Mediagazer: MoviePass relaunches in the US with four credit-based tiers, starting at $10/month for one to three movies; a film's “cost” in credits depends on the showtime (Brian Heater/TechCrunch)

4:55 PM ET, May 25, 2023

Top News:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

DirecTV strikes a nonexclusive multiyear deal with EverPass Media, formed to distribute NFL games to commercial spots, to keep broadcasting NFL Sunday Ticket — - DirecTV has struck a multiyear deal with EverPass Media to commercially provide the NFL's “Sunday Ticket” package.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, CNET, The Desk, DIRECTV, Awful Announcing, Deadline, NBCSports.com, @sherman4949 and Radio & Television …

Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair:
A look at the NFL's growing streaming partnerships, including YouTube, Peacock, and Amazon, signaling that the future of live sports is outside the cable bundle

Discussion: New York Post, @vanityfair, @jkosner and Billboard

Financial Times:

An in-depth look at Vice's downfall and private equity's ill-fated bet on media's future; some shareholders blame TPG, whose $450M investment was wiped to zero — The evaporation of TPG's $450mn investment shows what can happen when Wall Street collides with an uncontrollable creative industry

Discussion: @orskov, @maxseddon, @mattgarrahan, @hamzajahanzeb, @iatalkspace, @johnreedwrites, @oliverbullough, @paleofuture, @moorehn, @fd, @tonytassell, @sallyhayd, @tariqpanja, @rafat, @ftopinion, @birdyword, @hayekmg and @annaknicolaou

Emma Hurt / Axios:

How CNN helped and benefited from Atlanta, as the company prepares to move out from downtown's CNN Center into its original, smaller Techwood campus in Midtown — Cable News Network — CNN — was founded in Atlanta in 1980 by media mogul Ted Turner as the world's first 24-hour television news network.

Discussion: @conorsen, @conorsen, @reubenr80027912, @dkthomp, @conorsen, @axios and @conorsen

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Memo: CNN shifts CNN en Español's production to Mexico City, scaling back linear TV work and expanding mobile video; source: Atlanta and Miami may see job cuts — CNN will shift the bulk of its operations behind its Spanish-language efforts to Mexico City, scaling back production …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @jason and @variety

Wall Street Journal:

A look at Disney and Comcast's Hulu fight; sources say their Hulu valuations vary by tens of billions, they're in arbitration, and Comcast stopped funding Hulu — Parent companies are in final phase of battle marked by legal threats, broken promises and secret arbitration

Discussion: The Desk, The Wrap, @loudmouthjulia, @jtoonkel, @sherman4949, @great_katzby, @edmundlee, @jtoonkel, @edmundlee, @loudmouthjulia, @rwhelanwsj, @aagave and @great_katzby, more at Techmeme »

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement on Twitter Spaces was delayed by ~25 minutes of crashes, feedback glitches, and audio failures — - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement plans evening were derailed by massive technical glitches …

Discussion: New York Times, @morning_joe, @alexeheath, @elonmusk, @rmac18, Forbes, @ike_saul, @benjysarlin, @joebiden, Insider, Mediaite, CNN, The Verge, @davidsacks, Semafor, @karaswisher, Vox, @karaswisher, @kylegriffin1, The Guardian, Axios, @oneunderscore__, NPR, @mehdirhasan, @wakeup2politics, The Register, The Nation, New Republic, The Atlantic, Gizmodo, @andreasharsono, Poynter, @futureshift, The Week, The Hill, @shutupamanda, @mattnavarra, @tedlieu, @bcmerchant, TechCrunch, @jayrosen_nyu, @briannawu, @sherman4949, @andrewkimmel, @karaswisher, @mollypriddy, @rolandsmartin, @ike_saul, @briannawu, @brianstelter, @benjysarlin, @aidnmclaughlin, @oneunderscore__, @mattbinder, @_kxdyn, @oliverdarcy, @mattgertz, @karaswisher, @oneunderscore__, @jason_kint, @jonathanvswan, @karaswisher, @justinbaragona, @chrislhayes, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, The Daily Beast, NBC News, Associated Press, El País, Los Angeles Times, Quartz, Fox News, The Wrap, Slate, The Information, New York Magazine, Washington Post, Reuters, Florida Politics, TMZ.com, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, New York Post, Mercury News, Al Jazeera, Variety and Politico, more at Techmeme »

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

MoviePass relaunches in the US with four credit-based tiers, starting at $10/month for one to three movies; a film's “cost” in credits depends on the showtime — As promised, MoviePass is returning. After last year's Labor Day beta/waiting list launch, the movie theater subscription service …

Discussion: CNET, MoviePass Inc., SlashFilm, Gizmodo, The Verge and The Hollywood Reporter

Access Now:

Pegasus was used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict to target at least five journalists, among others, in 2021 and 2022, the first documented use in a war — The Armenia spyware victims include a former Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia (the Ombudsperson) …

Discussion: TASS, AppleInsider, Bloomberg, @natynettle, @rferlpress, Politico, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, @pressfreedom, @cpj_eurasia, @naghdalyan, Committee to Protect …, The Guardian and Wired, more at Techmeme »

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Google DeepMind details how its visual language model Flamingo generates descriptions for YouTube Shorts, stored as metadata and helping improve discoverability — Google just combined DeepMind and Google Brain into one big AI team, and on Wednesday, the new Google DeepMind shared details …

Discussion: @glenngabe, DeepMind Blog and The Messenger

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Mansa, a free, ad-supported streaming service centered on Black culture, partners with AMC Theatres to exhibit its original features and series in US theaters — Mansa, a free, ad-supported streaming service centered on Black culture, has struck a distribution deal with AMC Theatres …

Discussion: The Streamable and The Wrap

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Twitch raises the price of Turbo, its ad-free subscription that offers extra emoticons, chat badges, and more; the US price jumps from $8.99 to $11.99 per month — Twitch is raising the monthly price of Twitch Turbo, its monthly subscription that lets you pay to remove most ads …

Discussion: @tomwarren and @donhaci, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:

Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe says AI can help authors generate more content; Bertelsmann uses AI to analyze the emotions of characters on shows to help place ads — Thomas Rabe says that despite copyright challenges machine-generated content could be ‘very positive’

Discussion: @baldwinre

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Earlier Picks:

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Gray Television sues the FCC over a $518K fine imposed in 2022 for Gray allegedly violating a ban on owning two of the top four TV stations in any given market

Discussion: Radio & Television … and Next TV, Thanks:@thedeskdotnet

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Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Filing: the Biden administration says SCOTUS should let stand a 2022 appeals court ruling favoring Google in its alleged copying of Genius' lyric transcriptions

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Peter Kafka / Vox:
The Messenger and CNN both promise down-the-middle news and position themselves as an antidote to “biased media”, but there's little evidence people want that

Discussion: @benmullin, @richarddeitsch, @mzhemingway, @rehaballstar, @letitflytom, @brooklynmarie and @scottnover

Todd Spangler / Variety:
After a backlash, Max plans to revert film credit listings to break out directors and writers, blaming a technical “oversight” for lumping them under “creators”

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