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Dylan Byers

A veteran media reporter covering the business of entertainment, technology, and news media. Dylan previously worked at NBC News, CNN, and Politico and is now a senior correspondent at Puck.

THE LATEST ARTICLES
NEWSLETTERS
MEDIA • September 20, 2023
Mark Thompson’s Message & MTP Overheating
News and notes on the latest preoccupations of the television news business: Mark Thompson’s Five Year Plan and Kristen Welker’s debut on ‘Meet the Press.’
Bloomberg reported that Bob Iger has held “exploratory talks” about selling ABC.
MEDIA • September 15, 2023
Iger’s New Suitors & ABC Agita
Nexstar and other potential suitors, including strategic buyers and private equity firms, have called to express interest in ABC, but none have enough clarity about exactly what Disney is willing to sell—or how they would structure a deal—to move forward.
Mark Thompson has already started his new CNN job incognito, meeting with members of the quadrumvirate interim leadership team and top talent almost immediately upon news of his appointment.
MEDIA • September 13, 2023
ESPNomics & Mark Thompson’s Previews
News and notes from the last bastions of the cable bundle: ESPN and CNN.
So far in his second iteration, Iger’s superpowers seem wanting, as if sapped by kryptonite.
MEDIA • September 8, 2023
The Iger Bunker
As Disney’s stock has hit a decade low, former heir (and current Blackstone-funded roll-up guru) Kevin Mayer is making his presence felt across the Disney portfolio. But in the everything-on-the-table era, what’s actually on the table?
We are in the “everything on the table” era, after all, when Bob Iger is publicly floating an ABC sale and seeking a strategic partner for ESPN.
MEDIA • September 6, 2023
Iger’s ESPN Game of Chicken
Notes on the existential reality undergirding Disney’s white-knuckled negotiation with Charter. (“The game is over,” as one media executive put it.)
Thompson would not have taken the top CNN job if he didn’t intend to impose dramatic transformations that more thoughtfully align the network’s editorial efforts with its business ambitions.
MEDIA • September 1, 2023
Mark to Market
And so the Mark Thompson era officially begins at CNN…
MEDIA • August 29, 2023
Mark Thompson Gets the CNN Treatment
The former New York Times C.E.O., who rescued the company from its financial nadir and morphed it into a best-in-class digital media behemoth, will become the next chairman and C.E.O. of CNN.
Mark Thompson would be seen as a serious choice who could potentially reshape CNN’s digital and streaming efforts, and who at the very least might erase the stain of the Chris Licht era.
MEDIA • August 25, 2023
CNN Enters Its Max Era
As Zaslav works to convince NYT and BBC vet Mark Thompson to take over CNN, the D.T.C. braintrust at Hudson Yards is testing the limits of the post-cable future with a plan to finally begin live-streaming the network’s primetime talent on Max.
MEDIA • August 23, 2023
Trump’s Fox Politics & a CNN Tickle
The Republican debate will be most notable, of course, for the absence of the Republican frontrunner, and for testing whether the Murdochs can remain at the center of the media universe without the monster they made.
Bob Iger and Tim Cook at the Allen & Co conference in 2016.
MEDIA • August 18, 2023
Could Apple be the “Strategic Partner” of Iger’s Dreams?
Apple has rarely shelled out meaningful capital in M&A, often deciding to build competing products within its rounded walls. But its interests in streaming, and sports, might make ESPN an alluring target—no matter how far-fetched the notion might have once seemed.
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