Into Battle: Last News

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The typical evening-news program give viewers all the news they need to know in less than 30 minutes. John Dickerson’s take on the format aims to unpack the headlines of the day and offer something most news programs don’t — perspective. Dickerson will lead CBS News’ step into an emerging frontier, an evening-news program that doesn’t air on a TV network, but streams instead, presumably for a younger, more tech-savvy audience. “CBS News Prime With John Dickerson,” a new hour-long program, debuts tonight at 7 p.m. eastern on CBS News’ streaming outlets, and will appear live Monday through Thursday.  The goal is for Dickerson, a former host of “Face The Nation” and a longtime political journalist and analyst, to provide insight and historical context around the events of the day so viewers gain a deeper understanding of the news cycle.

Chris Willman Music WriterYou don’t hear much about a “war on Christmas” this year, but you do hear murmurings about a war on comedy. It’s a loggerheads that has Spotify under scrutiny for removing a significant number of comedy albums from its service, in response to many comics and their reps believing they have a right to the same kind of dual royalties that musicians have always gotten.Comedy performances already earn royalties from streaming services for the mechanical license — that is, for the actual audio recording.