Filing: the NBA seeks to dismiss WBD's lawsuit over the league's media rights, detailing how WBD had failed to match the terms of Amazon's offer (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

Mediagazer: Filing: the NBA seeks to dismiss WBD's lawsuit over the league's media rights, detailing how WBD had failed to match the terms of Amazon's offer (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

Top News:

Sacramento Bee:

Buffy Wicks, who dropped her effort to make Big Tech pay California news orgs after Google agreed to give to a nonprofit supporting local news, defends the deal— The California legislator at the center of a first-in-the-nation deal between Google and the state to help fund local news organizations …
Discussion:

Jess Weatherbed /
The Verge: Google reaches a $250 million deal to skirt proposed journalism bill

Matt Pearce /
@mattdpearce:

Tim Griggs /
Tim Griggs on LinkedIn: I'm a pragmatist, generally, and that means I'm all for any move that's designed to help local news publishers. …

Brian Merchant /
Blood in the Machine: How a bill meant to save journalism from big tech ended up boosting AI and bailing out Google instead

Thomas Barrabi /
New York Post: California Democrat defends ‘disastrous’ $250M Google deal with newspapers

Jon Brodkin /
Ars Technica: Google avoids “link tax” bill with deal to fund California journalism and AI

Matthew Keys /
The Desk: Google's plan to fund California newsrooms draws scorn from journalism groups

Dan Kennedy /
Media Nation: California's proposed deal with Google to support local news comes under criticism

Erin Ivie /
a14.asmdc.org: Assemblymember Wicks secures agreement with State, major tech companies to support the work of California journalists

Laurie Sullivan /
MediaPost: Google Signs Deal To Serve Digital News Content, Funding California Media

Laurel Rosenhall /
Los Angeles Times: Deal reached in feud between California news outlets and Google: $250 million to support journalism but no new law

RELATED:
CNN: Unions and some state senators criticize Google's plan for a California local news fund, which stalled bills that would have forced Big Tech to fund journalists

Discussion:
@ryfons, The Hill, MEDIANAMA, Media Guild of the West, @bcmerchant, @mattdpearce, @jeffjarvis, @spj_tweets, @tvgrimreaper, @mattdpearce, @ddayen, The Wrap, SPJ News, The Drum, @jeffjarvis, Observer, Fast Company, Inside Radio, LION Publishers, New York Post, @passantino@threads.net, CalMatters, Editor and Publisher, UPI, KQED, New York Times, The Information, MediaPost, Politico and Free Press

Discussion:

Ryan Fonseca /
@ryfons: A+ explainer thread from @bcmerchant on the fiasco that's bumming out CA journalists week

Mimansa /
MEDIANAMA: Google Agrees to $250M ‘Local Journalism Supporting’ Partnership in California Amidst Protest from Journalist Unions

Brian Merchant /
@bcmerchant: @jeffjarvis It's profoundly undemocratic—the two bills passed with supermajority, bipartisan votes. I just spent an hour on a call with devastated journalists from diverse newsrooms. The man set to chair the UCB board isn't answering Qs. Newsguild and working CA journalists oppose this bill!

Brian Merchant /
@bcmerchant: @jeffjarvis That hedge fund line is right out of Google's opposition PR materials—it distorts the issue at hand, as I think you know it does. Most CA papers are not owned by hedge funds, and no one was happy about sending the money to those that were, which was why safeguards were built in

Matt Pearce /
@mattdpearce: THIS DEAL INVOLVES AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO HEDGE FUNDS AND NO ONE KNOWS THAT BECAUSE THE TERMS ARE SECRET our guild is on that board and will be very, very lonely @jeffjarvis: @bcmerchant We have a similar structure in NJ and it is working well because it does not automatically hand money out to hedge-funds but instead operates on goals and merit. Maybe give it a chance.

@jeffjarvis:
I just put up a post about California's deal for news with more information I have learned about the structure of it. Nobody's 100% pleased but this is a step in a better direction. (Gift link but remember I always crosspost at Buzzmachine.) https://medium.com/... @spj_tweets: SPJ calls on California decision-makers to ensure that yesterday's agreement between California lawmakers and Google serves as a genuine step forward in reversing our nation's alarming decline in newsroom employment. Read our full statement: https://www.spj.org/... [image]

Benjamin Lindsay /
The Wrap: Google's $250 Million Deal for California Newsrooms Should Pilot How to ‘Bolster Local Journalism,’ SPJ Says

Webb Wright /
The Drum: Google agrees to pay up to $130m to support California news publishers & AI innovation

@jeffjarvis:
I am proud to have been involved in this process, testifying in Sacramento, talking with legislators and aides, and researching a paper on the bills that proposed a solution such as this. A fund is preferable for it involves goals and accountability.

Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly /
Observer: Google Agrees to Shell Out $250M to Support Journalism—But Not Everyone Is Thrilled

Chris Morris /
Fast Company: Will Google's $250 million deal with California really help journalism?

Hayley Milloy /
LION Publishers: Scaling sustainability: How Knight Foundation's investment strategy uplifts the entire local news ecosystem

Thomas Barrabi /
New York Post: California, Google's paltry $250M million deal to fund newsroom blasted as ‘disastrous’ by critics

Jon Passantino /
@passantino@threads.net: Google agrees to first-in-the-nation deal to fund California newsrooms, but journalists are calling it a disaster. ""The Legislature embarked on an effort to regulate monopolies and failed terribly. Now we question whether the state has done more harm than good." https://www.cnn.com/...

Jeanne Kuang /
CalMatters: California tried to make Google pay news outlets. The company cut a deal that includes funding AI

Diane Sylvester /
Editor and Publisher: Google avoids content payment mandates in California with surprise media partnership deal Politico: Google and California strike a deal to jointly contribute $125M+ over five years to support local news; the deal also includes support for an AI project

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: WBD has started working on creating more original programming for TNT and rebooting series and made-for-TV movies, albeit with smaller budgets— Entertainment company is plotting ‘high-adrenaline’ dramas for a cable channel that has become closely associated with reruns

Discussion:
Too Much TV Newsletter, Deadline, TVLine, Deadline, @tvgrimreaper, CBR, Dean Devlin on LinkedIn, The Wrap, Variety and Screen Rant

Discussion:

Rick Ellis /
Too Much TV Newsletter: Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Friday, August 23rd, 2024

Nellie Andreeva /
Deadline: TNT Greenlights CIA Miniseries As Network Eyes Potential Scripted Ramp-Up Post Write-Down & Restructuring

Matt Webb Mitovich /
TVLine: TNT Grabs Librarians Sequel From The CW, Orders Season 2, as Part of Plan to Replenish Drama Slate

Peter White /
Deadline: ‘The Librarians: The Next Chapter’ Lands At TNT After Being Pulled By The CW @tvgrimreaper: They're just thrashing about with no logical strategy. Adding some cheap dramas isn't going to help with carriage fee negotiations. Why bother?

Lee Freitag /
CBR: The Librarians Sequel Series No Longer Set to Air on The CW

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: WBD Ramps Up TNT Investment With ‘The Librarians: The Next Chapter,’ CIA Miniseries

Joe Otterson /
Variety: ‘Librarians: The Next Chapter’ Moves to TNT From CW

Status:

Source: Penske Media has laid off dozens of staff over the last several weeks; Penske says it's grown its total headcount in 2022, 2023, and 2024— The layoffs at Penske's media empire comes as his company faces tough headwinds, many of them industry wide.

Discussion:
Talking Biz News

Discussion:

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: Hollywood Reporter, Variety have had layoffs

Deadline:

Nielsen: the Democratic National Convention's final night averaged 26.2M US viewers over 15 networks; the RNC's final night drew 25.4M viewers over 14 networks— The final night of the Democratic National Convention, buoyed by a speech from Vice President Kamala Harris accepting …

Discussion:
New York Times, Los Angeles Times, @mulvihill79, Variety, The Wrap, Politico, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, @xdata, Daily Kos, Raw Story and MediaPost

Discussion:

Michael M. Grynbaum /
New York Times: Harris's Convention Speech Seen by 29 Million, a Narrow Win Over Trump's

Stephen Battaglio /
Los Angeles Times: DNC ratings thump Trump as 29 million TV viewers watch Harris' acceptance speech

Michael Mulvihill /
@mulvihill79: As expected the DNC lead over the RNC narrowed significantly from 17% in overnights to 4% in the nationals, still good enough to give the DNC a bigger audience for all four nights of the conventions.

Loree Seitz /
The Wrap: DNC Night 4 Ratings Surge to 26.2 Million Viewers as Kamala Harris Accepts Historic Presidential Nomination

Jared Mitovich /
Politico: Harris DNC speech drew 28.9 million viewers, a half million more than Trump

Charisma Madarang /
Rolling Stone: DNC Brings in Higher Ratings Than RNC All Four Nights

Rick Porter /
The Hollywood Reporter: TV Ratings: Democratic Convention Closes With 26M Viewers, Edging RNC Final Night @xdata: This year's Democratic National Convention ignited conversations far and wide, fueling a high volume of engagement across the platform. [image]

Andrew Mangan /
Daily Kos: Trump's worst nightmare: DNC trounces RNC in TV ratings

Brad Reed /
Raw Story: DNC ratings smoke RNC for third night in a row

Wayne Friedman /
MediaPost: First 2 Nights Of DNC Viewing Up 23% Over RNC

Wall Street Journal:

