cable

Politics in the year after a presidential election are typically focused on local and statewide contests.

But the races decided on Tuesday — which include a pivotal mayoral contest in New York and California’s referendum on congressional redistricting — will have national implications. The gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey will be a report card on President Trump’s second term.

As a result, cable news will be paying special attention. The races will also serve as an important test run for a couple of cable news networks in transition.

“This is the first election of the 2026 midterms, and we know what happens 30 seconds after the mid-terms are over — 2028 starts in earnest,” said Chris Stirewalt, political editor for Nexstar Media Group’s NewsNation. “In New Jersey and Virginia, you have two states that look a lot like the country as a whole. President Trump’s approval ratings in those places is about the same as it is nationally.”

MSNBC will be covering its first election night without the resources of NBC News. The progressive-leaning network — which changes its name to MS NOW on Nov. 15 — is being spun off by parent company Comcast into a new entity called Versant.

NBC News no longer shares correspondents or analysts with MSNBC. The channel’s line-up of opinion hosts including Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough, Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber and Lawrence O’Donnell remains intact.

Loyal MSNBC viewers will notice that election data maven Steve Kornacki will not be crunching numbers on his big board. Kornacki signed a new deal last year with NBC, where he works for the news and sports divisions.

Kornacki will be a part of the network’s coverage on NBC News Now, its free streaming channel. “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas is leading the coverage with Hallie Jackson, the network’s senior Washington correspondent; and “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.

MSNBC host Ali Velshi will take on the voter analysis duties previously held down by Kornacki. The network said it will have 15 correspondents reporting throughout the country, including West Coast-based Jacob Soboroff delivering analysis on TikTok.

MSNBC national correspondent Jacob Soboroff.

(MSNBC/Paul Morigi/MSNBC)

CNN will use the night to test the appeal of its new direct-to-consumer streaming service launched last week.

While CNN will have its usual array of anchors and experts led by anchor Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett, the network will also offer an alternative streaming feed featuring its analyst Harry Enten alongside conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and “The Breakfast Club” radio host Charlamagne tha God.

“CNN Election Livecast” will be only be available from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Pacific to subscribers of CNN All Access. The program will be a discussion of the results presented as “a more casual option” for viewers, according to a representative for the network.

The feed will mark the first time CNN, owned by Warner Bros. Discover, has produced full-scale live coverage exclusively for a streaming audience.

Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier of Fox News

(Fox News)

Fox News will rely on anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum for a special telecast at 10 p.m. Eastern and 7 p.m. Pacific, pre-empting its comedic talk show “Gutfeld!”

The 2025 election night will also mark a change in calling the results. All of the major broadcast networks and cable channels will be using data analysis from the Associated Press, which teamed with Fox News and NORC at the University of Chicago several years ago to create an alternative to the research company used by CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN.

Starting Tuesday, all five networks will get voting results at the same time.

Leland Vittert, Elizabeth Vargas and Chris Cuomo will anchor election night coverage for NewsNation.

(NewsNation)

The exception is Nexstar Media Group’s NewsNation, which will use Decision Desk HQ to call its races during its coverage co-anchored by Stirewalt, Chris Cuomo, Leland Vittert and Elizabeth Vargas. The service was the first to call the results of the 2024 presidential election, beating the competition by 15 minutes.

The ability to call the races sooner means more time for analysis, which is expected to lean heavily into what the results say about the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential campaign.

Stirewalt said the night has the potential to set up the political plot lines of the next two years. He believes the passage of Proposition 50 in California and a victory for New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would elevate Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as 2028 presidential contenders.

“That’s would be a big feather in the cap for AOC, who can say that she’s leading a movement,” Stirewalt said. “Gavin Newsom gets to ring the bell. He gets to say ‘I won. I did something that was controversial. I took it to Donald Trump. I’m delivering a win.’”

Oct. 21 (UPI) — A preliminary report released Tuesday about last month’s deadly crash of one of Lisbon’s famed funiculars found that an unapproved underground cable snapped just before the incident.

The Sept. 3 crash of the Elevador da Glória, a 111-year-old two-car funicular that operates the sloping streets of Portugal’s capital, killed 16 people after one of the cars broke free and crashed into a building along the route. More than a dozen other people were injured in the incident.

The preliminary report by Portugal’s Air and Rail Accident Investigations Bureau found that the cause of the crash was an underground cable that snapped, allowing the car at the top of the hill to break free.

Though the cable had a minimum breaking load within the safety parameters of the Glória Funicular, the investigators found the cable was not in compliance with specifications by the city’s transport operator, CCFL.

The haulage cable ran between the two cars and acted as a counterweight between them as one descended the hill and the other ascended from the opposite direction.

The cable broke seconds after the two cars began their 54th trips of the day. While the bottom car abruptly stopped and remained largely in place at the bottom of the hill, the top car lost power and began to increase speed down the hill. According to investigators, the brakeman of the top car attempted to engage the pneumatic brake system, and when that didn’t work, he tried to use the manual brake.

While the brakeman’s maneuvers caused a slight decrease in acceleration, the car was still steadily increasing its speed down the hill. It successfully negotiated the first slight curve in the track, but derailed at the next, sharper bend in the track.

The car then slammed into a building along the route.

Investigators said the haulage cable — multiple strands of twisted steel — showed various breaks in the smaller metal strands that happened at different times.

“The failure occurred progressively over time and involved multiple fracture types,” the report said.

Workers installed the cable between Aug. 26, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2024, as part of what the bureau described as an intermediate repair of the Glória Funicular. This type of cable is commonly used in funiculars, the report said.

However, the manufacturer of the cable said it could not be used with a swivel, a rotating part on the cars that attached them to the cables.

“At this time, it cannot be said whether the use of this type of non-compliant cable intervened, or what intervention it had, in the rupture,” the report said. “And it is certain for the investigation that there were other factors that had to intervene.”

