The suit states that because Disney owns ESPN, it “has a chokehold over sports programming in the United Staters” and “extract monopoly rents” forcing streaming services to carry non-ESPN content that they don’t want.

“These anticompetitive tactics restrain competition from rivals to Disney’s Hulu in the SLPTV market and force independent streaming services such as Fubo to charge higher prices to their customers than they would in a free market,” the complaint reads.

The suit further states, “Fubo readily admits that it had to nearly double the prices it charges to consumers as a result of Defendant’s anticompetitive conduct. These higher prices, which consumers (such as Fubo consumers) pay for streaming platforms, harm both consumers and competition alike.”

Disney announced on Friday that it was merging Hulu with rival Fubo, effectively ending the planned Venu service from Disney Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.

A court previously blocked Venu’s release, stating that the bundle “uniformly and systematically imposed on each distributor in the live pay TV industry except the JV, preventing any other distributor from offering a multi-channel sports-focused streaming service.”

The post  Fubo Subscriber Sues Disney for Antitrust Violations After Venu Shutdown appeared first on TheWrap.

“So if you’re confirmed as Secretary of Defense, you will oversee our military, including about a quarter of a million women who currently serve on active duty, Warren began. “And I have serious concerns that your behavior toward women disqualifies you from serving in this role.”

About two minutes into her remarks, Warren targeted the main point of her argument: statements that Hegseth has publicly made that disparage women from serving in the military dating back to 2013 all the way to just weeks before Trump nominated him to defense secretary.

“I want to be clear here: For 12 years, you were quite open about your views, and your views were consistently the same. Women are inferior. Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and guardians — and incase anyone missed the point, and these are your words from 10 weeks ago: Women absolutely straight-up should not be permitted to serve in combat,” Warren railed. “And I notice on each of these quotes, those are said without qualification. It’s not by how much you can lift, or how fast you can run. They don’t belong in combat, period. Or your words, ‘straight-up.’

“And then on Nov. 9, just 32 days after your last public comments saying that women absolutely should not be in combat, you declared that ‘some of our greatest warriors are women,’ and you support having them serve in combat,” Warren continued. She asked him pointblank: What “extraordinary event” happened in that month window that made him change his mind?

Hegseth, who has answered to such framing of his track record before, argued that the issue of women in the military “has always been about standards” — but to Warren’s point, he had not previously expressed it as such. It was a “straight-up” declaration that women did not belong in active duty.

“What I see is that there is a 32-day period in which you suddenly have another description about your views about women in the military, and I just want to know what changed in the 32 days that the song you sang is not the song you come in here today to sing,” Warren said, before pointing to where she’d been leading all along: Trump’s nomination.

“I’ve heard of deathbed conversions, but this is the first time I’ve heard of a nomination conversion,” the senator quipped. “And I hope you understand that many women serving in the military right now might think that if you can convert so rapidly your long-held and aggressively pursued views in just 32 days, that 32 days after you get confirmed, maybe you’ll just reverse those views and go back to the old guy who said straight-up, women do not belong in combat.”

Watch the full clip of Warren’s time with Hegseth in the video below, via Fox News.

The post Elizabeth Warren Slams Pete Hegseth for Refusing to Meet With Her About His Record on Women | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Maddow laid out her view Monday night on MSNBC for how Trump’s upcoming transition to his second presidential term is going. She pointed to his many questionable cabinet choices – from friends and family to various TV hosts – and the fact the president-elect continues to hock his wares, including most recently a “classless and tacky” Inauguration Day edition of his bible. The MSNBC host is unimpressed to say the least.

“This is a shambolic presidential transition,” Maddow said. “It is a ridiculously bad, poorly run presidential transition – which ought to be the subject of some discussion in our country. It is not going well.”

The host added that it would have been very hard to have a worse transition than the last one, but Trump was pulling out all the stops to get it as close as possible.

“The last inauguration had to have thousands of National Guard troops on hand to protect the proceedings from the threat of more violence from his followers,” Maddow said. “At the last presidential transition, the outgoing president didn’t even show up for his successor’s swearing in. The last transition Donald Trump was a part of was the worst presidential transition in the history of the country.”

She continued, “Given how disastrously he performed in that last transition you have to just assume that this one inherently will be better. It has to be, right? But I think it is worth being blunt about the fact that it might be close.”

Watch the segment below:

Maddow will be offering up more of her thoughts on the incoming Trump administration for a while still. It was announced Monday that she’s returning to MSNBC full force with “The Rachel Maddow Show” being featured five nights a week for the first 100 days of Trump’s second term. Alex Wagner will be criss-crossing the country during this time for “Trumpland: The First 100 Days” segments, which air through April 30, covering the impacts of Trump’s early policies and promises on the electorate.