In a letter, Skydance lawyers accuse Paramount's special committee of breaching its terms with Skydance by extending the time it can talk with other bidders— In a letter from its lawyers, Skydance accuses Paramount's committee of directors of violating the terms of its deal

Discussion:

Todd Spangler /
Variety: Skydance Accuses Paramount of Violating Deal Agreement by Negotiating With Edgar Bronfman Jr.: Report

Eva Davis /
Eva Davis on LinkedIn: More M&A entertainment from two entertainment giants — this time involving the “Go Shop.” In July 2024, Skydance Media and Paramount Global announced …

Dylan Jones /
Dylan Jones on LinkedIn: Having been part of management teams either buying billion dollar businesses or being bought by them, I've seen plenty of the game of chess …

Ian Whittaker /
Ian Whittaker on LinkedIn: I wouldn't go so far as to equate the struggle for control over Paramount as two bald men fighting over a comb - the asset has perhaps more strengths …

Sabrina Quagliozzi /
The Media Leader: Skydance accuses Paramount of breach of contract

Erik Gruenwedel /
Media Play News: Skydance Media Cries Foul as Paramount Global Extends Bidding Window to Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: Skydance Calls on Paramount to Stop Negotiating With Edgar Bronfman Jr., Accuses Special Committee of Violating Merger Agreement

Anthony Pascale /
TrekMovie.com: Paramount Extends Skydance Merger Deal Date To Consider Competing Bid [UPDATED: Skydance Responds]

The Verge:

Q&A with Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, and Danielle Strle, chief product officer, on how they bought the outlet, why they're making a print version, and more— The new owners of the satire site rescued it from content farm hell. Now, they're relaunching its newspaper.

Discussion:
@mvario@mastodon.social: The Onion's new owners on escaping content farm hell and relaunching a newspaper - The Verge — https://www.theverge.com/... #TheOnion — [image]

Jordan LaFlure /
Jordan LaFlure on LinkedIn: We were so close. After decades of R&D, testing, and optimizing, The Onion was just another 3 to 5 years away from debuting an infinitely long slideshow …

Christina Child /
Christina Child on LinkedIn: “We moved on to WordPress. We looked at other platforms, of course. But yeah, moving fast, here we are. It's a WordPress world.” — No fake news here. … @verge@mastodon.social: How The Onion is saving itself from the digital media death spiral https://www.theverge.com/... @hack13@cyberfurz.social: This is a great episode hearing about people coming together to keep a publication online even if it is a fake news publication. Just to keep The Onion around. — Decoder with Nilay Patel: How The Onion is saving itself from the digital media death spiral — Episode webpage: https://www.theverge.com/... …

Variety:

Filing: the NBA seeks to dismiss WBD's lawsuit over the league's media rights, detailing how WBD had failed to match the terms of Amazon's offer— This game may never start. … Spokespersons for the NBA and Warner's TNT Sports were not able to respond immediately to queries seeking comment.

Discussion:

Lucas Manfredi /
The Wrap: NBA Files Motion to Dismiss WBD Matching Rights Lawsuit

Eric Fisher /
Front Office Sports: NBA Moves to Dismiss WBD Lawsuit, Says Network Sought to Rewrite Deal

Brian Steinberg /
@bristei: MORE: Letter from NBA's Bill Koenig to WBD sports chief Luis Silberwasser details multiple ways in which Warner failed to match Amazon's bid for new rights package from league https://variety.com/...

Drew Lerner /
Sports Media Watch: NBA-WBD, Diamond, Venu and more

Daniel Kaplan /
Awful Announcing: Amazon, NBC want media deals under seal in WBD lawsuit against NBA

Advanced Television:

Disney says it is expanding availability of its ad-supported Disney+ plan to Finland, the Netherlands, and Portugal on October 17— Following the launch of its ad-supported plan in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK in 2023 …

Sportico:

Diamond Sports reaches deals to continue broadcasting games for 13 NBA teams and nine NHL teams through the leagues' 2024-2025 seasons in their local markets— Nearly a month to the day after a Houston court agreed to postpone a crucial confirmation hearing in the Diamond Sports Group bankruptcy case …

Discussion:
The Desk, Tampa Bay Times, Dallas Morning News, The Detroit News, ESPN, Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, New York Times, @jeremydstanley.com, @mikevorkunov, @powergate92, @evandrellich, @nationmffl, @theathletic, @evandrellich, @british_buzz, @crupicrupicrupi, @mikevorkunov, Mavs Moneyball, The Commercial Appeal, Awful Announcing, Cord Cutters News and Barrett Media

Discussion:

Eduardo A. Encina /
Tampa Bay Times: Bally Sports set to continue broadcasting Lightning games in 2024-25

Tony Paul /
The Detroit News: Red Wings, Pistons staying on Bally Sports Detroit for at least 2024-25

Alden Gonzalez /
ESPN: Diamond drops Mavs, Pels, but agrees to air NBA, NHL for '24-25 seasons

Nolan O'Hara /
Sports Illustrated: Timberwolves will remain on Bally Sports North for 2024-25 season

Mike Vorkunov /
@mikevorkunov: The Pelicans will also not be on Bally Sports in their market next season, as @cclark_13 had previously reported. The Diamond Sports filing said the two sides agreed to split as well. They're going to WVUE-TV and Gray Television, he reported.