Since the crash, the head of Lisbon’s public transport has been fired and though Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas faced accusations he failed in his oversight of the funiculars, he won re-election Oct. 12, according to the BBC.

He told SIC television the results of the report released Monday “reaffirms that the unfortunate tragedy … was due to technical and not political causes.”

The bureau is expected to release a final report on the crash in September 2026, The New York Times reported.

CNN is taking another shot at launching a direct-to-consumer streaming service that will make much of the channel’s news programming available without a pay TV subscription.

The unit of Warner Bros. Discovery announced Thursday it will launch an All Access subscription tier for CNN.com available for $6.99 a month starting Oct. 28. The service will provide what the company describes as “a selection” of live programming on CNN and CNN International.

The service will also have exclusive on-demand programming and a library of titles from CNN Films and CNN Original Series.

The All Access subscription will be be offered at $69.99 annually, but will carry an introductory price of $41.99 for the first year for customers signing up by Jan. 5.

The announcement comes two years after Mark Thompson took over as chief executive of the network with a mandate to guide the channel into a digital post-cable future.

CNN launched a direct-to-consumer service in 2022 called CNN+, made up of original programming featuring its current talent line-up and new additions including Audie Cornish, Chris Wallace and Kasie Hunt. But the service was shut down nine days after launch following WBD’s takeover of the network, as new management was focused on reducing debt.

CNN has seen profits decline significantly over the last five years as cord-cutting has driven down revenues received from cable and satellite companies carrying the channel.

The cable channel also saw a significant decline in ratings after WBD took over ownership of the network and executives pushed for the network to appeal more to conservative viewers.

Thompson has made few changes to the CNN program line-up as his team has focused on its digital properties. Thompson and Alex MacCallum, executive vice president of digital products and services, were both at the New York Times when the company transformed into a successful digital subscription-based news business.

In a statement, MacCallum said the All Access launch is “an essential step in CNN’s evolution as we work to give audiences the complete CNN experience in a format that reflects how audiences engage with the news today.”

CNN introduced a paywall on its website last year, giving users unfettered access to articles and video on the site for $3.99 a month. Response to the preliminary phase was encouraging, according to people inside the network who were not authorized to comment publicly.

Cable subscribers will also get the new streaming service for free.

Fox News is currently the only major cable news channel available without a pay TV subscription. The channel is offered on Fox One, the recently launched streaming service that also offers local Fox broadcast affiliates for $19.99 a month.

Termination notices went out to 150 NBC News Group employees Wednesday as the financial health of the traditional television business continues to erode.

The cuts have been anticipated for months as NBC is seeing declines in TV ratings and ad revenue that are not being fully offset by a growing digital business.

Audience migration to streaming platforms has put pressure on legacy outlets across the media industry, leading to layoffs and cost-cutting.

A representative for the NBC News Group, which produces “Today,” “NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas” and “Dateline,” declined to comment on the layoffs.

The cuts are also attributed to the spinoff of cable networks MSNBC and CNBC, according to a person briefed on the plans who was not authorized to comment. As of last week, NBC News no longer shares resources with the two outlets, which will become part of a new company called Versant. Some NBC News veterans have decided to join MSNBC, which will be renamed MS NOW.

Versant is the new stand-alone home for most of Comcast’s cable networks, including USA Network, the Golf Channel, CNBC and MSNBC. Comcast is spinning off the channels because it believes the mature outlets face a bleak future due to pay TV cord-cutting and are an albatross weighing down its stock price.

Some of the job losses are expected to be mitigated by a reallocation of resources aimed at bolstering the division’s digital operations. The employees affected by the cuts have been encouraged to apply for 140 jobs currently open across the NBC News Group.

The cuts amount to 2% of the NBC News Group, which also includes local TV stations owned by NBC and Telemundo.

A recent memo from NBC News Group Chair Cesar Conde said the division is launching a subscription streaming service later this year, although details have not been made public. The company already has NBC News Now, a free ad-supported streaming channel.

More cuts across the TV news business are expected through the end of the year. A significant reduction in staffing is expected at CBS News following the merger of parent Paramount with Skydance Media.

ABC News was hit hard by a 6% staff reduction across the ABC TV network enacted in March by parent Walt Disney Co. Those cuts followed a layoff of 40 news staffers in October 2024.

Pay TV providers have a new message for consumers: Your ex wants you back.

While the media industry watches the once massive number of subscribers to cable and satellite services diminish like a slow-melting iceberg as audiences move to streaming, the companies are aggressively developing ways to slow the trend and perhaps win some business back.

Spectrum and DirecTV have both recently held fancy press events in New York to tout their efforts to offer a more consumer-friendly experience and services that add value for the still substantial number of customers they serve. Giving consumers more choice and flexibility is their new mantra.

The latest evidence of this emerged last week when Spectrum introduced an app store, where customers can get subscriptions to the streaming platforms such as Disney+, Hulu, AMC+ and ESPN, and access them alongside the broadcast and cable channels that still carry the bulk of high-profile sports and live events.

The Stamford, Conn.-based company’s 31 million subscribers can now get ad-supported streaming apps as part of their TV packages, which would otherwise cost an additional $125 a month. Ad-free versions are also offered at a discounted price.

Over the last year, El Segundo-based DirecTV rolled out smaller packages of channels aimed at consumers who no longer want a big monthly bill for the panoply of networks that have accumulated in the pay TV bundle over the years. The satellite TV service now offers smaller “genre packages” of channels and streaming apps that cater to a particular interest available at a lower price — designed for news junkies, sports fans, kids and Spanish-language speakers. There is one for entertainment channels as well.

There are early indications consumers are responding. In the second quarter of this year, Spectrum reported a loss of 80,000 cable customers due to cord-cutting, a significant decline from the same period in 2024, when 408,000 homes ditched cable.

DirecTV does not disclose its subscriber numbers, but Vincent Torres, the company’s chief marketing officer, said the smaller and more bespoke channel packages are drawing younger consumers who have bypassed pay TV subscriptions up to now.

