Holo-News buyout

The Holo-News buyout was an event^[1] between 5 BBY and 3 BBY^[2] that saw the HoloNet News bought out.^[1] In the past, the station had been independent but was directly taken over by the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars against the Confederacy of Independent Systems, with the Galactic Empire inheriting the Republic's control over the HoloNet News and using it as a form of state-sanctioned media.^[3] Despite the buyout,^[1] the news agency remained firmly-Imperial aligned and used journalists from the Imperial Press Corps.^[4] Before the deal was confirmed, it was discussed within the office of the Imperial-aligned^[1] Chandrilan oligarch^[5] Davo Sculdun. As such, news of the buyout was picked up by Luthen Rael and Kleya Marki, the leaders of the Axis rebel network, via a listening device they had placed within the Tinian Codex artifact Sculdun kept within his office.^[1] In 3 BBY,^[2] as the listening device threatened to be uncovered, Marki listed the buyout as one of the pieces of information the device had gleamed for their operations, but Rael believed the little information recovered had not been enough to warrant the risk.^[1]

Behind the scenes

The Holo-News buyout was mentioned in "I Have Friends Everywhere,"^[1] which debuted on April 29, 2025, as the fifth episode of the second season of the Disney+ series Star Wars: Andor.^[6] In Andor writer Dan Gilroy's mind, it was Sculdun who owned the station. According to Gilroy, Andor creator Tony Gilroy only wanted to use the Holo-News sparingly lest it come across as "kitschy," with that limited screentime still enough time to demonstrate the message that groups like HoloNet News could not be trusted.^[7]