Mediagazer: The world's biggest digital ad companies saw significant sales growth in Q3, due to US political ad revenue, AI-enhanced ad tools, and healthy consumer spending (Sara Fischer/Axios)

CNBC:

Sources: Greek media company Antenna Group is in early talks to acquire Time from Marc Benioff, who bought the magazine in 2018 for $180M — The Greek media company Antenna Group is in talks to acquire Time Inc. from Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: New York Post, The Wrap, GeekWire, @pkafka, San Francisco Business Times, @rafat, @teddyschleifer, @tomgara@threads.net, CNBC on LinkedIn, @amonck, @sherman4949, @maxwelltani and @heidilegg

Reuters:

Disney forms the Office of Technology Enablement to coordinate its use of emerging technologies such as AI and mixed reality, to be led by CTO Jamie Voris — Walt Disney (DIS.N) is forming a new group to coordinate the company's use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and mixed reality …

Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt quits as a contributing columnist at WaPo, after abruptly leaving a Post live video event hosted by Jonathan Capehart — Hugh Hewitt has quit as a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, after storming out of a Post Live event on Friday morning …

Sara Fischer / Axios:

The world's biggest digital ad companies saw significant sales growth in Q3, due to US political ad revenue, AI-enhanced ad tools, and healthy consumer spending — - Google's advertising revenue jumped more than 10% year-over-year, thanks in part to election-related ad spend, especially on YouTube …

Discussion: Radio & Television …, @davidclinchnews, Marketing Dive, Radio Ink, Axios, Digiday, CNBC, Adweek, TVNewsCheck and Le Monde.fr

Jack Neff / Ad Age:

A survey of US advertisers and agencies: 49% said alternative currencies were just as effective as Nielsen and 36% said they were more effective than Nielsen — Nielsen remains dominant, but a growing number of advertisers have tried alternatives and most find them equal or better

Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:

Trump sues CBS News in a Texas court, claiming CBS engaged in election interference “through malicious, deceptive” editing of its 60 Minutes Harris interview — Former President Trump is suing CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview it broadcast with Vice President Harris earlier …

Financial Times:

BBC World Service secures a 25% increase in its government grant for 2025/26; sources: £27M has been agreed, on top of baseline funding of £104M this year — Executives have warned that cuts have left the UK struggling to counter a rise in Russian and Chinese propaganda

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Fubo reports Q3 revenue up 20% YoY to $386.2M, a net loss of $54.7M, down from $84.4M in Q3 2023, and 1.6M subscribers in North America, up 9% YoY — Revenue in the period ended September 30 increased 20% over the same frame a year ago to reach $386.2 million. Losses narrowed to 17 cents a share from 29 cents a year ago.

Discussion: Awful Announcing, TVNewsCheck, Sportico, Front Office Sports, The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, Cord Cutters News, ir.fubo.tv and Benzinga

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

Troveo, which helps content owners and digital rights managers license content to AI companies but keep ownership rights, launches with $4.5M in seed funding — The platform, Troveo, launches with $4.5 million in seed funding and says it has “deals in place with prominent AI companies to pay …

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, WebWire and Tech.eu

Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:

Charter says some cable plans will have access to ad-supported versions of Max, Disney+, Peacock, ESPN+, and other streamers at no extra cost by early 2025 — TV Select customers will be able to watch the ad-supported versions of Max, Disney+, Peacock Premium, Paramount+ and more at no additional cost

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, TVNewsCheck, StreamTV Insider, MediaPost, Advanced Television and @2xaught7.bsky.social

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Robert Kagan and Danielle Allen, who resigned from WaPo over its decision not to issue a presidential endorsement, join The Atlantic as contributing writers — New York CNN — — Two veteran writers who resigned from The Washington Post over its non-endorsement decision are joining The Atlantic.

Discussion: The Atlantic, New Republic and Columbia Journalism Review

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Apple reports Q4 revenue from Services, which includes the App Store, Apple TV+, and Apple Music, up 12% YoY to $24.97B, a new quarterly record, but below est. — iPhone sales tick up 5.5% in September quarter, above analyst forecasts … The company reported revenue of $94.93 billion …

Discussion: BGR, Reuters, @bloombergtv, @lexnfx, @lexnfx, Bloomberg, Media Play News, Apple Inc., The Hollywood Reporter and KDFX-TV, more at Techmeme »

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:

OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Search to let users search for timely information using GPT-4o, after testing the feature in July 2024, a direct challenge to Google — The new option will let the chatbot's users search for timely information much as they would on the web.

Discussion: MIT Technology Review, NPR, @corybe@threads.net, @kylie.robison@threads.net, CNBC, CNET, Yahoo Finance, Android Authority, BGR, VentureBeat, Fast Company, DNyuz, Financial Times and Android Authority