Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
AT&T reports Q4: WarnerMedia revenue rose 15.4% YoY to $9.9B and DTC subscription revenue rose 11.5% YoY to $1.9B; Discovery merger is expected to close in Q2 — The company also announced that it expects the WarnerMedia spinoff and merger with Discovery to close in the second quarter …
Discussion:
The Wrap, The Wrap, The Streamable, Variety, MediaPost, @alexweprin, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, @thr, @thewrap, @xpangler, Media Play News, AT&T, @brianstelter and @xpangler
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Dade Hayes / Deadline:
HBO and HBO Max ended 2021 with 46.8M subscribers in the US, up 5.3M over 2020; AT&T reported earlier that the services had 73.8M subscribers globally — HBO Max closed 2021 with 46.8 million domestic subscribers when combined with linear HBO, up 5.3 million over 2020, parent AT&T disclosed in its fourth-quarter earnings report.
Discussion:
Next TV and The Streamable
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
WaPo names Matea Gold as National editor and Philip Rucker as deputy National editor, as part of plans to expand coverage with a focus on visual storytelling — The Washington Post has named Matea Gold as national editor and Philip Rucker as deputy national editor, with plans to expand …
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
Profile of Colorado-based Real America's Voice, an upstart network run by a little-known media exec, which distributes Steve Bannon's talk show to ~8M homes — ‘War Room’ is at the center of a fledgling network monetizing what some employees saw as ‘Trump propaganda.’
Discussion:
Pew Research Center, @tomfitton, @therickwilson, @carolleonnig, @tribelaw and Mediaite
Andrew Kersley / Press Gazette:
Slow news outlet Tortoise raises £10M to invest in audio and events, and reports a £8.5M loss for the year to December 2020, up from £5.4M in 2019 — “Slow news” start-up Tortoise has secured £10m of new funding to invest in audio journalism, events and growing its membership revenue.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Substack plans to launch a native video player in beta next week that will let creators upload or record a video and embed it directly in a Substack post — Substack plans to launch a native video player next week in an effort to lure new creators to the platform, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios.
Discussion:
The Verge, On Substack, @ewerickson, @renan, @ckrewson, @substackinc, @simonowens, @protocol, @sarafischer and Sub Pub
Bloomberg:
NewsGuild complains to NLRB that NYT's proposal to exclude union members from three paid holidays is meant to discourage NYT tech staff from voting for a union — A New York Times Co. employee union is accusing the publisher of violating federal labor law by excluding unionized employees from three paid holidays.
Discussion:
@chactivist, @nytimesguild and @josheidelson
Abid Rahman / Hollywood Reporter:
Disney says Disney+ will launch in 42 countries and 11 territories this summer, including South Africa, Turkey, Poland, and the United Arab Emirates — The streaming service will debut in new countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Discussion:
The Streamable, The Verge, Broadband TV News, Digital TV Europe, Variety and C21Media
Peter White / Deadline:
Sources: ViacomCBS reverses a plan to rename Paramount Network as Paramount Movie Network due to Yellowstone's success and production-related COVID-19 slowdowns — EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Network is safe, for now. — ViacomCBS has reversed plans to rebrand the cable network …
Discussion:
ScreenRant, SlashFilm and Variety
Viola Zhou / VICE:
A look at some former Hong Kong journalists' new jobs after their outlets were shuttered; one says “there is no point being a journalist anymore” — The demise of the city's independent news outlets has left hundreds of journalists out of a job. Many are not coming back. — VZ
Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:
Ipsos MORI: Apple News was the most widely used UK news app in December 2021, slightly ahead of BBC News; the BBC had 2.2B minutes spent, the most of any app — The Apple News app narrowly beat BBC News to take the spot of most popular news app in the UK in December, according to data …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google shutters FLoC, its controversial ad tech for replacing third-party cookies, and proposes Topics, which categorizes the sites users visit into 300+ topics — FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), Google's controversial project for replacing cookies for interest-based advertising …
Discussion:
@sarafischer, GitHub, New York Times, Axios, Wall Street Journal, @baekdal, @brokep, @johnwilander, The Register, @othermaciej, @pcmag, @brave, @jeffjarvis, The Keyword, @seldo, @robinberjon, @lockheimer, @chrismessina, @v21, Wall Street Journal, @laurenweinstein, @googlechrome, @jason_kint, @robleathern, @pbannist, @adsliaison, Mumbrella, 9to5Google, ZDNet, The Drum, MediaPost, The Verge, MarTech, Ad Age, AdExchanger, Digiday, CNET and Engadget
Wall Street Journal:
Visa, P&G, and other major advertisers are skipping the 2022 Olympics ad blitz, caught between the US' stance on Uighurs and China's ability to punish brands — Visa, P&G and Coca-Cola are keeping a relatively low profile as Washington highlights human rights in Xinjiang
Discussion:
Reuters, @vranicawsj, @stuwoo and Front Office Sports
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