Mediagazer: Lionsgate rebrands its international streaming service StarzPlay as Lionsgate+; SEC filing: the company is exploring spinning off its studio business, not Starz (Todd Spangler/Variety)

5:30 PM ET, September 28, 2022

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Lionsgate rebrands its international streaming service StarzPlay as Lionsgate+; SEC filing: the company is exploring spinning off its studio business, not Starz — Lionsgate is now looking at spinning off its studio business — rather than kicking out the Starz premium network and streaming business.

Discussion: CNBC, @sherman4949, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, TechCrunch, Light Reading, @sherman4949, SEC.gov, The Streamable, @sherman4949, Deadline, The Wrap, @sherman4949, Media Play News, Broadband TV News and WORLD SCREEN

Deadline:

Sources: in a WBD town hall, CEO David Zaslav denied rumors of a merger or a sale: “We are not for sale, absolutely, not for sale”; rumors point to Comcast — The top brass at Warner Bros Discovery held a company-wide town hall Wednesday over Zoom in which they laid out the current state …

Discussion: Variety, The Streamable, The Wrap, Vanity Fair, @deadline, @great_katzby, @tvgrimreaper and The Hollywood Reporter

Lesley Goldberg / The Hollywood Reporter:

Epix plans to rebrand as MGM+ on January 15, 2023; Epix 2 will become MGM+ Hits, Epix Hits will become MGM+ Marquee, and Epix Drive-In will become MGM+ Drive-In — The linear network as well as its streaming offering will be rebranded starting in January. — Epix is joining ABC Family …

Discussion: Variety, TechCrunch, EPIX Press Site, Ad Age, Next TV, The Desk, Adweek, Deadline, Media Play News, @drewkerr, TVLine, The A.V. Club, @xpangler, @sherman4949, The Wrap, @billsimmons, @loudmouthjulia, IndieWire and The Streamable

Richard Lawler / The Verge:

Fast Company took its website offline after a hacker used its Apple News account to send two obscene push notifications; Apple disabled the outlet's channel — It's been a little while since we had a high-profile media feed hijacking, but tonight someone sent an Apple News notification …

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:

How The Telegraph and Reach use personalized newsletters to improve open rates and page visits; the Toronto Star says most users want “what everyone else got” — As companies like The New York Times and The Washington Post experiment with personalizing their homepages to get readers …

Discussion: Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, Michael's Newsletter, @nbj914, The System Newsletter and Illusion's Newsletter

Eamon Lynch / Golfweek:

Sources: Saudi-backed LIV Golf is nearing a deal to purchase Fox Sports 1 airtime for its tournaments; source: Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch told Fox to get involved — LIV Golf is nearing a deal to purchase air time for its tournaments on U.S. cable television, multiple sources have told Golfweek.

Reuters:

Sources: by the end of 2022, Vietnam plans to announce rules to limit which social media accounts can post news content, expanding on July 2022 media guidelines — Vietnam is preparing new rules to limit which social media accounts can post news-related content, three people familiar with the matter said …

Discussion: TechCrunch, @f_potkin and @kenli729

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon updates its Fire TV lineup with a new $140 Fire TV Cube media player, Fire TV Omni QLED Series starting at $800, and a new $35 Alexa Voice Remote Pro — Amazon today introduced two new Fire TV devices designed to cater to customers seeking a more premium experience.

Discussion: Insider, CNET, The Streamable, Cord Cutters News, Gizmodo, ZDNet, Engadget, The Verge, Engadget, The Shortcut and @reckless, more at Techmeme »

Josh Dickey / The Wrap:

A pension fund and Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder sues the company, saying Warner Bros. inflated HBO Max subscribers by up to 10M amid the Discovery merger — Warner Bros. cooked its HBO Max subscriber numbers by as many as 10 million and misled shareholders in other ways that violate …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Observer, @tvgrimreaper, @matthewkeyslive, @slack2thefuture, @theculturednerd, @whenbatmenfly, The Hill, @culturecrave, The Desk and Vulture

Reuters:

Dyson, Mazda, and others suspended Twitter marketing campaigns because their promoted tweets appeared alongside tweets publicly soliciting or selling child porn — Some major advertisers including Dyson, Mazda and chemicals company Ecolab have suspended their marketing campaigns or removed …

Discussion: Engadget and @karissabe, more at Techmeme »

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

A profile of Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd, who Ted Sarandos and other executives say has become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood — After shocking the corporate world last year with the news Discovery Communications would merge with WarnerMedia …

Discussion: @sarthakgh, @mattrosoff, @kimmasters, @mgsiegler, @sherman4949, @sherman4949 and @sherman4949

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google unveils search results with machine-translated news, coming in early 2023, and a “Discussions and forums” section, rolling out now on mobile in the US — At Search On 2022, Google announced that “Discussions and forums” will be getting their own sections in results …

Discussion: CNET, TechCrunch, The Keyword, @searchliaison, @cmcloutier and Search Engine Journal, more at Techmeme »

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From Techmeme:

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