Zach Gibson/Getty

Adam Silver faces China test

Moving the Market: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has found himself mired in a national debate over Chinese political influence and censorship after the Middle Kingdom flexed its economic might to punish the league because of a tweet.

• The backstory: The Chinese Basketball Association, Chinese media and several Chinese sponsors moved to suspend business with the Rockets after that team's general manager, Daryl Morey, posted a tweet supporting Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests.

• The NBA, widely seen as the most tolerant, pro-free speech league in American sports, nevertheless moved quickly to placate China, saying it was “regrettable” that Morey's tweet “deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China."

• In a statement to Chinese media, the NBA was even more apologetic, saying it was "extremely disappointed in the inappropriate comment."

Why the about face? "The stakes are particularly high for the NBA, which has looked to China, a rapidly prospering country of 1.4 billion people, as a growth market," NYT's Daniel Victor explains.

• Nearly half a billion people watched the NBA on China's Tencent platforms last year, and the league recently struck a $1.5 billion deal to extend its partnership with Tencent for five years.

How it's playing: Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke were among several lawmakers who criticized the NBA, with the latter slamming the league for its "blatant prioritization of profits over human rights."

• WaPo's Josh Rogin hit the lawmakers, calling the NBA and the Rockets "the latest victims of the Chinese government’s efforts to force U.S. companies to do its political bidding." He said Beijing's "massive, punitive and coercive reaction... must not be allowed."

On the other side, Joe Tsai, the Alibaba co-founder and owner of the Brooklyn Nets, criticized Morey in a surprise Facebook post, arguing that his tweet touched a "third rail" of Chinese politics and was “damaging to the relationship with our fans in China."

• Kai Qu, a tech blogger, called it "a great culture clash," noting that while "Americans on Twitter are criticizing NBA for not supporting freedom of speech,” Chinese on Weibo "are all criticizing NBA for not openly condemning and punishing."

The big picture: China is increasingly flexing its economic might to force U.S. companies to toe its line, particularly on the question of national sovereignty and its rights to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet. That pressure will test U.S. executives and lawmakers who claim to oppose censorship and uphold the freedom of speech.

• What's next: "Chinese celebrities line up to boycott NBA" (FT)

Albert L. Ortega/Getty

'South Park' plays Beijing

Milking the moment: The Chinese government also punished "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone by deleting every clip, episode and online discussion of their show from Chinese streaming services and social media after an episode mocked Hollywood's acquiescence to Beijing.

• Parker and Stone: "Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. ... Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10! Long live the great Communist Party of China. May the autumn's sorghum harvest be bountiful. ..."

📨 Internal affairs dept. 📨

Talk of the lot: NBCUniversal chief Steve Burke has announced that Paul Telegdy will become sole chairman of NBC Entertainment, overseeing all primetime and scripted daytime programming.

• Comcast veteran Matt Strauss will take over the forthcoming Peacock streaming service from Bonnie Hammer, who will step into a newly created role as chair of NBCUniversal Content Studios.

Mike Coppola/Getty

John Stankey moves on news

Moving Manhattan: WarnerMedia chief John Stankey has extended “Axios on HBO” for two more seasons (through 2021) and will expand the news program to 12 episodes per year, pulling AT&T's media unit deeper into current affairs programming.

• The big picture: The move suggests that Stankey plans to broaden WarnerMedia's news offering and will look beyond CNN and HBO to feed the forthcoming HBO Max streaming service.

• HBO Max will feature content from CNN Films, HBO Documentaries and Axios, sources familiar with the matter tell me. The company will likely seek out additional news content as well.

• Jeff Zucker, who serves as chairman of WarnerMedia News & Sports, as well as president of CNN, was directly involved in the Axios deal and gave it his blessing, the sources said. (He did not respond to request for comment).

The bigger picture: WarnerMedia's Axios deal highlights how content-hungry media companies are — especially media companies that are preparing to launch their own streaming services.

Phillip Chin/Getty

Jeffrey Katzenberg gets ESPN

Big in Beverly, big in Bristol: Jeffrey Katzenberg has signed a deal with ESPN to create a daily sports highlights show for Quibi, the short-form, mobile-only streaming service that is scheduled to launch in April.

• The ESPN show will be part of Quibi's Daily Essentials, which will also feature daily news programs from NBC News and BBC.

Key detail: Quibi will pay ESPN to produce the show, which it will license back to Quibi. So ESPN will maintain the rights.

Market Links

• Mark Zuckerberg settles a video metrics dispute (THR)

• Bob Greenblatt moves 'Search Party' to HBO Max (Deadline)

• Randy Freer finally gets on board with offline viewing (Variety)

• Ted Sarandos takes 'The Irishman' to Broadway (Deadline)

• Kevin Delaney leaves Quartz looking for an editor (Adweek)

Roy Rochlin/Getty

Ben Lerer buys PopSugar

The M&A File: "Discovery-backed digital publisher Group Nine Media has agreed to acquire women-focused publisher PopSugar... the latest merger of new-media firms hoping that greater scale will help them sell online ads," WSJ's Ben Mullin and Lukas Alpert report.

• "The all-stock deal values PopSugar at more than $300 million, according to people familiar with the matter, and will give its shareholders more than 30% ownership of the combined company."

• "Group Nine — whose properties include The Dodo, a digital outlet focused on animal stories and videos, and news destination NowThis — was valued at more than $600 million in the deal, the people said."

The big picture: "Group Nine’s purchase of PopSugar is the third digital-media deal in the past two weeks," following Vox Media's acquisition of New York Media (valued at $105 million) and Vice Media's acquisition of Refinery29 (valued at $400 million).

• "The digital publishers are all betting that bulking up their audiences will help them sell ads in an online industry where U.S. marketers are spending the majority of their money on Facebook and Alphabet's Google."

🎭 What's next: Edward Norton, who returns to the big screen next month in an adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn," talks Marvel, Netflix and Nielsen.

See you tomorrow.