Mediagazer: Subscription management platform Zuora reaches a deal to acquire Zephr, which provides paywall software to News Corp, Tribune Publishing, and others, for $44M (Mark Stenberg/Adweek)

5:35 PM ET, August 24, 2022

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Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

Subscription management platform Zuora reaches a deal to acquire Zephr, which provides paywall software to News Corp, Tribune Publishing, and others, for $44M — Zephr will bring its dynamic paywall technology to the subscriptions company — The subscription management platform Zuora …

Discussion: Business Wire

Hope King / Axios:

Marginal MediaWorks agrees to acquire Fresno Unlimited, which wants to use AI trained on public consumer interest data to help studios green light projects — A new tie-up between a startup content studio and a data science startup aims to flip the way Hollywood green lights movies and shows.

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Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

Former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis calls BBC board member Robbie Gibb an “agent of the Conservative party” who is “acting as the arbiter of BBC impartiality” — Former Newsnight presenter says former No 10 communications chief Sir Robbie Gibb on board acting as ‘arbiter of impartiality’

Discussion: @chakrabortty, @phelpsiesarah, @nigella_lawson, @chakrabortty, @louiserawauthor, @dminghella, @mrjamesob, @fitzpas, @georgiebingham, @tomlondon6, @jamesoflynn, @brianukulele, @mattthr, @jeffreynewman, @colin1866, @johnbarnesuk and @jonsopel

Rachel Cooke / The Guardian:
Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel discuss their daily podcast, The News Agents, which debuts on August 30, what subjects they'll cover, BBC impartiality, and more

Discussion: @iaindale and @bestforbritain

Joe Coscarelli / New York Times:

Capitol Music Group severs ties with FN Meka, a virtual “robot rapper” powered partly by AI with 10M+ TikTok followers, after backlash over racial stereotypes — The record company apologized to “the Black community” for insensitivity in promoting an AI-backed artist that critics said was …

Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap:

Rotten Tomatoes: among 100+ critics it added over the past year, 74% are from underrepresented groups, 48% are women, 38% PoC, and 34% from new media platforms — Rotten Tomatoes will expand its efforts to increase diversity among film and TV critics, with the review website announcing …

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Study of Spotify's podcast recommendations finds white noise episodes are among top recs and 14% of recommended episodes are Spotify originals and exclusives — I've long been interested in Spotify's podcast recommendation system, mostly because it uses a different strategy than its competitors.

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Manori Ravindran / Variety:

Sources: Soumya Sriraman, who led Amazon's US Prime Video Channels business, steps down after two years; Sriraman was formerly the CEO of BritBox — Soumya Sriraman, the former BritBox CEO who joined Amazon to lead its Prime Video Channels business in the U.S., is stepping down after two years at the SVOD.

Discussion: TechCrunch and The Streamable

Todd Spangler / Variety:

NBCU says current seasons of NBC shows will stream on Peacock Premium the day after airing starting September 19, after it reclaimed rights from Hulu — Fans of NBC current-season shows will no longer find them on Hulu as of next month — they'll be flying over to NBCUniversal's Peacock.

Discussion: CNET, The Streamable, The Verge, UPROXX, TVLine, MediaPost, Next TV, The Wrap, UPI, Decider, @tvgrimreaper and Media Play News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

India's richest man, Gautam Adani, acquires a ~29.18% stake in NDTV using decade-old options and plans to acquire another 26%; NDTV says it did not give consent — Adani Group said Tuesday it will buy a majority stake in NDTV, a high-profile Indian news organization, in an apparent hostile takeover …

Discussion: Scroll.in, Al Jazeera, Forbes, @ensaluja, @blitzkreigm, Variety, @mkvenu1, The Hindu, Livemint, The New Indian Express, The Signal, Financial Times and Bloomberg

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:

Google's Jigsaw and YouTube to test video ads in Europe to “pre-bunk” anti-refugee sentiment, after a study found such ads raised awareness about misinformation — Three months after Russia launched its brutal assault on Ukraine, sending millions of refugees over the border …

Discussion: Forbes, @raehodge, @issielapowsky, @issielapowsky, @issielapowsky, @issielapowsky, NBC News, The Verge and @protocol, more at Techmeme »

J. Clara Chan / The Hollywood Reporter:

iHeartMedia launches iHeartLand, its first virtual world, on Fortnite, with plans to host concerts, album release parties, and more — The in-game effort, which includes a main stage and mini-games, will kick off with a Charlie Puth concert on Sept. 9.

Discussion: Inside Radio, RADIO ONLINE, @lanceulanoff, RadioInsight and Music Business Worldwide

K.J. Yossman / Variety:

UK broadcaster ITV plans to launch its ITVX streaming service in November, replacing the ITV Hub — ITVX, the upcoming streaming platform from U.K. broadcaster ITV, will launch in November. — ITV managing director for media and entertainment Kevin Lygo confirmed the launch date during …

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter and ITV Press Centre

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