Mediagazer: Channel 4 content boost results in £29m loss (Guardian)

8:25 AM ET, May 14, 2013

Top News:

Gov't obtains wide AP phone records in probe — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the news.

Erin Madigan White / Associated Press:

AP responds to intrusive DOJ seizure of journalists' phone records — The U.S. Department of Justice notified The Associated Press on Friday, May 10, that it had secretly obtained telephone records for more than 20 separate telephone lines assigned to AP journalists and offices, including cell and home phone lines.

Discussion: Politico, CNN, GigaOM, Techdirt, The Newspaper Guild, FishbowlDC, Associated Press, @janinegibson and Mediaite

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Condemnation Of DOJ's AP Probe Continues; Carl Bernstein Calls It ‘Inexcusable’ — The Obama administration woke up on Tuesday to another morning of scorching criticism about the Justice Department's decision to secretly obtain months of Associated Press phone records.

Wall Street Journal:

FDIC and Bloomberg In Contact Over Data — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other government agencies have been in contact with Bloomberg LP in the wake of last week's disclosure that its journalists until recently had access to certain customer data, according to people familiar with the matter.

Heidi Moore / Guardian:

The Bloomberg ‘snooping scandal’ is completely overblown — Bloomberg was using pretty standard ‘big data’ on users to get a slight edge. It's exactly what Wall Street tries to do — Bloomberg News has been accused of violating the privacy of its users by collecting their personal contact information …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, AllThingsD, Forbes, Mashable and FishbowlNY

Nitasha Tiku / Gawker:
Source: Bloomberg Was Supposed to Cut Off Spying Last Year, But Didn't

Discussion: Politicker and FishbowlNY

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Thousands of confidential Bloomberg terminal messages allegedly posted online

Discussion: Financial Times, Gizmodo, Quartz, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo and Wall Street Journal

DealBook:

American Investor Targets Sony for a Breakup — Updated — An American hedge fund billionaire known for starting big fights has called for a breakup of the entertainment and electronic colossus Sony, according to people briefed on the matter, possibly setting off a battle that could roil Japan's famously staid corporate culture.

Discussion: Forbes, AllThingsD, Telegraph, Variety, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Reuters, Billboard, NPR, London Evening Standard, CNET, 24/7 Wall St., Guardian, The Verge and FT Alphaville

Wall Street Journal:

ESPN, Twitter Expand Tie-Up — Sports Network to Increase Highlights on Messaging Service, Generating Ad Sales — ESPN and Twitter Inc. are announcing a major expansion of their collaboration to post sports-related videos on the short-messaging service—part of a growing wave of tie-ups …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, The Next Web, Engadget, The Verge, GigaOM, CNET, Variety, Lost Remote and Softpedia News

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Sandvine: Netflix owns one-third of North American traffic at peak, has doubled its mobile share in 12 months — Once again, broadband Internet service tracking firm Sandvine has released its latest report for North America, and once again, Netflix is ruling Internet usage.

Discussion: GigaOM and AllThingsD

Guardian:

Channel 4 content boost results in £29m loss — Record £434m investment in original programming, including Paralympics coverage, tips broadcaster into ‘temporary deficit’ — Channel 4 has reported a loss of £29m for 2012, as intended, as part of a strategy of extra investment …

Discussion: Media Week

Jenn Ettinger / Free Press:

New Free Press Report Shows How to Fix America's Broken Video Market — WASHINGTON — On Monday, Free Press released Combating the Cable Cabal: How to Fix America's Broken Video Market, a comprehensive analysis of the economics of the cable industry. The new report investigates …

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

Advertisers Will Spend Nearly $10 Billion This Week On A Broken TV Model — This week, advertisers will sit down with the broadcast TV networks and hash out their “upfront” ad buying deals for the year. — The talks are one of advertising's huge, dramatic set-pieces.

Discussion: AdAge, Variety, New York Times and Gannett Blog

Wall Street Journal:

France Weighs New Tax to Fund Film, Music Industries — PARIS—The French government is considering a new tax on smartphones, and broadening existing taxes to apply to foreign video-streaming companies, as it looks for ways to keep financing its cinema, music and literature in the digital age.