Media & Entertainment

Meta Platforms has halted ByteDance's TikTok advertising on Facebook and Instagram across several major markets as of early October 2026, cutting off the rival from using its apps as paid funnels to its short form video service in seven countries including the US, Canada and Indonesia. The move removes TikTok's paid promotion inventory from Meta's core social apps in multiple countries where both groups compete for users, reducing TikTok's ability to pay for user acquisition inside Meta's ecosystem and keeping more ad slots available for consumer brands and other advertisers. Separately, Chinese authorities have blocked Meta's attempt to acquire AI startup Manus, prompting Meta to abandon the transaction and cut ties with the target. Both developments underline heavier regulatory friction and uncertainty around AI investments already flagged as a risk in Meta's narrative, showing how cross border rules can limit access to AI talent and assets just as the firm spends heavily on multi gigawatt compute clusters and Muse related products. Attention now turns to how quickly Meta Enterprise Platform and Muse agents gain paying business users through 2027, with disclosed figures on active enterprise customers, usage of Muse APIs or new country rollouts serving as key proof points.

Century Network announced on October 11 that it plans to redirect 85.62 million yuan from the remaining raised funds for its cloud gaming service platform project to the Wuhan integrated operations center project. The company will purchase and adaptively renovate the office building at Building A12, Optics Valley Financial Port, No. 77 Optics Valley Avenue, East Lake New Technology Development Zone, Wuhan. Once completed, it will provide relatively ample self-owned office space while meeting the company's business development needs for computing power, networking, broadcasting, and other integrated functions. In addition, the company plans to redirect 30 million yuan from the remaining raised funds for the cloud gaming service platform project to supplement working capital, in order to meet the funding needs of daily operations and business development. The company stated that the reason for changing the use of the raised investment project is that the cloud gaming industry environment has undergone significant changes, and the output from continued investment in the original project fell short of expectations.

Century Network announced that it plans to change the use of part of its raised funds, redirecting the unused portion of funds from the Cloud Gaming Service Platform Project to the Wuhan Integrated Operations Center Project and to supplement working capital. At the same time, the expected date when the cloud gaming service platform project will be ready for use has been adjusted from December 31, 2026, to December 31, 2027.

Gray Television announced an agreement to increase its Term Loan G by $75 million and issued a conditional notice to redeem $150 million of its 10.500% senior secured notes due 2029, sending shares down 5.3% in the afternoon session. The $75 million is a delayed draw on the term loan due July 15, 2030, on the same terms as that loan, and Gray expects to fund it on or before October 19. The draw, plus cash on hand, would redeem the $150 million of 2029 notes at 105.250% of par plus accrued interest and cover fees, with the redemption conditioned on that funding. Afterward, Gray expects $200 million of the 2029 notes and $675 million of Term Loan G to be outstanding, a balance that would keep an earlier maturity from taking effect under yesterday's credit-agreement amendment filed with the SEC. The added loan is floating-rate debt at Term SOFR plus 3.50%, the same price as the $600 million term loan closed yesterday, when Gray also cut its revolver to $680 million from $750 million.

Over a matured debt of 5.1133 million yuan, Shaanxi BC&TV Network has been hit with a pre-restructuring and restructuring application by creditor Xi'an Guanghua Communication Technology Co., Ltd., and the Xi'an Intermediate People's Court has decided to accept the pre-restructuring filing. The company announced on the evening of October 9 that it received a notice letter from the creditor on October 8, in which the creditor applied on the grounds that the company is unable to repay the matured debt of 5.1133 million yuan, clearly lacks solvency, but still retains restructuring value. On October 9, the company received a decision letter from the court, which appointed the liquidation group of Shaanxi BC&TV Network Media Group Co., Ltd. as the interim administrator for the pre-restructuring. The interim administrator simultaneously launched a public recruitment of restructuring investors. Interested investors must submit application materials and pay a registration deposit of 10 million yuan before 6 p.m. on November 8, 2026. Under equal conditions, priority will be given to those whose assets or businesses match the company's main business or the future 'technology plus' direction in related extended business areas, or who can provide industrial synergy or business resource support. Previously, on the evening of September 28, the company disclosed that as of the announcement date, cumulative overdue bank debt principal and interest amounted to 227 million yuan, accounting for 41.80 percent of the most recent audited net assets. The company's net profit attributable to the parent company recorded losses of 626 million yuan, 1.059 billion yuan, and 1.499 billion yuan respectively from 2023 to 2025, with a combined three-year loss of nearly 3.2 billion yuan. The 2026 half-year report shows first-half operating revenue of 529 million yuan, down 18.28 percent year on year, while net profit attributable to the parent company recorded a loss of 488 million yuan, widening from the 360 million yuan loss in the same period last year. Net assets attributable to shareholders of the listed company were only 54.48 million yuan, down nearly 90 percent from the end of the previous year.

