Latest in AT&T

AT&T’s advertising unit, Xandr, has acquired Clypd, a TV advertising platform for broadcast and cable TV networks. Terms of the transaction were not revealed, and the company did not include any comments in its press release announcing the deal, citing the quiet period prior to AT&T’s quarterly earnings release on…

Ending a period of short-term extensions, AT&T and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached a carriage deal that will keep the 21 regional sports networks once owned by Fox on DirecTV and other platforms. In addition to the RSNs, which Sinclair snagged after the Disney-Fox deal required they be cut loose, the multi-year…

John Stankey, who is in his final days as WarnerMedia CEO before moving up to the No. 2 position at AT&T, where he will continue to look after the film and TV portfolio, says DirecTV is not for sale. The executive addressed the satellite business and other hot topics in an interview with the Wall Street Journal…

WarnerMedia-owned digital video outlet Rooster Teeth has tapped Jordan Levin as General Manager, shifting co-founder and former CEO Matt Hullum to the newly created post of Chief Content Officer. Levin, an industry veteran known for his executive stints at the WB network and, more recently, Awesomeness, Xbox and the…

UPDATED with AT&T response. AT&T, whose DirecTV satellite and U-verse cable systems experienced blackouts of stations owned by CBS and Nexstar over the summer, is facing another carriage crossroads with Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair, the No. 2 U.S. owner of local TV stations, issued a warning Friday that millions…

AT&T, which paid $49 billion to acquire DirecTV in 2015, has faced increasing pressure from investors to get the satellite distributor on a more promising path. This week, the notion that the companies could part ways has gained currency. That would be a surprising outcome given the empire-building of AT&T. The…

Kicking off an investment conference hosted by Goldman Sachs in New York, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson pushed back on Elliott Management’s complaints of mismanagement at the telecom and media giant. Stephenson also offered an endorsement of key lieutenant John Stankey and said the sweeping tax cuts enacted at the end…

In the latest round of belt-tightening to hit WarnerMedia, subsidiary Otter Media’s online video network Rooster Teeth has laid off 13% of its total workforce, or about 50 employees. CEO Matt Hullum relayed the news to the staff Thursday, calling it “a tough day … unlike any moment of organizational change we have…

AT&T CFO John Stephens said the promotion of John Stankey to the newly created position of COO “makes all the sense in the world” given the overall direction of the telecom and media giant. Speaking at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Communications & Entertainment Conference, Stephens explained the logic of the…

ESPN used its high-profile season opener of Monday Night Football to warn DirecTV viewers of a looming carriage deadline with the AT&T-owned distributor. The exact date of the contract expiration wasn’t specified, but it is understood to be sometime in September and also would apply to AT&T’s U-verse cable platform…

UPDATED with stock movement, Trump comments: AT&T shares rose more than 4% to $37.88 in early trading Monday – one of the stock’s biggest one-day gains in months – after activist hedge fund Elliott Management disclosed a $3.2 billion stake in the telecom and media giant. The news attracted the interest of President…

EXCLUSIVE: Ann Sarnoff, who is just a few days into her tenure as Warner Bros CEO, met the workforce in a town hall Wednesday. According to employees who attended the hour-long session, it offered a dose of positive energy for a company that has had a fairly arduous 2019. When one employee asked the new boss why…