9:10 AM ET, February 17, 2026
February 17, 2026
9:00 AM
Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
WBD says Paramount informed WBD on February 11 that it would pay $31 per share, up from $30, if the sides engaged, and that $31 was not its best and final offer
7:41 AM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
WBD sets March 20 as the date for a special shareholder meeting to vote on the proposed $83B Netflix deal, which its board “continues to unanimously recommend”
7:12 AM
Financial Times:
WBD tells Paramount to make its “best and final offer” within seven days, or get out of the way of Netflix's agreed $83B deal; Netflix granted a weeklong waiver
5:55 AM
Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Future launches Future Optic, a commercial Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, service that aims to boost brand visibility on AI platforms like ChatGPT
4:50 AM
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
MPA: Japan's premium VOD sector hit a revenue of $7.2B in 2025, up 15% YoY; Netflix leads with 22% of revenue; Prime Video has the most subscribers at 19.3M
February 16, 2026
10:10 PM
Rei Nakafuji / Nikkei Asia:
Sony says it has developed tech to identify copyrighted music in AI-generated songs, aiming to help rights holders receive compensation if their music was used
7:55 PM
Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: Anderson Cooper grew increasingly uneasy with the rightward direction of CBS News under Bari Weiss, a factor in his decision to leave 60 Minutes
4:26 PM
Lachlan Cartwright / Breaker:
Anderson Cooper is leaving 60 Minutes after almost 20 years; sources say he has decided to pass on a renewal offer with CBS
2:55 PM
Chris Quinn / Plain Dealer:
The Cleveland Plain Dealer says it has removed “writing” from some reporters' workloads; an “AI rewrite specialist” turns info gathered by reporters into drafts
1:35 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Apple says it will bring “advanced video capabilities” to Apple Podcasts this spring, including allowing users to switch between watching and listening to shows
11:35 AM
Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter:
Mexico announces a 30% tax incentive for film and TV productions in Mexico, even as the Trump administration pressures studios to shoot more films in the US
10:10 AM
Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:
Ars Technica apologizes after publishing an article it says had fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool attributed to a source who did not say them
9:00 AM
The Times:
Sources: the UK has shelved proposed anti-SLAPP legislation, fearing a backlash from lawyers, despite appeals from the editors of The Times and The Sun
7:50 AM
Jeremy Barr / The Guardian:
CBS News staffers say they believe the network has decided to retain Peter Attia, who issued an apology for his inappropriate Epstein emails, as on-air analyst
6:05 AM
Max Tani / Semafor:
Guardian US plans to launch a daily video podcast in 2026, hosted by Kai Wright and Carter Sherman, to compete with The Daily; a source says it has 10 staff
5:45 AM
Osmond Chia / BBC:
ByteDance says it “respects IP rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance” and it plans to “strengthen” safeguards, after Disney's legal threats
5:30 AM
Financial Times:
Patrick Drahi's new ~15% stake in Channel 13 prompts questions about media independence in Israel; Drahi owns the outlet i24, which supports Benjamin Netanyahu
5:10 AM
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
In the nearly two weeks since his arrest, Don Lemon gained 300K+ Instagram followers, 140K YouTube subscribers, and his Substack soared 73% to 140K+ subscribers
4:49 AM
Nathan Taylor Pemberton / New York Times:
Conservative creators are increasingly posting “slopulism”, low-quality political content that prioritizes populist rage, aiming to provoke policy action
February 15, 2026
11:35 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Following Disney, Paramount sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging its AI-generated Seedance videos and Seedream images infringed Paramount's IP
10:35 PM
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: Apple partnered with the UK's Daily Mail soon after the Mail complained to the UK CMA in 2025 that Apple was stonewalling attempts to join Apple News
9:00 PM
Henry Chandonnet / Business Insider:
A look at Sourcery, a podcast and newsletter from Molly O'Shea, which gets big-name guests including Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey
3:00 PM
Bloomberg:
Sources: Warner Bros. Discovery is considering reopening sale talks with Paramount after receiving Paramount's most recent amended offer
1:00 PM
Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Former NPR host David Greene sues Google for allegedly replicating his voice in NotebookLM without permission; Google says the voice is based on a paid actor
February 14, 2026
7:25 PM
Abbey White / The Hollywood Reporter:
Q&A with PBS Kids' Sara DeWitt on the effect of cuts to the $112M Ready to Learn grant, including potentially partnering with ad tech companies
1:25 PM
Isma'il Kushkush / Nieman Reports:
A look at the dearth of media coverage of Sudan's civil war, started in 2023; report: 32 journalists have been killed and 90% of outlets damaged or destroyed
7:25 AM
Scott Shambaugh / The Shamblog:
A now-removed Ars Technica article, covering how an AI agent wrote a hit piece about an open-source project maintainer, seems to have included AI hallucinations
February 13, 2026
7:10 PM
Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:
While announcing its sports buildup, Banner EIC Audrey Cooper noted the civic value: “At a time when so much pulls communities apart, sports bring us together”
