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Tronc selling LA Times; ESPN Plus to carry $4.99 monthly price tag

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Tronc selling LA Times; ESPN Plus to carry $4.99 monthly price tag

Top News

* Tronc Inc. is holding talks to sell its flagship newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, to billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong for about $500 million, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. The talks, which are in an advanced stage, also include the San Diego Union-Tribune and some community newspapers in Southern California, the sources reportedly said.

* Viacom Inc. expanded the role of Sarah Levy, COO of its global entertainment group, to include oversight of operations and strategy for Nickelodeon (US) and BET (US), the Journal reports, citing sources. Levy will reportedly be sharing the oversight with Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami, who is nearing the end of her contract with the company.

* Walt Disney Co. started its fiscal 2018 with a 78.2% bottom-line advance, tied largely to a one-time tax reform benefit. Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said during the company's earnings call with analysts that ESPN Plus will carry a monthly price point of $4.99, reiterating the service will bow sometime this spring and offer thousands of additional live events across Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Hockey League and an array of college sports.

* Snap Inc. said its net daily active users grew by 5% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2017. Executives said a recent app redesign credited with driving more engagement will roll out to all users during the first quarter of 2018.

TV Networks

* Brian Brady, president and CEO of Northwest Broadcasting Inc., asked consumers to contact Charter Communications Inc. President and CEO Tom Rutledge over its stations being blacked out on Spectrum, according to a post by Brady. A representative for Charter, however, said "Northwest's fee increase demand of over 75% is outrageous, especially given that their programming is available free over the air and online," Multichannel News reports.

* Altice USA Inc. signed a multiplatform content deal with Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal Media LLC on the latter's coverage of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Altice USA's Optimum and Suddenlink Communications video subscribers will be able to access NBCU's 2,400 hours of on-demand Olympic programming including coverage of all competition sessions, the company said.

* The Federal Communications Commission's Media Bureau dismissed KFVE TV Honolulu licensee HITV's retransmission complaint against AT&T Inc. unit DIRECTV, Multichannel News reports. The complaint was filed after DIRECTV offered to carry the MyNetworkTV (US) affiliate for free since the channel lacked demand. While ruling that the offer did not indicate lack of good faith, the FCC dismissed DIRECTV's claim that HITV was not negotiating in good faith.

Technology

* Alphabet Inc. appointed Dinesh Jain as the new CEO of its Access unit, which includes the Google Fiber and Webpass Inc. businesses. In this role, Jain will lead the Access team in its California headquarters as well as company operations across 20 U.S. markets, Google Fiber said in a blog post.

Internet & OTT

* Amazon.com Inc.'s Twitch ended 2017 with more than 27 thousand partnered streamers and more than 15 million unique daily visitors, according to data shared by Twitch on its website. Also, Twitch reported more than 150,000 affiliate streamers and more than 2 million unique monthly broadcasters.

* Netflix Inc. will premiere animated musical adventure feature film, called "Over The Moon," in 2020. The film, which is about a girl who builds a rocket ship and blasts off to the moon in hopes of meeting a legendary Moon Goddess, will be theatrically released in China in 2020, the company said.

Regulation & Policy

* The Federal Communications Commission's annual broadband deployment report, which evaluates broadband availability, has implications for the net neutrality debate. In its 2018 Broadband Deployment Report, the FCC found that as of year-end 2016, 92.3% of all Americans have access to fixed terrestrial broadband at speeds of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps, up from 89.4% in 2014 and 81.2% in 2012. It concluded that advanced telecommunications capability, or broadband with download speeds of at least 25 Mbps and upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps, is "being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion."

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng fell 0.89%% to 30,323.20, while the Nikkei 225 climbed 0.16% to 21,645.37.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 rose 0.69% to 7,190.61 and the Euronext 100 climbed 0.65% to 1,003.85.

On the macro front

The MBA Mortgage Applications report and the EIA Petroleum Status report are due out today.

Featured news

The Daily Dose Europe: Discovery, Scripps merger gets EC clearance; EC to probe Apple, Shazam deal: The European Commission conditionally approved Discovery Communications Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., while the commission will probe Apple Inc.'s proposed purchase of music recognition app Shazam following requests from EU countries.

The Daily Dose Asia-Pacific: Executive shakeup continues at Sony; Apple to build 2nd data center in China: Sony Pictures Entertainment has let go of three president-level executives as it seeks to revamp the company's top-heavy management structure, while Apple will set up another data center in China.

Vodafone re-enters talks with Liberty Global in push for European cable deal: Vodafone Group Plc is in preliminary discussions with Liberty Global plc regarding a potential acquisition of overlapping European assets. For now, a deal is centered on Liberty's cable business in Germany, as well as assets across Eastern Europe.

Tech Time: Samsung, Qualcomm expand patent deal; US mulls building 5G network: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Qualcomm Inc. expanded their global patent cross-license deal covering mobile devices and infrastructure equipment, while the U.S. government is considering building a 5G network to boost cybersecurity in the country.

Harte Hanks reduces executive compensation; Priceline reveals new CFO's salary: Harte-Hanks Inc. reduced the annual base salary of CEO Karen Puckett by 35%. Priceline Group Inc.'s newly appointed CFO David Goulden will be paid an annual base salary of $600,000.

Hires and Fires: Alphabet names new chairman; Meredith makes Steve Lacy executive chairman: John Hennessy will be the new chairman of Alphabet Inc., while Steve Lacy stepped down as CEO of Meredith Corp. and became executive chairman of the company.

China to license virtual telecom operators; India mulls OTT regulation: China published a draft decision to grant formal commercial licenses to private virtual telecom operators, while the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is weighing a consultation process for the regulation of online video streaming platforms.

Featured research

Broadcast Investor: Upcoming potential retrans renewals: contentious negotiations expected in 2018: A survey of publicized retrans deals struck in 2015 and assuming three-year tenures shows 29 agreements involving 431 full-power TV stations overlapping 37.9 million estimated subscribers could be up for renewal during the rest of 2018.

Multichannel Trends: TV Everywhere maintains differentiation with OTT, but retention goal not met: TV Everywhere offerings from the top multichannel operators avoided significant duplication with the Hulu and Netflix catalogs in early 2018, but accelerating multichannel subscriber losses underscore the limits of TVE's retention capabilities.

The Daily Dose is updated as of 7 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.