Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Document lists deals with media firms and celebrities for Facebook Live, totaling $50M+ on nearly 140 contracts; BuzzFeed is highest paid at $3.05M for one year — Nearly 140 contracts with video creators total more than $50 million — Facebook Inc. is paying an array of media companies …
Discussion:
Politico, Fortune, @raju, @elanazak, The Information, MediaNama, FTVLive, Mashable, Vanity Fair, SlashGear, Digiday, USA Today, Engadget, The Wrap, SocialTimes, Variety, TVNewser, @pkafka, @dseetharaman, The Awl — Medium, The Next Web, @zielina and TechCrunch
Matt Waite / Nieman Lab:
New FAA rules will allow any newsroom to legally use drones for journalism in 60 days, with restrictions — In 60 days, drone journalism will be legally possible in any newsroom in the United States. That's not to say it will be easy, but it will be legally possible in ways that it has never been before.
Discussion:
TVSpy, faa.gov, USA Today, @palewire, @mattwaite, @mattwaite, @tomguilmette, @bethesdabeat, Fortune and @niemanlab
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Twitter and Vine to support 140 second videos, will share revenue with influential Vine creators — Vine is expanding its video limit to 140-seconds. — There are a lot of places you can go on your phone to watch videos — Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat are a few popular options.
Discussion:
Slate, Vine, The Twitter Blog, TechSpot, Daily Mail, @marklittlenews, BetaNews, New York Magazine, @dannygonzalez, @vine, @richdemuro, @dannygonzalez, Consumerist, PCMag UK, @msuster, TechCrunch, INSIDER, SocialTimes, Mashable, Fortune, MacRumors, @chrisyandle, @kevindeshazo, Variety, VentureBeat, Engadget and Reuters
Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Vice to launch in more than 50 countries through international media partnerships in the Middle East, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia — Youth-focused media company to push into territories including Iran, Nigeria, Thailand and Afghanistan — Vice is to launch TV and digital services …
Liana B. Baker / Reuters:
Europe's Altice completes $17.7B deal to buy Cablevision, making it fourth-largest cable provider in the US with 4.6M customers — Altice (ATCA.AS) could target more U.S. growth through acquisitions, a top executive said, after the European telecoms group completed a $17.7 billion deal …
David Katzmaier / CNET:
PlayStation Vue live TV service now available on Roku, hits Android devices next week — The app for Sony's live TV service, which offers a variety of TV channels nationwide starting at $30 per month, is now available for download on Roku streaming sticks, boxes and TVs, with an Android mobile app coming soon.
Discussion:
PlayStation.Blog, VG247 and Engadget
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Booksellers begin paying out to consumers the $400M settlement from Apple ebook price-fixing case — Three years after a court first ruled that Apple was liable for conspiring to fix ebook prices, consumers are finally getting their money back for buying overpriced books.
Discussion:
Guardian, BuzzFeed, MLive.com, Tech facts live, Arkansas News, TechSpot, 9to5Mac, Publishers Weekly, Fortune, @richdemuro, TIME, CNET, Macworld, Engadget, PCMag UK, Business Wire, Digital Trends, Fast Company and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check
Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
SoundCloud says it is debuting video ads on mobile in US — If you tune into SoundCloud on your mobile device in the US, video ads will crop up as you're fiddling with the app. — SoundCloud is adding video ads, the latest service to roll out the commercial format.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Tumblr launches live video support in partnership with YouTube, YouNow and others; 15 media partners committed to publishing videos, including MTV — Tumblr this morning announced support for live video on its service, confirming our report from yesterday that such a move was in the works.
Discussion:
Tumblr Staff, Nieman Lab, TechSpot, Simply Measured, VentureBeat, Fast Company, SocialTimes, Engadget, Mashable, Adweek, Variety, Digiday, @msuster, 9to5Mac, Digital TV Europe and PCMag UK
Peg Brickley / Wall Street Journal:
Hogan challenges Gawker plan to sell itself, says sale unfairly trades away valuable rights — Hulk Hogan claims Gawker sale to Ziff Davis or higher bidder unfairly trades away potentially valuable rights — Lawyers for Hulk Hogan say creditors of Gawker Media Group …
Discussion:
TIME, Breitbart, LawFuel, Legal News Line, Queerty, Washington Post, @karangoel, Gawker and Forbes
Josh Saul / Newsweek:
How an ownership deal between the founder of a digital news startup, the Alaska Dispatch, and a wealthy publisher, Alice Rogoff, unraveled — The relationship that reshaped Alaska journalism in the 21st century began and ended with deals inked on napkins. Tony Hopfinger, the reporter …
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
Politico's Playbook could be delivered more than once a day, with new authors Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer considering introducing 90-second audio briefings — When Mike Allen launched Playbook in 2007, he promised to deliver his agenda-setting newsletter to a D.C. crowd obsessed with Treos (remember those?) and Blackberries.
Discussion:
@poynter and @whatthebit