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, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Telegraph, The Sun, CNBC, The Movie Blog, Forbes Middle East, TechRadar, The Wrap, GSMArena.com, UPI, Sky News, T3, The Independent, TV Tech, Blockonomi, Dow Jones Newswires, The Standard, The Guardian, The Irish Times, Media Play News, TheDesk.net, Mirror, Bloomberg, RTÉ, @jakekanter.bsky.social, BusinessCloud, MediaPost, TVBEurope, GB News, Bloomberg Law, Telecompaper 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.
Discussion:
Engadget, Gizmodo, New York Sun, The Wrap, Breitbart, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, @sentammoses.bsky.social, CBS News, The Asia Business Daily, Global News, CNET, NBC News, The Movie Blog, Polygon.com, @devonheinen.bsky.social, The Hollywood Reporter, The A.V. Club and Deadline
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:
Comic Book, @yeargain.bsky.social, 9to5Mac, @tmcallister.bsky.social, contextisking.com, @hoptimusprime.bsky.social, @iamjurassicmark.bsky.social, Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, CinemaBlend, Garbage Day, @lucas_shaw, @augustjpollak.bsky.social, Gizmodo, @jpgorman.bsky.social, David Giles on LinkedIn, The A.V. Club, @mikecook82.bsky.social, ScreenRant, TechCrunch, Chris Heatherly on LinkedIn, @antonyjohnston.bsky.social, Tom's Guide, @sundownactproof.bsky.social, @dannygroner.bsky.social, Spyglass, @trollbreath.com, @theillustriousq.bsky.social, @johngary.bsky.social, @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 …
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:
Reddit Upvoted, TechCrunch, StockStory, MediaPost, BMI, Digital Trends, The Next Web, Engadget, AdExchanger, RuntimeWire, Social Media Today, The Deep View and The Verge
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 …
Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
BBC Director General Matt Brittin Will Make First Major Industry Appearance At Final Edinburgh TV Festival — BBC Director General Matt Brittin will make his first major industry appearance at the final Edinburgh Television Festival in August. — He will sit down for an ‘In Conversation’ talk …
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, Deadline, The Wrap, Sports Business Journal, @sherman4949, Variety, Front Office Sports, TV Tech, Sportico, Pulse 2.0, Awful Announcing and Barrett Media
Anna Tobin / Press Gazette:
An interview with Le Monde CTO Paul Laleu about “fiercely defending” the French outlet's journalism from AI bots, including by generating infinite content mazes — French newsbrand Le Monde is “fiercely defending” its journalism from AI bots that don't offer a value exchange while still letting the “good bots” in.
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:
MediaNama, The Indian Express, BMI, Inc42, Forbes and MediaNews4U
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:
@freedom.press and Straight Arrow
