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9:45 PM ET, March 18, 2026

Mediagazer

 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
RELATED:
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”
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 …
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.
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.”
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 …
Variety:
California awards $296M in tax credits for 16 TV shows, including animated and competition shows for the first time in the program's history  —  The doctors at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center will be getting an infusion of cash from the California Film Commission when they return for Season 3 of “The Pitt.”
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Cloudflare says it has appealed the €14.2M fine issued by Italy for refusing to block pirate sites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service, calling the amount “staggering”  —  Cloudflare said it has appealed a fine issued by Italy over the company's refusal to block access to websites on its 1.1.1.1 DNS service.
Michael Savage / The Guardian:
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy vows to grant the BBC's demand for a permanent charter, replacing the 10-year cycle, to protect it from “culture war” attacks  —  Minister says the change is needed to protect the corporation from repeated ‘culture war’ attacks
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.
Michael Schneider / Variety:
Netflix execs refute a rumor that creatives making movies or shows are told to repeat plot points in dialogue often because viewers are distracted by phones  —  Despite Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's recent suggestion, Netflix execs say they're not asking filmmakers to repeat their film or TV plots in show dialogue.
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
 
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 More News: 
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
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
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
Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter:
A look at Norway's growing film industry, after it earned its first-ever Oscar, the Academy Award for best international feature, for the film Sentimental Value
 Earlier Picks: 
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
A US judge rules Apple can remove apps “with or without cause”, a loss for Musi, a streaming app removed from the App Store that used YouTube to source music
Danielle Broadway / Reuters:
Netflix will screen two episodes of an animated Stranger Things spinoff on April 18 in 34 AMC theaters and two others before an April 23 release on the platform
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen: the Oscars drew 17.86M viewers on ABC and Hulu, down about 9% from 2025; the show delivered a 3.92 rating among those aged 18 to 49, or ~5.34M viewers
Richard Sandomir / New York Times:
Richard Mauer, who covered suicide and alcoholism among rural Alaskans, the Exxon Valdez spill, political corruption in Alaska, and more, died on Feb. 23 at 76
David Bauder / Associated Press:
A US federal judge orders Voice of America employees reinstated by March 23, putting hundreds of people who have been on administrative leave back to work
 

 
From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Meta unveils Meta Adventurer and Fury glasses, each priced at $299, its first under its own brand, and a $399 Starfire model in collaboration with Kylie Jenner

New York Times:
Sources: Meta is building a standalone prediction markets app called Arena, which would probably rely on video game-like points instead of money wagers

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
On the first day of their trial, two members of Scattered Spider plead guilty in the UK to charges stemming from a 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London
 
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