6:13 PM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, claiming it infringed on Disney's works to train its Seedance 2.0 video generation model without pay
5:49 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Memo: Paramount names former Trump administration attorney Rene Augustine as its senior vice president of global public policy, amid a takeover battle for WBD
5:20 PM
Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
Source: New York Daily News is cutting six of 10 national desk staffers, one metro reporter, seven print production people, and two photo department staffers
4:20 PM
George Winslow / TV Tech:
Cineverse says it is acquiring IndiCue, a profitable CTV ad tech company, for $22M plus up to $18M in earnout as Cineverse focuses on streaming infrastructure
2:57 PM
CNN:
Don Lemon pleads not guilty to two federal charges stemming from his reporting at an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church
1:20 PM
New York Times:
A Q&A with NYT reporters on handling the Epstein files, including creating tools to make them searchable, prepping for the release, and dealing with redactions
11:50 AM
Scott Nover / Washington Post:
The Richmond Free Press, a 34-year-old Black-owned weekly, shuts down due to falling ad revenue as the Black press suffers from the dispersion of its readership
9:45 AM
Advanced Television:
Report: AI-generated music uploads account for <1% of total streams; AI adoption is strongest in functional and low-stakes settings such as background music
February 12, 2026
10:55 PM
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
The MPA urges ByteDance to curb its AI video model Seedance 2.0, after an AI-generated video of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting on a rooftop went viral
10:25 PM
Antonio Zappulla / Thomson Reuters Foundation:
The Thomson Reuters Foundation says its news brand, Context, will be “phased down”, some staffers will lose jobs, and the site will remain up as an archive
9:55 PM
Bloomberg:
Meta and Snap report minimal impact from Australia's teen social media ban as it affects a small number of users who aren't high-value targets for advertisers
9:05 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
SAG-AFTRA signs an agreement with Netflix covering The Pete Davidson Show as a podcast, after talks about whether it should be treated as a TV show or a podcast
8:15 PM
New York Times:
Casey Wasserman will remain chair of the LA Olympics committee after a review of his ties to Epstein and Maxwell; multiple entertainers have left his agency
7:10 PM
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Scott Borchetta, who founded Big Machine Records and signed Taylor Swift in 2006, is leaving Hybe America, which bought Big Machine in 2021; Hybe retains assets
6:30 PM
Brendon Kleen / Awful Announcing:
Memo: The Banner in Maryland plans to expand sports staff to cover Washington, DC, teams, hiring beat reporters to cover the Nationals and Commanders, and more
6:20 PM
Ali Abunimah / The Electronic Intifada:
Current and ex-CPJ staffers say the nonprofit scrapped its Global Impunity Index in 2025 because Israel would have been ranked near the top or first, for years
5:15 PM
Kayla Cobb / The Wrap:
YouTube and the NFL's second annual Creator Flag Football game drew 14M live views around the world, up from 6M in 2025, as the NFL seeks to export the sport
4:44 PM
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
Roku reports Q4 revenue up 16% YoY to $1.39B, vs. $1.35B est., and an $80.5M net income, vs. a $35.5M loss in Q4 2024; ROKU jumps 9%+ after hours
3:55 PM
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Sources: Paramount CEO David Ellison met with Trump last week for two conversations; Trump has said he will stay out of Netflix-Paramount competition for WBD
3:35 PM
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
The Virginia State Bar rejects a disciplinary complaint from a press freedom group against a DOJ lawyer over the raid of WaPo reporter Hannah Natanson's home
2:55 PM
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Letter: the EU launched a new probe into Google for potentially “artificially increasing the clearing price” of ad auctions “to the detriment of advertisers”
2:35 PM
Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak:
Anna's Archive quietly starts releasing millions of tracks from its Spotify scrape, despite a preliminary injunction against distributing the copyrighted works
2:00 PM
Alice Brooker / Press Gazette:
An interview with Lachlan Cartwright on the one-year anniversary of Breaker, his profitable newsletter-first outlet, which has 40K+ paid and unpaid subscribers
1:40 PM
Agnieszka Flak / Reuters:
Universal Music Group signs a licensing deal with rights platform ClicknClear, easing the licensing process for athletes using music in choreographed sports
1:00 PM
Axios:
US DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater leaves, in a move seen as a win for big business over some of MAGA's populist voices; she was overseeing a Live Nation case
12:20 PM
Todd Spangler / Variety:
E.W. Scripps is expected to make layoffs in the near future as it seeks to grow adjusted earnings by up to $150M over three years; in 2024, it had 5K staff
11:50 AM
Eduardo Baptista / Reuters:
ByteDance's new AI video generation model Seedance 2.0 goes viral in China; the model was designed for film, advertising, and e-commerce productions
11:35 AM
Michael Savage / The Guardian:
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy refers DMGT's proposed acquisition of the Telegraph to Ofcom and CMA over concerns about consolidation of rightwing papers
11:05 AM
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
In a call, Tim Davie says the BBC plans to cut ~10% of its costs in the next three years, leading to job and programming cuts; 2025's operating costs hit £2B+