Maddow will also steer MSNBC’s live coverage of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. She will be joined by Wagner, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Ari Melber, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O’Donnell, Stephanie Ruhle and Jen Psaki.

Watch the full video of Maddow’s breakdown of Trump’s transition above.

The post Rachel Maddow Says Trump’s Presidential Transition Is So ‘Ridiculously Bad’ That It’s Nearing Levels of Jan. 6 | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

Zuckerberg said the cuts are coming after he “decided to raise the bar” on performance” at his company.

“This is going to be an intense year, and I want to make sure we have the best people on our teams,” Zuckerberg said.

The 40-year-old Meta founder said employees who are laid off will be notified starting on February 10. Meta’s headcount at the end of September, the most recent period data is available for, was 72,404.

Zuckerberg’s memo on the job cuts adds to a busy start to 2025 for the company. 

Notably, Meta ended its third-party fact checking operation last week, with Zuckerberg saying the move was about “restoring free expression” on Facebook and Instagram, where he said the fact checkers had made “too many mistakes” in recent years. Meta will be rolling out a new feature similar to X’s Community Notes, Zuckerberg said.

On Friday, Zuckerberg compared the fact checking operation to George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “1984,” while appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast. He added the Biden Administration “basically pushed” the company to censor certain topics, including what the government felt was COVID-19 misinformation.

And in other Meta news, the company announced it was ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on Friday.

Meta’s stock price is up 1.1% on the year to $596.27 per share.

The post Meta Cuts 5% of Workforce to ‘Move Out Low-Performers,’ Zuckerberg Says appeared first on TheWrap.

A person with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that mostly director-level employees were hit by the latest reductions. At least 10 Vox employees were laid off on Monday.

Vox eliminated roles and made department-level changes on a few teams within the company’s revenue organizations, TheWrap has learned.

TheWrap has reached out to Vox Media for comment.

The layoffs were particularly shocking, the person with knowledge of the situation said, considering several directors had recently been told they had met their revenue goals for 2024.

Ryan Pauley, Vox’s president of revenue and growth, said in an email to employees obtained by TheWrap that the cuts “were made with careful consideration” for the company’s needs moving forward.

“Our strategy and focus remain on growing our business anchored in our talent and IP. With these changes, the experimental team will beeven more focused on an event lineup that aligns with our brands and talent, like SXSW, The Cut Fashion Week events, and live podcasts,” Pauley said in his email.

“The changes in Vox Creative and account strategy reflect the need to structure our organization in a way that supports the advertising business in a more efficient way going forward.”

Monday’s layoffs came less than a week after 12 Vox employees lost their jobs; those cuts solely affected the Vox.com editorial brand and not other Vox Media properties. In December, other Vox Media layoffs left Thrillist essentially shuttered, according to the company’s union, with many staffers at fellow Vox Media sites Eater and Pop Sugar also impacted.

The year has gotten off to an inauspicious start for media employees, after an already ugly 2024 in which nearly 15,000 media jobs were eliminated. Last week, The Washington Post cut about 100 employees and the Huffington Post let go of 30 workers.

The post Vox Media Hit by 3rd Round of Layoffs in 2 Months appeared first on TheWrap.

Jones will be replaced by Rebecca Kutler, who has been named as the organization’s interim president effective immediately. The SVP of Content Strategy was recruited to MSNBC by Jones in 2022.

The decision to step down came from Jones. Chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group Mark Lazarus admitted he was “surprised” by Jones’ decision during a meeting with staffers, an insider familar with the matter told TheWrap.

“I was a little saddened for the company but very happy for her to be able to come to grips with a hard decision,” Lazarus said during the Tuesday morning meeting. He also noted that Kutler has “my backing to make whatever decisions she thinks helps us in coordination with the rest of you, the leadership.”

“I’m very confident that we have a plan and will follow our mission as it has gone on to date, and we’ll be able to advance who we are and advance our business in our new company,” he continued.

Lazarus also called Jones’ tenure leading the network “extraordinary” in a memo to staff obtained by TheWrap. He also referred to Kutler as a “highly respected industry veteran with decades of experience in executive producing, news programming and business development” in that same memo.

“Rashida has expertly navigated MSNBC through a years-long, unrelenting and unprecedented news cycle, all while driving the network to record viewership and making investments in nonlinear businesses,” Lazarus wrote. “MSNBC is well-positioned for the future, and I am grateful that she will continue to support us during this transition.”

