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10:20 PM ET, December 30, 2020

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RELATED:
Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
Ampere: UK streaming subscribers grew 34% YoY in 2020, with a combined 32.4M for Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+, the top three services  —  Britons spent 40% of their waking hours watching TV during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, fuelling the biggest year for new subscribers to streaming services.
About Amazon:
Amazon plans to acquire podcast network Wondery, which will join Amazon Music  —  We've signed an agreement to acquire Wondery, a top-rated podcast creator and producer that entertains and educates listeners.  —  We're pleased to announce that Wondery—an innovative podcast publisher …
Lisa Richwine / Reuters:
Nielsen: Fox News tops all news and basic cable channels for the fifth consecutive year, averaging 1.9M viewers/day; CNN had its most-watched year in history  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Ratings for Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel topped all news and basic cable channels for a fifth straight year in 2020 …
Discussion: TVNewser
RELATED:
Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Interviews with 15 longtime Fox News loyalists on why they switched to Newsmax, often seeking programming that denies Joe Biden's victory
Lukas I. Alpert / Wall Street Journal:
Politico announces it is acquiring E&E News, a high-price subscription trade publication focused on the energy industry and environmental news  —  Purchase comes as Politico looks to expand its overall professional news business  —  Politico is adding some energy to its game.
Wall Street Journal:
Unredacted draft version of the lawsuit filed by 10 states earlier this month details a Google-Facebook ad deal that allegedly constituted illegal price fixing  —  Lawmakers have called for an investigation into the tech giants' contract, dubbed ‘Jedi Blue,’ which allegedly allowed for auction rigging
Dave Lee / Financial Times:
FactSet: Amazon's “other” business unit, which is made up almost entirely of its ads business, will make $21B in revenue in 2020, up 47% YoY  —  Ads unit is growing faster than retail or cloud computing divisions  —  The surge in online shopping triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic …
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Judge rules Viacom shareholders can pursue claims of fiduciary duty breach against Shari Redstone and board members representing Viacom in the merger with CBS  —  A Delaware Chancery judge rejects a motion to dismiss after reviewing Shari Redstone's role in the transaction.
Discussion: The Wrap, Variety and Deadline
Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:
Association of American Publishers: audiobooks revenue is up 17%+ YoY, e-book sales are up 16%+; NPD BookScan says US print book sales are up ~8% in 2020  —  With people stuck at home and so many other activities shut down, a lot of reading — or at least a lot of book buying — happened this year.
Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
Acting attorney general says WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl's accused killer could be prosecuted in the US if Pakistani courts fail to keep him in jail  —  If Pakistanis fail to keep suspect imprisoned, U.S. stands ready, acting attorney general says  —  The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday raised …
John Hopewell / Variety:
Comscore: global box office fell between 57%, in the Netherlands, and 76%, in UK, vs. 2019, depending on length of closure and strength of local movie industry  —  Savaged by COVID-19, global box office plunged between 57% and 76% in major markets outside the U.S., with the U.K. and Ireland leading the rout …
Discussion: Variety
McKay Coppins / The Atlantic:
Washington reporters, including Olivia Nuzzi, Jim Acosta, and Yamiche Alcindor, on being recast as “resistance heroes” during the Trump era and what comes next  —  The day after the 2016 election, I got a phone call from an old friend.  Neither of us had slept much …
 
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 More News: 
Todd Spangler / Variety:
ESPN Plus is raising the annual subscription for new subscribers by 20%, from $49.99 to $59.99, and increasing the price of UFC pay-per-view events to $69.99
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Verizon is telling Fios TV customers that nine local Hearst stations may go dark on Fios on Jan. 1, saying Hearst is demanding carriage fee hikes of 45%+
Committee to Protect Journalists:
Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Moroccan authorities to release journalist Maati Monjib, arrested amid a money laundering probe
Emily Birnbaum / Protocol:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is tying the fate of $2,000 stimulus checks to the repeal of Section 230
 Earlier Picks: 
Will Thorne / Variety:
First ever NFL game streamed exclusively had an average minute audience of 4.8M on Prime, Twitch, and others, almost as much as traditional TV viewership
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Profile of Walter Hamada, who runs DC Films and is aiming to release comics-based movies like Batman and Wonder Woman at a much faster pace
Andrew Donohue / Nieman Lab:
Efforts to undermine the 2020 election show the necessity of a democracy beat, focused not on partisan politics but on voter suppression and other threats
 

 
From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has renewed discussions with OpenAI about using its technology to power some features in iOS 18; talks with Google on using Gemini remain ongoing

Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Alphabet closes above a $2T market cap for the first time, reaching a valuation of $2.15T after rising 10% on April 26, its biggest one-day jump since July 2015

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Sam Altman, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Jensen Huang, and others join a board for advising the DHS on deploying AI safely within US critical infrastructure

 
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