Wave Exponential Public Company Limited, or WAVE, has announced the allotment of 3,820,979,033 new ordinary shares to existing shareholders on a pro-rata basis, at a ratio of 3 existing ordinary shares to 1 new ordinary share, at an offering price of 0.04 baht per share, for a total value of not more than 152,839,161.32 baht. The record date for shareholders entitled to subscribe to the new shares is set for September 24, 2026, with the subscription and payment period running from October 14 to 20, 2026. Shareholders may subscribe for more than their entitlement if shares remain after the full allotment to existing shareholders who subscribed to their full entitlement. In addition, WAVE is allotting a further 1,910,489,517 new ordinary shares to accommodate the exercise of the fifth series of warrants to purchase ordinary shares, or WAVE-W5, which are given free of charge to existing shareholders who subscribe and pay for the new shares on a pro-rata basis, at a ratio of 2 new shares to 1 warrant unit. Each WAVE-W5 unit entitles the holder to purchase 1 ordinary share at an exercise price of 0.05 baht per share, with an exercise period of 3 years from the warrant issuance date. Meanwhile, WAVE's latest shareholder structure shows that several well-known major investors rank among the top 10 shareholders, and some hold the same stock in their investment portfolios, making it worth watching whether these major investor groups will exercise their rights to subscribe to WAVE's new shares this time. The top 10 shareholders are: Brooker Group Public Company Limited with 1,020,308,442 shares, or 8.90%; THE HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION LIMITED, SINGAPORE BRANCH with 818,532,855 shares, or 7.14%; Mrs. Jarunee Chinwongworakul with 684,638,775 shares, or 5.97%; Mr. Sura Kanitthaweekul with 588,223,400 shares, or 5.13%; QUAM SECURITIES LIMITED A/C CLIENT with 520,845,267 shares, or 4.54%; Thanwarin Company Limited with 435,640,400 shares, or 3.80%; Miss Thanika Tangpoonphonwiwat with 373,454,055 shares, or 3.26%; Mr. Thananon Triamchanchai with 370,000,000 shares, or 3.23%; Mr. Noppadol Khemayothin with 296,000,000 shares, or 2.58%; and Mr. Anek Wongphaithoonpiya with 280,613,400 shares, or 2.45%.

A Santa Fe jury found Meta Platforms liable for 43.9 million willful violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act over its handling of user data, misinformation, and its response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The maximum statutory penalty of $5,000 per violation implies theoretical exposure of approximately $219.5 billion, though state attorneys subsequently requested $35 billion to $40 billion, and neither figure represents a penalty awarded by the court. The final penalty will be decided by a judge in a separate phase, and it marks New Mexico's second win against Meta this year, after a March child-safety case produced a $375 million award and a $567 million abatement order that the company is contesting after seeking permission to post a $1.8 billion bond. The state's revised request of $35 billion to $40 billion equals roughly 39% to 44% of Meta's $90 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, though the earlier March award came in at less than 20% of what prosecutors sought. Meta's forward P/E sits about 7% above its 5-year average, hedge fund holders fell from 262 at the end of Q1 2026 to 254 at the end of Q2 2026, and short interest was just 1.31% of float as of August 31, 2026.

Netflix plans to cut about 5% of its roughly 16,000-strong global workforce, or around 800 jobs, marking its largest staff reduction since 2022 as it responds to a maturing streaming market and intense competition. The move highlights Netflix's focus on protecting its 31.5% operating margin target while it broadens into advertising, live programming and gaming to support future growth. The recent expansion of Netflix's NFL partnership through EverPass Media reinforces the push into live events, which analysts see as an important lever for engagement and advertising growth. Netflix's narrative projects $65.5 billion revenue and $19.7 billion earnings by 2029, requiring 10.6% yearly revenue growth and a $6.1 billion earnings increase from $13.6 billion today. Investors are also watching the risk that content costs keep climbing faster than viewing, especially with about 20% of viewing tied to a small pool of hits.

