Top News:
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
The FCC approves the sale of certain local broadcast TV stations from Tegna to Nexstar, granting a waiver from a cap limiting how many stations can be owned — Nexstar said on Thursday that they had closed their acquisition of Tegna following approvals from the FCC and the Justice Department.
Discussion:
NBC News, TheDesk.net, Radio & Television …, Reuters, Bloomberg, Cord Cutters News, @fcc, @brendancarrfcc, WVEC and Los Angeles Times
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The Hollywood Reporter:
Nexstar says it has closed its Tegna acquisition after the DOJ and FCC approved it; CEO Perry Sook says Nexstar is grateful to Trump and the FCC's Brendan Carr — The megadeal is being challenged by eight states, but DOJ and FCC approval Thursday allowed the deal to close.
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Eight US states, including CA, CO, and NY, sue to block Nexstar's proposed $3.54B merger with Tegna on antitrust grounds; DirecTV files a separate suit — A group of eight states filed suit late on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, California, to block Nexstar's (NXST.O) …
Discussion:
CNN, TV Tech, Bloomberg, CNN, US District Court, Eastern District of California, Deadline, @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov, NBC News, Deadline, State of California, BIG by Matt Stoller, The Hollywood Reporter, Radio & Television …, Bloomberg Law, Barrett Media, Blockonomi, All Rise News, Free Press Action Fund Feed, @ddayen.bsky.social, The Wrap, Associated Press, doj.state.or.us, WXIA-TV, Cord Cutters News, TheDesk.net, The Hill, Cord Cutters News, Yahoo Finance, @davidshepardson, @agrobbonta, Wall Street Journal, @notaaroncraig.bsky.social, @nateraymond.bsky.social, Fingerlakes1.com and Reuters
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Sony Music exec Dennis Kooker says the company has sent 135K+ takedown notices for deepfakes of its artists, but sees opportunities in AI with proper licensing — - Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email — The IFPI launched its latest Global Music Report this morning in London …
Discussion:
BBC, CMU, Digital Music News and The A.V. Club
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Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
IFPI: global recorded music revenues hit $31.7B in 2025, up 6.4% YoY, total streaming revenue surpassed $22B, and users of paid music subscriptions reached 837M
IFPI: global recorded music revenues hit $31.7B in 2025, up 6.4% YoY, total streaming revenue surpassed $22B, and users of paid music subscriptions reached 837M
Discussion:
Billboard, @aramsinn.bsky.social, Ricardo Castanheira on LinkedIn, Variety and Music Ally
James Faris / Business Insider:
Source: CBS News is planning to lay off dozens of employees as part of an overhaul led by Bari Weiss; 11 employees of CBS Evening News took buyouts in February — Follow James Faris … - CBS News is planning to lay off dozens of employees across the company.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with LightShed Partners' Rich Greenfield on Paramount's WBD deal, the need to ramp up content production, media as a trophy asset, streaming tech, and more — Today on Decoder, let's talk about the big Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. — This deal could reshape all of media and entertainment if and when it closes.
Discussion:
Dan Rayburn on LinkedIn
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Rachel McDevitt / 90.5 WESA:
Pittsburgh City Paper, closed by Block Communications three months ago, is reviving under a new nonprofit, LocalMatters, with Lenfest Institute backing — Nearly three months after Pittsburgh City Paper announced it was shutting down, the alt-weekly is rising from the dead, thanks to new ownership.
Discussion:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Business Journal, Axios and @executiveotaku.bsky.social
Jacob Feldman / Sportico:
EverPass says it will be the exclusive commercial option for the NFL Sunday Ticket package for the upcoming season, after sharing rights with DirecTV since 2023 — The streaming revolution is coming to the sports bar. In an email to customers, EverPass Media said it would become …
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
A man accused of using thousands of bot accounts to stream AI songs, making millions in royalties, pleads guilty in US district court to wire fraud conspiracy — The man at the center of what's been described as the first-ever criminal prosecution for AI-assisted streaming fraud in the United States has pleaded guilty.
Discussion:
Billboard, Rolling Stone, US Department of Justice and Stereogum
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Meta plans to reduce its reliance on third-party vendors for content moderation, in favor of AI tools that it says are better at spotting scams and other tasks — Meta Platforms Inc. will soon cut back on its use of third-party vendors to help with content moderation, relying instead …
Discussion:
Social Media Today, MediaPost, PYMNTS.com, The Post Millennial, @joelkaplan@threads.com, TechCrunch, Engadget, RTÉ, @joelkaplan@threads.com, The Information, Brian Dalessandro on LinkedIn, CNBC, Meta Newsroom, @joelkaplan@threads.com, Compliance Podcast Network and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Adrian Weckler / Irish Independent:
Mediahuis Ireland suspends former CEO Peter Vandermeersch from his role as a fellow after he admitted that some quotes in his writings were AI “hallucinations” — The Irish Independent has removed recent opinion articles written by the journalist while seeking clarity
Discussion:
RTÉ
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
A look at the AP's shift into video to generate DTC revenue; a source says US papers make up under 10% of its overall revenue and non-media clients are growing — Giovanna Dell'Orto was doing some of the hardest work a reporter can, talking to people who had just seen a shooting.
Discussion:
Julie Pace on LinkedIn
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Publisher Chicken Soup for the Soul sues several tech companies including Google and Anthropic in federal court, claiming its content was used to train LLMs — Book publisher Chicken Soup for the Soul sued several Big Tech companies in California federal court late Tuesday for allegedly misusing …
Discussion:
Bloomberg Law, AppleInsider, MacTech.com, Publishers Lunch, Law360, 9to5Mac and New York Times, more at Techmeme »
