Comcast Wrestles $1 Billion WWE Deal for Peacock
Wall Street Journal: NBCUniversal streaming platform Peacock has struck a deal for exclusive rights to World Wrestling Entertainment content, the two companies said. Terms of the pact weren' disclosed. A person familiar with the deal said it runs five years and is...
AT&T’s Warner Says No TV Series for ‘Harry Potter’
Variety: A "Harry Potter" series is said to be in very early development at HBO Max, despite denials from Warner Bros. "There are no Harry Potter series in development at the studio or on the streaming platform," Warner Bros. and HBO Max said in a statement. The move...
Nexstar Rebranding Says So Long to WGN America
Chicago Tribune: WGN America, the Chicago-based cable network, is expanding its prime-time news programming and rebranding as NewsNation, beginning March 1. The decision, announced by Dallas-based owner Nexstar Media, cuts ties to the network's local TV roots, going...
Twitter Hopes ‘Birdwatch’ Will Stop Misinformation
NBC News: Twitter unveiled a feature meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar to Wikipedia to flag potentially misleading tweets. The new system allows users to discuss and provide context to tweets...
Spotify Eyes Large Market with Test of Audiobooks
Hollywood Reporter: Spotify has released a small collection of exclusive audiobook recordings on its platform, a move that signals its interest in continuing to broaden its library of non-music programming. The company is characterizing the release as one of many...
IAC’s Vimeo Raises Funding at $6 Billion Valuation
Bloomberg: Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp said its video software company Vimeo is valued at about $6 billion after a recent funding round, nearly doubling the valuation before the unit is scheduled to be spun off early in the second quarter. Vimeo raised $300...
Taboola Digital Ad Company to Go Public via SPAC
CNBC: Digital ad outfit Taboola plans to go public via a merger with ION Acquisition Corp, a special acquisition corporation. The company places content boxes on sites across the internet with headlines such as "8 Celebs Who Have Severe Illnesses" or "Look Who's Going...
Axel Springer Avoids Distress at Business Insider
Wall Street Journal: Business Insider generated 30% revenue growth in 2020 despite the Covid-19 crisis, thanks to subscriptions and automated ads. The company is said to have generated over $150 million in revenue. Insider was able to continue a hiring spree despite...
New York Times Media Columnist Takes On Social
Digiday: "The sort of pure social media era is over," according to Ben Smith, media columnist at the New York Times. "There are these new, encrypted platforms that are going to be much harder to see inside for journalists, for anybody. It's a very different world...
McClatchy Offers Podcast Series with iHeartMedia
Deadline: The mysterious death of former NFL player Jim Duncan is the subject of a new narrative podcast series from McClatchy and iHeartMedia. The two companies are launching "Return Man," an eight-part documentary series that is to be the first in an anthology of...
Penske Lures Publisher Away from WSJ Magazine
WWD: WSJ. magazine's publisher is heading to Penske Media to take on a newly created luxury role. The company named Luke Bahrenburg head of luxury sales at PMC and executive vice president and chief revenue officer of Robb Report, as part of a larger corporate...
Forbes Drops ’30 Under 30’ Group Trip to Bermuda
Guardian: Forbes "30 under 30" honorees were offered a month-long trip to a five-star hotel and beach club in Bermuda, offering an escape from the "monotony and gloom" of the coronavirus pandemic. But within hours of an inquiry on Monday, a spokesperson for the...
A360 Staffers Gripe David Pecker is Still in Charge
Daily Beast: David Pecker ostensibly retired as chairman and CEO of the National Enquirer’s financially strapped parent company last August when American Media Inc changed its name to A360 Media as it was being acquired by a marketer of face masks and disinfectant...
Politico Staffers Protest Hiring Right-Wing Guest
Daily Beast: More than 100 Politico staffers signed onto a letter sent to publisher Robert Allbritton, expressing disgust with allowing right-wing firebrand Ben Shapiro to guest-author one day's edition of the Playbook, and with the outlet's subsequent handling of the...
Bustle Digital CEO Forecasts M&A in Digital Media
CNBC: Bustle Digital, Group Nine, Vox, Vice, and BuzzFeed have had recent conversations about going public via special-purpose acquisition vehicles this year. The group of five will probably see some consolidation in coming months, according to Bustle Digital CEO...