Hunterbrook Capital disclosed a short position in Meta Platforms, pointing to alternative data indicating a marked deceleration in adoption for Muse, the company's flagship artificial intelligence application. The position was revealed alongside a report from affiliate investigative outlet Hunterbrook Media, which analyzed tracking metrics from alternative-data provider TickerTrends. According to the report, weekly downloads for Muse declined 8.1% week-over-week in the seven days ending October 7, averaging approximately 165,000 per day, while net daily active user additions slowed to roughly 74,000 in the first week of October, a 62.4% reduction from the average daily expansion rate of 198,000 recorded in late September. The report also cites functional barriers for Muse, including access restrictions imposed by major third-party platforms such as Amazon, as well as heightened scrutiny over data privacy and safety vulnerabilities. Meta shares traded less than 0.3% lower following the publication and have risen almost 10% over the past month, with market participants set to watch whether the alternative-data trends show up in the company's upcoming third-quarter financial results.

Netflix is planning a substantial round of layoffs that would affect about 5% of its workforce, or roughly 800 workers, according to people familiar with the cuts. The job losses will hit the creative team, including those working on features, one source said, and the cuts are believed to be the biggest at the Los Gatos company since 2022. Netflix declined to comment, and the news was first reported by Puck. The streaming giant has faced investor scrutiny over subscriber engagement, with view hours rising only about 2% in the first half of 2026 compared with a year earlier even as content spending climbed. Netflix stock has declined 43% from a year ago and closed Friday at $70.30, down about 2%.

Walt Disney has introduced a new large-format cinema standard called Infinity Vision as an alternative to IMAX screens. The entertainment group is pitching Infinity Vision to external studios, including Paramount, Universal, Lionsgate and Sony, for future blockbuster releases. Disney plans to position Infinity Vision as a premium big-screen option for theaters that currently program IMAX and similar formats. The move points to a broader rethink of how blockbuster films reach audiences and fits into Disney's strategy of stretching franchises such as Toy Story, which has generated over US$4b in box office, more than 2 billion streaming hours and over US$1b in annual global retail sales, across Experiences, streaming and now branded premium formats in theaters. A proprietary format competing with IMAX and similar offerings from rivals like Warner Bros. Discovery adds execution complexity and capital needs.

Cable One shares cratered 35% after a report that a lender filed a lawsuit seeking to block the cable operator from purchasing a 55% equity stake in Mega Broadband from financial sponsor GTCR. CoBank, which says it holds about $1.1 billion in secured credit issued by Cable One, asked a federal judge in New York to issue an emergency restraining order to prevent the company from transferring about $480 million for the Mega Broadband purchase, according to a Bloomberg report on Friday that cited the lawsuit. Cable One faces a Friday deadline to complete the purchase. The lender said the transfer of funds would make Cable One sink deeper into insolvency and make its remaining assets unreasonably small given its already large debts. Representatives for Cable One, CoBank and GTCR didn't immediately respond to Bloomberg requests for comment.

Meta Platforms reported fiscal Q2 2026 revenue of $60.80 billion, up 28% year over year, while free cash flow fell to $784 million from $8,549 million a year earlier. Advertising revenue reached $59.36 billion as ad impressions rose 14% and the average price per ad rose 12%, with daily users across its apps averaging 3.60 billion in the quarter's final month. Total expenses climbed 55% to $42.03 billion, including $2.40 billion of legal charges and $1.18 billion of severance, pushing operating income down 8% to $18.78 billion and operating margin to 31% from 43%; GAAP diluted earnings per share were $6.18, down from $7.14. The Family of Apps segment earned $23.39 billion in operating income, while Reality Labs lost $4.62 billion, and capital expenditures reached $31.08 billion against depreciation and amortization of $6.36 billion. Meta guided third-quarter revenue to $61 billion to $64 billion, full-year expenses to $165 billion to $169 billion, and capital spending of $130 billion to $145 billion, and warned that youth-related trials this year may ultimately result in a material loss.

