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Wolves got their transfer business `wrong` in the summer, says technical director Matt Jackson - while under-fire executive chairman Jeff Shi empathises with protesting fans. Read...

The Government says the increase balances cost of living and business pressures. Read...

The government department can no longer take out any subscriptions to the news website after the department shared articles across a number of staff. Read...

If you want to know how Netflix’s plan to acquire Warner Bros. will affect you, I suggest not getting your answers from Netflix. Last weekend, the streaming giant emailed customers implying the deal was done (subject line: “Welcoming Warner Bros. to Netflix”) even though that’s far from being settled. Its press release and help page are only marginally more informative, provided you can sift through all the boilerplate proclamations and canned executive quotes. Ultimately this deal is about power. For Netflix, it’s a way to fulfill its goal of being a singular source for streaming, which in turn will help it raise prices, freeze out rivals, and tilt the distribution of movies and shows in its favor. Expect a lot of fighting between Netflix, rivals, and government regulators before that’s allowed to happen. Brand power Despite Netflix’s popularity, it does not control many established entertainment franchises. It has cultivated a handful, including Squid Game, Stranger Things, and Bridgerton, but none that truly rival those of Disney (Star Wars, Marvel), Paramount (Star Trek, Spongebob), or NBCUniversal (Despicable Me, Jurassic Park). Wikipedia’s list of the top-grossing media franchises only includes one from Netflix, and it’s Chronicles of Narnia, the rights to which it acquired in 2018. Buying Warner would give Netflix a stable of recognizable entertainment brands to build around, including DC properties such as Superman and Batman, kid-friendly franchises such as Minecraft and Looney Tunes, sci-fi staples such as The Matrix and Dune, and HBO hits such as Game of Thrones and The Sopranos. While Netflix says HBO Max will remain separate for now, its press release makes clear that the goal is to subsume Warner’s catalog and create new content around it. The broader content roster could potentially make Netflix better, but it will also help Netflix justify the price increases that have now become routine. It could also allow Netflix to expand other aspects of its business, such as video games and merchandising. (To that end, it’s taking over Warner’s gaming division as well.) Weakening rivals Ted Sarandos, who is now Netflix’s co-CEO, famously said in 2012 that the company’s goal was “to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” Lately, though, it’s trying to be more like cable—a singular source of streaming that caters to a wide swath of interests—before cable becomes Netflix though its own array of streaming services. At the risk of being cynical, Netflix’s biggest motivation to take over Warner might be to keep it away from its competitors in the traditional TV business. Paramount and Comcast had also been bidding on Warner, and Paramount has now launched a hostile takeover bid in hopes of convincing Warner shareholders that it’s offering a better deal. Much like Netflix, Paramount was also looking to absorb the entire HBO Max catalog into its own Paramount+ streaming service. In this scenario, Paramount+ would become a serious competitor instead of an also-ran, and Netflix would have less latitude to raise prices without subscribers defecting. Netflix doesn’t even have to seal the deal to achieve its goal. As CNBC reporter Alex Sherman pointed out, Netflix has agreed to a $5 billion breakup fee if its Warner acquisition fails, but that’s nothing for a company worth $450 billion, and it could take a couple years for Warner to be up for sale again. In the meantime Netflix could further entrench itself by keeping the competition weaker. Shifting the movie business Warner’s current plan is to release 12 to 14 movies into theaters per year, and while Netflix says theatrical releases will continue, it wants to get them onto its streaming service sooner. In an analyst call last week, Sarandos said theatrical release windows would “evolve to be much more consumer friendly, to be able to meet the audience where they are, quicker.” That doesn’t mean Netflix would abandon theatrical releases outright, but the goal will shift toward promoting Netflix properties rather than boosting theater revenue for its own sake. As the New York Times notes, Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters Singalong has been a huge hit in theaters, and its series finale of Stranger Things—screening on 500 theaters in lockstep with the streaming release—is already sold out in many places. Expect more event-driven spectacles, fewer straightforward screenings, and a greater willingness to let people stay at home. What it’s not about: Live sports Another notable aspect of the Netflix deal is what’s missing: The company is not buying Warner’s cable channels, including TNT and TBS, as Warner plans to spin those off into a separate company. TNT will get its own sports streaming service when that happens, and its live sports coverage will disappear from HBO Max. That means Netflix won’t be getting any live sports as part of the deal. By contrast, Paramount wants to add Warner’s entire cable business, and could use it to transform Paramount+ into a major source of sports streaming. Netflix might have other reasons for passing over Warner’s cable business, such as not wanting to negotiate carriage deals or take on as much debt from Warner’s previous merger disasters. For now, though, it’s maintaining a conservative approach to live sports, avoiding expensive full-season rights deals in favor of scattershot events, such as Christmas NFL games, the Paul-Tyson fight, and the first MLB game of the season next year. Netflix’s goal to become more like cable doesn’t yet extend to sports, and acquiring Warner won’t change that. What’s next While Netflix is projecting confidence, it’s a long way from owning Warner Bros. in earnest. Antitrust hearings are likely, Paramount’s hostile takeover bid has to play out, and the Justice Department feels like a wild card under the Trump administration. Even if everything goes smoothly, Netflix says it’ll take 12 to 18 months for the deal to close. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the one line in Netflix’s customer letter that we know for certain is true: “Nothing is changing today.” Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV insights. Read...

