Big Media Companies Keep Smacking Nielsen in Public. Disney Has a Different Approach

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorBuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Mark Schoofs is stepping down, along with at least two other top editors, as the digital media company said it will be cutting jobs across the board.“After almost two rollicking and deeply fulfilling years as editor-in-chief, I’ve decided that it’s the right time to move on,” Schoofs wrote in an internal memo to staff Tuesday.In addition to Schoofs, BuzzFeed News deputy editor-in-chief Tom Namako announced that he is leaving to become executive editor of ‪NBC News‬⁩ Digital. In his memo, Schoofs had said Namako “would have been a natural successor” to take the EIC spot at BuzzFeed News.

2022 CMT Awards have been announced. The line-up is stacked with a roster of some of this year’s nominees.The CMT Awards is known for bringing some of the best world premiere performances and biggest collaborations and this year is no exception.  The first round of performers announced include Kelsea Ballerini, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Maren Morris, Carley Pearce and Keith Urban.

Discovery and AT&T have determined the 13 members of the board of directors for Warner Bros Discovery, the new company that will be created via a pending $43 billion merger.

Symphony No. 5 and the French overture from Handel’s Water Music as well as arias from his operas Rinaldo, Alcina, and Serse, all featuring Isaacs, who sang the South African National Anthem at Mandela’s memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral in 2013.The program centerpiece, however, is the premiere of Koapeng’s Yixesha! Ke Nako (The Time Is Now!), a work commissioned by Classical Movements for New Orchestra of Washington.

William Earl Variety is pleased to welcome thought-leaders at the forefront of the global TV industry to share their strategies for success. Angela Colla, Head of International Sales, Globo; Carol Hanley, President, Whip Media; Lisa Holme, Group SVP of Content and Commercial Strategy for Discovery, Inc.; Miquel Penella, President, Streaming Services, AMC Networks; Rodrigo Mazón, EVP & GM of SVOD, Univision; and Jeff Shultz, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer, Paramount Streaming, sit down with Variety International Editor, Manori Ravindran, for the panel discussion “Have Content, Will Travel: Strategies for Building a Global TV Audience,” airing March 29 in the Variety Streaming Room.  “Today’s streaming age is creating new possibilities for content to gain traction worldwide. In this highly competitive market, being armed with data capable of determining what titles have the strongest appeal — and why — is a major competitive advantage,” said Carol Hanley, President of Whip Media. Streaming has upended the business in a way no one ever imagined, but these companies are learning and creating strategies that will allow their businesses to expand in the years to come.

Paramount Global is temporarily halting its operations in Russia and giving $1 million to support humanitarian relief for Ukraine.

It’s not every day that Brigitte Nielsen is spotted out in the wild, so onlookers were given a treat when the 58-year-old actress enjoyed lunch with her husband, Mattia Dessi, on Monday (Mar. 14). The ’80s action star met with Mattia, 42, at Whole Foods Market in Studio City, Los Angeles. The two were both dressed as if they were coming straight from the gym. The 6’-tall Brigitte wore a light purple long-sleeved shirt with a matching cap, a pair of deep purple leggings, and some multi-colored workout shoes.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorCraig Melvin will leave his 11 a.m. weekday morning slot at MSNBC at the end of March, marking the latest shift of personnel at the NBCUniversal-owned cable-news outlet.Melvin will focus more heavily on his duties at NBC News and NBC’s “Today” program, where he is as regular a presence as Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, according to a spokesperson for MSNBC.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorShares of media-measurement kingpin Nielsen Holdings PLC surged more than 40% Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported the company had started talks with a group of private-equity firms, including Elliott Management Corp., for a sale that could be valued at approximately $15 billion, including debt.Elliott Management has a reputation for pressing for big changes at the companies in which it invests, and has in the past called for different management of companies including Barnes & Noble. Interpublic Group and AT&T.

, Netflix’s acclaimed animated comedy about kids being guided through puberty by various creatures, the series is expanding its emotional and inclusive world with, a twist on the workplace comedy that pulls back the curtain on the lives of these mentors. The spinoff follows familiar faces – Maya Rudolph and co-creator Nick Kroll as hormone monsters – and several newcomers – Aidy Bryant as a lovebug, Hugh Jackman as an addiction angel and Randall Park as a logic rock – as they navigate helping humans at all stages of their lives while trying to stay atop of their own problems.

