Mediagazer: The Copyright Royalty Board upholds a nearly 44% bump in streaming royalties for songwriters after Spotify, Amazon, Google, and Pandora appealed the ruling (Matthew Leimkuehler/The Tennessean)

6:30 PM ET, July 2, 2022

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The Knight Foundation's support for Semafor's event with Tucker Carlson betrays its mission; the event frames media as a game of access and audience-building — By sponsoring a journalism event featuring Tucker Carlson, the philanthropy is mistaking openness for strengthening democracy.

Matthew Leimkuehler / The Tennessean:

The Copyright Royalty Board upholds a nearly 44% bump in streaming royalties for songwriters after Spotify, Amazon, Google, and Pandora appealed the ruling — Songwriters earned a stalled victory Friday in their ongoing battle for higher streaming royalty pay.

Discussion: Variety and Billboard

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Group Black, which aims to invest in and develop Black-owned media, is in talks to buy a large stake in BDG Media and is exploring acquiring Vice Media — Group Black is in talks to buy stake in Bustle parent and has been eyeing a deal for Vice Media

Discussion: @rafat, @juwanthewriter, @jbflint and PRWeek

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:

Nielsen: Stranger Things amassed 7.2B minutes of viewing time for May 30-June 5, the highest weekly total for any title since rankings began about two years ago — The Netflix series surpasses 7 billion minutes of viewing time in the United States for the week of May 30-June 5.

Discussion: Variety, @erikreichenb4ch, @tvgrimreaper, Collider, UPROXX, SlashFilm, CBR and Hollywood Reporter

Electronic Frontier Foundation:

The JCPA, a US bill that would let news sites negotiate as a bloc with Google and Facebook, doesn't address the digital ad market's domination by huge players — In response to the very real pressures that online news outlets are facing, Congress continues to believe the very flawed Journalism Competition …

Discussion: @eff

Voice of America:

Turkey's media regulator has blocked access to VOA and Deutsche Welle's Turkish-language online content after the outlets didn't apply for licenses as requested — The heads of Voice of America and Germany's Deutsche Welle on Friday criticized actions by Turkey's media regulator to block access to their content.

Wall Street Journal:

Julian Assange filed two appeals on Thursday to the UK high court to contest his extradition to the US; the court now decides whether the appeals can be heard — The WikiLeaks founder has appealed his extradition from the U.K., prolonging a yearslong fight against being sent to the U.S. to face spying charges

Discussion: BBC, @emptywheel, @freedomofpress, @maximcolch, @aviswanatha, CNET and Boing Boing

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:

NBCUniversal: Peacock snagged $1B in upfront ad revenue, double 2021's, part of a “record-breaking” 2022 upfront; in 2021, NBCU saw $7B+ in upfront commitments — NBCUniversal says 2022 was the “highest grossing upfront since Comcast's acquisition” of the company more than a decade ago.

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, @digitalshields, @adage, Ad Age, MediaPost, Adweek and Deadline

Craig Silverman / ProPublica:

Google gave user data to Russian ad company RuTarget, including potentially sensitive info about users in Ukraine, four months after the US sanctioned RuTarget — The internet giant may have provided Sberbank-owned RuTarget with unique mobile phone IDs, IP addresses, location information …

Discussion: @propublica, Insider, @halmarshall2309, @zivabranstetter, @kevinrothrock, @arawnsley, @propublica, @dlberes, @craigsilverman, @craigsilverman, @craigsilverman, @craigsilverman, @craigsilverman, @ericgarland, @jason_kint and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

NBCU is shutting down its Olympic Channel, launched in 2017 with a focus on content about US Olympic athletes, on September 30 — A second NBCUniversal sports cable outlet is getting ready to finish its game. — NBCUniversal has notified cable and satellite operators that it intends …

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, MediaPost, The Wrap and Hollywood Reporter

New York Times:

Netflix executives say they don't plan to change programming; two bank analysts say a cheaper ad-supported tier could cannibalize the higher-paying subscribers — Long Hollywood's leading innovator, the streaming service is staying the course, despite serious challenges to its business and questions about its content.

Discussion: @richlightshed, @benmullin, Bloomberg, @kennethturan, @benmullin, @brooksbarnesnyt, The Streamable and Vox

Julian Clover / Broadband TV News:

Amazon secures UK rights to 17 Tuesday Champions League soccer games per season from 2024 to 2027; BT Sport retains most live UEFA rights for £305M per season — About Julian Clover — Julian Clover is a Media and Technology journalist based in Cambridge, UK. He works in online and printed media.

Discussion: The Athletic, @pompey__, The Guardian, Reuters and Hollywood Reporter

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