Disney-DirecTV’s College Football Showdown

Plus: NaNoWriMo defends AI and Gov. Walz gets on TikTok

Banner Image: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times

Happy Monday! As September hard launches, we ring in the college football season with a look at Disney and DirecTV’s broadcast dispute. But first…

📡ON OUR RADAR

• Pavel Durov, the CEO of messaging app Telegram, was arrested last week in France. Officials charged him for a variety of illegal activities unfolding on the app, in a rare scenario where a tech executive is held accountable for speech hosted on their platform.

• National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, as many hopeful authors know it) is under fire for calling critics of AI ableist. The program asks prospective novelists to write a complete novel in November.

• A Supreme Court panel in Brazil upheld last week’s ban of X in the country. The blackout on the platform is already leading to losses for investors, the NFL, and of course, stan Twitter.

💡ON OUR MINDS: Disney-DirecTV’s College Football Showdown

• College football is back, and with it, the rewarding experience of watching good things happen to your favorite team and, more importantly, watching bad things happen to other teams. That is, if you can get the games on your screen in the first place.

• This weekend, fans from coast to coast awaited the primetime game between USC and LSU in Las Vegas, the Trojans’ first game in their new home within the Big 10.

• Just before the matchup on Sunday night, the game was removed from ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, and the other Disney networks because of a disagreement over carrier fees between Disney and DirecTV.

• Fans nationwide were outraged and, due to the increasingly complicated broadcast rights landscape, often unable to find another way to catch the showdown. Both Disney and DirecTV have publicly held the line since, and a new content deal has not been reached.

• As major sporting events, including the NFL season, the MLB postseason, and FSU fans’ continued humiliation approach, the broadcast giants will need to sort things out quickly and publicly to remain in viewers’ good graces.

🥊QUICK HITS:

In case you missed these reads:

• 404Media reveals appliance and tractor companies are lobbying the government to protect their monopoly on equipment repairs.

• Tim Walz dropped into the popular “Subway Takes” show on TikTok to talk about gutter maintenance.

• Ski resorts are stockpiling snow in anticipation of drier, warmer winters.