Donavon /
@powergate92: Diamond Sports has filed an agreement with the Bankruptcy Court that will keep 7 NHL Teams on Bally Sports through the 2024-25 Season, and if they confirmed a Chapter 11 Plan, it will continue beyond the 2024-25 Season. [image]

Evan Drellich /
@evandrellich: Diamond Sports has reached deals with the NBA and NHL, deals it has said for a while it was closing in on. There's a hearing scheduled for Sept. 3 where, presumably, we'll get some sort of overall update on the bankruptcy process. @nationmffl: NEWS: The Dallas Mavericks and Bally Sports Southwest will be parting ways. Diamond Sports has filed a motion asking the bankruptcy judge to reject the deal as well to terminate the rights for the upcoming NBA season. (via @MikeVorkunov) [image] @theathletic: Regardless of whether it successfully emerges from bankruptcy, Diamond Sports Group is now promising it will operate through the 2024-25 NBA and NHL seasons. The company said it has reached agreements with both leagues. ✍️ @EvanDrellich and @MikeVorkunov https://www.nytimes.com/...

Evan Drellich /
@evandrellich: Statement from David Preschlack, CEO of Diamond Sports Group: [image]

James Plowright /
@british_buzz: Following today's announcement by Diamond Sports Group (Bally Sports), it appears the Charlotte Hornets will REMAIN on @HornetsOnBally this season. The Hornets are not mentioned as one of the teams released from the contract on the published court documents earlier today. [image]

Anthony Crupi /
@crupicrupicrupi: Big news from the world of the RSNs as Diamond Sports appears to have cinched a lifeline* by re-upping with 20 of its NBA & NHL partners. *naturally, the endemic stressors on the distribution model aren't going anywhere, so maybe this buys them 2 years? https://www.sportico.com/...

Mike Vorkunov /
@mikevorkunov: Seems Dallas Mavericks will not be on Bally Sports Southwest next season. Diamond Sports filed a motion asking bankruptcy judge to reject its deal with the Mavs and said franchise “mutually” wants to terminate rights agreement ahead of 2024-25 season. The judge needs to sign off.

Matt Martinez /
Mavs Moneyball: Diamond, Bally Sports reportedly drop regional broadcast deals with Mavericks, Pelicans

Damichael Cole /
The Commercial Appeal: Diamond Sports Group, NBA reach agreement: Grizzlies games expected to air on Bally Sports

Daniel Kaplan /
Awful Announcing: Bally Sports RSNs reach new agreements with NHL, NBA for 2024-2025 seasons

Luke Bouma /
Cord Cutters News: Bally Sports Secures NBA, NHL Rights Through 2024-2025, But Will Drop Two Teams

Bloomberg:

A look at Apple Podcasts' fading dominance, as an April 2024 study of 603 podcast consumers found 31% use YouTube, 21% use Spotify, and 12% use Apple's app— Hello! Welcome back to Soundbite. Today we're looking at the fading dominance of Apple Podcasts.

Discussion:
The Information, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac, MacRumors and Slate, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Martin Peers /
The Information: All Eyes on Nvidia's Numbers

Ben Lovejoy /
9to5Mac: Apple Podcasts app no longer #1, has dropped to #3

Tim Hardwick /
MacRumors: Apple Podcasts Losing Market Share to YouTube and Spotify

Lizzie O'Leary /
Slate: Crypto Courts the 2024 Vote

Advanced Television:

Liberty Media announces plans to sell F1 shares worth $825M to partially fund its 86% stake in Dorna Sports, the MotoGP commercial rights holder valued at $4.2B— Liberty Media has revealed plans to sell F1 shares worth $825 million (€742m) in order to ‘partially fund’ its planned acquisition of MotoGP.

Discussion:
Inside Radio, Motorsport Week, Motorsport.com, PlanetF1 and Sports Illustrated

Discussion:

Mark Mann-Bryans /
Motorsport.com: Liberty announces $825mn F1 stake sale to fund MotoGP takeover

Elizabeth Blackstock /
PlanetF1: Liberty Media announce huge $825m F1 stake sale to fund $4.2bn MotoGP takeover

Bloomberg:

Reddit is winning over advertisers using interest-based targeting via subreddits, instead of personal data; analysis: Reddit's ad revenue may pass $1.1B in 2024— Without as much personal information, Reddit lures marketers by touting interests and conversations