For Spectrum, the deal to get the Disney apps came out of an ugly carriage dispute in August 2023 that for 12 days left customers without programming, including the U.S. Open tennis tournament and the start of the college football season. The standoff followed comments by Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger that taking the company’s program services directly to the consumer and bypassing its traditional pay TV partners was inevitable.

Spectrum CEO Chris Winfrey suggested his company could get out of the video distribution business and stick to selling its far more profitable broadband internet services.

The dispute was a sharp example of the pressure on cable providers that have been asked to pay more to carry the channels from Disney and other media conglomerates as they feel the pressure of rising programming costs and sports rights fees. The costs are passed along to customers who are paying more for content that is available on streaming services. Spectrum insisted on a deal that made Disney’s streaming apps available to its customers at no additional cost.

The tensions subsided and, in June, Spectrum reopened and extended its contract with Disney before it was up — a rarity in the contentious arena of carriage negotiations that lead to channel blackouts.

DirecTV’s slimmer cable packages came after a similarly bruising dispute with Disney last September, with customers losing access to the channels for 13 days.

But there was a new spirit of unity on stage at Spectrum headquarters, where ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro, the architect of ESPN’s direct-to-consumer strategy, was among the guest speakers.

Although Pitaro has long hammered away at how ESPN needs to be accessible to sports fans wherever they are, he touted the value of the cable subscription and described the relationship with Spectrum as “the best it has ever been.”

Spectrum customers already get ESPN channels through their cable subscription, but adding the direct-to-consumer app allows them access to its features such as enhanced real-time stats during live games and a personalized “SportsCenter” that uses AI to create a custom highlight show for users.

Spectrum has enlisted the networks it carries to make promotional spots touting its new services. Speaking at the Spectrum event, Winfrey acknowledged it will take some time for consumers to get used to the idea of getting more from their cable provider at no additional cost.

“Our No. 1 issue is — and this may shock you — but customers don’t trust the cable company,” Winfrey said. “Maybe with good reason. For how many decades did the cable industry go out and say HBO is included for free? And it was for three months and then, $10 would show up on your bill. We’ve conditioned people to think it’s a free trial period.”

Torres notes that more consumers are experiencing what he calls “content rage” as the prices of individual streaming services such as Peacock and Disney+ continue to rise. As programming gets sliced and diced for the growing number of services, consumers are finding that more than one subscription is necessary, especially for fans of the NFL or NBA, which have spread their games over several services.

“You see a growing frustration that ‘I can never find what I want to find when I want to watch it,” Torres said. “The fragmentation of the content is creating customer dissatisfaction. They can’t always find what they’re looking for.”

Along with its slimmer channel packages, DirectTV recently introduced a new internet-connected device called Gemini that combines streaming apps with traditional TV channels.

Pay TV companies are also offering voice-controlled remotes to help consumers find what they want to watch, whether on streaming or a traditional channel.

Executives say more enhanced viewing experiences are coming to keep the pay TV customer connected.

Starting this season, Spectrum’s SportsNet channel will be offering its Los Angeles customers several Lakers games in an immersive video format that can be streamed through an Apple Vision Pro device. The technology will give users a courtside view of the game at Crypto.com Arena. All that’s missing is a seat next to Jack Nicholson, but as AI advances, who knows?

Stuff We Wrote

Film shoots

Number of the week

Disney’s sci-fi sequel “Tron: Ares” got off to a weak start, opening with just $33.5 million in North American theaters.

The results were well below 2010’s “Tron: Legacy,” which opened to $44 million. The production budget for “Tron: Ares” was reportedly $180 million.

Still, Disney does have two potential box office hits later this year with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and animated sequel “Zootopia 2.”

Finally …

Stacy Perman’s deeply reported piece on fake collectible movie props is a must read. Bonus points for an appearance by notorious movie and TV executive Jim Aubrey, known as “The Smiling Cobra.”

Now you can be a cord-cutter and a TV news junkie too.

That’s because consumers who are giving up pay TV are finding a growing array of options outside the cable bundle providing national and local news.

Look up at the screen at the local nail salon or bagel shop, and where you once might have seen CNN, Fox News or CNBC might be a free channel serving up headlines.

For purveyors of TV news, the streaming channels have become a bigger part of their future as the habit of traditional viewing fades and a new generation relies on information from TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms.

More consumers are discovering national and local news content on what the media industry calls free ad-supported streaming television — or FAST — channels. Internet-connected television sets with free streaming TV platforms such as Tubi, Pluto TV, Roku and Samsung TV Plus built into them are making the offerings easier to find.

Ethan Cramer-Flood, a principal forecast writer for the media research firm Emarketer, tracks the growth of FAST channels. But it wasn’t until he recently cut the cord himself that he realized he could get his local news from New York stations such as WABC-TV anytime he wanted streamed through his Roku device.

“After cutting the cord, one of the things I had been missing was news,” Cramer-Flood said. “The channels are all right there. They are showing their news segments and newscasts all day long. You can just go on it and catch a half-hour.”

The news-viewing habit is growing as FAST channel usage steadily increases. Emarketer data put the number of U.S. consumers watching FAST at 116.8 million, and the figure is projected to reach 130 million by the end of the decade.

Cramer-Flood said that internet-connected TV sets are making FAST channels as convenient to watch as cable channels.

“The barrier to entry is zero,” Cramer-Flood said. “They don’t even make you sign up. It doesn’t cost anything. In one click you’re in the same exact experience as cable.”

Broadcast networks including ABC, CBS and NBC and TV station ownership groups such as Fox, Nexstar and Scripps have had streaming news channels for years, enabling them to reach younger viewers who have turned away from traditional television. They carry repeats of TV newscasts, morning shows and newsmagazines, but over time have added original streaming programs as well, where emerging on-air talent can get experience at the anchor desk.

