Holly Saurer has left her post as chief of the FCC Media Bureau, an agency spokesperson confirmed Monday. However, Saurer remains at the FCC in a different role, the spokesperson said, without identifying it. A Monday order to pay or show cause aimed at Cobra Broadcasting over failure to pay delinquent regulatory fees was signed by Rosemary Harold, with the title “Acting Chief, Media Bureau.” Harold, who served as Enforcement Bureau chief under former Chairman Ajit Pai, is listed on the FCC’s website as a deputy chief of the Media Bureau. A longtime Media Bureau staffer under numerous FCC chairs, Saurer was chief since January 2022. She also spent time as media adviser to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

TV programmers cutting their newsroom staffs in light of shrinking TV news audiences -- particularly among cable news outlets --- could be an opportunity for Netflix to enter the field, nScreenMedia's Colin Dixon wrote Sunday. In addition, he said Amazon reportedly is considering adding news to its Prime Video service. Netflix management has repeatedly said the company is not interested in news, but it said the same about sports previously, Dixon said. Netflix has an advantage in that many members of its huge subscriber base use it daily, Dixon added.

The American Antitrust Institute is urging DOJ to examine Disney acquiring a stake in FuboTV and other terms of Fubo's settlement of its litigation against the Venu streaming service. Settling Fubo's suit against Venu joint venture partners Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery "appears to leave the consumer harms that were the basis of the suit unaddressed and unremedied," AAI said in a letter to Doha Mekki, acting assistant attorney general in DOJ's Antitrust Division. Released Friday, the letter urged that DOJ "take any actions necessary to ensure effective remedies to any harms to competition in live U.S. sports broadcasting that its investigation reveals." Disney and the other partners said Friday they were axing Venu plans (see 2501100042).

Altice USA and Nexstar are blaming one another for a blackout that saw Nexstar stations go dark on Altice's channel lineup Friday. Altice said Nexstar is "using an anti-consumer negotiation tactic" of tying local channels to carriage of NewsNation, despite the Nexstar cable network having "essentially no viewership." Nexstar said Altice removed 63 stations in 42 markets and dropped NewsNation, "demanding special terms that are wildly out of step with both our longstanding relationship and the cable television marketplace." Nexstar said MSG Network going dark on Altice earlier this month signals "a regular pattern of behavior for Altice." In a statement Monday, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) urged MSG and Altice "to work together to reach a fair, final agreement so New Yorkers can get back to rooting for the home teams.” James said she "will be monitoring this situation closely to ensure New York customers receive the services they are paying for."

DirecTV joined EchoStar in asking a federal court not to lift the preliminary injunction put on the Venu sports streaming joint venture of Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery. Plaintiff FuboTV settling with Disney "does nothing to resolve the underlying antitrust violations at issue" with Venu, DirectTV wrote U.S. District Court for Southern New York Judge Margaret Garnett on Thursday (docket 24-cv-1363). EchoStar made a similar argument with the court this week (see 250108002).

Considering the antitrust concerns raised by the proposed Venu sports streaming joint venture, Dish Network parent EchoStar is urging a federal court not to drop the temporary injunction against it. In a Jan. 7 letter to Judge Margaret Garnett of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, EchoStar said that defendant Disney's agreement with plaintiff Fubo is the equivalent of purchasing its "way out of their antitrust violation." EchoStar added, "But the Court’s decisions have correctly found harm that sweeps past the Plaintiff to the consuming public, independent programmers, and distributors" such as Dish. The preliminary injunction Garnett granted in August (see 2408160040) stopped the plan by defendants Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery "to monopolize the pay-TV market and ... charge inflated prices to millions of Americans," EchoStar said. Fubo and the defendants asked the court this week to lift the preliminary injunction in light of the Disney-Fubo settlement (see 2501070040). The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, in docket 24-2210, dismissed an appeal challenging the preliminary injunction (see 2412020006).

Paramount Global and Comcast renewed their distribution agreements, which will keep Paramount networks on Comcast's Xfinity platforms, the two said Tuesday. The multi-year deal also has Comcast subscribers keeping access to Paramount streaming services.

FuboTV's merger with Disney's Hulu+ Live TV will mean two major players in the virtual multichannel video programming distribution landscape -- New YouTube TV and the New Fubo entity -- with an array of much smaller services following in their wake, Ampere Analysis' Andrew Dougert wrote Tuesday. Announced Monday (see 2501060003), the merger could take up to 18 months to close, he said. By then, YouTube TV will likely have around 10.5 million subscribers, while Fubo and Hulu+ Live TV are expected to collectively have nearly 6.4 million, he said. Behind them, EchoStar's Sling TV currently has a little more than 2 million subscribers. The Fubo/Hulu deal has Fubo dropping its litigation seeking to block the Disney/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery sports streaming joint venture Venu. The parties on Monday filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal (docket 1:24-cv-01363) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asking that the preliminary injunction against Venu (see 2408160040) be lifted.

The planned Department of Government Efficiency should apply “bulldozer treatment” to MVPD regulations, which will ease burdens on providers that are bleeding subscribers, said former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in a post for the Free State Foundation Monday. “The video marketplace is still stuck with many mandates and obligations created 30 years ago or more,” O’Rielly wrote. “DOGE could provide a great service by giving this sector a good shakeout and squaring any remaining obligations with how American families actually consume video content.” Comparing the modern video market to its past iterations “is like comparing space travel to a donkey ride,” O’Rielly added. “There can be no justification for keeping current burdens when providers can and should escape to new business models in response.” It would be “ridiculous” to try to apply the same rules cable providers operate under to new video businesses, he wrote. “Can anyone imagine policymakers arguing that the space-wasteful and unwatched public access programming must be included on YouTube or Meta’s Reels?” O’Rielly didn’t specify which video regulations DOGE should target, but said it should avoid retransmission consent because it would draw too much pushback. “Thumping old agency requirements that are no longer needed in the modern world is a worthy and sensible task.”

Fubo will combine with Disney's Hulu+ Live TV, with the resulting company continuing to operate Fubo and Hulu + Live TV as separate streaming offerings, Fubo and Disney said Monday. They said Disney will own 70% of the resulting company, which Fubo management will run. As part of the deal, Fubo is dropping its lawsuit challenging the Disney/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) sports streaming partnership Venu (see 2402210007), the companies said. They said the agreement includes a Disney/Fubo carriage agreement that will see Fubo creating a sports and broadcast service that features Disney sports and broadcast networks and ESPN+. The transaction has Disney, Fox and WBD paying Fubo $220 million and Disney committing to a $145 million term loan to Fubo in 2026. "Kudos to the Disney lawyers who said, 'You know, we could just buy them. That would be cheaper than fighting this lawsuit and all the bad publicity around it,' TVREV analyst Alan Wolk wrote Monday. He predicted Friday that Venu wouldn't launch, owing to WBD losing NBA rights to Amazon, as well as growing legal costs. "At $42/month, there are unlikely to be many takers for the stripped-down service which doesn’t really work as the only sports app a fan needs," Wolk said. Combining Hulu+ with Fubo helps consolidate the distribution business, which could mean more opportunities in carriage negotiations and in developing programmatic advertising, Macquarie analyst Tim Nollen wrote Monday. "It's a neat resolution to the key issues that have weighed on [Fubo] for some time now -- combining with Disney provides it much more scale, and resolves the Venu dispute," he said. He said New Fubo will be able to fulfill its long-sought aim of being a sports-focused streaming service.