A group of more than 120 US lawmakers expressed concern on the 8th over a plan by Google, a unit of Alphabet, to buy the internal data of bankrupt US budget carrier Spirit Airlines for 10 million dollars and use it to train artificial intelligence systems. The group, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Stephen Horsford, noted that the sale would include 100 million emails, 500 million messages from Microsoft's business communication tool Teams, and other employee records, and urged Google to exclude employee information from the deal as much as possible. In a statement, the lawmakers argued that technological innovation should not come at the expense of workers' privacy or the confidentiality of information they are required to provide as a condition of employment. Google says it has no intention of buying personal information. Spirit halted operations in May, and in August Google won an auction for spreadsheet and calendar data as well as marketing, productivity, and business operations data as part of the shutdown and liquidation. A privacy expert recommended on the 5th that a US bankruptcy court judge approve the deal at a hearing on October 14, on the condition that the personal information of Spirit's 97 million customers be excluded.

Xinhua Media, stock code 600825, hit a one-word limit-up again on October 9, marking its ninth consecutive trading day at the daily limit. As of press time, the stock traded at 12.53 yuan per share, with more than 180,000 lots locked on the limit-up board, turnover of 431 million yuan, and a total market value of 13.09 billion yuan. After the market close on October 8, the company announced that its shares had hit the daily limit for eight consecutive trading days from September 21 to October 8, with the cumulative deviation in closing price gains reaching 117.06 percent over those eight sessions, constituting a severe abnormal fluctuation in stock trading. The company said its fundamentals had not changed materially, but the recent share price has seriously detached from fundamentals, and investors participating in trading may face significant risks. If the share price rises abnormally further, the company may apply for a trading halt for verification. Xinhua Media is planning a major asset restructuring, intending to purchase 100 percent equity of Shanghai Interface Cailianshe Technology Co., Ltd. by issuing shares. The company said that as of the announcement date, the audit and valuation work involved in the transaction has not yet been completed, and the deal still needs to go through necessary internal decision-making procedures and obtain approval from the competent regulatory authorities before formal implementation. Whether approval can be obtained and the final timing of approval remain uncertain.

Shanghai Xinhua Media Company opened at the daily limit-up price on October 9, closing at 12.53 yuan per share with a total market value of 13.092 billion yuan, marking nine consecutive limit-up sessions. After the market close on October 8, the company issued a severe abnormal trading fluctuation and risk warning announcement, stating that from September 21 to October 8, 2026, the stock hit the daily limit-up for eight consecutive trading days, with the cumulative deviation in closing price gains reaching 117.06 percent over those eight sessions. The company said its fundamentals had not undergone any major change and the share price had seriously detached from fundamentals, adding that if further abnormal gains occur it may apply for a trading halt for verification. After self-inspection and written confirmation from the controlling shareholder, apart from the previously disclosed major asset restructuring, the company and its controlling shareholder have no other major matters such as asset restructuring, share issuance, or share buybacks. Previously, on September 12, the company announced plans to acquire a controlling stake in Shanghai Jiemian Cailianshe Technology Company by issuing shares to the controlling shareholder's wholly owned subsidiary, Shanghai United Media Group Culture New Media Investment Management Company, and other counterparties. The transaction is still in the planning stage and is expected to constitute a major asset restructuring, but not a backdoor listing, and will constitute a connected transaction. On the financial side, in 2025 the company's net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company, excluding non-recurring gains and losses, was negative 16.2975 million yuan, with a main business gross margin of 24.76 percent, down 0.74 percentage points year on year. In the first half of 2026, the company achieved operating revenue of 631 million yuan, up 0.03 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 32.7649 million yuan, up 1.29 percent year on year.

Meta's new Muse AI agent reached 2.182 million daily active users on Oct. 5, according to Similarweb data, with usage climbing steadily throughout October. The growth comes as Muse reportedly faces a new hurdle: websites, Amazon being the top-of-mind example, blocking AI agents from browsing or completing purchases. Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black sees Muse reaching up to 8% of Meta's revenue by 2030, roughly $36 billion in sales, with a lower-end estimate of $2.4 billion by 2030. Meta stock is down 7.7% from its record high reached in late September amid the Muse hype. If Muse's usefulness becomes limited as more websites treat AI agents as bots or security risks, that could dent the new bullish case for the stock that has developed since the agent's September launch.