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas put in four years at streaming channel NBC News Now before taking over for Lester Holt in June. But he has remained with his nightly streaming newscast, “Top Story,” to maintain a presence with an audience that is about 20 years younger than the one watching traditional TV.

ABC News chose Linsey Davis, the anchor of its signature streaming news program on ABC News Live, to be co-moderator of its 2024 presidential debate alongside David Muir of “World News Tonight.”

As the audience migration to streaming continues, outlets such as CNN and BBC News are joining the FAST channel fray even though they are still dependent on pay TV revenue.

CNN recently launched CNN Headlines, a free streaming channel that provides fast-paced delivery of national and international stories culled from the network’s reporting. There are no live guests, panel discussions or debates that are a trademark of the flagship cable channel. The channel’s lead anchor, Brad Smith, is often seen in a leather jacket rather than a suit and tie, a nod to the notion that the conventions of traditional TV news are less important to younger viewers.

“It’s more informal than it is on cable,” Eric Sherling, executive vice president, U.S. programming for CNN.

The arrival of CNN Headlines comes ahead of the network’s plans to offer a subscription-based direct-to-consumer product that will give consumers the chance to get CNN’s cable feed without a pay TV subscription for the first time.

Sherling said the two services will appeal to different audiences, with CNN Headline viewers looking for brevity while paying customers get the breadth and depth they expect from the cable channel.

CNN Headlines replaced a previous FAST channel that played segments that aired on cable. It was barely curated, but “a ton of people watched it,” Sherling said.

Early response to CNN Headlines has been strong, the network said, reaching 30 million users a month and more than 2 million daily.

Viewers have also quickly discovered a streaming version of BBC News, which is distributed on cable in the U.S. by AMC Networks. The service hit a high of 258.5 million streamed minutes in June, up 153% from the same month in 2024, according to AMC’s data.

AMC Networks has been aggressive in putting its programming on FAST channels, as cord-cutting puts the squeeze on its cable outlets. The company has 20 FAST channels in all, with BBC News being the latest entry.

The stream is identical to the BBC News feed offered to pay TV subscribers. But Amy Leasca, executive vice president of partner management for AMC Networks, said the company hasn’t seen any cannibalization of the cable audience.

BBC News presenters Caitríona Perry, left, and Sumi Somaskanda in Washington, D.C.

(AMC Networks)

Data indicate streaming viewers are showing up for specific scheduled programs on BBC News, mirroring the habits of traditional TV users, Leasca said.

Fox Television Stations takes a different approach with LiveNOW, a channel that delivers raw footage of breaking news coverage, with on-air journalists who are there to guide viewers from one event to the next. The video journalists deliver straightforward introductions of live video without commentary.

President Trump addressing Congress on March 4, 2025.

(Fox Television Stations)

“There are no prompters or scripts,” said Emily Stone, vice president of digital content and LiveNOW at Fox Television Stations.

Most companies release sparse internal data on exactly how many viewers are watching their FAST news channels. But LiveNOW puts its viewing numbers right on the screen in real time. Jeff Zellmer, executive vice president of digital operations for Fox Television, said the figures help the service determine what to cover.

On Friday, LiveNOW showed an empty lectern ahead of the press conference announcing the arrest of the alleged shooter of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. The screen showed more than 345,000 were watching, and it surged to 400,000 when law enforcement officials took the microphone.

LiveNOW’s reached its largest audience in February when its coverage of President Trump’s address to Congress in hit 1.95 million viewers

LiveNOW started as an experiment in 2014 when Fox Television Stations President Jack Abernethy challenged his outlets to come up with a low-cost streaming service using their existing resources.

“The Phoenix station decided they were going to start a YouTube channel and put a person in front of a switcher with a bunch of live feeds and see what happens,” Stone said.

The stream showed live coverage of local events and picked up an occasional car chase from California.

But when the COVID-19 pandemic and protests over the police killing of George Floyd hit in 2020, the public was desperate for up-to-date information from officials. LiveNOW gained a following.

“There was a press conference every second from every city,” Zellner said.

LiveNOW’s video journalists are not the high-paid anchors that have long been the staple of network news. The 10 staffers who run the operation toil on minimalist sets in Phoenix and Tampa, Fla., which helps keep the service profitable.

Kate O’Brian, who oversaw Scripps’ streaming news operation until late last year, said the less formal approach of streaming news channels is likely to be the norm going forward.

“I think there’s something viewers appreciate about the unvarnished part of it,” O’Brian said. “It doesn’t look pretty sometimes. But I think post-pandemic — when every reporter was sitting in their basement or their garage — the audience’s patience and adaptability completely changed.”

Microsoft warns customers of ‘increased latency’ in connectivity and says efforts are under way to resolve the issue.

Internet disruptions have been reported in the Middle East and South Asia after multiple undersea cable cuts in the Red Sea, tech giant Microsoft, which has been criticised for its links to Israel as its war on Gaza rages on, said in a statement.

The statement on Sunday did not give further details about what caused the cuts.

In a status update published to its website, Microsoft said “network traffic traversing through the Middle East may experience increased latency due to undersea fiber cuts in the Red Sea”. The global software giant said its Azure cloud computing services, the world’s second largest after Amazon, were affected by the cuts but added that general network traffic was not impacted.

“Network traffic that does not traverse through the Middle East is not impacted. We’ll continue to provide daily updates, or sooner if conditions change,” it said.

Microsoft said the disruptions started at 05:45 GMT on September 6.

The internet connectivity watchdog NetBlocks reported “degraded” internet connectivity in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and India, “resulting in slow speeds and intermittent access”.

NetBlocks said the connectivity issues were due to failures in the SMW4 and IMEWE cable systems near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan Telecommunications, one of the country’s largest telecoms providers, released a statement on X warning customers that the country “may experience some degradation during peak hours”, adding that its international partners were working to resolve the issue.

