oh No They Didn't!, more at Techmeme »
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Deezer reports a net income of €9M in 2025, its first profit since its 2007 founding, while revenue fell 1.4% YoY to €534M — Industry under threat from fraudsters uploading and repeatedly playing tracks created by AI to extract royalties — French streaming service Deezer …
Discussion:
Billboard and Deezer Newsroom
