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Going Global

Brian Roberts plots 'NBC Sky' in bid to take on CNN

Moving the Market: Comcast chief Brian Roberts will launch a new global news service called NBC Sky World News this summer, uniting NBC News and Sky in an ambitious bid to take on CNN International and the BBC in the global news business.

• The big picture: "Few companies have dared challenge CNN International and BBC World News in global television news, a business with no accurate viewing figures and a limited pool of advertisers," FT's Alex Barker writes.

The big question "is whether the new venture will have the financial patience, news gathering élan and distinctive voice to cut through in a crowded market moving increasingly online."

• Comcast will distribute NBC Sky via cable, satellite and digital video in Europe. It will also make the service available to U.S. viewers via Peacock, the forthcoming NBCUniversal streaming service.

• NBC Sky expects to reach 130 million households worldwide when it launches this summer. CNN International reaches more than 384 million, while the BBC reaches more than 465 million.

What's next: In separate interviews published late last night, NBC News Chairman Andy Lack and NBC News International President Deborah Turness unveiled their plan to open 10 new bureaus, hire at least 100 new employees and leverage a combined workforce of 3,500.

• Lack to the FT: "We’ve longed for an international channel... Going back to the Gulf war when CNN essentially came on to the scene, we knew then at NBC that if you weren’t in the 24-hour news business globally, you weren’t really in the news business."

• Turness to Variety: “We see an opportunity to begin an approach that isn’t filtered through a U.S. perspective or a British perspective or any national perspective. ... We can bring our journalism to the wide world, but also invest heavily in global journalism."

• Turness also told FT that creating a global news brand has long been a priority for Roberts: “He travels so much... he would stay in hotels and consume lots of international news and lament the fact that although he had America’s number-one news brand... it wasn’t global and he felt by rights that it really ought to be.”

Big on the Street: Comcast reports Q4 earnings today. Expect a lot of discussion about both NBC Sky and Peacock.

Bloomberg/Getty

Checks & Balances

N.Y. Times seeks media scribe

Moving Midtown: Jim Rutenberg, the New York Times columnist who took over for the late David Carr but failed to match his predecessor's penchant for high-impact reporting and fearless analysis on the media industry, has been reassigned to a "writer at large" position.

• What's next: The Market presumes that this means Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet is in the market for a new media columnist who, like Carr, might occasionally aim for the jugular, rather than the capillaries.

🏀 Garden Party 🏀

Spotted at last night's Knicks-Lakers game at MSG: Maverick Carter, Howard Stern, Jim Gaffigan, Rob Pelinka, Baron Davis, J. Cole, Adam Mendelsohn, Lewis Kay and Spike Lee.

Also, how 'bout Zion?

Christophe Archambault/Getty

🇸🇦 Foreign Affairs

U.N. to probe Bezos-MBS hack

Dept. of International Intrigue: Two United Nations experts have called for an investigation into the allegation that Jeff Bezos' phone was hacked after he received a WhatsApp message from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, my colleagues Patrick Smith and Dan De Luce report.

• The big picture: The allegation has sent shockwaves across the Market, from Seattle and Silicon Valley to Washington and New York. It could have ramifications for U.S. foreign policy, mobile messaging platforms and every executive who has done business with MBS.

The latest: U.N. experts David Kaye and Agnès Callamard said Wednesday that the evidence presented to them by forensic experts "suggests the possible involvement of the Crown Prince in surveillance of Mr. Bezos" and called for further investigation.

• Kaye and Callamard also said the evidence suggests that the Saudis infiltrated Bezos' phone "in an effort to influence, if not silence," reporting on Saudi Arabia by The Washington Post, which Bezos owns.

• Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist who was critical of MBS, was murdered in October 2018. The CIA has concluded that the Crown Prince was behind the killing, though he has denied responsibility.

• Saudi Arabia has dismissed the hacking allegations and called for "an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out." Saudi's Foreign Minister also called the allegation "silly" and "absurd."

What's next: Read the forensic experts' original report here, and the U.N.'s review of the evidence, including a timeline of key events, here.

Market Links

• Bob Iger sells Fox's video game division to Scopely (THR)

• Jimmy Pitaro puts women's NCAA hoops in primetime (ESPN)

• Jack Abernethy talks Super Bowl and NFL rights (Deadline)

• Ben Lerer says Group Nine will turn a profit in 2020 (AdEx)

• Billy Eichner has been cast to play Matt Drudge (THR)

Mike Coppola/Getty

The (Audio) Streaming Wars

Serial may sell, NYT may buy

On the Block: Serial Productions, the company behind the uber-popular "Serial" and "S-Town" podcasts, is considering selling and may have found a buyer in The New York Times, WSJ’s Ben Mullin reports.

• The deal would help the Times solidify its position as one of the biggest podcast publishers. It’s currently the fourth-largest publisher with over 10 million monthly listeners in the U.S.

The big picture: "Several media companies have looked to bulk up on podcasting as it has exploded in popularity," Mullin writes. "The sector... has more than doubled in revenue since 2017."

China News Service/Getty

TikTok, TikTok

Zhang Yiming seeks new CEO

Big in the Bay, big in L.A.: "ByteDance is seeking a new chief executive officer for its TikTok business, a hugely popular video app that American politicians have targeted as a potential security threat," Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner and Sarah Frier report.

• The new CEO will be based in the U.S. and may "oversee TikTok’s non-technical functions... while current TikTok chief Alex Zhu would... manage the majority of product and engineering out of China."

The big picture: "Beijing-based ByteDance... has built TikTok and Douyin, [it's Chinese equivalent], into some of the world’s most popular apps with more than a billion users between them."

• "That has made ByteDance the most valuable tech startup in the world, challenging the dominance of U.S. companies like Facebook and Snap."

What's next: "With rising tensions between China and the U.S.... American politicians have warned the app represents a national-security threat. ... ByteDance is weighing a range of options to address those concerns, from an aggressive legal defense to the sale of a stake in TikTok."

🌴 What's next: TikTok has just opened a new office in Culver City. Variety's Todd Spangler has a sneak peak of the new digs.

See you tomorrow.