AT&T in Exclusive Talks to Offload Stake in DirecTV
Reuters: Private equity firm TPG has entered into exclusive talks to acquire a minority stake in AT&T's satellite TV division, DirecTV, in a deal that would allow the US wireless carrier to trim its net debt of close to $150 billion. The exact price TPG is willing...
Fox Corp Taps Exec to Oversee Streaming Portfolio
MediaPost: Fox Corp has hired Varun Narang as its chief product officer, in charge of overseeing the company's portfolio of Fox-branded streaming products, platforms and engineering team. He will report to CTO and president of digital Paul Cheesbrough. Narang has for...
ViacomCBS Unveils Promo Push for New Streamer
Wall Street Journal: ViacomCBS kicked off a 13-week marketing campaign for its coming Paramount+ streaming service with advertising during the National Football League’s AFC Championship game on Sunday. It will be followed by ads during the Super Bowl, the Grammy...
MGM Sets Off Round of Big Movie Delays for 2021
TheWrap: MGM last week announced what has been expected for weeks: The 25th James Bond film, "No Time to Die," is moving again from April to October 2021. That kicked off a new wave of postponements of major Hollywood titles: Universal moved the Tom Hanks film "Bios"...
Sony Eyes Japanese Anime in Effort to Fight Netflix
Financial Times: The stage is now set for Japanese animation to truly go global. A newly invigorated Sony is competing with Netflix and global streaming giants to uncover the still untapped trove of lucrative anime content. "We were forced to accelerate efforts on all...
Comcast to Shut Down NBC’s Sports Cable Channel
Wall Street Journal: NBCUniversal is shutting down its sports cable channel NBCSN at the end of the year and migrating much of its programming to its sister general entertainment network USA. Some content will remain on both channels until NBCSN officially turns off...
ViacomCBS Faces Misconduct Claims at TV Stations
Los Angeles Times: A review of court filings, CBS internal communications and interviews with two dozen current and former CBS television station employees found that many were troubled by the outcome of the 2019 CBS workplace investigation and questioned the...
Fox Corp Brushes Off Efforts to Drop News Channel
Bloomberg: Critics of networks like Fox News and Newsmax argue that the outlets fueled uncertainty about election results and should be dropped by cable providers. It won't be an easy battle. Washington Post: How to get the Fox News monster under control? The only...
Comcast Says NBC Veteran Tom Brokaw Will Retire
NBC News: Legendary NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw announced his retirement on Friday, closing the curtain on his half-century-long career chronicling some of the most tumultuous times in US history. Brokaw, 80, will hang up his mic as the only anchor to have ever led all...
Playboy Among Media Players in New Era of SPACs
WWD: Media watchers were introduced to a strange new word last year that doesn't seem to be going away in 2021. SPACs, an acronym for the less catchy Special Purpose Acquisition Company, also known as "blank check" entities, act as a shell company that investors pour...
New York Times Ups Interim to New Opinion Editor
New York Times: Kathleen Kingsbury, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has led the editorial page of the New York Times on an interim basis since June, officially became the newspaper's opinion editor on Friday. Kingsbury, 41, will oversee a department of more...
Conde Nast’s New Hires to Shake Up Entertainment
WWD: Conde Nast Entertainment's new president Agnes Chu has brought over one of her former colleagues from Disney in a shake-up of the division. As part of the reshuffle, Jennifer Jones has been named head of global business affairs and operations. She joins from...
Penske Puts Price Tag on Writing for Rolling Stone
Guardian: Rolling Stone magazine is offering "thought leaders" the chance to write for its website if they are willing to pay $2,000 to help "shape the future of culture." The storied magazine approached would-be members of its new Culture Council by email, telling...
New York Times: We Didn’t Drop Editor Over Tweet
Vox: On Tuesday, January 19, Lauren Wolfe, an editor working at the New York Times, tweeted that she had "chills" watching President-elect Joe Biden's plane land outside Washington, DC. Some 36 hours and a concerted campaign against the tweet later, Wolfe was no...
Conde Nast Returns New Yorker’s Magazine Award
New York Times: The New Yorker has returned a National Magazine Award for a 2018 article about a Japanese business that rents actors who pretend to be customers' family members. The decision to give up the award came after an investigation by the magazine found that...