In her own memo to staff, Jones noted that she was leaving the organization she’s been part of for the past 11 years to pursue “new opportunities.”

“I came to this decision over the holidays while reflecting on our remarkable journey and the many successes we’ve achieved together as a team. This has been the most rewarding chapter of my professional career and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished,” Jones wrote in a memo obtained by TheWrap. “Most importantly, I am more confident than ever that MSNBC is well-positioned for the future.”

Lazarus also addressed another organization question during his Tuesday morning meeting — MSNBC will be retaining its name despite corporate reorganization. As part of Comcast’s reorganization, MSNBC and CNBC will no longer be connected to NBC News.

“The worst thing any leader can do is change something that’s working just because they can. So, if this is working, then there’s no reason to change it,” he said.

Jones was first named president of MSNBC in February of 2021, becoming the first Black executive to lead a major television news network. Before taking on the role, Jones served as SVP of NBC News and MSNBC, overseeing several historic events such as election nights, presidential debates and coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During her time as president of MSNBC, the network bested CNN in the ratings on several major political nights, including an election night — a first for the network. During the 2024 election, MSNBC saw 6 million primetime viewers compared to CNN’s 5.1 million viewers. Last year marked MSNBC’s largest viewership advantage over CNN in the network’s history, averaging 65% more viewers when it came to average minute ratings.

Jones also added a great deal of talent to MSNBC during her time as president, including former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, former national press secretary for Bernie Sanders Symone Sanders Townsend, award-winning journalist Ana Cabrera, former RNC chairman Michael Steele, former trial attorney Katie Phang and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehar. She also oversaw the rebranding of the programming block “MSNBC Reports,” creating clearer separation between the network’s daytime news offerings and more pundit-focused primetime programming, and revamped the network’s weekend block by launching “The Weekend.” The Saturday and Sunday offering has improved MSNBC’s weekend morning average by 37% among total viewers since its launch in January of 2024.

Overall, MSNBC ended 2024 as the No. 2 network across all of cable, even when accounting for the post-election ratings drop. The network averaged 807,000 viewers in total day as well as 1.3 million viewers in primetime, a 2% and 4% increase from 2023, respectively. Additionally, the network saw wins across social media as MSNBC was the most-watched news network of the year on YouTube (3.1 billion viewers) and the most-watched cable network on TikTok (2.9 billion views). Last year also marked the network’s strongest year on social, surpassing six billion views across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and X, a 109% increase year over year.

As for Kutler, she previously served as SVP of Content Strategy for MSNBC, which involved overseeing MSNBC daytime programming as well as the brand’s non-linear content, before taking on the interim president role. Since joining the network, Kutler has driven the expansion of major programs like “The Weekend” and “Inside With Jen Psaki.” She also led the launches of “MSNBC Live,” the Apple podcast MSNBC Premium and the relaunch of the MSNBC mobile app.

Before joining MSNBC, Kutler was a SVP at CNN, where she spent two decades. During her time at the network competitor, she hired Psaki and Sanders Townsend as political contributors, both of whom are now MSNBC hosts.

The post Rashida Jones Steps Down as MSNBC President appeared first on TheWrap.

“Yeah, they might be famous – it doesn’t change the fact that somebody has lost their grandparents’ wedding book,” she said in conversation with host Brian Teta, executive producer of “The View.” “It doesn’t just the fact that somebody has lost the cauldron that held somebody’s ashes,” she said, listing possible keepsakes and meaningful mementos that went up in flames in the Pacific Palisades and elsewhere.

“I will say this to you, no matter what you’re hearing, no one wanted these fires. No one wants to be the person that lost everything that they owned,” she said. “You think, ‘Oh, that famous person, they lost a house.’ Yeah, they didn’t just lose their house. They lost a house they worked their tail off to buy and furnish and fill with memories, just like everybody. We all fill our places with memories.”

She also apparently responded to rhetoric that puts the blame for the wildfires’ devastation on one group or another, emphasizing that “this is mother nature,” not any one person’s fault.

“There’s a lot happening. And please don’t blame the people for this. This is mother nature, and nobody was prepared for it,” she said. “And you couldn’t have been prepared for it because what mind could ever think that 75 hundred-thousand buildings were going to burn at the same time?

“My whole neighborhood is gone,” she continued. “The Palisades is gone. It’s insane. It’s insane … So I’m hoping that people will stop listening to people who are blaming other people and just try to figure ways to help.”