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YouTube TV is about to get skinny—that is, it’s set to add skinny bundles of live streaming TV channels next year, including a sports package with every ESPN network.  More than 10 of these “genre-specific” bundles are coming to YouTube TV next year, but for now, YouTube is only revealing a few details about the sports bundle, and nothing about the other upcoming channel packages or pricing information.  Aside from ESPN, ESPN Unlimited and the other ESPN channels, the YouTube TV Sports Plan will boast such networks as FS1 and the NBC Sports Network.   Subscribers will be able to choose add-ons such as NFL Sunday Ticket and RedZone, just as they can with the YouTube TV Base Plan, and YouTube TV functionality like unlimited DVR usage, multiview, key plays, and fantasy view will be on tap as well.  “TV should be easy, giving viewers greater control over what they want to watch. Our goal is to let you tailor your subscription with more options,” said YouTube TV subscriptions exec Christian Oestlien in a statement. “Whether you stick with our main YouTube TV plan with 100+ channels, focus on sports, combine sports and news, or select a plan centered on family and entertainment content, subscribers will be able to easily choose the plan that works best for them.”  More details about YouTube TV’s slimmed-down packages are coming “soon,” Oestlien promised, adding that “we have a lot in store for YouTube TV members next year.” But while YouTube TV hasn’t given any pricing details about its upcoming skinny bundles, they’re sure to be cheaper than the price of the YouTube TV base plan, which costs $82.99 a month.   YouTube TV’s move into the skinny bundle business comes as skinny and cheaper streaming bundles are rising in popularity. DirecTV, Fubo, and Sling all offer their own slimmed-down packages with various combinations of local TV channels, sports networks, news channels, and entertainment, allowing users to pick and choose which channel bundles they want to pay for.  Making an even bigger splash was the launch this past summer of ESPN Unlimited, which packs in all of ESPN’s sports networks in packages starting at $30 a month, while Fox unveiled its Fox One bundle of sports, news, and entertainment channels around the same time.  Another skinny sports bundled that never got off the ground was Venu Sports, a venture from Disney, Fox, and Warner Brothers that would have bundled ESPN, FS1, BTN, TNT, TBS, and other top sports networks.  Venu faced serious legal headwinds, including a lawsuit from Fubo and a federal injunction, leading the bundles backers to eventually kill the nascent sports bundle before it went on the air.  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best live TV streaming services. Read...

While it may be most common to use Microsoft Teams for work, the communication app is actually also available for personal use through Microsoft 365 subscriptions. However, private users have been missing some of the better features that are only available in the business version of Teams. Going forward, that’s going to change. Microsoft just announced in a post on the Teams Free Blog that Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, and Premium subscribers will now be able to record their meetings and calls in Microsoft Teams. The recordings will be stored for only 30 days in the cloud, but they can be downloaded locally to your PC if you want to save them permanently. Microsoft says these recordings can be useful for remote music teachers, for example, or creators who want to record podcast interviews. User feedback is said to have prompted Microsoft to roll out the recordings feature to personal Teams users, and the company is now asking for more suggestions on how to further improve Teams. Read...

Hardeep Singh hosted lavish parties at his mansion, and separately sold three stores and equipment in the weeks before his company, Big Daddy’s, went bust. Read...