Top News:

DirecTV and EchoStar's Dish ask a district court judge to reconsider dismissing Fubo's claims against Venu Sports, following Fubo's merger with Hulu + Live TV — The pay TV distributors raised a red flag to a U.S. district judge over a bid to dismiss an earlier injunction against the sports streamer …

Sources: Amazon is exploring news show concepts, probably tied to events, such as Brian Williams' election special on Prime Video that drew ~4M viewers — As the results of Election Night 2024 became known, Brian Williams looked to the future. “Our country is about to change again,” …
Discussion:
Adweek, The Information and @bristei
Ben Strauss / @benjstrauss:
The NYT declines to recognize Athletic staff as part of the Times Guild but says it would recognize a separate bargaining unit; staff seeks an NLRB hearing — NEW: The New York Times has declined to voluntarily recognize the Athletic as part of the Times Guild. In letter to staffers, Times says it would recognize a separate Athletic bargaining unit, a la Wire Cutter. Staffers have petitioned the NLRB for a hearing.
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, @katie_robertson, @nytimesguild, @nytimesguild and @nyguild

Memo: the deputy editor of The Root pressed writers to increase the number of stories they publish a day in part to “offset” a colleague's recent death — The Scoop — The staff of The Root spent the beginning of 2025 mourning the death of a colleague, Stephanie Holland …

Disney says it has an estimated 157M global MAUs watching ad-supported content across its streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, including 112M US users — Disney said Wednesday it has an estimated 157 million global monthly active users watching ad-supported content across its streaming platforms — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.

Vox.com announces layoffs, WGA East says affecting 12 members; memo: Vox Media names Pam Wasserstein and Ryan Pauley as co-presidents, Wasserstein as vice chair — Vox Media laid off staff on Thursday for the second time in just over a month, this time at its general news site Vox.com.
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, The Wrap, @landmanspeaking, @maxwelltani and r/Journalism

Netflix says WWE's Monday Night Raw pulled in 4.9M views in the regions where it's distributed; VideoAmp: Raw averaged 2.6M US households on Netflix — The streamer's debut for the pro wrestling show pulls in more than double its 2024 average in household viewing.

Frank McCourt's Project Liberty says it made a formal bid to ByteDance to buy TikTok's US assets and keep the app alive without its current algorithm — Entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's Project Liberty and its consortium of partners in The People's Bid …
Discussion:
Project Liberty, CNN, UPI, HuffPost, Forbes, CNBC, London Evening Standard, Quartz, The Information, PhoneArena, Marketplace, USA Today and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

NYC-based Captions, an AI-powered video editing app, introduces a free tier with basic video editing tools, while keeping AI features in the $10/month Pro tier — Video editing app Captions is looking to cash in on uncertainty around TikTok and ByteDance's video editing app CapCut's future in the U.S. by turning to a freemium model.
Discussion:
Android Police, more at Techmeme »

Hub Research: 66% of US TV consumers in December 2024 say they prefer to watch TV with ads in exchange for lower subscription costs, up from 58% in June 2021 — Annual survey finds two-thirds of viewers find advertising more tolerable than in on-demand programming
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck

Letterboxd, the cinephile social platform that has become an effective tool to promote independent films, hit 17M members in 2024, up from 11.4M in 2023 — Letterbox, the cinephile social platform that's become perhaps the most effective tool for independent film in a landscape where moviegoers …
Discussion:
Letterboxd, AV Club and The Hollywood Reporter

Amazon launches Amazon Retail Ad Service to let companies show ads in search results, product pages, and other areas of their site, initially in the US — Amazon has turned into an online ad juggernaut in recent years, with brands paying big bucks for premium placement on the retailer's websites.

Adam Mosseri says Meta is adding political content recommendations to Instagram and Threads; Threads' political content control setting will have three options — It's been nearly a year since Instagram and Threads defaulted to blocking recommendations of “political” content from accounts …
Discussion:
The Guardian, New York Post, Raw Story, @mc2x.bsky.social, PhoneArena, @youcaughtscott.com, Mashable, Meta, @foolishowl@social.coop, Engadget, @harrymccracken@mastodon …, @dannygroner.bsky.social, @thebrianpenny@threads.net, @david_ingram@threads.net, @mosseri@threads.net, @mosseri@threads.net, @jack_toohey@threads.net, @johndellaporta@threads.net, @broken.com, @mosseri@threads.net, Business Insider and Techdirt, more at Techmeme »
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