Todd Spangler Ny: Last News

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The deal that would merge Skydance Media and Paramount Global is not over the finish line — and now lawyers for David Ellison’s Skydance are trying to fend off efforts by a group of investors to force Paramount to evaluate a higher $13.5 billion takeover offer. As first reported by Variety, in January an investor consortium calling itself Project Rise Partners submitted a letter to Paramount’s board with an offer it said was superior to the $8 billion bid from Skydance and RedBird Capital Partners (and backed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, father of David Ellison).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor CBS has asked the FCC to reject a complaint by a right-wing public interest law firm alleging a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris represented “news distortion” — with the Paramount Global-owned broadcaster saying the complaint is premised on the notion that the U.S. government can be a “roving censor.” Last October, the Center for American Rights filed a complaint accusing CBS’s WCBS station in New York of “significant and intentional news distortion” through an interview with Harris on “Face the Nation” and “60 Minutes” that had “two conflicting responses.” Separately, President Trump sued CBS over the same interview, demanding $20 billion in damages and alleging violation of a consumer protection law; Paramount and CBS filed motions March 6 seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it an “affront to the First Amendment.” CBS, in its March 7 response to the FCC over the Center for American Rights complaint, said that “The Complaint filed against CBS for ‘news distortion’ envisions a less free world in which the federal government becomes a roving censor — one that second guesses and even punishes specific editorial decisions that are an essential part of producing news programming.” “The protections of the First Amendment apply to all Americans, including broadcasters like CBS and its stations,” CBS said in the filing.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Michelle Obama and her older brother Craig Robinson sit down together for a new podcast series to “uncover the shared experiences that connect us all.” The two Chicago-native siblings are the hosts of “IMO With Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” from Higher Ground, the media company founded by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. On the podcast, the former First Lady and Robinson, who is executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, will discuss “everyday questions” about life, relationships and the world at large.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Audacy, the radio broadcast and podcasting company that emerged from bankruptcy last fall, has made a large round of jobs cuts. The layoffs, which started Thursday, affect about 200 employees, according to a source familiar with the situation. An Audacy rep said in a statement to Variety, “Audacy has made workforce reductions to ensure a strong and resilient future for the business.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube, 20 years after it launched and soon became the most massive video repository on Earth, has been an economic engine that powers a huge part of what’s known as the “creator economy.” Today, a class of entrepreneurial creators distributes their shows on the platform and take a cut of the revenue from ads served on their channels (a 55% share under YouTube’s standard deal). They have leveraged that footprint into other lines of business like merchandise, live events and more.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube has tried its hand at funding original content more than once — with disappointing results. Ten years ago, YouTube believed it needed to more directly compete with the Netflixes of the world. Robert Kyncl, then YouTube’s chief business officer (who left to become CEO of Warner Music Group in 2023), in 2015 hired TV veteran Susanne Daniels to build a slate of original programming — available exclusively to subscribers of YouTube Red (later rebranded YouTube Premium).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix expects to spend in the neighborhood of $18 billion in cash on content in 2025 — and it sees plenty of runway to expand in the years ahead, according to Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann. “We’re not anywhere near a ceiling” with respect to content spending, said Neumann, speaking Wednesday at the 2025 Morgan Stanley Tech, Media & Telecom Conference. As a global entertainment company, he said, “I think we are still just getting started.” The $18 billion cash content spending pegged for this year would be up around 11% from $16.2 billion in 2024.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Audacy expanded its exclusive multiyear sales and distribution pact with CBS to encompass more than three dozen podcasts, including companion shows for “48 Hours,” “Survivor” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” Since 2022, Audacy has been the ad sales and distribution partner for CBS Sports podcasts. The two companies’ partnership now includes the podcast slates from CBS Entertainment, CBS Media Ventures, CBS News, and CBS Studios podcast slates.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Pete Distad has a new gig after the shutdown of sports-streaming joint venture Venu Sports. Fox Corp. has hired Distad as CEO of the company’s recently announced direct-to-consumer streaming division.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney and ESPN have cooked up a plan to try to whet the sports appetite of Disney+ U.S. customers — who may not necessarily be the more voracious fans of sporting events. ESPN is set to launch “SC+,” a new, daily “SportsCenter” show, exclusively on Disney+ on Monday, March 3.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix subscribers streamed more content than ever in the back half of 2024 — and the second season of Korean breakout hit “Squid Game” was the biggest TV show on the service. The streamer’s customers watched more than 94 billion hours on Netflix in the second half of last year, a 5% increase year over year, according to its latest Engagement Report sharing what people watched on from July to December 2024. “Squid Game” Season 2, despite premiering on Dec.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jeff Bezos is shaking up the Washington Post again. The billionaire owner of the newspaper said he will change the focus of the opinion section to focus on “support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” According to Bezos, he offered editorial opinion page editor David Shipley “the opportunity to lead this new chapter.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Podcasts started as an audio-only phenomenon. But now YouTube — the world’s biggest video platform — might be the biggest platform for podcasts. According to the Google-owned video giant, YouTube now has more than 1 billion monthly viewers for podcast content worldwide.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor An Apple dictation feature for the iPhone has been mistakenly transcribing “racist” as “Trump,” an issue that came to light after users posted about the issue on TikTok and social media. “We are aware of an issue with the speech recognition model that powers Dictation and we are rolling out a fix today,” an Apple rep said in a statement Tuesday.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amid a broad reshuffle of its programming lineup, MSNBC is initiating “mass layoffs” of 99 employees who are members of the WGA East, the union said Tuesday. Over the past two days, according to WGA East, “we learned that MSNBC is starting mass layoffs of 99 of our union colleagues from at least nine different shows.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kai Cenat, one of Twitch’s biggest livestreamers, is kicking off his latest marathon Friday: He says he is going to play the four main titles in the “Batman: Arkham” series nonstop — “until I beat it,” he posted on X. The livestream starts Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After several days of intensive negotiations, YouTube TV and Paramount Global renewed their carriage deal for CBS stations nationwide, MTV, Comedy Central and 20 other channels on the service. In addition, under the new agreement, YouTube TV has the right to bundle Paramount+ to “qualifying” customers.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube TV and Paramount Global, still haggling over a new distribution deal, have reached a short-term extension to let the internet TV service continue carrying CBS and more than 20 other networks — for now. The companies are sparring over financial terms, with Paramount seeking a rate hike. Their existing deal expired at 11 p.m.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku overdelivered for the fourth quarter of 2024, boosting revenue 22% and narrowing its net loss to top Wall Street expectations. Roku reported 89.8 million streaming households as of the end of 2024, up 12% year over year and a gain of 4.3 million from 85.5 million the prior quarter. It’s the last time the company expects to report the metric regularly, following in the footsteps of Netflix, as Roku going forward will focus on revenue and profitability numbers in its quarterly earnings.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor More than eight years after the Apple TV streaming app first came out, the tech giant has finally released a version for Google’s Android. On Wednesday (Feb. 12), the Apple TV app for Android was published on the Google Play store.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has taken the Trump administration’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion to a new target: Comcast and NBCUniversal. Carr said he sent a letter Tuesday to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts “to let him know that I’ve asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Comcast & NBCUniversal.” “I am concerned that his companies may be promoting invidious forms of DEI that do not comply with FCC regulations & civil rights laws,” Carr said in a post on X, the social network owned by Elon Musk.