Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: AT&T is considering parting ways with its DirecTV unit, including spinning it off into a separate public company or combining assets with Dish — Telecom giant considers fate of DirecTV satellite unit — AT&T Inc. is exploring parting with its DirecTV satellite unit …
Discussion:
CNBC, Ad Age, @brianstelter, @the___spy, Ars Technica, Los Angeles Times, Multichannel News, The Wrap, CNN, Engadget, The Streamable, CNBC and CNET, more at Techmeme »
Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times:
Google is investing “several million dollars” in Project Neon, a three-year partnership with UK news publisher Archant, which will launch three local news sites — Google is investing “several million dollars” into a joint venture with a British local news publisher …
Discussion:
Press Gazette, The Keyword and @updatesneon
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Roku OS 9.2 will feature Roku Zones, which aggregate content from particular genres, sorting it according to whether it's free, available for rental or purchase — The Ultra's remote can open whatever app you want with a single button press — Roku is unveiling its fall 2019 lineup …
Discussion:
Roku Online Newsroom, Variety, TechCrunch, Multichannel News and The Streamable, more at Techmeme »
Robert Iger / Vanity Fair:
Book excerpt: as he exits Apple's board, Disney's Bob Iger recounts talks with Steve Jobs before Disney bought Pixar, and how their friendship grew — As he exits Apple's board, the Disney chief reminisces about his relationship with its mercurial founder—and how their radical visions aligned to save two companies.
Discussion:
/Film, @alexweprin, The Mac Observer, Engadget, @hblodget, @benfritz, @mousterpiece, @loudmouthjulia, @scottgustin, @mousterpiece, @ballmatthew, @dlthings, CNBC, CNET, Deadline, Business Insider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac and New York Post, more at Techmeme »
The Lenfest Institute for Journalism:
Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund makes first grants: $5.25M to three Philadelphia recipients to support new models for local journalism — Fund's first grants to support new local journalism models, advanced technology for newsrooms — The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund …
Discussion:
@lenfestinst, @pilhofer, @tylrfishr, @tylrfishr, @jroxann and @lenfestinst
Hilary Russ / Reuters:
DAZN reaches distribution deal with Comcast, its first in North America; Xfinity Flex box users will have access to DAZN starting today — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media and communications giant Comcast Corp has struck a distribution deal with digital global sports provider DAZN Group …
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Omar Sanchez / The Wrap:
Acorn TV, AMC's British film and TV show streaming service, has passed 1M subscribers in Canada and the US — Acorn TV, AMC's streaming service featuring British film and television programs, has passed one million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, the network has announced, calling it a …
Discussion:
The Streamable, Broadcasting & Cable and Deadline
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Medium adds a “Save to Medium” bookmarking feature that lets users save articles to a reading list via sharing extensions on mobile and in Chrome — Most sites don't load in reading mode — Medium's “Save to Medium” bookmarking feature is now live, letting you save articles …
Discussion:
blog.medium.com, @ckrewson, @medium, @caseynewton and Medium Help Center, more at Techmeme »
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
Survey of nonprofit outlets: foundations supplied under 50% of funding for the first time on record in 2018, as earned income and individual giving increases — “Nonprofit news organizations have much in common even if their scope or mission differs. Their journalistic missions …
Discussion:
@jcstearns
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Researchers: many smart TVs and streaming dongles from Roku, Samsung, Amazon and others are sending user data to companies like Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook — The smart TVs in our homes are leaking sensitive user data to companies including Netflix, Google and Facebook even when some devices are idle …
Discussion:
Washington Post, @geoffreyfowler, ZDNet, @mmnjug, @dhh, @ilvestoomas, @justinbrookman, @geoffreyfowler, @faizsays, @upma23, @hoofnagle, @valaafshar, Wired, The Mac Observer and Slashdot, more at Techmeme »
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Tumblr and WordPress.com parent company Automattic raises $300M Series D from Salesforce Ventures at a post-money valuation of $3B — Automattic, the company best known for WordPress.com and its contributions to the open source, non-hosted WordPress alternative, has raised $300 million …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Matt Mullenweg and Axios, more at Techmeme »
David Cohen / Adweek:
Nielsen Social Content Ratings, which measure talent's promotion of TV shows on social media, now include Instagram in addition to Twitter and Facebook — Facebook and Twitter were already being tracked — The Nielsen Social Content Ratings now measure talent's promotion …
Discussion:
Variety and Broadcasting & Cable
Dylan Byers / NBC News:
HBO's five-year deal for The Big Bang Theory is the clearest sign yet of AT&T's intention to transition HBO from a premium brand to a mass-market broadcaster — Analysis: Like Netflix, HBO could become home for a lot of good content and even more not-as-good content — but not the edgy, prestige work it became known for.
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
After Corey Lewandowski pronounced his freedom to lie to media, a look at how a Fox News “straight news” anchor interviewed him and sidestepped the lying issue — Fox News and its peers in the mainstream media seldom find common cause, though extraordinary circumstances occasionally give them opportunity to do so.
Discussion:
@oliverdarcy, @politidope, @theplumlinegs, @rachellarris, @sophiatesfaye, @badfoxgraphics, Mediaite and Vox
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