Mediagazer: Comcast adds eye control as an accessibility feature to its web-based remote control, says it supports all popular eye gaze hardware and software (Chris Welch/The Verge)

12:25 PM ET, June 18, 2019

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Patrick Coffee / Adweek:

Advertisers, agencies, and social platforms form the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a coalition to develop methods for protecting brands and consumers — Google, Facebook team up with agencies and advertisers for the Global Alliance for Responsible Media

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, GroupM, @wsjcmo, Reuters, AdExchanger and @jeffjarvis

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

Reuters report: 32% of global respondents, including 41% in US, actively avoid news mainly as it negatively affects their mood, not because they don't trust it — The modern digitally connected human (Homo smartphonicus, identifiable by its trademark slumped shoulders and bleary eyes) …

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Chris Welch / The Verge:

Comcast adds eye control as an accessibility feature to its web-based remote control, says it supports all popular eye gaze hardware and software — Comcast is introducing eye control to its X1 cable platform, a new effort that the company says will improve the experience of watching TV …

Discussion: Fast Company, VentureBeat, corporate.comcast.com, TechCrunch, Multichannel News, Media Star, Light Reading, Quartz and UPI, more at Techmeme »

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Federal jury orders VidAngel, a streaming service that filters out offensive material, to pay $62.4M to Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. for copyright infringement — A jury on Monday ordered VidAngel to pay $62.4 million to Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. for streaming hundreds of movies on its service without permission.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Multichannel News, Yahoo, MediaPost, @latimes, Hollywood Reporter, KSL-TV, Law360, Deseret News, Deadline and New York Post

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Twitch has acquired social networking platform Bebo, source says for $25M, to bolster its esports business — While Facebook makes a bold move into cryptocurrency to capitalise on its multi-billion user base, a social network that was once a credible competitor to it has quietly been snapped up by a subsidiary of Amazon.

Discussion: The Drum, @sirslaw_ and @mathewi, more at Techmeme »

Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:

Sources: AT&T's WarnerMedia nears a deal with production company Bad Robot, run by J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath, estimated to be valued at $500M — Bad Robot, the famed production company Abrams runs with his wife and co-CEO Katie McGrath, had been fielding offers from pretty …

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Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Internet companies that call themselves “platforms” instead of publishers have no special legal protections or obligations under the Communications Decency Act — Alexis Madrigal, over at the Atlantic has a mostly interesting piece recounting the history of how the big internet …

Discussion: @j00bar, The Atlantic, @tarletong, @enbrown and @techdirt

Lillian Rizzo / Wall Street Journal:

TV station owners CBS, Cox, Scripps, Fox, and Tegna settle Justice Department antitrust charges that they illegally coordinated on sales of local ad spots — CBS, Cox and others agree to stop sharing competitively sensitive information for seven years — A group of five television station owners …

Discussion: Reuters, U.S. Department of Justice and Broadcasting & Cable

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

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Orlando Sentinel:

Orlando Sentinel announces 17 months before the presidential election that it will not endorse Trump, citing his “successful assault on truth” — Donald Trump is in Orlando to announce the kickoff of his re-election campaign. — We're here to announce our endorsement for president in 2020 …

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, @connieschultz, Fox News, Politico, @jaketapper, @kylegriffin1, @ironstache, @drdenagrayson, UPI and Slate

Jason Lynch / Adweek:

After WarnerMedia's exit from the TV audience targeting platform, OpenAP partners with NCC Media, letting advertisers use OpenAP to buy across NCC's inventory — Advertisers can use the audience targeting platform's segment definitions across NCC's 85 million households

Discussion: Ad Age, MediaPost and PR Newswire

Bloomberg:

YouTube Kids, intended as a haven from the dangers of the main YouTube site, is used by just 20M+ people a week, compared to the main site's 2B+ monthly users — There's a safer version of YouTube, but the company knows most children don't watch it — In late May, the advocacy group …

Discussion: @gerryfsmith, Fortune, The Next Web, @kuziemsky, @mcewanincomm, @annemariebridy, @zeynep, @mollymckew and CNN, more at Techmeme »

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