Amy Maclean

It may seem like the DirecTV – Disney blackout is déjà vu, with ESPN and other networks dark at the start of college football season and shortly before “Monday Night Football” kicks off. But there are some differences from this year’s September carriage impasse and the one that blew up last year between Disney and Charter.

It’s Week 1 of “Monday Night Football.” Do you know where your ESPN is?

DirecTV viewers don’t have to worry about missing the Emmys or football this weekend, with the provider and Disney reaching an agreement in principle Saturday that returned Disney’s full linear suite of networks to its satellite service, DirecTV Stream and U-Verse.

The cable and broadcast industry showed up in force to protest proposed FCC rules aimed at providing greater transparency over the use of AI-generated content in political ads. While the industries understand the desire to protect the public from potentially misleading information, they don’t believe the Commission has authority in this area.

Charter and Liberty Broadband are officially engaged in merger talks, with the two trading proposals. Though it doesn’t sound like anything will probably happen until 2027.

Cathy Rasenberger is a well-known name in cable circles, having helped launch more than 40 cable and FAST channels over the past 27 years, including AccuWeather, Newsmax, Outdoor Channel and RFD TV. She formed her consultancy business after a career that included business development at ESPN and helping with the launch of Food Network. Rasenberger has been content over the years to wear the hat of trusted adviser, but opportunity recently came knocking and she’s jumped in as a partner for new sports streaming platform, Free Live Sports. The idea is to create a Pluto-like platform specifically for sports FAST offerings. The service already features more than 100 channels, including MAVTV, MotoAmerica, TNA Wrestling and Boxing TV, with more to come. We caught up with Rasenberger to discuss what made her say yes to joining Ryan James and James Patrick of OTT Studio and Geoff Clark of acTVe as a partner. Our conversation, edited for concision and space, follows.

Diversity Week 2022 While there’s growing concern about some U.S. companies scaling back DEI initiatives in recent months, the media and telecommunications industry’s diversity organizations feel good about the levels of commitment they continue to see. DEI will be front and center next week as the industry gathers in NYC for its annual Diversity Week, a decades-long tradition that includes The WICT Network ’s Leadership Conference, NAMIC ’s 38th annual conference and the annual Kaitz fundraising dinner.

The best approach for companies or individuals looking to enhance their AI implementation is to overcome the fear associated with it and just start experimenting, according to professionals from Accenture, FreeWheel, Cisco and Amazon Web Services during a WICT Network Leadership Conference general session Monday.

The message from a CEO panel at Diversity Week is that video is not dead—but there’s work that needs to be done.

Liberty Media ’s investor day covered a lot of ground Thursday, from Charter ’s upcoming acquisition of Liberty Broadband to GCI’ s future and Qurate ’s upcoming rebrand to the QVC Group. But it wouldn’t be a Liberty event without some prognosticating from the Good Doctor, with John Malone weighing in on everything from M&A under the new administration to video’s future.