Undersea cables form the internet’s backbone, carrying global data traffic. The Middle East serves as a critical hub linking Asia and Europe. They are vulnerable to damage by ships’ anchors, but can also be targeted in attacks, which can cause widespread disruption.

In early 2024, Yemen’s internationally recognised government-in-exile alleged that the Houthis planned to attack undersea cables in the Red Sea. Several were cut, but the Houthis denied being responsible.

On Sunday morning, the Houthis’ Al Masirah TV acknowledged the cuts, citing NetBlocks.

Microsoft’s Azure has been storing information, including intercepted Palestinian phone calls in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip for Israel’s military, according to an investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call.

Microsoft has denied knowledge that Israel’s cyber-intelligence division, Unit 8200, was using its cloud services for material obtained through mass surveillance, but launched an investigation in August.

Microsoft has fired four employees who participated in protests on company premises over the firm’s ties to Israel.

Two major digital platforms — YouTube and Hulu + Live TV — have agreed to carry C-SPAN two months after the nonprofit organization made a public plea for wider distribution.

Changing industry economics have taken a toll on C-SPAN, prompting the U.S. Senate to urge streaming companies to begin offering customers the privately funded television service, which has provided nonpartisan gavel-to-gavel television coverage of congressional hearings and roll call votes for decades.

“All television providers, including streaming services, should make delivery of C-SPAN a priority so Americans can watch Congress in action, in real time,” senators said in their June resolution.

On Wednesday, C-SPAN announced separate distribution agreements with YouTube and Hulu + Live TV.

The agreements expand “access to C-SPAN’s unfiltered coverage of U.S. government for millions of subscribers nationwide, further strengthening the network’s role as an indispensable source of public affairs programming,” C-SPAN said in a statement.

C-SPAN stands for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network. It relies heavily on revenue generated from license fees paid by cable, satellite and other multi-TV channel operators. But as the number of traditional pay-TV homes continues to shrink, C-SPAN found itself running a troubling financial deficit.

Last year, C-SPAN collected $46.3 million in revenue, a 37% decline from $73 million in 2015. That’s largely because C-SPAN and other basic cable channels were available in more than 100 million homes 10 years ago.

Since then, the number of homes has been cut nearly in half.

The three C-SPAN channels — C-SPAN, C-SPAN2 and C-SPAN3 — will be added to YouTube TV’s base package of channels this fall, the companies said. The channels will also run on the main YouTube video platform.

In addition, Google-owned YouTube will sponsor the network’s coverage of “America 250” — the celebrations to mark the nation’s founding two and a half centuries ago.

“For nearly half a century, C-SPAN has partnered with cable and satellite providers who recognize the value of our important public service,” C-SPAN Chief Executive Sam Feist said in a statement. “We now look forward to working closely with YouTube to bring C-SPAN’s unfiltered coverage of the democratic process to millions more Americans.”

C-SPAN uses its own cameras in the Capitol, enabling the service to catch the action when government-operated audio and visual equipment is cut off.

Earlier this summer, Feist told The Times that C-SPAN should be able to close its budget gap if YouTube TV and Walt Disney Co.’s Hulu + Live TV would carry its feeds.

Around 20 million households subscribe to such online subscription platforms, known as virtual multichannel video program distributors, which stream broadcast and cable channels.

Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.

People in L.A. and New York better get ready for a sea of ESPN red on their morning and evening commutes.

Walt Disney Co.’s is backing the Thursday launch of its sports media unit’s direct-to-consumer streaming app with a major advertising campaign aimed at captive audiences in their cars and on the railway tracks.

The aggressive four-week push is aimed at telling consumers that ESPN — long one of the pillars of the cable television business — will be available for the first time without a pay TV subscription.

The service, a major initiative since ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro took over the Disney unit in 2018, is a response to the growing number of consumers who are bypassing cable and satellite for streaming video platforms. The trend has decreased the number of pay TV homes receiving ESPN, which is a major source of revenue for the company.

ESPN ad on a Cadillac SUV used for Lyft.

(ESPN)

Consumers can subscribe to the new ESPN streaming app for $29.99 a month. Households already paying to receive ESPN channels through cable or satellite can sign up at no additional cost, enabling up to five people to stream the service on mobile devices and internet-connected TV sets.

“We designed our campaign exactly as we designed our product, which is to serve sports fans anytime, anywhere,” Jo Fox, executive vice president of marketing for ESPN, said in a recent interview. “So we want to make sure we are showing up in as many places as possible.”

The advertising campaign that starts Thursday will feature Lyft-operated Cadillac SUVs wrapped in the company logo and the promotional campaign’s tagline “All of ESPN. All in One Place.”

The vehicles will be concentrated in high-traffic areas near sporting events in Los Angeles and New York, where the U.S. Open tennis tournament will soon begin. The ESPN brand name and logo will also appear on the Lyft app and maps.

Mass transit users won’t be left out, as ESPN will take over the E Line of the New York City subway that travels from the World Trade Center to Queens. The exterior of the train cars will be covered with logos while more specific ad messages will appear on the inside.

The public address announcements at the Spring Street subway station — located near Disney’s downtown Manhattan headquarters — will be delivered by ESPN’s voluble $20-million-a-year man Stephen A. Smith, the co-host of “First Take.”

Signage will also take over electronic screens in New York’s Moynihan Train Hall and Port Authority Bus Terminal and billboards along L.A.’s Sunset Boulevard and adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

ESPN’s campaign will go beyond the major media centers on the coasts. The streaming service will be featured on TV screens in the home entertainment sections in 4,000 Walmart stores across the country.

ESPN also has a deal with Samsung, which will offer free yearlong subscriptions to the streaming service to customers who purchase a QLED 4K TV at Best Buy or Samsung.com. Best Buy stores will feature the ESPN app in stores as well during the promotion.

ESPN has already been touting its streaming service on air and in paid TV media buys with commercials featuring actor and WWE star John Cena. Cena will soon be an ESPN fixture as the streaming service becomes the new home of major WWE events such as WrestleMania and Royal Rumble, starting in 2026.

