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Josef Adalian / Vulture:
NBCUniversal says its ad- and subscription-supported streaming service will be called Peacock and will launch in April 2020 with over 15,000 hours of content — NBCUniversal's upcoming streaming service finally has a name — Peacock — and a whole bunch of newly announced programming.
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Stephen Battaglio / Los Angeles Times:
Netflix acquires the global rights to Seinfeld for five years, starting in 2021 when Amazon and Hulu's rights expire; Hulu was paying $150M a year for US rights
Netflix acquires the global rights to Seinfeld for five years, starting in 2021 when Amazon and Hulu's rights expire; Hulu was paying $150M a year for US rights
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Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
HBO Max secures exclusive five-year streaming rights to The Big Bang Theory in the US, and TBS extends rerun rights to 2028; source says deal is worth ~$600M — It is the latest in a string of deals for popular reruns as services battle for content — HBO Max, the new direct …
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Drew FitzGerald / Wall Street Journal:
AT&T's Randall Stephenson agrees with some of Elliott Management's proposals and says COO John Stankey is “in pretty good position” to take over when he retires — Telecom boss said newly named chief operating officer John Stankey was the right pick
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Bobby Allyn / NPR:
Cokie Roberts, a pioneering female journalist at NPR and ABC News, has died at 75 — Toggle more options — Veteran journalist Cokie Roberts, who joined an upstart NPR in 1978 and left an indelible imprint on the growing network with her coverage of Washington politics before later going to ABC News, has died.
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Sara Fischer / Axios:
The Washington Post announces Zeus Prime, which will sell automated ads across a network of media companies that license its Zeus products — The Washington Post on Tuesday will unveil Zeus Prime, a product that will allow companies to buy automated ads in real-time, similar to Big Tech platforms.
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Chris Dolmetsch / Bloomberg:
Lawsuit filed by investors alleges AT&T employees created fake accounts for DirecTV Now to boost subscriber numbers ahead of its 2018 merger with Time Warner — - Investors claim in lawsuit that AT&T misled them with numbers — Employees allegedly taught to secretly add customer accounts
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James Walker / Press Gazette:
Financial Times to drop its paywall for 24 hours starting today to promote The New Agenda, its editorial campaign for “a better form of capitalism” — The Financial Times will make its online journalism available for free for 24 hours globally to promote a campaign for a “better form of capitalism”.
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Janko Roettgers / Variety:
VENN, a Cheddar-like TV network that wants to mix esports with video game streaming, raises $17M seed fund, plans to launch in 2020 — Video game industry veterans Ariel Horn and Ben Kusin have raised a massive $17 million seed funding round to launch a new gaming-focused TV network called VENN.
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Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
A well-reported book offers a thoughtful exploration of the Kavanaugh saga, but its newsworthy information is lost in the furor over a botched NYT excerpt — If you happened to see the excerpt of a new book on Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in print, you might have flipped right past it.
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Joe Otterson / Variety:
SNL says Shane Gillis will not join its cast and that its vetting process was “not up to our standard”, after clips surface of him using racist language — “Saturday Night Live” is officially cutting ties with Shane Gillis. — “After talking with Shane Gillis …
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Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Researcher finds a phishing site, now taken down, that resembled The Guardian's SecureDrop page and tried to harvest credentials and direct viewers to malware — The Guardian's SecureDrop whistleblower submission site was targeted with a phishing page that attempted to harvest the unique …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Amazon launches Amazon Music HD, offering lossless audio for streaming or downloading, for $14.99/month or $12.99/month for Prime customers — RIP Tidal? — Amazon is launching a new tier of its music service today, dubbed Amazon Music HD. It offers lossless versions of audio files …
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