Cable Broadcasting

Cox Communications Inc. has launched a pilot mobile phone service in three of its markets, making it the latest cable and broadband company to foray into the wireless business. The company said Monday that Cox Mobile is available for its home-internet customers in Hampton Roads, Va.; Omaha, Neb.; and Las Vegas. Cox plans to offer the service in its other markets on a rolling basis throughout the year. Cox Communications, one of the nation’s largest broadband internet…

When the activist investor Dan Loeb announced earlier this month that his hedge fund had taken a new stake in Walt Disney Co. DIS -2.89% , he called for a wide-ranging menu of changes. One was a “refresh” of Disney’s board.Mr. Loeb, chief executive of Third Point LLC, wrote in a now-public letter to Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek that the board suffered from “gaps in talent…

Australia played the West Indies in an ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup match in Wellington this past March. Photo: andrew cornaga/Shutterstock…

Walt Disney DIS -2.89% used to call Disneyland his “magic kingdom.” These days, Walt Disney Co. has a new magic trick: wringing every last dollar out of each visitor to its profitable theme parks.Over the past two years, as Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort and Southern California’s Disneyland Resort have emerged from the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, the company has made a host of changes that have sent the cost of a visit to a Disney resort skyward.…

HBO’s “House of the Dragon” drew nearly 10 million viewers in the U.S. during its Sunday night debut and briefly led the HBO Max streaming platform to crash for some users, in another sign of the interest in the prequel to “Game of Thrones.” The audience was the largest in HBO’s history for the debut of a new series, the network said. The strong premiere numbers for “House of the Dragon” comes at a critical time for HBO and its new parent company Warner…

Americans spent more of their July TV-viewing time streaming content on services such as Netflix, YouTube and HBO Max than they did watching cable television, according to Nielsen data, marking the first month that streaming has overtaken cable.Streaming services captured 34.8% of total U.S. TV viewing time during the month, while cable TV attracted 34.4%, the ratings company said in a release published Thursday. People spent 23% more time streaming content than a year earlier and 9% less time watching cable, Nielsen…

An activist investor’s suggestion this week that Walt Disney Co. DIS -1.84% spin off ESPN rekindled a long-running debate over what the company should do with a sports network that has been a major profit engine for years but whose subscriber base is eroding. Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC, which owns a small stake in the entertainment giant, told management in a letter Monday that there is a “strong case to be made” for Disney to part with…

HBO is laying off about 14% of its workforce, people familiar with the matter said, the latest move in a broader round of cost-cutting by the new leadership at parent Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. WBD -4.09% Of the 70 jobs being cut, the bulk are at HBO Max, the company’s main direct-to-consumer streaming service that launched in 2020, the people said. The HBO Max units in charge of reality shows and documentaries will be…

Activist investor Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC has bought a new stake in Walt Disney Co. DIS 2.36% and is calling on the media company to buy the rest of Hulu, explore spinning off ESPN and refresh its board.Mr. Loeb on Monday said his firm, which liquidated a large Disney stake earlier this year, has repurchased a “significant stake” in the company and sent a letter to Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek urging…

Nexstar Media Group Inc., the nation’s biggest owner of local television stations, said it has agreed to buy majority control of the CW Network from co-owners Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Paramount Global. PARA 0.76% Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar NXST -1.05% will take a 75% stake in the CW, a broadcast network…