The FCC commissioner calls the effort “as misguided as it is unlawful” and said it would "do more harm than good."
Breaking with more than a century of policy, the NCAA will pay billions in damages to former athletes and allow schools to pay athletes up to $20 million a year.
In a highly anticipated announcement, Paramount Global and Charter Communications said they’re extending their longstanding partnership with a multi-year distribution agreement for Paramount’s full portfolio of linear cable networks, CBS owned-and-operated broadcast stations and direct-to-consumer streaming services.
BRAND CONNECTIONS
AI & THE MEDIA
FTC Chair: AI Models Could Violate Antitrust Laws
Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan said Wednesday that companies that train their artificial intelligence models on data from news websites, artists’ creations or people’s personal information could be in violation of antitrust laws.
BuzzFeed shares soared by as much as 56% Wednesday after Vivek Ramaswamy disclosed that he had taken an activist stake.
Exclusives
AI & THE MEDIA
WPP Adds More Gen AI Firepower With Anthropic Partnership
WPP has struck a deal to integrate Amazon-backed Anthropic's suite of AI large language models (branded as Claude) into its marketing operating system WPP Open. The holding company has similar agreements with other large language model providers including Open AI and Google’s Gemini. Large language models — a type of generative AI — use machine learning to recognize and generate text and other content.
Quarterly losses shrank at Lionsgate and revenues climbed as the company’s television business rebounded from the twin strikes that had shut down production for much of 2023. Revenue at the company behind The Hunger Games and John Wick franchises topped out at $1.12 billion for the three-month period ending in March, up from $1.08 billion in the prior-year quarter.
WEDNESDAY OVERNIGHTS
‘Jeopardy Masters’ Ends On High Note, ‘Survivor’ And ‘Chicago Fire’ Finales Lead Wednesday
NBC’s Chicago Fire finale (5.8 million/0.4) was Wednesday’s most-watched show, while CBS’ Survivor finale dominated the night in the demo (4.5M/0.8).
The Disney CEO talks brand-building and maintaining company culture at the inaugural Canva Create event. Iger, who is an investor and board member of the privately held online design platform, commended Canva for embracing the potential of generative AI tools and other cutting-edge technologies to make high-end visual media design tools readily available to everyday users.
CBS filed a motion Thursday to throw out a lawsuit challenging its diversity hiring practices for writers on the show SEAL Team, arguing that it has a First Amendment right to hire who it wants. Brian Beneker, the longtime script coordinator on the show, sued in February, arguing that he had been repeatedly passed over for writing jobs because he is a straight, white man.
Collective viewership for the last day of the season hit nearly three million, and the 2023-24 season saw the first match ever to top two million viewers.
Anderson Cooper humbles Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow, while Lester Holt is the standout in a new THR/Morning Consult poll.
From April 22 to 28, the video game adaptation scored 1.5 billion viewing minutes across all eight episodes, according to Nielsen's streaming report. While that was down a hefty billion minutes from the week before, it was pretty comfortably above basically everything else on streaming that week.
TVN’S MEDIA JOBS
New Jobs Posted To TVNewsCheck
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a vice president and general manager. Existing jobs include openings for a vice president and general manager, a lifestyle show producer, director of student media, a market manager and a digital platform specialist.
Technology leaders from NBC Regional Sports Networks, Sinclair, Gray Television, Hearst Television and Fox Television Stations discuss the benefits and challenges of remote production in an IP environment in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on July 16 at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.