The ESPN app will include a number of features that will complement the live sports offerings. Fans will be able to create their own personalized “SportsCenter,” which will use artificial intelligence to provide a short personalized highlight program geared to the user’s favorite teams and events.

NBC Sports pioneered the customized highlight show on its Peacock streaming platform during the 2024 Summer Olympics, using the voice of Al Michaels. The voices of ESPN “SportsCenter” hosts will be used on “SportsCenter for You.”

The app will also offer stats, betting, commerce and fantasy sports information alongside the live game coverage shown on ESPN channels.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. has largely stayed on the sidelines of the streaming wars.

That ends next week.

Fox, which owns the most-watched cable news channel Fox News and has TV rights to major sporting events such as the NFL and MLB post-season baseball, has remained committed to the declining pay TV business.

But with 65 million households no longer hooked up to cable or satellite services, the company making its channels available to non-pay TV customers for the first time with Fox One, a new streaming platform that will launch Aug. 21.

“There is a growing audience outside of cable,” said Pete Distad, chief executive of direct-to-consumer for Fox Corp., who previewed the service Thursday at a press briefing at the company’s New York headquarters. “We need to give to give those cord-cutters and cord-nevers access to our content.”

For $19.99 a month, Fox One will provide subscribers with their local Fox TV affiliate that carries a package of NFL games, plus two Fox Sports cable channels. A full year subscription will cost $199.

Fox One will also carry Fox News Media’s channels, which include Fox News, Fox Weather and Fox Business. It will provide replays of Fox programming on demand, with access to current seasons of entertainment programs and DVR capabilities with unlimited storage.

But the main selling point of Fox One will be the company’s array of live events, which include next year’s FIFA World Cup. The service will be promoted with the marketing tag line, “We Live For Live.”

Fox Sports’ Kevin Burkhardt talks with NFL broadcast partner Tom Brady before a 2024 preseason game at So-Fi Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Sports is the driver for the service. Fox Corp. and Walt Disney Co. have already agreed to offer a package deal for Fox One and the upcoming ESPN direct-to-consumer service also launching next week, for $39.99 a month, a savings of $10. ESPN will charge subscribers $29.99 on its own.

Distad said his company will look at more opportunities to bundle Fox One with other streaming services.

Until now, Fox’s biggest investment in streaming was the acquisition of Tubi, an ad-supported free streaming service that has grown to capture 1% of all U.S. TV viewing according to Nielsen.

Fox Corp. sold its TV and movie studio assets to Disney in 2019, partly because the company did not believe it could compete with deep-pocketed tech firms such as Amazon and Apple, which have spent freely on producing content for their streaming platforms.

But Amazon and Netflix — which acquired NFL rights in recent years — have shown that they can draw large audiences for live sports events, an area where Fox Corp. is already deeply entrenched.

The real test for the new streaming product will be the appetite for Fox News. The conservative-leaning news channel dominates its competitors in the TV ratings. Whether consumers who have cut the cable cord will be willing to pay to stream the channel’s live feed is an open question.

“Nobody knows how many news fans are outside of the pay TV universe,” Distad said.

Distad is encouraged by the reach of Fox News content online after it airs live on the TV network. Fox News scored 1.5 billion views on YouTube and 3.7 billion views on social media platforms in the last quarter.

Fox News Media’s existing streaming channel, Fox Nation, will be offered as a $5 add-on for Fox One for a total of $24.99 a month. The service has documentaries, true crime shows and movies that appeal to the Fox News audience.

Bret Baier, anchor of “Special Report” on Fox News.

(Fox News)

Fox Corp. executives are keeping their expectations low. It’s priced high enough so that the consumer who is currently happy with their current cable TV subscription is not likely to cancel.

But Distad said profit projections are “aggressive” as the platform will not spend money to create original programming. All of the content is being provided from its existing networks.

Investment in original programming has been the main obstacle to profitability for the streaming services that have proliferated in recent years.

Distad said the company is considering putting podcasts on the Fox One platform. Fox Corp. company recently acquired Red Seat Ventures, a media company that specializes in providing business support and technical services for right-leaning podcasts.

The NFL has reached a deal to take a 10% ownership stake in the Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, the league and Disney announced Tuesday evening, a move that is expected to solidify the sports media outlet’s relationship with the league for years to come.

In return for the equity stake valued at more than $2 billion based on recent valuations of the company, ESPN will take over the NFL’s cable properties including the NFL Network and Red Zone, the popular channel that continuously updates fans on the slate of Sunday contests. The NFL Network also has the rights to seven regular season games.

In addition to the sale of NFL Network, the NFL and ESPN are also entering into a second non-binding agreement, under which the NFL will license to ESPN certain NFL content and other intellectual property to be used by NFL Network and other assets.

The deal is a big win for ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, who took over the Disney unit in 2018 with a mandate to improve the company’s relationship with the NFL.

The equity stake comes ahead of ESPN’s move into the direct-to-consumer streaming business this fall, which gives consumers the opportunity to purchase the company’s sports channels without a cable or satellite TV subscription. NFL Network will also be available on the streaming service.

“This is an exciting day for sports fans,” Pitaro said Tuesday in a statement. “By combining these NFL media assets with ESPN’s reach and innovation, we’re creating a premier destination for football fans. Together, ESPN and the NFL are redefining how fans engage with the game — anytime, anywhere. This deal helps fuel ESPN’s digital future, laying the foundation for an even more robust offering as we prepare to launch our new direct-to-consumer service.”

The new product is aimed at recapturing sports fans who are forgoing cable and satellite services. ESPN has seen its reach in cable decline from 98 million homes in 2013 to around 72 million as a result of cord-cutting.

“Today’s announcement paves the way for the world’s leading sports media brand and America’s most popular sport to deliver an even more compelling experience for NFL fans, in a way that only ESPN and Disney can,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said in a statement.

ESPN has the broadcast rights to “Monday Night Football” and two Super Bowl games in the current NFL contract that runs through 2033 but is expected to be reopened in 2029.

The deal with Disney means the NFL’s other partners — Fox, NBC, CBS, YouTube and Amazon — will be bidding against an entity that the league has a financial interest in next time the media rights come up.

Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman of Fox Corp., told Wall Street analysts Tuesday he is not concerned the NFL’s partnership with ESPN will impact his network’s standing with the league.

“We have a tremendous relationship with the NFL,” Murdoch said. “We appreciate that they are fans of the broadcast and cable networks, and we look forward to working with them and deepening our relationship with them as we move forward.”

Wealthy first-time political candidate Stephen J. Cloobeck is spending $1.4 million on television ads starting Tuesday — the first barrage of cable and broadcast messaging that Californians will likely be bombarded with in next year’s governor’s election.

Cloobeck’s campaign declined to preview the 30-second ad on Monday, but the candidate confirmed the size of the ad buy. Public records of advertising purchases show that Cloobeck bought space in every California market on cable, as well as broadcast television time in Sacramento. He also bought time in New York City and Washington, D.C. — as well as West Palm Beach, the location of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Cloobeck confirmed the size of the buy; a campaign advisor confirmed that they would run through Monday and that he was also launching a social-media effort.

“I will always Fight for California. All Californians deserve the contract to be fulfilled for an affordable livable workable state,” Cloobeck said in a text message. “Watch [the ad] and you will see how a conservative Democrat fights for All Californians.”

The move comes after former Vice President Kamala Harris opted last week against running for governor, leaving a race without a clear front-runner with a large field that is widely unknown to most California voters.

The candidates need to raise their name recognition among California’s 22.9 million registered voters, which makes Cloobeck’s early advertising understandable, according to Democratic strategists.

“It’s unprecedented for regular business. Not for this race,” said Democratic media buyer Sheri Sadler, who is not currently affiliated with a candidate in the contest.

It’s also not unprecedented for Cloobeck, a Beverly Hills philanthropist and businessman. He announced his gubernatorial run in November with a fusillade of television and digital ads.

While the 63-year-old’s exact net worth is unclear, he made his fortune in real estate and hospitality. He founded Diamond Resorts International, a timeshare and vacation property company, which he sold in 2016. Earlier, he appeared on several episodes of the reality-television show “Undercover Boss,” which sends executives in disguise into low-level jobs at their businesses.

While Cloobeck has not run for office before, he has long been a prodigious Democratic donor and fundraiser. He also played a critical role in renaming the airport in Las Vegas after the late Sen. Harry Reid, whom he describes as a father figure. The bookshelves at his sprawling Beverly Hills mansion are lined with pictures of himself with Democratic presidents and many other prominent members of the party.

Cloobeck announced last week that he was contributing $10 million to his campaign, on top of the $3 million he initially seeded it with. His wealth was on vivid display at the California Democratic Party‘s spring convention, where canvassers who said they were paid $25 per hour wore royal blue shirts emblazoned with his name chanted his name. Cloobeck said at the time that his campaign had spent “probably a couple hundred thousand dollars” on the effort.

WASHINGTON — The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using technology driven by artificial intelligence, according to two senior officials and a cable sent last week to all embassies and consulates.

The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor posing as Rubio had attempted to reach out to at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor, according to the July 3 cable, which was first reported by the Washington Post.

The recipients of the scam messages, which were sent by text, Signal and voicemail, were not identified in the cable, a copy of which was shared with the Associated Press.

“The State Department is aware of this incident and is currently investigating the matter,” it said. “The department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents.”

It declined to comment further due to “security reasons” and the ongoing investigation.

It’s the latest instance of a high-level Trump administration figure targeted by an impersonator, with a similar incident revealed in May involving President Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. The misuse of AI to deceive people is likely to grow as the technology improves and becomes more widely available, and the FBI warned in the spring about “malicious actors” impersonating senior U.S. government officials in a text and voice messaging campaign.

The hoaxes involving Rubio had been unsuccessful and “not very sophisticated,” one of the officials said. Nonetheless, the second official said the department deemed it “prudent” to advise all employees and foreign governments, particularly as efforts by foreign actors to compromise information security increase.

The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“There is no direct cyber threat to the department from this campaign, but information shared with a third party could be exposed if targeted individuals are compromised,” the cable said.

The FBI has warned in a public service announcement about a “malicious” campaign relying on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U.S. official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victim’s associates and contacts.

This is not the first time that Rubio has been impersonated in a deepfake. This spring, someone created a bogus video of him saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service. Ukraine’s government later rebutted the false claim.

Several potential solutions have been put forward in recent years to the growing misuse of AI for deception, including criminal penalties and improved media literacy. Concerns about deepfakes have also led to a flood of new apps and AI systems designed to spot phonies that could easily fool a human.

The tech companies working on these systems are now in competition against those who would use AI to deceive, according to Siwei Lyu, a professor and computer scientist at the University at Buffalo. He said he’s seen an increase in the number of deepfakes portraying celebrities, politicians and business leaders as the technology improves.

Just a few years ago, fakes contained easy-to-spot flaws — inhuman voices or mistakes such as extra fingers — but now the AI is so good, it’s much harder for a human to spot, giving deepfake makers an advantage.

“The level of realism and quality is increasing,” Lyu said. “It’s an arms race, and right now the generators are getting the upper hand.”

The Rubio hoax comes after text messages and phone calls went to elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles’ personal cellphone, the Wall Street Journal reported in May.

Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles’, which may have been generated by AI, according to the newspaper. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles’ number, the report said. The government was investigating.

Lee writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Eric Tucker and David Klepper contributed to this report.

Charter Communications is returning the Walt Disney Co.-owned cable channels that were dropped from its Spectrum TV service in 2023 after the two sides negotiated new terms for carrying ESPN and ABC.

