Media Star Says Thanks to Professionals in Media Industry
Media Star wishes to thank the many people who have stepped forward to help support this service. Industry professionals say (and tweet) that Media Star helps them keep up on all the latest in media and tech news. Does Media Star help you? Please help Media Star with...
Fox’s Super Bowl in Spotlight as Streamers Eye TV Rights
Bloomberg: Sunday's Super Bowl was Rupert Murdoch's chance to prove his smaller, leaner TV company was still big enough for the NFL. The league will soon begin negotiations on new broadcast contracts that start with the 2023 season. Those will be critical talks for...
Disney’s Hulu CEO Exits as Conglom Integrates Streamer
CNBC: Hulu announced on Friday that Randy Freer will step down as CEO of the company. Hulu said that Disney plans to "more closely integrate Hulu" into its business operations and that Hulu's execs would report to Disney's direct-to-consumer and international...
AT&T to Join Millions of Subscribers Giving Up DirecTV?
Los Angeles Times: Five years after AT&T spent $49 billion to buy DirecTV, the future is cloudy for satellite TV. Rapid changes in consumer behavior, along with rising competition and management missteps, have led to staggering customer...
ViacomCBS Begins Layoffs Amid Arrival of New CBS CEO
Los Angeles Times: ViacomCBS has begun a round of layoffs. The company is expected to cut hundreds of jobs in Los Angeles and New York in order to extract $500 million in cost savings — a promise made to Wall Street. Six senior ad execs left the company this...
iHeartMedia CEO Under Fire for Blaming Layoffs on Tech
Washington Post: iHeartMedia has called artificial intelligence the muscle it needs to emerge from bankruptcy. But there's no clear indication that AI will solve a financial challenge of the US radio giant's own making. CEO Bob Pittman could "sell ice to an...
Vice Media Veteran in Talks to Join New Producer at Apple
Wall Street Journal: Former HBO boss Richard Plepler is seeking to recruit Vice Media veteran Josh Tyrangiel to his new production company, Eden Productions, a move that would add an exec with news experience as his outfit prepares to make shows for...
Quibi Aims to Enter Pop Culture from TV Ad at Super Bowl
The Verge: Quibi understands that most people are probably still unaware of what Quibi is, but the streaming service run by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman is hoping a new Super Bowl commercial will help to clear things...
Netflix’s Early End of ‘The Crown’ Stirs Up Palace Intrigue
Showbiz411: "The Crown" on Netflix will come to an end with season 5, changing course from the original plan of six seasons. It must have dawned on the Palace that the series would eventually leave the realm of nostalgia and arrive at more contemporary prickly...
Amazon’s Bezos Hit with Lawsuit from Girlfriend’s Brother
TMZ: The brother of the woman who's dating the richest man in the world is suing him. Welcome to the life of Jeff Bezos. Michael Sanchez, the brother of Jeff's girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, claims Bezos defamed him by falsely claiming Michael was the source of graphic...
Facebook Hits Back at Soros After Criticism of Zuckerberg
Fox Business: Facebook is pushing back against allegations made by billionaire financier George Soros who, in a New York Times opinion piece, accused Mark Zuckerberg of not running the social networking giant through an independent lens when it comes to political...
Disney Heiress Goes on 24-Tweet Rant About Kobe Bryant
Daily Mail: Abigail Disney spoke out in a lengthy Twitter thread about the late Kobe Bryant's 2003 rape allegations and said the championship basketball player "was not a god." On Saturday, Disney shared 24 tweets where she doubled down on her...
Hearst Advice Columnist Seeks Trump DNA in Rape Probe
Associated Press: Lawyers for advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who is accusing President Trump of raping her in the 1990s, are asking for a DNA sample, seeking to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the...
Conde Nast Fashion Mags Offer Style Tips for Coronavirus
NBC News: How to remain safe and stylish in the midst of the rapidly widening coronavirus epidemic? Fashion magazines and influencers say they have you covered. Britain's Tatler posted a story with the startling headline: "How to style an...
Meredith Helps Prep New Content Platform for US Farmers
MediaPost: U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance is joining with Meredith to launch a content platform intended to deliver real-time trends and topics focused on the food and agriculture ecosystem. The platform will focus on topics like sustainability and...
