LiveVideo.AI is fighting a magistrate judge's recommended dismissal of its claims against National Amusements and its president, Shari Redstone, related to Skydance Media's purchase of Paramount Global. In an objection last week (docket 1:24-cv-06290), LiveVideo.AI told the U.S. District Court for Southern New York that U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses' report and recommendation -- which, along with dismissal of the suit, called for LiveVideo.AI and its counsel to face monetary sanctions and for an injunction to prevent LiveVideo.AI from further "frivolous" claims (see 2508130001) -- omits antitrust violations and acts of security fraud that have come to light recently. It said the recommendation wrongly turns "harmless docketing issues into case-ending defaults" and recommends sanctions "despite colorable, good-faith arguments."

YouTube has reached a carriage agreement with Fox that keeps its channels on YouTube TV, the Google subsidiary said last week. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had put pressure on Google during the companies' negotiations (see 2508270014).

Spending on U.S. sports rights jumped 122% since 2015, growing from $13.8 billion to $30.5 billion this year, Ampere Analysis said last week. During the same decade, total U.S. TV industry revenues were up just 24%, it noted.

Google's YouTube said late Wednesday that it reached a short-term extension agreement with Fox, temporarily preventing a blackout of Fox channels on YouTube TV as it "continue[s] to work on a new agreement." The carriage agreement between the companies was set to expire at 5 p.m. Wednesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr took to social media this week to pressure Google to come to an agreement with Fox (see 2508270014).

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is pressuring YouTube parent Google in a looming carriage dispute with Fox Corp. "Get a deal done Google!" Carr wrote Tuesday on social media. "Google removing Fox channels from YouTube TV would be a terrible outcome. Millions of Americans are relying on YouTube to resolve this dispute so they can keep watching the news and sports they want -- including this week’s Big Game: Texas @ Ohio State."

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and its top executives were engaged in "straightforward ... securities fraud" when they concealed from investors how important NBA rights were to its revenues, class-action plaintiffs said Monday as they opposed the company's motion to dismiss their suit. While WBD argues that the market already knew the value of the NBA rights, the matching clause terms in its contract with the NBA was less "potent" than the company had made it out to be in public statements, the plaintiffs said. WBD CEO David Zaslav and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels are also defendants in the suit, filed in November at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York (docket 1:24-cv-09027). The plaintiffs are suing over the financial hit WBD took in 2024 when it lost NBA rights to Amazon.

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan for the District of Columbia has rejected an FTC request for a stay of an enjoinment in the agency's probe of alleged media outlet collusion. In an opinion Friday (docket 1:25-cv-01959), Sooknanan said the FTC "fall[s] well short of satisfying the high burden needed for a stay pending appeal." With plaintiff Media Matters likely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim, it's unlikely that an FTC appeal will succeed on the merits, the judge said. The agency hasn't identified an irreparable injury that warrants a stay, she added. Media Matters, a left-leaning media watchdog group, sued the FTC in June to block a civil investigative demand that the agency filed in its investigation into alleged collusion between media outlets and social media platforms (see 2506230039).

Media Matters and the FTC are clashing over the agency's requested stay of a preliminary injunction in a federal probe over advertiser boycotts. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this month granted the left-leaning journalism watchdog group a preliminary injunction against the agency's civil investigative demand (CID) in the probe (see 2508180026). The FTC last week asked the court to stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal. It told the court (docket 1:25-cv-01959) it has issued 17 CIDs to advertising trade associations, brand safety rating organizations and advocacy groups like Media Matters as it investigates whether online advertisers or ad agencies coordinated the placement of ads in ways that had certain news outlets or platforms rated not "brand suitable" or "brand safe." The preliminary injunction impedes the FTC investigation by barring it from determining whether Media Matters has any information relevant to the investigation into advertiser boycotts, the agency said.

The FTC's probe of Media Matters is "a straightforward First Amendment violation," a federal judge ruled Friday, granting the left-leaning journalism watchdog group a preliminary injunction against the agency's civil investigative demand (CID). "It should alarm all Americans when the Government retaliates against individuals or organizations for engaging in constitutionally protected public debate," U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said in an opinion (docket 1:25-cv-01959). Media Matters filed suit in June, seeking to block the CID (see 2506230039). The judge said Media Matters was "engaged in quintessential First Amendment activity" with its reporting on Elon Musk and his X social media platform, and the subsequent FTC CID was a retaliatory act.

Newsmax told the SEC Monday it will pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle the voting technology company's $1.6 billion defamation claims against the news network. Dominion sued over Newsmax's coverage of its voting machines during the 2020 election. In a statement, Newsmax said it "believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020. We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism."