Morning Media Newsfeed: CNN Hires Carney | Sony, Viacom Reach Cloud-Based TV Deal

[emailonly]{{{ sbox300x250 }}}[/emailonly] Click here to receive Mediabistro's Morning Media Newsfeed via email. Jay Carney to Join CNN as Political Commentator (FishbowlDC) Former White House press secretary Jay Carney has joined CNN as a political commentator Washington bureau chief Sam Feist announced Wednesday. His first assignment was on the network’s coverage pertaining to President Barack Obama’s remarks on ISIS. TVNewser “I’m thrilled to be joining CNN at a time when there is so much happening in the nation and the world,” said Carney. “Jay’s unique experience as both a journalist and a White House press secretary make him an invaluable voice for the network as we cover the final two years of the Obama Administration and look ahead to the coming campaigns,” said Feist. THR / The Live Feed Carney, who served as Time magazine's Washington bureau chief before departing to the White House, resigned from his administration role on May 30. Within days, speculation swirled about which media role he would pursue -- a book and a cable news job were both mentioned. On June 18, less than a month after leaving the White House, The Washington Post reported that CNN already had made "a fine offer" to Carney for a network role. Mediaite Carney’s new employer hardly comes as a surprise, as many expected him to join one of the three major cable networks after he stepped down from the podium in June -- though his name was also bandied about for a position at Apple or a startup. Politico Carney said when he left the White House in May that he'd maintain a public presence in the media. He also signed with the Washington Speakers Bureau. Carney joins a long line of former White House press secretaries making the jump to cable: Robert Gibbs joined CNBC after leaving the White House, Dana Perino is currently a host on Fox News, and George Stephanopoulos is now an ABC News anchor. Viacom Announces Distribution Deal With Sony's Cloud-Based TV Service (THR) Viacom has agreed to provide 22 of its networks for Sony's upcoming cloud-based TV service, it was announced Wednesday. The deal is the first time Viacom has agreed to provide its networks for an Internet-based live TV and video-on-demand service. Variety The announcement comes a year after word of a tentative pact between the two first leaked out. Sony said its cloud-based TV service will offer subscribers Internet-based live TV and video on demand from Viacom -- as well as other unspecified programmers. GigaOM The deal will include networks like MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, VH1 and Spike, but also lesser-known networks like VH1 Soul, BET Gospel and Palladia. It will also give Sony TV subscribers access to Viacom’s TV Everywhere apps and video-on-demand services. NYT Scheduled to start later this year, the service is expected to bring live TV and on-demand programming to Sony’s network of 75 million Internet-enabled Sony devices in the United States, including PlayStation game consoles and Web-connected televisions. Sony declined to reveal other details about what the subscription-based service would look like, which networks would be available and how much it would cost. One television executive estimated the price for the Sony service at about $15 to $30 a month. Wednesday’s Internet 'Slowdown' Is Fake, But Your Impact Is Real (SocialTimes) In a protest nicknamed The Battle for the Net, Internet action groups like Fight for the Future and over 40 websites, including Netflix, Kickstarter and Reddit, displayed loading icons as part of an Internet Slowdown Day to support net neutrality. Lost Remote It’s hard to get people to pay attention to how and why to defend net neutrality, but that buffering, spinning wheel is infuriating -- even when it’s fake. Instead of technical jargon, Netflix’s widget speaks plain English: “If there were Internet slow lanes, you’d still be waiting.” Variety The FCC said that total public comments on the issue reached a record 1,477,301 Wednesday. That figure is greater than the previous record, the 1.4 million comments that flooded into the FCC following Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. CBS News The FCC set rules to preserve open access to the Internet, but has not yet made a final ruling on net neutrality. