Top News:
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Letter: Tennessee Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter urged David Ellison to move Paramount's corporate headquarters from California to Tennessee — Paramount CEO David Ellison and his family have deep ties to the Volunteer State and the mogul is now in a legal battle with California.
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
The Writers Guild of America sues Paramount and WBD in an effort to stop their merger, claiming the deal would hurt wages and working conditions for writers — The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Discussion:
Advanced Television, The Hollywood Reporter, US District Court, Northern District of California, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, IndieWire, Deadline, Cord Cutters News, Reuters, The Wrap, Civil Discourse …, Writers Guild of America West, @cinephiliabeyond.org, @filmbrainbmb.bsky.social, @susanrinkunas.com, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, MediaPost, Oh No They Didn't!, The Streamable, Bloomberg Law, Sports Media Watch, StreamTV Insider, Ars Technica, Barrett Media, NewsMax.com, Fox Business, Common Dreams, Media Play News, CNN and ScreenRant
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Trump's recent comment on a “normal path” for CNN raised eyebrows amid the Paramount-WBD merger; Paramount would need CNN revenue to help pay off $80B in debt — The cable news channel may not be the ratings juggernaut it once was, but it matters to President Trump …
Discussion:
MS NOW, Variety, Reuters, New York Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review and r/MediaMergers
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Paramount's lead trial counsel says the company is still aiming to close the WBD deal by the end of September and is prepared to bring the case to SCOTUS
Paramount's lead trial counsel says the company is still aiming to close the WBD deal by the end of September and is prepared to bring the case to SCOTUS
Discussion:
PC Gamer, StockStory, Front Office Sports, Deadline, Fox Business, Barrett Media, The Wrap, Fast Company, The American Bazaar, Reuters, Salon, Axios, CNET, Quartz, CBS News, Bloomberg and Business Insider
Reuters:
Sources: Lionsgate has attracted takeover interest from France's Bolloré Group, owner of Canal+, and Banijay, which just completed an $8B merger with All3Media — Lionsgate Studios (LION.N), the entertainment company behind the “Hunger Games” and “John Wick” franchises …
Discussion:
Bloomberg and r/MediaMergers
The Athletic:
German soccer league Bundesliga is moving its US TV rights from ESPN to Versant's USA Network and Fandango in a deal, sources say, worth $100M over five seasons — Germany's Bundesliga — featuring Harry Kane, Bayern Munich and United States stars like Bayer 04 Leverkusen's Malik Tillman …
Aaron Smith / Pew Research Center:
Survey: 57% of US women and 47% of men ages 18 to 29 say they get health and wellness information from influencers; women say they see such content more often — Although health providers are the most common place Americans turn for information about their health, social media influencers and podcasts also play a major role.
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
BBC DG Matt Brittin says the BBC and UK public service broadcasting face “real jeopardy” as license fee erosion drives BBC's third consecutive annual deficit — The BBC closed out a year that included its most-watched title in “The Celebrity Traitors” and its best drama debut in three years with …
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Steven McIntosh / BBC:
Scott Mills was the highest-paid BBC presenter in 2025-26, earning ~£745K before his exit in March, followed by Greg James, Stephen Nolan, and Laura Kuenssberg
Discussion:
Deadline, The Standard, Mirror, Press Gazette, Radio Times, Sky News, The Sun, The Standard, Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, ITV News and GB News
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
BBC Commercial reports 2025-26 revenue flat YoY at £2.2B, EBITDA up 17% to £267M, £377M returned to BBC, down from £391M; DTC and consumer products drove growth
BBC Commercial reports 2025-26 revenue flat YoY at £2.2B, EBITDA up 17% to £267M, £377M returned to BBC, down from £391M; DTC and consumer products drove growth
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter and Broadband TV News
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
The BBC reports license fee payers fell 539K YoY to 23.3M in 2025-26, the biggest fall since 2020-21; license fee income rose £36M to £3.9B after the fee uplift
The BBC reports license fee payers fell 539K YoY to 23.3M in 2025-26, the biggest fall since 2020-21; license fee income rose £36M to £3.9B after the fee uplift
Discussion:
BBC, Digital Spy, Cord Cutters News, The Sun, BBC, Mirror, Telegraph, BBC, BBC, Reuters, Broadband TV News, The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, Radio Times and TVBEurope
David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
Acting AG Todd Blanche has shown he's willing to stifle the free press, through subpoenas of WSJ, NYT, and WaPo reporters and a search of a WaPo reporter's home — The acting attorney general is showcasing his willingness to intimidate reporters whose revelations have upset the president.
Discussion:
New York Post, New Republic, @theatlantic, @jonlemire, The Hill, @dagtoddblanche, Wall Street Journal, @jbendery, Courthouse News Service, RADAR, @steadystate2025, Media Matters for America, @attorneynora.bsky.social, Associated Press, @dankennedy.net, PRNEWS, Fox News, HuffPost, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, CNN, Above the Law and Committee to Protect …
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Semafor hires Adam Banicki as its first head of video and says video is on pace to generate high-seven- to low-eight-figure revenue by the end of the year — The publisher, which has five new shows in development, has hired Fortune's Adam Banicki to create video programming for its C-suite audience
Washington Post:
A look at State Affairs, whose statehouse coverage is used to train LLMs powering a Bloomberg Terminal-like product; it's raised $70M and has 76 editorial staff — State Affairs combines media and technology at a time when tensions between the two industries are at a fever pitch. — Summary
Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Thomson Reuters agrees to sell a 51% stake in its legal and tax publishing business to KKR for $500M, but will keep editorial control of its content portfolio — Thomson Reuters Corp. agreed to sell a 51% stake in its legal and tax publishing business to investment firm KKR & Co. in a $500 million deal.
Discussion:
Globe and Mail, Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Canadian Press and Publishers Lunch
A.J. Katz / The Wrap:
Hachette, Elsevier, Cengage Learning, and author Scott Turow sue Google for allegedly using millions of copyrighted books and articles to build AI models — Publishers claim the tech giant used millions of copyrighted works without permission to build its Gemini artificial intelligence models
