U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses on Tuesday recommended dismissal of claims brought by LiveVideo.AI against National Amusements and its president, Shari Redstone, related to Skydance Media's purchase of Paramount Global. In a report and recommendation (docket 24-CV-6290) to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, Moses said LiveVideo.AI's complaint that National Amusements, Paramount's majority holder, ignored its rival bid for Paramount was frivolous. Moore said that following its complaint, LiveVideo.AI has "flooded the docket with meritless, repetitive, and frequently incoherent filings."
Broadcasters should pay the costs that a mandatory conversion to ATSC 3.0 will impose on MVPDs, said DirecTV in a letter to the FCC Media Bureau, posted Wednesday in docket 16-142. Purchasing enough ATSC 3.0 receivers to convert DirecTV’s 1,800 nationwide feeds would cost close to $15 million, which “would be onerous” and “a dead-weight loss,” the company said. “Spreading the cost among the nation’s nearly 1,500 broadcast stations would not only yield a much more manageable financial responsibility for each entity but also place the costs on the parties who stand to reap the benefits of the ATSC 3.0 transition.” DirecTV said it currently can’t transmit ATSC 3.0 signals because its customers’ millions of set-top boxes can’t receive the signal, and it doesn’t have the capacity to carry both ATSC 3.0 and 1.0 signals simultaneously. It also noted that an Advanced Television Systems Committee working group on creating a standard for converting 3.0 signals for MVPD transmission doesn’t include any MVPD representatives. “Because of what MVPDs view as the domineering and uncollaborative behavior of the broadcast representatives in the Working Group, there is no longer any MVPD representation” in the group.
ESPN's and Fox's upcoming streaming services will be available in a $40-a-month bundle starting Oct. 2, the networks said Monday. Fox One and ESPN's streaming service both launch Aug. 21.
Fox Corp. said Tuesday its Fox One streaming service -- featuring all of Fox's news, sports and entertainment content, as well as local channels -- will launch Aug. 21 and cost $19.99 a month or $199.99 annually.
Disney's ESPN is buying the NFL Network and other NFL media assets, including its linear RedZone Channel and NFL Fantasy, in exchange for a 10% equity stake in ESPN, the NFL said Tuesday night. The pro football league said the deal will make NFL programming available on ESPN's upcoming streaming service while it also remains on MVPDs and other streaming platforms.
Disney will integrate Hulu into its Disney+ streaming service and create "a unified app experience" of entertainment, news and sports, CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday. Speaking to analysts as he announced the company's Q2 financial results, Iger said the integration into Disney+ will happen in 2026. Disney acquired Comcast's share in the streaming joint venture last month (see 2506090058). It ended its most recent quarter with 127.8 million Disney+ subscribers and 55.5 million Hulu subscribers worldwide. Disney's ESPN has also reached a deal to buy the NFL Network and other NFL media assets (see 2508060006).
Skydance Media understands that content is "king," Paramount Global Chairwoman Shari Redstone said Thursday as the company announced its Q2 financial results. Paramount's final quarterly earnings call was largely a victory lap after the market's close, with company executives thanking their teams, shareholders and one another. Skydance's purchase of Paramount is expected to close Thursday (see 2507280007). Redstone said Skydance is taking over a healthy Paramount -- something that wasn't a necessarily the expectation a year ago, given woes in linear programming. Revenue for the quarter was $6.8 billion, up 1% year over year.
Skydance Media plans to close Aug. 7 on its purchase of Paramount Global, Paramount told the SEC Friday. The FCC signed off on the transaction last week (see 2507240079).
The two companies resulting from the mid-2026 split of Warner Bros. Discovery (see 2506090024) will be Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, WBD said Monday. Warner Bros. will be home to WB properties, DC Studios and HBO, while Discovery Global will include CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., Discovery and Discovery+, it said.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said any approval of Skydance Media’s purchase of Paramount Global should be done at the full commission level. Speaking Thursday with reporters after the agency's July meeting, Gomez said Chairman Brendan Carr “is quite cognizant of my request to do so.” The chairman’s office didn’t comment.