US-INDUSTRY Summary

In uproar over U.S. seizure of AP records, focus turns to Holder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was likely to face a storm of questions on Tuesday over the Justice Department's controversial decision to seize telephone records of the Associated Press, a move denounced by critics as a gross intrusion into freedom of the press. The episode has created an uproar in Washington and led to questions over how the Obama administration is balancing the need for national security with privacy rights.

U.S. hedge fund calls for Sony Entertainment spin-off

TOKYO (Reuters) - Billionaire hedge fund investor Daniel Loeb on Tuesday called on Sony Corp to spin off its lucrative entertainment arm, setting the stage for a clash between his activist Wall Street fund and management at the Japanese electronics maker. Loeb said his Third Point hedge fund had accumulated a little more than 6 percent of Sony's shares - a stake worth $1.1 billion - making it the largest stakeholder in the inventor of the Walkman portable music player and Trinitron TV.

Britain charges reporter on Murdoch's Sun in corruption probe

LONDON (Reuters) - British prosecutors have charged a reporter on Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper over alleged payments of more than 17,000 pounds ($26,000) to officials for details of confidential government spending plans. The charges are part of a wide-ranging police investigation begun two years ago into claims journalists from Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World newspaper had hacked into mobile phone voicemail messages.

Murdoch's The Sun tabloid to charge two pounds for online access

LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid The Sun will charge two pounds ($3) a week for access to its website in a package with highlights of Premier League soccer matches, publisher News International (NI) said on Monday. The Sun, the country's top-selling newspaper, was the only one of Murdoch's British titles to have content freely available online after The Times and The Sunday Times went behind a paywall in 2010.

U.S. broadcast TV ratings slide pressures ad rates at "upfronts"

(Reuters) - U.S. broadcast networks head into their biggest ad-selling season this week, competing with streaming services like Netflix, battling online players for ad dollars, and fending off hits starring zombies and duck hunters on cable. The increased competition will force ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to settle for their lowest average rate hikes in three years during the "upfront" selling season, Wall Street analysts say.

Exclusive: SoftBank asks banks not to finance Dish's Sprint bid

NEW YORK (Reuters) - SoftBank Corp is playing it rough in its attempt to keep Dish Network Corp from breaking up its $20.1 billion deal to take control of Sprint Nextel Corp. The Japanese telecom company, which owns 33 percent of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, has told banks that their financing of Dish's $25.5 billion rival offer for Sprint could hurt their chances of landing a role in a highly anticipated public offering of the Chinese e-commerce giant, two sources familiar with the situation said.

Ergen could end up selling Dish if he doesn't win Sprint

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dish Network Corp Chairman Charlie Ergen said he could end up putting the entire satellite TV company up for sale if he lost his battle with Japan's SoftBank Corp to buy Sprint Nextel Corp. But the Dish chairman said on a conference call with analysts that he could also take on a bidding partner or even sell some non-core Dish assets to pay down debt if a bidding war with Softbank became too pricey.

YouTube starts paid subscription service

(Reuters) - Google's YouTube video service is dipping its toe into pay television by starting on Thursday a subscription service with 30 content creators, including children's programmers Sesame Street and Muppet creator The Jim Henson Co, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. YouTube, the world's largest video website, allows creators to set subscription fees and accept advertisements, at their discretion, for the channels they create.

"Walking Dead" breathes life into AMC results

(Reuters) - AMC Networks Inc reported quarterly results above analysts' estimates as more people watched the cable operator's shows, particularly "The Walking Dead". Viewership of The Walking Dead's third season jumped 55 percent from that of the previous season. The season finale in March was watched by 12.4 million viewers, including 8.1 million from the 18-49 demographic coveted by advertisers.

Italy antitrust body rejects Mediaset claims against Sky Italia

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's antitrust authority, AGCOM, has rejected claims by Mediaset that pay-TV rival Sky Italia abused its dominant position in buying exclusive UEFA and World Cup soccer rights, the regulator said on Thursday. In a statement, AGCOM said Sky Italia, a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, had acquired 2012-2015 rights for the Champions League of the Union of European Football Associations after a competitive process.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-industry-summary-001437274.html

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