Margaret Qualley and Jack Antonoff have made their official debut as a couple!

Willie Nelson's sister and bandmate, Bobbie Nelson, has died. She was 91. Bobbie, who was a pianist, singer and a member of the band Willie Nelson and Family, passed away Thursday morning, "peacefully and surrounded by family." "Her elegance, grace, beauty and talent made this world a better place.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Bobbie Nelson, the older sister of country music legend Willie Nelson and longtime pianist in his band, has died, her family said. She was 91.An original member of the Willie Nelson and Family Band, Bobbie Nelson played piano for more than 50 years with her brother. She died Thursday “peacefully and surrounded by family," the Nelson family said in a statement.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorMSNBC intends to make some of its best-known opinion programs available to premium tier customers of the NBCU Peacock streaming service, allowing the shows to be seen by consumers who might not subscribe to the cable network.Starting in early spring, an MSNBC “hub” of episodes of “Morning Joe,” “Deadline: White House,” “The Beat with Ari Melber,” “The ReidOut,” “All In with Chris Hayes” and MSNBC’s opinion programs will stream on-demand the day after they air on cable. Specials with top hosts including Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace, Chris Hayes, Trymaine Lee and others will premiere later this year, streaming exclusively on Peacock.“We are reimagining the MSNBC experience by adding the core of our perspective programming to Peacock and reaching audiences wherever they are and however they choose to consume content,” said Rashida Jones, president of MSNBC, in a prepared statement.

BTS‘ music label HYBE has been named the most innovative media company of 2022 by Fast Company.Business publication Fast Company had unveiled its lists of the most innovative companies for the year of 2022 on March 8, where it announced that HYBE, which houses a number of top K-pop acts including BTS and SEVENTEEN, had been named the most innovative media company for the year. The label had also come in as 11th overall on Fast Company‘s most innovative companies.HYBE was revered for “finding new ways to release content, reach listeners, and cultivate fandom worldwide”, ushering in a new era where “America’s hold on global pop culture is over”, per Fast Company. The outlet cited the company’s overwhelming success with BTS, as well as its acquisition of Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings last year, saying that HYBE is “creating the template for a 21st-century entertainment company as it pursues new technologies and content formats”.HYBE CEO Park Ji-won told Fast Company that this was an effort to “to diversify touch points between artists and fans and further build this intimacy” through forging “sincere [links]” between musicians and fans, which he describes as the company’s “most fundamental and powerful principle”.Speaking on HYBE’s acquisition of Ithaca Holdings, Scooter Braun explained the parallels between both companies’ visions.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed award-winning filmmaker Erik Nelson (Terror and Glory: 1945) and his production company Creative Differences for worldwide representation in all areas.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorTV networks have long demanded more data from Nielsen to help keep track of viewers who are leaving traditional TV for streaming video and mobile viewing. Now they say they want less.Nielsen recently began releasing new sets of information that include more granular measurement of TV audiences, available alongside its traditional measures of total linear viewership by age and gender.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorABC News anchor David Muir will anchor a live primetime “20/20” special from the border between Ukraine and Poland on Friday night, as the nation’s news networks continue to scramble to cover Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, one of the biggest global stories to take place in recent memory.Muir will report on the refugee emergency taking place along that border as Ukrainians seek safety amid turmoil in their country. The program will air on Friday, March 4, at 8 p.m.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorDon’t count Nielsen out of TV’s measurement wars just yet.Many TV companies are reaching out for new yardsticks to measure audiences rushing to watch TV in digital fashion. Disney is, too — but it’s not abandoning one of the industry’s oldest measurement purveyors as it does so.Disney said Tuesday that it had entered into an agreement with Publicis Media to test work on Nielsen’s new NielsenOne system, a measurement product that aims to count unduplicated video audiences across linear and digital screens and that Nielsen expects to introduce formally later this year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNielsen hopes to regain industry backing of its TV ratings later this year, the company’s top executive told investors Monday.Speaking on a call with analysts, Nielsen CEO David Kenny said the company expects to complete all necessary work to regain accreditation by mid year. He believes the Media Rating Council, the industry organization that certifies measurement processes, will vote on accreditation of Nielsen’s national and local TV ratings work sometime after that.