Maven Media Unveils New Sports Illustrated at Super Bowl
New York Post: Sports Illustrated's magazine redesign debuted at a Super Bowl party on Saturday that in and of itself was a sign of changing times at the 66-year-old sports publication. The companies behind it threw a public Super Bowl party at Miami’s...
Pride Media CEO to Shake Up The Advocate, Out Magazines
Digiday: Pride Media and its four LGBTQ-focused titles, including Out and The Advocate magazines, began 2020 on shaky ground following the exits of key leaders and financial woes, including its well-publicized failure to pay...
Cox Enterprises Billionaire Newspaper Heiress Dies at 100
Associated Press: Anne Cox Chambers, a newspaper heiress, diplomat and philanthropist who was one of the country’s richest women, died Friday at the age of 100. Chambers’ nephew James Cox Kennedy announced her death to the Atlanta...
New York Times Taps Wirecutter Guy to Oversee Products
MediaPost: The New York Times has had great success with its standalone products and ventures like Cooking, Games, Parenting and Wirecutter. To support that growth, the company announced David Perpich has been tapped to lead new products and...
BuzzFeed: We’re ‘Open to Being Part of a Larger Company’
New York Times: "The most important thing is to do what's right for the company," said CEO Jonah Peretti. "And if being part of a larger company allowed us to grow our mission, I would be open to that." He added: "Our plan this year is for BuzzFeed as a whole to be...
Craigslist Faces Historic Revenue Drop as Job Ads Decline
Fox Business: Craigslist, the mostly free classified ad website, saw a "historic" drop in revenue in 2019, according to the latest AIM Group Marketplaces Report. "It's not good news for Craigslist, but they're still probably generating profit in excess of $600...
Media Star Says Thanks to Professionals in Media Industry
Media Star wishes to thank the many people who have stepped forward to help support this service. Industry professionals say (and tweet) that Media Star helps them keep up on all the latest in media and tech news. Does Media Star help you? Please help Media Star with...
ViacomCBS Names NBC Veteran as President-CEO of CBS
Reuters: ViacomCBS said on Friday that senior NBCUniversal exec George Cheeks will take over the reins of CBS from Joe Ianniello on March 23. CBS appointed Ianniello as the interim CEO of the company in September 2018, after Les Moonves resigned from the...
Fox TV Apps Get Punted by Roku Ahead of the Super Bowl
CNET: If you were hoping to use the Fox Sports app to stream the Super Bowl on a Roku this weekend, you may need to start making other plans. On Thursday evening, Roku sent an email to customers alerting them that starting Jan. 31, it will be removing the Fox app...
AT&T Likely to Break Up, Ditch WarnerMedia, Analyst Says
CNBC: AT&T will eventually separate its telecom business from its media business, predicts Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson. "The companies that have diversified are not doing as well," he said. Comcast would be a natural fit for WarnerMedia, he...
Verizon Takes a Big Hit on Yahoo, AOL Media Businesses
Wall Street Journal: Verizon took a roughly $200 million charge to write-down the value of its media business, which is home to Yahoo and AOL. Revenue within Verizon Media Group was flat year-over-year at about $2.1 billion as it continued to confront declining...
Disney’s 20th Century Studios Chief to Exit After Changes
Los Angeles Times: Emma Watts, the longtime production head of the film studio once known as 20th Century Fox, has resigned as owner Disney continues to make major changes to the storied company it bought less than a year ago. Watts had been with Fox for more than...
Comcast to Face EU Fine Over NBCUniversal Merchandise
Associated Press: European Union authorities have fined NBCUniversal for restricting cross-border sales of “Jurassic Park” toys, “Big Lebowski” mugs and other licensed film merchandise, in the bloc’s latest regulatory effort to enforce the competition rules governing...
CBS, NBC Chief Silverman, a Onetime TV Force, Dies at 82
New York Times: Fred Silverman, who as a top executive at CBS, ABC and finally NBC was one of the most powerful people in the three-network era died on Thursday at his home in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. He was...
Vice Media to Ditch Dumbo Office in Belt-Tightening Effort
Business Insider: Youth-focused Vice Media is consolidating its offices to two from three as it aims for profitability, moving its agency Virtue Worldwide from its longtime home in Dumbo to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The move will help the still-unprofitable media...