Watch a clip from Monday’s podcast in the video below:

On today's podcast, Whoopi Goldberg shares her message to the public on the southern California fires: "They might be famous, it doesn't change the fact that somebody's lost their [family mementos]." Listen here: https://t.co/dj427UNPJG pic.twitter.com/LDzNfTzM0N

— The View (@TheView) January 14, 2025

Among the celebrities who have lost their home in the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires is Goldberg’s longtime peer and one-time collaborator Billy Crystal. Crystal and his wife were longtime Pacific Palisades residents — the comedian even served as its honorary mayor at one point.

“Janice and I lived in our home since 1979. We raised our children and grandchildren here,” Crystal said in a statement to CNN. “Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away.”

“We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this. We pray for the safety of the fire fighters and first responders. The Pacific Palisades is a resilient community of amazing people and we know in time it will rise again. It is our home.”

The post Whoopi Goldberg Demands Sympathy for Celebrities Whose Homes Burned in LA Wildfires | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

“Joey Levin has wanted a store of his own for some time and the spin-off of Angi affords him this opportunity. Although IAC will relinquish his services as CEO, we expect that he will continue to advise us for many years. As we approach yet another milestone, IAC does what it does best: evolves. Joey Levin has been an exemplary leader of IAC, creating significant value during his nearly decade-long tenure as IAC CEO,” Diller said in a statement. ” Over the last few years Joey has been deeply and personally invested in the transformation of Angi, and with its full independence can drive the company to expand any which way he, Jeff Kip and Angi’s Board desire.”

Levin, who will become an advisor to IAC upon completion of the spin-off, will serve as executive chairman of Angi, in partnership with its CEO Jeff Kip.

“I consider myself among the luckiest in the world to have spent the past two decades working with and learning from Barry Diller and the many brilliant minds he has always attracted to his orbit,” Levin added. “Together we’ve accomplished remarkable things, and we start 2025 with each of our businesses executing winning growth plans, led by exceptionally talented teams. Each of IAC and Angi has a vigorous future, and I expect to remain an active participant in both. I am energized to partner with Jeff Kip and the leadership team he has organized at Angi to win a large, captivating category that has yet to be tamed.”

Following the transition, IAC chief financial and operating officer Christopher Halpin and chief legal officer Kendall Handler will report directly to Diller. It will not appoint a new CEO.

The tax-free spin-off, which will make IAC and Angi wholly separate entities, will give the former’s shareholders direct ownership of the latter in the form of one share/one vote common stock of Angi, eliminating its dual class structure. Currently, all of Angi’s high vote shares are owned by IAC.

It will also allow IAC management to focus on its broader portfolio and new growth opportunities, with the company expected to benefit from an enhanced ability to use its stock to make acquisitions and incentivize employees.

The transaction’s completion, which is subject to conditions including final approval by IAC’s board of directors and receipt of a tax opinion, is expected to close in the first half of 2025 but no sooner than March 31, 2025.

In addition to Angi, IAC’s portfolio of brands includes DotDash Meredith, People, InStyle, Brides, Entertainment Weekly, Better Homes & Gardens and The Daily Beast.

The post Barry Diller Takes Charge of IAC as CEO Joey Levin Exits appeared first on TheWrap.

Since 2022, Maddow’s show has aired only on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET, with “Alex Wagner Tonight” filling the time slot on the other days. Now, Wagner will travel the country reporting for “Trumpland: The First 100 Days” segments, which air through April 30, covering the impacts of Trump’s early policies and promises on the electorate. Maddow and Wagner will return to their normal schedules on May 1.

Maddow will lead MSNBC’s live coverage of the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 beginning at 10 a.m. ET. She will be joined by Wagner, Nicolle Wallace, Joy Reid, Ari Melber, Chris Hayes, Lawrence O’Donnell, Stephanie Ruhle and Jen Psaki.

“In the first Trump term, one of the things that we learned was this idea of watching what they do, not what they say. Trump is a real master of shifting the news cycle toward himself and away from himself as best suits his purposes, simply by saying really transgressive and shocking things all the time. And that’s almost impossible not to cover. And you do have to cover it to a certain extent, particularly when the person saying these things is the president of the United States,” Maddow told USA Today. “But you can’t ever lose sight of what that chaos is concealing, that the actions of the president, the actions of the administration are often much more consequential than whatever crazy thing he’s recently said that’s driven everybody in the news cycle to go write a million similar stories about it. So that ‘watch what they do, not what they say’ thing, I’m really trying to operationalize that.”

She added that we’re already seeing “the freneticism of the Trump news cycle taking over” during the transition.