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed banning Internet providers from slowing down specific websites, but his proposed rules would not ban special high speed "toll" lanes set aside for companies willing to pay for them. [emailonly]{{{ jodslot01 }}}[/emailonly] Roger Goodell: ‘I Don’t Know How TMZ... Gets Their Information’ (TVNewser) In an interview with CBS This Morning co-anchor Norah O’Donnell, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed how TMZ -- and not the NFL -- got its hands on elevator footage showing Ray Rice hitting his then-fiancée. “I don’t know how TMZ or any other website gets their information,” Goodell said. Goodell said the NFL asked for the same videotape TMZ secured on “several occasions.” The Associated Press A law enforcement official says he sent the video to an NFL executive three months ago. The person played The Associated Press a 12-second voicemail from an NFL office number on April 9 confirming the video arrived. A female voice expresses thanks and says: "You're right. It's terrible." Washington Post Greg Aiello, the NFL’s senior vice president of communications, said in a written statement: “We have no knowledge of this. We are not aware of anyone in our office who possessed or saw the video before it was made public on Monday. We will look into it.” Prior to the report, Goodell was said to be adamant he would not resign, according to multiple sources familiar with the inner workings of the league. IDG Shutters Macworld Magazine, Much of the Editorial Staff Let Go (9to5Mac) International Data Group (IDG) is shutting down Macworld, the longtime Apple periodical, according to tweets by staff and conversations with personnel. FishbowlNY Macworld.com will continue on, albeit with a smaller -- and seemingly completely new -- staff. Senior VP and editorial director Jason Snell announced he was out after 17 years. Dan Miller, editor of Macworld, said he would be with the magazine for another month to “assist with the transition” to a digital-only product.” Poynter / MediaWire Snell writes that he decided to leave last December “after several corporate leadership changes, and with budget cuts looming on the horizon.” His new bosses talked him into staying. Viacom Closes $725 Million Acquisition of U.K.'s Channel 5 (THR) Viacom said Wednesday that it has closed its $725 million (£450 million) acquisition of British broadcaster Channel 5. Viacom International Media Networks announced the completion mid-day U.K. time. Variety The deal with Channel 5’s previous owners, Northern & Shell Media Group, which was announced in May, was closed after receiving unconditional clearance from the European Commission. Deadline Hollywood Now that the deal has closed, Viacom International Media Networks says it will team with Channel 5 on two new shows: Nickelodeon will co-produce an animated series, Nella The Knight, for the broadcaster’s popular Milkshake programming block for children up to age 7. It will be produced in the U.K.; the U.S. cable channel and U.K. service will share broadcast rights. Channel 5 also will begin to air episodes of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Another Viacom entity, MTV U.K., also will work with Channel 5 on a new entertainment series: 10,000 BC. [emailonly]{{{ sbox01 }}}[/emailonly] NBC Denies $500K Bonus Rumors for Luke Russert Joining MTP as Panelist (FishbowlDC) Luke Russert, son of the late moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press Tim Russert, is rumored to have earned a $500,000 bonus for joining the Sunday morning show as a regular panelist, a claim NBC has shot down. New York Post / Page Six DC blogger Evan Gahr’s Washington Gadfly column claims that “NBC Washington bureau workers are incredulous” that “under-qualified Luke” is getting the dough. An NBC rep said of the DC blog’s report: “We don’t typically comment on contracts, but in this case we feel it’s warranted: This is absolutely untrue.” Politico’s Eric Bradner, Latest to Join CNN Politics Digital (FishbowlDC) Eric Bradner, a trade reporter for Politico Pro, is set to join CNN as a reporter on the CNN Politics Digital breaking news team. He joined Politico in August 2013 from the Evansville Courier & Press, where he was the Statehouse bureau chief. HuffPost / Backstory Politico Congress editor Steven Sloan has joined CNN Politics Digital as assistant managing editor for enterprise reporting, and Politico deputy breaking news editor Jedd Rosche is now the team's breaking news editor. FishbowlDC Sloan and Rosche, in addition to Bradner, join CNN executive director of Politics Digital