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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon executives, including MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins, have discussed rebooting The Apprentice for Prime Video, with Donald Trump Jr. as the host — Studio executives have held internal discussions about making new episodes of reality TV show — First it bought the “Melania” documentary.
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Alphabet reports YouTube's Q1 ad revenue rose 10.7% YoY to $9.88B, vs. $9.99B est., and Google's ad revenue reached $77.25B, up from $66.89B in Q1 2025 — Time spent viewing on YouTube, the internet's most massive video platform, keeps growing at a healthy clip — and with it …
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Marketing Dive, Next in Media, Alphabet, Fresno Bee, TechCrunch, The Hollywood Reporter, Music Ally, Fast Company, ITPro, BMI, Crypto Briefing, eMarketer, Watcher Guru, Daily Sabah, Tubefilter, MediaPost, Silicon Valley Business …, Decrypt, Android Central, Cord Cutters News, Proactive, Investor's Business Daily, Yahoo Finance, Search Engine Roundtable, The Wrap, TheDesk.net, The Verge, Deadline, Media Play News, Thurrott and Sherwood News, more at Techmeme »
Krystal Scanlon / Digiday:
Meta introduces Meta Ads AI connectors in open beta, letting advertisers use their preferred third-party AI tools to create, manage, and analyze campaigns — In a break from its walled garden approach, Meta is opening its ad ecosystem to third-party AI tools.
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AdExchanger, Marketing Interactive, PerformanceMarketingWorld and BMI, more at Techmeme »
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Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Meta reports Q1 family DAP up 4% YoY but down 20M QoQ to 3.56B, vs. 3.62B est., due to internet disruptions in Iran and a WhatsApp access restriction in Russia — Meta shares fell about 7% in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported lower-than-expected capital expenditures, or capex, and missed on user growth.
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Constellation Research, Yahoo Finance, Silicon UK, Mobile World Live, The Daily Upside, CNET and Android Central, more at Techmeme »
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Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter:
UMG artists will receive a share of the proceeds from UMG's Spotify stock sale, regardless of debts; WMG paid out $126M to artists from its 2018 stock sale — Years ago, as part of her negotiation process to sign with UMG, Swift demanded that the company pay out artists …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Thurrott, Hypebot, Digital Trends, The Verge, Reality Tea, Billboard and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »
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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
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
Discussion:
FemaleFirst, E! Online, Music Ally, Inc.com, Morningstar, Yahoo Finance, The Hollywood Reporter, Dow Jones Newswires, The Wrap and Reuters
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
The NAB's CEO says the FCC's “nearly unprecedented request” for Disney to reapply for TV licenses is contrary to established principles and creates uncertainty — In a statement Wednesday, the head of the top industry trade group said Carr's move to initiate an early review …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, Ars Technica, Variety, Radio Ink, Raw Story, DNYUZ, @davidshepardson, The Atlantic, @brianstelter, @kylegriffin1, @jeremymbarr, @senmarkey, MS NOW, @outfrontcnn, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Independent, Media Matters for America, @aclu.org, USA Today, TheDesk.net, TV Tech, Reuters, Rolling Stone, @johnlcorbett@threads.com, New York Post, Free Press Action Fund Feed, New Republic, Radio World, CNN, Media Matters for America, One America News Network, Punchbowl News, Politico, Washington Times and r/politics
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon reports Q1 ad revenue up 24% YoY to $17.24B, above $16.87B est., and subscription services revenue up 15% YoY to $13.43B — Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news. — CNBC Councils — Join the CNBC Panel
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Amazon, PYMNTS.com, TechCrunch, About Amazon, The Information, Wall Street Journal, Media Play News, The Wrap and Variety
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
X says it has begun a “phased rollout” of its rebuilt ad platform, which it says will have more modern “retrieval and ranking systems” powered by AI — Elon Musk's X is still trying to woo back advertisers — this time with a rebuilt, AI-powered ads platform that started to rollout on Thursday.
Discussion:
Adweek, International Business Times, Digiday, @xbusiness, Crypto Briefing and @elonmusk
Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
A Texas court stays the turnover of Infowars to the official who agreed to license it to The Onion; Sandy Hook families will seek emergency relief from courts — “[This] just warms my heart and still gives me faith in America and our legal system,” the Infowars founder adds
Riddhi Setty / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at fights by journalists at McClatchy, ProPublica, EdSource, and the NYT to shape their newsrooms' policies around the use of AI — Journalists across the United States are fighting for contracts that address AI use: “We don't want it to be done in our name, literally.”
Emily Shugerman / The San Francisco Standard:
Semafor announces a two-day conference, Silicon Valley & the World, in November in the Bay Area, with an advisory board including Jensen Huang and Satya Nadella — Davos by the Bay? — That's what the leaders of Semafor, the digital media and events company, seem to have in mind …
Discussion:
Semafor, Talking Biz News, @owillis.bsky.social, @mottel, @emryss.bsky.social, @stalmico, @semafor, @semafor and @semaforben
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Analysis: in 2025, total UK ad spend grew 6.4% YoY to £46.7B; of that, £31B went to Google, Meta, and Amazon, and £1.6B went to magazines and news, down 5.1% — Three US tech giants accounted for two thirds of every pound spent on advertising in the UK last year.
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