Mediagazer: The Washington Post announces Zeus Prime, which will sell automated ads across a network of media companies that license its Zeus products (Sara Fischer/Axios)

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.

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

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.

Discussion: Washington Post, MediaPost, @jarroddicker, @antoniogm, @codybrown, @mmasnick, @arctictony, @markscott82, @chronotope and @emilybell

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.

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 …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Variety, The Wrap, The Wrap, Multichannel News, /Film, The Verge, @womensrites, @thrmattbelloni and @swag_catholic

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

Discussion: Variety, CNN, Broadcasting & Cable, @wsj, @drewfitzgerald, Business Insider, @cgasparino and @wsjbusiness

The New York Times Company:

The New York Times' The Daily has surpassed one billion downloads since its creation in 2017 and is downloaded 2 million times per day — “The Daily” has reached a milestone, one billion downloads since its debut in early 2017. Lisa Tobin, Theo Balcomb and Michael Barbaro recap some highlights.

Discussion: Axios

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

Discussion: MediaPost, Variety, TechCrunch, Business Insider, Forbes, Engadget, The Streamable and CNET

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”.

Discussion: Digiday, @hannahkuchler and Financial Times

Makena Kelly / The Verge:

Facebook shares more on its upcoming Oversight Board for content decisions and how members are picked, says decisions will be binding even if Facebook disagrees — 'The board's decision will be binding, even if I or anyone at Facebook disagrees with it,' says Zuckerberg

Discussion: TechCrunch and Facebook, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Memo from Jonah Peretti: BuzzFeed is looking to hire a president, a role that has been vacant since 2017, and will be profitable in H2 2019 and all of 2020 — BuzzFeed is looking to hire a new president, according to an internal memo sent from CEO and co-founder Jonah Peretti to staff on Tuesday, obtained by Axios.

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.

Discussion: TechCrunch

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 …

Discussion: TechCrunch, MacRumors and Variety, more at Techmeme »

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 …

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:

Crypto-exchange giant Binance makes a strategic investment in Chinese crypto media firm Mars Finance, at a post-money valuation of ~$200M — - Mars Finance reached a $200 million post-money valuation — Investors also include Bitmain co-founder's new crypto firm

more at Techmeme »