The Brief – Friday 13 February – CMA to review Telegraph acquisition of Daily Mail, BBC cost cuts and more

📰 Culture minister Lisa Nandy has decided to intervene in the proposed acquisition of Telegraph Media Group by the Daily Mail and General Trust, on public interest and competition grounds. Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority will now be tasked with examining both issues by 10 June. (Reuters)

✂️ BBC director general Tim Davie said in a call that the Corporation intends to cut 10% of its costs over the next three years, including through job and programming cuts, after 2025’s operating costs surpassed £2bn. (FT)

📱 Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri has defended his platform against claims it caused mental health damage to minors in a landmark trial in California. Mosseri argued that while he conceded that some users spending 16 hours a day on the app is “problematic”, it does not amount to addiction. (BBC)

😆 Channel 4 has launched a dedicated digital channel for original, unscripted comedy on Spotify. The channel, A Comedy Thing, previously launched on YouTube last summer. (Channel 4)

⛷️ Discovery+ is broadcasting highlights from the 2026 Olympic Winter Games across Ocean Outdoor’s large format DOOH network in partnership with Aldi. The highlights are appearing for 18 days across 33 screens in 13 cities, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle,  Birmingham, Nottingham, Norwich, London, Bournemouth and Southampton. (Ocean Outdoor)

🤖 OpenAI has disbanded its mission alignment team and transferred its seven employees to other teams. The team had been created in 2024 to promote the company’s stated mission to ensure that “artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity”. (Platformer)

📰 Just 16% of Americans say they paid for any news source in the last 12 months, according to a new survey by Pew Research. A majority of respondents also believe that news organisations are either doing extremely (11%), very (23%) or somewhat well (37%) financially. (Pew)

📻 Bauer Media Audio has joined many of Europe’s radio and audio operators to launch “Connected Journeys” to mark World Radio Day. The campaign will see a coordinated on-air message, supported by social media activity, broadcast in unison by a mix of 24 broadcasters from 15 countries to celebrate the listening to radio in the car. (Bauer Media Audio)