Mediagazer: Apple says Books now has over 90M MAUs (Apple)

Manori Ravindran / Variety:

Comcast appoints Dana Strong to succeed Jeremy Darroch as CEO of Sky Group; Strong was previously president and COO of UK's Virgin Media — Comcast Cable executive Dana Strong is set to succeed Jeremy Darroch as CEO of Sky Group in what is a major restructure at the European pay-TV operator.

Discussion: The Desk, Financial Times, Reuters, The Wrap, nexttv.com, Digital TV Europe, C21Media, Hollywood Reporter, Broadband TV News and @claireatki

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

NBCU Ad Chief Linda Yaccarino named chair of the Ad Council's board of directors, succeeding David Fischer, chief revenue officer of Facebook — Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal's chairman of global advertising and partnerships, has been named chair of the Ad Council's board of directors.

Discussion: Ad Age, The Drum, MediaPost, Adweek and @adcouncil

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

Sources: UK to announce former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp as the next BBC chairman — Richard Sharp is to be named as Sir David Clementi's successor at the BBC as soon as Thursday, Sky News learns. — City editor @MarkKleinmanSky — Created with Sketch.

Discussion: Variety, Press Gazette, BBC, The Guardian, @raju, @markkleinmansky and Broadband TV News

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:

C-SPAN says Steve Scully, the host placed on leave for “Twitter-related controversies” ahead of the second presidential debate, will return to work this week — C-SPAN says that Scully will return to work this week, producing for its television programming and hosting ‘Washington Today’ and ‘The Weekly’ for C-SPAN Radio.

Discussion: @yashar, Deadline, Poynter, @erikwemple, @donaldjtrumpjr, @erikwemple, @erikwemple, @pwthornton, Mediaite, Fox News, The Hill and TVNewser

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Reuters EIC Stephen J. Adler announces that he will retire in April 2021, after ten years at the head of the newsroom — Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen J. Adler announced Wednesday that he will retire in April 2021, after ten years at the head of the award-winning global newsroom.

Discussion: Reuters and @brianstelter, Thanks:@talkingbiznews

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Facebook says it will resume its political ad ban in Georgia after the polls close in the Georgia runoff elections — Following the Georgia runoff elections, the Facebook ban that restricts ads on social issues, elections and politics nationwide will be reimplemented in the state, the company said on Tuesday.

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico, Media Matters for America, Variety, Wall Street Journal, @benjancewicz, Gizmodo, TechCrunch and Popular Information, more at Techmeme »

Corin Faife / The Markup:
Study of 58 Facebook users' feeds in Georgia found partisan content elbowed out traditional news sites after Facebook reversed its political ad ban

Press Gazette:

UK's GB News raises new funding from investors including Dubai-based Legatum, says it will hire 120 journalists; sources: the channel raised £60M in this round — Bosses of news channel GB News have confirmed two new backers for its 24-hour TV and online service set to launch …

Discussion: @ian_fraser, @pressgazette, @emmakennedy, @edmundheaphy, @bakerstherald, @sturdyalex, @joncstone and @peterjukes

Anthony Wood / Roku Blog:

Roku says it now has 51.2M active user accounts, up by about 14M in 2020, and users streamed 58.7B hours in 2020 — Today, we shared a significant milestone for Roku and the industry. We announced preliminary estimated data for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, 2020, of 51.2 million active accounts …

Discussion: MediaPost, The Desk, The Streamable, Variety and Media Play News, more at Techmeme »

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Cameo says it sold 1.3M personalized videos in 2020, had ~$100M in video transactions, and 150 personalities earned $100K+/year — Cameo, the app that lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities, has hired a slew of new C-suite executives from media and tech companies …

Discussion: @marklittlenews, @glenngabe, Filter Coffee ☕, musically.com and @sarafischer, more at Techmeme »

Apple:

Apple says Books now has over 90M MAUs — As the world navigated an ever-changing new normal of virtual learning, grocery deliveries, and drive-by birthday celebrations, customers relied on Apple services in new ways, turning to expertly curated apps, news, music, podcasts, TV shows, movies …

Discussion: TechCrunch, CNBC, Bloomberg and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:

A look at the evolution of YouTube's relationships with media companies like Disney under Kelly Merryman, the platform's VP of content partnerships — When Kelly Merryman arrived at YouTube six years ago, the dust had just cleared on a contentious $1-billion lawsuit with Viacom that had dragged on for years.

Discussion: Context is King, @latimes, @latimes and Business Insider

Benjamin Butterworth / inews.co.uk:

Sources: YouTube reinstated the channel of UK's talkRadio after personal involvement by Rupert Murdoch to have the ban reversed — The digital station had faced criticism for some presenters' questioning of the science behind lockdowns and the use of face masks

Discussion: TechCrunch, @risj_oxford, @rasmus_kleis, @benjaminbutter and Reuters

Jem Aswad / Variety:

The Grammy Awards are being postponed from Jan. 31, likely until sometime in March; sources said a combination of health and travel issues have led to the delay — Further details are expected shortly. Sources say the show may be moved to March, although no date was confirmed at the time of this article's publication.