Top News:
David Shepardson / Reuters:
The US FCC officially orders early license reviews of eight Disney-owned ABC stations, in LA, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Houston, and more — The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday ordered early license reviews of eight Disney-owned ABC stations in a major escalation …
Discussion:
@flotus, Federal Communications Commission, Axios, New York Times, @katiemiller, Washington Post, The Guardian, Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, NBC News, Ars Technica, Truthout, CNBC, @agomezfcc, @brianstelter, West Hawaii Today, @paulthedogman.bsky.social, The Gateway Pundit, @jbraden2008.bsky.social, @mcbridetd.bsky.social, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @alexweprin, @alexweprin, @nicoperrino, @brianstelter, @adamthierer, @shawnreynolds_, @sarahlongwell25, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @rogoswami, Politico, RedState, @mattyglesias, @jeremymbarr, Variety, @freedomofpress@social …, Adweek, Rolling Stone, @TimBondy@mstdn.social, Triangle Business Journal, Newser, Forbes, Deadline, TheDesk.net, The Boston Globe, Disney News, The Verge, @kimmasters.bsky.social, Newsbusters, @jonastraxler.bsky.social, CBS News, Awful Announcing, Breitbart, @chadbourn.bsky.social, Bloomberg, Cord Cutters News, Fox News, Forbes, Freedom of the Press …, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, NewsMax.com, New York Post, Townhall, Bloomberg Law, Consequence, Media Play News, @oliviaoftroye@threads.com, Mediaite, Breitbart, @sfdb.bsky.social, The Indian Express, Baller Alert, Barrett Media, Variety, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, New York Magazine, The Wrap, LateNighter, CNBC, @karlbode.com, NBC News, @seanokane.bsky.social, Reuters, @semafor.com, New York Daily News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Radio & Television …, Semafor, Katie Couric Media and The Hill
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Sources: Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro has decided to keep ESPN within Disney for now, rather than spinning it off — - ESPN used to be one of the most important assets in media. — That's changed, because the media world has changed, and Disney has debated spinning out ESPN as a stand-alone company.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro faced several setbacks since taking over, and must now guide the company through federal regulatory review of ABC's station licenses — Josh D'Amaro, who took the helm in February, will have to lead Disney through surprising new scrutiny from the president.
Discussion:
Poynter, Variety, CNN, Mock Paper Scissors, TV Tech, WVEC, FOX 35 Orlando, Deadline, Politico, The Hill, MS NOW, TV Insider, NBC Bay Area, Reason, Washington Examiner, LateNighter, The Daily Wire, CBS News, Time, Media Matters for America, Mediaite, DNYUZ, Scripps News, Washington Times, The A.V. Club and Free Press Action Fund Feed
Brian Morrissey / The Rebooting:
Guardian US MD Steve Sachs says the paper has a larger audience than WaPo, and 700K paid supporters, with reader revenue up 35% per year for the past two years — It's now bigger than The Washington Post — Possible is in full swing. The Rebooting hosted a dinner last night in partnership …
Discussion:
Steve Sachs on LinkedIn, The Rebooting and @jayrosen.bsky.social
Charlotte Hughes-Morgan / Bloomberg:
UMG reports Q1 subscription revenue grew 12.5% YoY to €1.3B, with recorded music revenue up 8.9% to €2.25B, and plans to sell 50% of its Spotify stake — Universal Music Group NV reported first-quarter subscription revenue grew more than expected, highlighting the strength …
Discussion:
Reuters, Billboard and Wall Street Journal
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
The CW and ESPN agree to let ESPN stream ~800 hours of CW sports per year; the CW and Roku plan to stream CW entertainment to The Roku Channel in Fall 2026 — Approximately 800 hours of college football and basketball, professional bull riding, WWE fights, NASCAR races …
Matthew Kassel / Jewish Insider:
Leaked audio: Mathias Döpfner told Politico staff that employees who disagree with Axel Springer's values, or “the essentials”, shouldn't work for the publisher — 'Nobody should work for Axel Springer despite the essentials or in disagreement with one of the essentials …
Discussion:
@zaidjilani, @zaidjilani, @zaidjilani, @jgreenbergsez, @elliotmalin, @jonahdispatch, @joshkraushaar and Semafor
Joel Khalili / Wired:
Q&A with Bloomberg CTO Shawn Edwards, who says Bloomberg is overhauling the Terminal with chatbot-style interface ASKB, currently open to ~125K users in beta — WIRED spoke with Bloomberg's chief technology officer about the big, chatbot-style changes coming to the iconic platform for traders.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News and Politico
Patrick Coffee / Wall Street Journal:
Hightouch, which uses AI to help marketers create and manage campaigns, raised $150M led by Goldman Sachs and Bain at a $2.75B valuation, up from $1.2B in 2025 — The Trade Desk also invested in Hightouch, which is now valued at $2.75 billion — Hightouch, a platform that uses generative AI …
Discussion:
Business Wire, Pulse 2.0 and PYMNTS.com, more at Techmeme »
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Divine, a Vine reboot financed by Jack Dorsey-backed nonprofit “and Other Stuff” and built by an early Twitter employee, debuts with ~500K restored Vine videos — A new project to bring back Vine's six-second looping videos is now available for download on the App Store and Google Play.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, PCMag, Cult of Mac and Divine, more at Techmeme »
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Advocacy groups including WGA West and The Tech Oversight Project write a letter urging the US FTC and DOJ to probe Netflix for antitrust issues — Axios Media Trends … Today's Media Trends, edited by Christine Wang and copy edited by Sheryl Miller, is 1,928 words, a 7½-minute read.
Discussion:
Sludge
Matthew Gault / 404 Media:
An analysis of Internet Archive data: by mid-2025, ~35% of newly published websites since ChatGPT's launch in November 2022 were AI-generated or AI-assisted — Researchers found the internet is becoming aggressively positive as AI-generated text floods the web.
