Mediagazer: As Meta blocks news links and sharing on Facebook and Instagram in Canada, a look at how Bill C-18 could cause millions in losses for the country's media sector (Michael Geist)

4:30 PM ET, August 3, 2023

Top News:

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

WBD CFO says the company has saved more than $100M due to strikes and that “our modeling assumes a return to work date in early September” — Warner Bros. Discovery execs reported the Hollywood writers and actors' ongoing work stoppage had brought the company savings in the …

Discussion: Forbes, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, @lindaholmes.bsky.social, Deadline, @mikeroyce.bsky.social, @foenix, @doctorow, The Wrap, @jbflint, @doctorow, @sharonwaxman, @kentremendous.bsky.social, The A.V. Club and ComingSoon.net

Eileen AJ Connelly / The Wrap:
Though WBD's streaming unit posted a Q2 loss, content licensing revenue rose to $410M from $132M in Q2 2022; David Zaslav says WBD will seek co-exclusive deals

Discussion: Financial Times

Wall Street Journal:
WBD reports Q2 revenue down 4% YoY to $10.36B and a $1.2B net loss, up from $3.42B in Q2 2022; the company paid down $1.6B debt in Q2, leaving $47.8B remaining

Discussion: Reuters, The Desk, IndieWire, Deadline, Broadband TV News, @azalben, Kidscreen, @chronotope, Screen Rant, @jacktweets44, CNBC, Bloomberg, @news_by_nick and Insider

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Warner Bros. Discovery reports 95.8M streaming subscribers in June, down from 97.6M in March, and a Q2 streaming loss of $3M, less than its Q2 2022 $558M loss

Discussion: Gizmodo, The Wrap, @carnage4life@threads.net, @tvgrimreaper, The Hollywood Reporter, The Information, Variety and TechCrunch

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

MailOnline suspends Dan Wootton from writing his twice-weekly column; he continues to present a nightly primetime show on GB News — Journalist denies claims he used pseudonym to secretly offer colleagues tens of thousands of pounds for sexual material — Dan Wootton has been suspended …

Byline Times:

A unique password found in a data breach directory links GB News' Dan Wootton to two online personas that bribed and harassed men to share sexual material — Receive our Behind the Headlines email and we'll post a free copy of Byline Times — GB News star Dan Wootton twice used …

Discussion: Press Gazette, @kuangeleven, @fascinatorfun and @hardeep_matharu

Shubham Kalia / Reuters:

Agence France-Presse sues X in Paris for refusing to discuss potential content distribution payments under a 2019 law; Elon Musk calls the lawsuit “bizarre” — said on Wednesday it filed a lawsuit in Paris against Elon Musk's X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter …

Discussion: Al Jazeera, Agence France-Presse, Insider, UPI, @elonmusk, Plagiarism Today, TechCrunch, Newser, Quartz, Associated Press, Washington Post, @carnage4life@mas.to, @xdaily, Engadget, @afpcom, Forbes and @elonmusk, more at Techmeme »

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

A look at the fate of the bankrupt Santa Barbara News-Press under owner Wendy McCaw, who turned the paper into a forum for her politics and private crusades — Wendy McCaw, the owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press, ceased its publication in July after years of controversy

Discussion: @joelmathis.bsky.social, @mbalter and @maxboot

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

Amazon Q2: ad revenue up 22% YoY to $10.68B, vs. $10.4B est., subscription revenue up 14% YoY to $9.89B, and North America segment sales up 11% YoY to $82.5B — - Amazon beat on the top and bottom lines for the second quarter. — Amazon said second-quarter revenue climbed 11% …

Discussion: CNN, About Amazon, @epro.social and NBC 7 San Diego, more at Techmeme »

Shirley Zhao / Bloomberg:

A look at Hong Kong-based streaming service Viu's plans for expansion in Asia and its current and potential future collaborations with Canal+ — - Recent deal with Canal+ set to bolster presence across region — Major streaming platform targets more local language content

Martyn Ziegler / The Times:

A look at Premier League soccer's fight against piracy as illegal live streams decline, with 600K blocked last season, and use of IPTV devices rises — With broadcasters losing billions of pounds a year to tech-savvy criminal networks, new weapons are needed in the war against an “industry killer”

Discussion: @martynziegler

Oliver Darcy / CNN:

A US federal judge rules Catherine Herridge must participate in a deposition regarding the identity of confidential source(s) for her Fox News stories in 2017 — A federal judge handed down a rare and alarming court decision this week that could have significant implications for the free press in America.

Discussion: The Wrap, @kyledcheney, @wlabovitz, The Desk, CourtListener, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker and Bloomberg Law

Mia Sato / The Verge:

Patreon temporarily disables Payoneer payments after some creators were unable to access their earnings and some banks flagged subscriber payments as fraudulent — Two simultaneous issues with payments on Patreon are causing problems for both creators and fans.

