Top News:
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Sky agrees to acquire ITV's TV business for £1.6B, uniting the UK's two largest commercial broadcasters; ITV says shareholders will receive £950M from the deal — Combination will leave US media group Comcast in control of a broadcaster that reaches 21mn households
RELATED:
Deadline:
Sky strikes a £2.1B output deal with ITV Studios, ITV's production arm, until 2032; ITV Studios is not part of Sky's deal to acquire ITV's TV network — Sky has finally sealed a £1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) deal to acquire ITV's television network operations.
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Reuters, Sky News, The Guardian, Blockonomi, RTÉ, CNBC, The Movie Blog, Forbes Middle East, Bloomberg, The Wrap, GSMArena.com, @jakekanter.bsky.social, The Independent, The Standard, Mirror, UPI, Telegraph, TheDesk.net, Dow Jones Newswires, Euronews, TV Tech, Media Play News, BusinessCloud, TVBEurope, MediaPost, GB News, Telecompaper, Bloomberg Law and National Union of Journalists …
Alex Ritman / Variety:
AI-focused studio Particle 6 plans a full-length feature film to be led by the AI “actor” Tilly Norwood, as a hybrid production using film and TV professionals — Tilly Norwood, the AI “actor” who sparked a frenzy of anger in Hollywood and across the wider industry in late 2025, is set to front her first feature film.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Sources: Netflix is studying its data to see why viewers quit its shows after S1, with some shows seeing a 30%-70% S2 drop, as it faces a quarter without hits — Netflix's biggest hits are losing more than half of their audience after one season — Good afternoon from Los Angeles.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, ScreenRant, Comic Book, @yeargain.bsky.social, 9to5Mac, @tmcallister.bsky.social, contextisking.com, @hoptimusprime.bsky.social, @iamjurassicmark.bsky.social, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, CinemaBlend, Garbage Day, @trollbreath.com, @johngary.bsky.social, @lucas_shaw, @augustjpollak.bsky.social, Gizmodo, @jpgorman.bsky.social, David Giles on LinkedIn, @dannygroner.bsky.social, @mikecook82.bsky.social, Chris Heatherly on LinkedIn, @theillustriousq.bsky.social, @antonyjohnston.bsky.social, Tom's Guide, @sundownactproof.bsky.social, Spyglass, @mhwilliams.bsky.social and NextBigWhat
Max Tani / Semafor:
Analysis: ABC's The View hasn't featured a single candidate running in a competitive midterm race since the FCC launched an “equal time” rule probe in February — THE SCOOP — The Federal Communications Commission has already changed the programming of one of television's …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Vista Equity and Quinti made a takeover bid for Criteo that values the French ad tech company at a 50%+ premium to its stock price in recent weeks — Vista Equity Partners and the investment firm Quinti Capital have teamed up on a takeover offer for French advertising-technology company Criteo SA …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Versant agrees to acquire Full Swing, a sports tech company best known for its advanced golf simulators, tracking, and analytics software for $530M in cash — The tech company, best known for its advanced golf simulators, will expand the Golf Channel owner's presence in the tech and analytics space.
Discussion:
CNBC, TV Tech, The Wrap, Sports Business Journal, @sherman4949, Variety, Deadline, Front Office Sports, Sportico, Pulse 2.0, Awful Announcing and Barrett Media
Stewart Clarke / Deadline:
Indian streamer Zee5 pulls human rights drama Satluj, at the center of a government censorship battle since 2022, after two days, citing “current developments” — The film has been at the center of a censorship battle and tells the story of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.
Discussion:
The Indian Express, Forbes, BMI, MediaNews4U and Variety
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Reddit says its AI-powered content moderation systems caught 25K “spammy posts and comments” per day in Q1, reducing users' exposure to such content by 20% YoY — Reddit Inc. is battling a new kind of spam: stealth marketing content created by brands that want to get mentioned …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Reddit Upvoted, Social Media Today, StockStory, MediaPost, Digital Trends, The Next Web, Engadget, RuntimeWire, The Deep View and The Verge
Matthew Haag / New York Times:
A New Jersey judge ordered New Brunswick Today to remove surveillance footage of a school lockdown and barred the outlet from writing about the event — A New Jersey judge ordered New Brunswick Today to remove the video and barred it from writing about the episode, alarming First Amendment advocates.
Discussion:
Straight Arrow
Jeremy Barr / The Guardian:
A group of prominent conservative organizations petitions the FCC to deny license renewal requests from the eight local TV stations owned and operated by ABC — Prominent organizations accuse network of political, racial and sexual bias and supporting Chinese communist party
Discussion:
@claudiner66.bsky.social and @cdarwin@c.im
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
UK left-wing news site The Canary suspends its national weekday print newspaper after two weeks, saying Lloyds closed its bank account and withheld funds — The Canary has reportedly suspended its national weekday print newspaper amid accusations of Lloyds closing its bank account and withholding funds.
