Top News:
Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts' earlier bundling strategy for connectivity and content, and his plan now to unbundle in order to keep growing — Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts spent his career building an integrated cable giant. To grow, he now plans to split it apart
Discussion:
Barron's Online and Puck
Bloomberg:
Bending Spoons, which owns Vimeo and AOL, closed up 40% in its US market debut on Wednesday at a $25.7B valuation, after raising $1.68B in its IPO — Bending Spoons SpA shares surged 40% above their initial public offering price after the company and some of its backers raised $1.68 billion.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Blockonomi, CineD, Benzinga, The Information, Deadline, TechCrunch, Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, Newser, Reuters, Fast Company, The Next Web and Axios, more at Techmeme »
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A photographer sues The Daily Mail in New York over “systematic” lifting of thousands of images from social media without permission from copyright holders — US copyright claim says Mail liabilities could run to $10m per year. — The Daily Mail is being sued over alleged …
Discussion:
@josiahmortimer.bsky.social and Bloomberg Law
Janko Roettgers / The Verge:
A look back at BitTorrent, launched by Bram Cohen 25 years ago, and how media piracy fueled its growth while its architecture shielded it from legal liability — Cath Virginia / The Verge … Twenty-five years ago today, a young, little-known programmer by the name of Bram Cohen fired off …
Discussion:
@eldritch.beauty, @jank0.bsky.social and @mfortki.bsky.social
Stephanie Stacey / Financial Times:
Spotify removed 500K+ streams of Malcolm Todd's Earrings after a 70% surge in 24 hours sent it to #1 on Spotify USA and coincided with suspicious Kalshi wagers — Platform removes more than 500,000 streams of Malcolm Todd track ‘Earrings’ on concern traders propelled it to number 1
Discussion:
Wired, @kechang_x, @paperhedgehog.bsky.social, @xanyduwu, @kechang_x and @kechang_x
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
The UK CMA is weighing new rules to allow UK app developers to direct customers to payment options outside of Apple and Google's platforms, bypassing their fees — CMA's mobile app requirements allow developers to steer users away from platform-controlled payments.
Discussion:
MediaVoices
Jack Dunn / Variety:
As The Onion relaunches Infowars, a Q&A with comedian Tim Heidecker about becoming its creative director, the launch lineup, conservative caricatures, and more — David vs. Goliath. Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed. The Onion and Tim Heidecker vs. InfoWars and the Texas court system.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Fast Company, Associated Press, @bencollins.bsky.social and @bencollins.bsky.social
Michael Savage / The Guardian:
BBC staff fear strike action inevitable as unions reject the corporation's proposal of a 1% or £500 pay increase, whichever is higher — Unions reject proposed below-inflation increase which comes as corporation prepares to cut thousands of jobs — BBC staff fear a strike …
Discussion:
Radio Times, @michaelsavage.bsky.social, National Union of Journalists … and GB News
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Kling AI, the Kuaishou AI video generator spin-off, raised $2B at a $15B pre-money valuation and says the round could extend to as much as $3B — China's Kling AI has raised an initial $2 billion in venture capital funding as the spinoff from Kuaishou Technology seeks to expand its video AI operations.
Discussion:
The Next Web, RuntimeWire and South China Morning Post
Leo Barraclough / Variety:
Canal+ drops some TF1 channels in France, Switzerland, and Africa after talks fail; TF1 recently launched a Netflix distribution partnership in France — Pay-TV giant Canal+ Group has ceased distribution of a number of channels from French broadcaster TF1 Group in France, Switzerland and across Africa after negotiations broke down.
Discussion:
Deadline and Telecompaper
Samantha Elkins / NBC News:
Cloudflare sets a September 15 deadline for AI companies to differentiate their web crawlers into search, AI training, and AI agents or face being blocked — Cloudflare gave AI crawlers a September deadline to separate the bots that gather content for search from those that harvest …
Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Saifuddin Ahmed on his study linking short-form news video use to preference for Ronaldo over Messi and what the findings might mean for journalism — The World Cup is the gift that keeps on giving (to me). — I was swiping through Instagram Stories during halftime …
Discussion:
The Indian Express, @hanaatameez.bsky.social and @caulfieldtim.bsky.social
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