Discussion: Engadget, @susnebraska, @jasonkpargin, @tom_nicholas, @aurahack, @hakeism, @patreonstatus, @jasonkpargin, @patreonstatus, @verge-poster.bsky.social, @jasonkpargin, @bimbotoad, @patreonstatus and @lillhappycloud, more at Techmeme »

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:

Triller files for a NYSE IPO after scrapping a $5B SPAC merger in 2021 and a direct listing in 2022; Triller had $47.7M in revenue and a $195.6M loss in 2022 — Triller has long teased its ambitions to go public, and now, the short form video platform seems to on its way to an IPO.

Discussion: Billboard, Billboard, Music Ally and Digital Music News, more at Techmeme »

Michael Geist:

As Meta blocks news links and sharing on Facebook and Instagram in Canada, a look at how Bill C-18 could cause millions in losses for the country's media sector — For months, supporters of Bill C-18, the Online News Act, assured the government that Meta and Google were bluffing when they warned …

Discussion: Meta, @melissambarki, @pierrepoilievre, @amyklobuchar, 9to5Mac, @pascalestonge_, @mark_goldberg, NewscastStudio, New York Times, @mike_vlasman@cosocial.ca, @mikebabcock@floss.social, The Hill, Android Police, Breitbart, CBC News, r/canada and Slashdot, more at Techmeme »

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More News:

Max Goldbart / Deadline:
Hasbro confirms the sale of Entertainment One, or eOne, to Lionsgate for $500M after buying the studio in 2019 for $4B, and will retain the Family Brands unit

Discussion: The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Advanced Television, The Wrap, @tim_bays, Kidscreen, Variety, Media Play News, The Toy Book, Axios, WORLD SCREEN and Bloomberg

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation says Meryl Streep and George Clooney helped lead a donation campaign that raised $15M+ in three weeks; eight other stars gave $1M+ each

Discussion: Observer, UPROXX, CBS News, SAG-AFTRA, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Vanity Fair, IndieWire, The Wrap, Deadline and New York Times

Haleluya Hadero / Associated Press:
Amazon expands Twitch's ban on livestreams of gambling content to include online casinos Blaze and Gamdom; gambling viewership fell ~75% after its ban in 2022

Discussion: Tubefilter and Video Games Chronicle, more at Techmeme »

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:
Some experts say trolls who built businesses and media careers on Twitter have had to escalate their shock value tactics as “normal people” continue to leave

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Ofcom: UK broadcast TV weekly audience reach fell to 79% in 2022 vs. 83% in 2021; 66% of UK households were using an SVOD service in Q1 2023 vs. 68% in Q1 2022

Discussion: Ofcom, The Guardian, @ofcom, @endersanalysis, @ofcom, Advanced Television, @ofcom, Music Ally, Ofcom, Variety, The Guardian and Deadline

Earlier Picks:

TVNewsCheck:
Sinclair reports Q2 revenue down 8% YoY to $768M and a $89M net loss vs. $11M YoY, even after the “deconsolidation” of RSNs operated by Diamond Sports Group

Discussion: The Desk, Baltimore Sun, MediaPost, Next TV, Deadline, Radio & Television … and Sinclair, Inc

New York Times:
Sources say second-round bids for Simon & Schuster were due earlier this week and the sale process is expected to conclude in the coming weeks

Discussion: @benmullin

Robin Wigglesworth / Financial Times:
Study: the financial information industry generated $37.3B in revenue in 2022, with Bloomberg and Refinitiv accounting for about two-thirds of the total

New York Times:
Sources: Fox News execs Jay Wallace and Suzanne Scott lobbied Trump to appear at an August 23 debate, during a private dinner just after his third indictment

Discussion: Poynter, New Republic, Breitbart, Washington Post, Daily Kos, The Wrap, @joshsternberg.bsky.social, Rolling Stone, Mediaite, The Hill, @scribandotcom@mastodon.social and @barney@mas.to

Doomberg:
Doomberg, a pseudonymous Substack publication about economic and policy news with 150K+ subscribers, plans to leave Twitter to focus on Substack Notes

Discussion: @doombergt, Notes, Notes, Notes, Notes, Notes, @substacklinda, @jeremydschwartz, @max_gagliardi, @howardlindzon and @lastbearstandng

From Techmeme:

Kent Walker / The Keyword:
Google says the DOJ's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision”, would hurt US consumers, and jeopardize the US' global tech leadership

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
The CFPB will supervise tech companies with digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo, with 50M+ annual transactions, treating them more like banks

Hannah Lang / Reuters:
Sources: a16z, Ripple, Kraken, and Circle are jostling for a seat on Trump's promised crypto advisory council, which is expected to set up a bitcoin reserve

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