The companies announced Thursday an “expanded distribution agreement” that will give Spectrum TV Select customers the ad-supported version of streaming platform Hulu and eight linear TV channels: Disney Jr., Disney XD, Freeform, FXX, FXM, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and BabyTV. They will be added at no additional cost for subscribers.

The cable channels were dropped in 2023 when the companies were unable to agree on terms for carrying ESPN and ABC, which led to a 10-day blackout for Spectrum customers.. The standoff kept tennis fans in Spectrum homes from seeing ESPN’s U.S. Open coverage and threatened access to the season premiere of “Monday Night Football.”

At the time, Charter resolved the dispute by agreeing to pay higher fees to keep the rights to carry the main engines of Disney’s TV lineup — including ESPN and ABC — but had to sacrifice some of the company’s smaller channels. Charter had sought to get free access to Disney’s streaming channels for its customers as well.

The terms of the expanded deal to return the dropped channels and add Hulu were not disclosed beyond saying it was “financially net positive for both companies.” It’s likely Disney needed to maintain the distribution of the channels to Charter’s nearly 15 million cable homes to keep them viable for advertisers.

“These channels expand Spectrum’s entertainment offering and create meaningful value for both companies by boosting advertising reach and strengthening audience engagement across platforms,” Charter said in its announcement of the deal.

The Disney-Charter pact is a sign of how both programmers and cable and satellite services are being more flexible as they contend with the steady decline of pay TV customers. Pricing is a key reason consumers have abandoned traditional TV for streaming.

Separately, satellite TV provider DirecTV announced Thursday it will offer a new slimmed-down package of channels called MyKids, designed for younger viewers. The package offered for $19.99 a month will provide access to kid- and teen-oriented channels from Disney, Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery and Weigel Broadcasting.

MyKids, which includes Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and MeTV Toons, is one of the newest lower priced genre-based packages DirecTV is offering to customers. In addition to MyKids, DirecTV customers can select packages with news, entertainment, sports and Spanish-language channels, all priced well under the monthly cost of subscribing to the entire channel lineup.

C-SPAN, the nonprofit outfit that has brought live gavel-to-gavel congressional coverage to cable TV viewers for decades, is feeling the squeeze faced by the rest of the TV business.

As consumers drop their traditional cable and satellite TV subscriptions for streaming platforms, C-SPAN’s main funding source is shrinking. The trend poses a threat to one of the rare media institutions that has bipartisan political support, including a fan in the Oval Office.

“It’s not a sustainable situation,” said C-SPAN Chief Executive Sam Feist said in an interview.

C-SPAN stands for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, and therein lies the problem. The service is supported by cable and satellite operators who have seen their customer base steadily decline as consumers move to streaming platforms that now account for half of all TV viewing, according to recent data from Nielsen. C-SPAN, which reached around 100 million pay TV homes in 2015, is now down to 51 million households.

The contraction has led to a significant loss in revenue for C-SPAN, which has never sold advertising. C-SPAN took in $46.3 million in 2024, down 37% from $73 million in 2015, and is now running a deficit.

C-SPAN is not a glamorous TV operation. There are no high-priced anchors or slick studio sets. But it does need funding for the 30-plus camera crews that cover every moment the House and Senate are in session, think tank panels, town halls and other political events in Washington and around the country. C-SPAN uses its own cameras in the Capitol, enabling the service to catch the action when government-operated audio and visual equipment is cut off.

Feist said C-SPAN can fill its budget gap if companies that run smaller bundles of TV channels — such as Google’s YouTube TV and Walt Disney Co.’s Hulu Live TV — would agree to carry its feeds. Around 20 million households subscribe to such online subscription platforms, known as virtual multichannel video program distributors, which stream broadcast and cable channels.

It’s a big ask. Subscription streaming TV services are under pressure to keep their prices low so they can remain a cheaper alternative to a cable or satellite package. Every new channel increases the cost of a subscription.

C-SPAN is currently in discussions with Hulu and YouTube to get carriage.

“We are continuing to work with C-SPAN to find an approach that could support further access to their civic content,” a YouTube representative said. “We are proud that a large amount of C-SPAN’s content is available to viewers on the YouTube main platform, where it is accessible to everyone for free and generates advertising revenue for C-SPAN.”

C-SPAN was launched in 1979 when cable TV providers were looking to get in the good graces of local government officials who determined which companies would wire their communities.

Offering a civic-minded channel devoted to displaying democracy in action helped smooth the path for the pay TV industry’s expansion. C-SPAN went on to become a familiar brand that brought goodwill to cable and satellite companies, which have financed the service ever since.

But the C-SPAN legacy is not so meaningful to the upstart streaming services that have a growing number of customers who have never had a traditional pay TV subscription.

The stars of C-SPAN have started to weigh in. On June 2, the Senate passed a bipartisan resolution recognizing the anniversary of C-SPAN2, the channel devoted to the chamber’s sessions. The resolution said that live coverage of the proceedings needs to be accessible on all platforms.

C-SPAN also has support from the country’s most prominent TV viewer — President Trump. In recent months, Trump has posted on social media how he watches the channel in the overnight hours when highlights of the previous day, including his own press events, are presented.

While cable news channels such as CNN and MSNBC often dither over how much time they should devote to covering Trump’s rallies and public events, C-SPAN presents them in their entirety as a matter of course. The Trump White House communications office has praised the approach, which has remained consistent through all modern presidencies.

While some streaming outlets carry congressional proceedings, Feist notes that C-SPAN is still the only service that offers every event live over its three channels, even when they occur simultaneously. That was the case for the confirmations of FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Feist, who is the former Washington bureau chief of CNN, said the neutral approach of C-SPAN has added value in a media environment where outlets now cater to the partisan leanings of their audiences. He cited an Ipsos poll that shows the political breakdown of its audience as 30% Democrat, 30% Republican and 36% independent.

“It matches the demographic of the country,” Feist said. “I think it puts us in a unique space in this ecosystem.”