Rachel Smolkin, who was, in July, also hired from Politico. Rupert Murdoch Wades Into Scottish Independence Debate (THR) With just over a week to go before a Scottish independence referendum that could see Scotland split from the British union, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has taken to Twitter to add his own, if not entirely conclusive, two cents to the debate. In a flurry of tweets on Wednesday, the media mogul -- and grandson of a Scot -- pondered the question of Scotland as an independent country, suggesting at one point that its citizens would be better off without their English political overlords in London. HuffPost Murdoch is known to be close to the leader of the independence campaign, Alex Salmond, and his Scottish Sun backed Salmond's Scottish National Party in the most recent elections there. The Scottish Sun has also been notably more hostile to the anti-independence camp than other newspapers. Whether or not Murdoch will have his papers break away from the great bulk of the British establishment and endorse Scottish independence is a story to watch. [emailonly]{{{ sbox02 }}}[/emailonly] NBC News Pays for Access to Oscar Pistorius Murder Scene (TVNewser) With the Oscar Pistorius murder trial verdict expected Wednesday, Today paid for exclusive access to the South Africa home where Pistorius allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. “We paid a nominal location fee,” an NBC News spokesperson said about Tuesday morning’s segment reported by investigative correspondent Jeff Rossen. In it, Rossen noted NBC News was given exclusive access by the new owner of Pistorius’ recently sold home, then took viewers inside Pistorius’ bedroom and bathroom, where the murder happened. Sources inside NBC tell us location fees are not out of the norm for nonpublic location shoots. Former Intern Drops Lawsuit Against David Letterman's Company (THR / Hollywood, Esq.) The proposed class-action suit filed by former intern Mallory Musallam against CBS and Worldwide Pants -- the production company through which David Letterman produces The Late Show With David Letterman -- was dismissed on Wednesday. That's less than a week after Musallam filed the Sept. 4 complaint, in which she alleged that her 2008 internship violated New York's minimum wage and overtime laws. Time Warner, CBS to Take HBO, Showtime Direct to Consumers? (Deadline Hollywood) In separate appearances at an investor conference Wednesday, Time Warner’s Jeff Bewkes and CBS’ Les Moonves seemed more open than they’ve been to the possibility of using HBO and Showtime to directly challenge Netflix -- including offering them on the Internet to people who don’t also subscribe to pay TV. “Up until now” it didn’t look like a good idea to shift HBO’s focus, Bewkes told the Goldman Sachs Communacopia confab. “Now the broadband opportunity is getting bigger,” which makes the question of a taking HBO Go direct to consumers “more viable and more interesting.” [emailonly]{{{ sbox03 }}}[/emailonly] Dishing With the Designer Who Makes Taylor Swift Shine (FishbowlNY / Lunch) With Fashion Week in full swing, the crowd at Michael’s today was full of stylistas (Glamour's Connie Anne Phillips, Tom Ford's CEO Tom Mendenhall) and media moguls (David Zinczenko and Jim Smith) refueling for the home stretch of shows. (Ralph, Donna and Calvin still have their runway shows to do.) After all, surviving the crowds at Lincoln Center requires nothing short of Herculean strength. Joan Rivers: NYPD No Longer Investigating Death (THR) The New York Police Department is no longer investigating Joan Rivers' death, a police source said. "The NYPD was looking at it" as a matter of protocol, the police source said. "As of now, we are not currently investigating." Rivers passed away Sept. 4 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. A week earlier, she had gone in for a procedure on her throat when complications arose; then she was admitted to Mt. Sinai. Scaramucci Inks Deal With Fox Business (New York Post) Hedge-fund impresario Anthony Scaramucci is jumping to the Fox Business Network from CNBC. Scaramucci’s Fox Business News debut will be on Maria Bartiromo’s Opening Bell show on Wednesday. The founder of SkyBridge Capital was a frequent guest on CNBC for the past four years. 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Morning Media Newsfeed: CNN Hires Carney | Sony, Viacom Reach Cloud-Based TV Deal

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