Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney reports Q1 revenue up 8% YoY to $23.51B, vs. $23.37B est., direct-to-consumer revenue up 13% YoY to $5.3B, and operating loss rose $0.5B to $1.1B — Overall, Disney posted revenue of $23.51 billion (up 8%) and adjusted earnings per share of 99 cents for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022 (Disney's Q1 of fiscal year 2023).
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney says it will reduce its workforce by 7,000 employees, or 3.2% of its global headcount of about 220,000 as it works to save $5.5B in costs — Disney will reduce its workforce by 7,000 employees in a bid to cut costs, Iger said Wednesday on the company's earnings call for the year-end 2022 quarter.
Katie Robertson / New York Times:
The New York Times reports Q4 revenue up 12.3% YoY to $667.5M, 2022 revenue up 11.3% YoY to $2.3B, 2022 operating profit of $347.9M, and 9.6M paying subscribers — The company said it added more than a million digital subscribers in 2022, bringing its total number of paying subscribers to 9.6 million.
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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Warner Bros. Discovery plans to keep a standalone Discovery+ service after launching a streaming service that combines HBO Max and Discovery+ content — Move comes amid concerns that some Discovery+ subscribers might not want to move to upcoming pricier, bigger platform
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David Friend / Canadian Press:
Netflix rolls out its long-anticipated password sharing rules in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain; other countries will be added in the next few months — Under new rules, premium and standard account holders will be given option to add extra members for $7.99 per month
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Washington Post:
US House Oversight Committee members questioned three former Twitter executives about suppressing accounts, tweets, and the New York Post's Hunter Biden story — A congressional hearing today promises a moment of political reckoning more than two years in the making …
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Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:
Over 200 staff represented by NBC News Digital's union plan to walk off the job on February 9 to protest the outlet cutting seven union-covered staff in January — It's the latest major labor action to strike a national news organization in recent months as the media industry faces headwinds and cut-backs.
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Max Tani / Semafor:
Ozy, which imploded in 2021 and is facing US federal investigations over a misleading investor pitch, is raising money again, pitching itself as a “hip” brand — Ozy, the youth-focused media company that imploded in 2021 over a misleading pitch to potential investors …
Discussion:
@akarl_smith, @aagave, @jbillinson, @tomgara and @semaforben
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google confirms that AI-generated content isn't against its Search guidelines, but using AI content to manipulate search results ranking violates its policies — AI is set to change the game in some big ways in the near future, and AI-generated content is one of the more controversial elements.
Discussion:
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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Qustodio: kids aged 4 to 18 used TikTok for 107 minutes per day on average in 2022, up from 82 minutes in 2020, and 60% longer than YouTube's 67 minutes per day — For another year in a row, TikTok has found itself as the social app kids and teens are spending the most time using throughout the day, even outpacing YouTube.
Discussion:
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Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Fox Corp reports Q2 revenue up 4% YoY to $4.61B, ad revenue up 4% YoY to $2.5B due to the World Cup, and a $321M net income, up from a $73M net loss in Q2 2021 — After the Murdoch family recently dropped plans to merge Fox with News Corp, the company reported its fiscal second-quarter results.
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with authors Felix Gillette and John Koblin on their book It's Not TV, the genesis of HBO, competing with Netflix, AT&T's Time Warner acquisition, and more — Authors Felix Gillette and John Koblin explain how your favorite shows kept HBO afloat. — HBO started as an experiment.
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