“We’re seeing the unpredictable cadence of the way news breaks as opposed to a more competent rational administration,” Maddow said. “So we’ll see; we’re trying to be ready for anything, and that’s part of why we’re making this change for the first 100 days.” 

The shift in schedule comes as MSNBC has seen its ratings decline significantly since Trump’s win in November.

But the network has said that it’s beginning to see an uptick in viewership, noting that Maddow’s Jan. 6 show brought in 1.62 million viewers, up 20% compared to November and December 2024 average.

It also noted that MSNBC’s primetime viewership on Jan. 7 was up 25% compared to the November and December averages and that MSNBC doubled its prior four-week audience average during the House Speaker vote on Jan. 3 — the most-watched daytime audience since election week. Additionally, it saw its largest weekend audience since the week before the election on Jan. 4 and 5 — up 15% versus the November and December average.

“This is something, as you say, that we see after every election. Whichever side wins or loses, you see people just want to opt out and have other parts of their life take up the space that absorbing the news and politics was previously taking up. It’s definitely understandable,” Maddow said. “To the extent that it is not just about the normal cycles of exhaustion and renewal of attention, we are entering a time when a lot of people are going to reengage. Everybody sort of implicitly knows that pretending something isn’t happening does not ensure that the thing doesn’t actually happen; there’s a sort of head-in-the-sand wish casting that’s happening with a lot of people checking out of the news, thinking ‘If I don’t hear about it, if I don’t look at it, then maybe it’s not happening.’ But people know that’s not actually the way to stop it from happening. If this shambolic transition is anything to go on, the second Trump term is going to affect a lot of Americans and they’re going to want to pay attention.”

When asked if she’d extend her five-night per week schedule after Wagner returns, Maddow admitted it’s a “hard stop.”

“When Rashida [Jones] asked me to do this, that was the discussion. That’s what Alex wants, too,” she said. “The thing about the 9 p.m. chair is that it’s really a full-time job and with what Alex is planning on doing — field reporting across the country and, I think, potentially overseas — and doing that while I’m holding the seat for her for 100 days, that’s a good horizon for us, but on April 30 we will go back to our existing schedule.” 

Her comments come as the journalism industry has been grappling with cost-cutting and layoffs — and as her network will be spun-off into a separate, publicly traded entity along with CNBC, USA Network, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel, as well as digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine. 

“I’m [more] concerned about the future of journalism, broadly. But as long as I have been in the cable news world, I’ve been told ‘this is the last year.’ And eventually, I’m sure it will be over,” she said. “But as long as we’re still here, our job is pretty clear: Follow the facts, don’t be intimidated, tell true stories, help people understand the world. And I’m going to keep doing that, and I know MSNBC is committed to that as a company, and none of that changes. “

While acknowledging that the business and political pressures are “very threatening” and “very anti-democratic,” she emphasized that “Americans broadly know that we need a free press.”

“We don’t need just state TV; we don’t need to have the government control the media, as happens in authoritarian countries. You want a free and independent and even oppositional press if you want a healthy country, and I think the country recognizes that. All of us in the business recognize that,” Maddow concluded. “And part of the way we’re going to fight for that is by trying to be as successful as we can and try to serve the needs of our audience as best as we can. That’s part of why this 100-day plan is smart. And I’m really energized and really excited about it.”

The post Rachel Maddow Returning to Nightly Schedule on MSNBC During First 100 Days of Trump’s Presidency appeared first on TheWrap.

After Fox News co-host Ainsley Earhardt said she seemed to be in a “different place” than she was eight years ago, Melania admitted that’s because the American public is more familiar with her this time around.

“Maybe they didn’t understand me the way maybe they do now, and I didn’t have much support. Maybe some people, they see me as just the wife of the president,” she said. “But I’m standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts. I have my own yes and no. I don’t always agree [with] what my husband is saying or doing, and that’s OK.”

Melania was born in Slovenia and was a professional model when she met her now-husband. She even appeared on the magazine covers of outlets like Vanity Fair Italia and British GQ.

Earlier in the Monday interview, Melania said her upcoming Amazon documentary will highlight her “incredibly busy” transition back to the White House. She said production started in November 2024 and the doc is currently filming.

The film, which Puck reported Amazon is paying $40 million for, will give viewers a “day-to-day” look at her move back to Washington, D.C., Melania said.

She also noted that her team will only have five hours to move President Joe Biden’s stuff out and move her stuff in come Inauguration Day, “So everything needs to be planned to the minute.”

You can watch the full interview via Fox News’ YouTube video, above.

The post Melania Trump Tells ‘Fox & Friends’ She Doesn’t Always Agree With Donald — ‘And That’s OK’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.