Mediagazer: Lionsgate closes its acquisition of Hasbro's eOne for $375M plus assuming some production financing loans; Lionsgate's library grows by 6,500 film and TV titles (Jill Goldsmith/Deadline)

6:20 PM ET, December 27, 2023

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Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:

Lionsgate closes its acquisition of Hasbro's eOne for $375M plus assuming some production financing loans; Lionsgate's library grows by 6,500 film and TV titles — Lionsgate said today its acquisition of global entertainment platform eOne from Hasbro is done.

Discussion: Variety, IndieWire, The Wrap, ComingSoon.net, The Hollywood Reporter and Media Play News

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

The FCC rejects radio and TV broadcasters' call for deregulation, reaffirming rules on the number of TV or radio stations that owners can control in a market — The owners had argued for looser ownership restrictions given the growth of social media, podcasts and other online services.

Discussion: Federal Communications …, The Desk, @panamared27401@mstdn.social, RadioInsight, Inside Radio and Next TV

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Amazon plans to start showing ads in movies and shows on Prime Video from January 29, with an option for customers to pay an extra $2.99 per month to avoid them — Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads into movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service …

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

Box office trends in 2023: audiences sought comfort, flocking to see Barbie, Taylor Swift, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and mostly skipped superhero movies — Movie audiences flocked to Taylor Swift, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” but were cooler toward returning superheroes like the Flash, Captain Marvel and Aquaman.

Discussion: New York Times, ThePrint and ScreenRant

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Filing: Paramount Global parent company National Amusements experienced a data breach in December 2022, in which hackers stole information on 82,128 people — National Amusements, the cinema chain and corporate parent giant of media giants Paramount and CBS, has confirmed it experienced …

Discussion: Gizmodo, The Record, Bloomberg, The Wrap, @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social and Cord Cutters News

Olivia Prentzel / The Colorado Sun:

The Colorado Springs Independent, a weekly alternative outlet that has served Colorado Springs for over 30 years, indefinitely ceases publication on December 27 — For three decades, the progressive weekly provided residents in Colorado's second-largest city with an alternate source of news …

Discussion: Inside the News in Colorado, @corey_hutchins@threads.net, @ryanmlowery, Talking Biz News, Fox News and Media Nation

Andrew Jack / Financial Times:

France's Sorbonne University switches to OpenAlex, a nonprofit academic data provider, boosting a growing movement to make research available for free — Paris university's ‘radical decision’ to join OpenAlex challenges for-profit providers — A leading French university has cancelled …

Discussion: @openalex_org

Bartosz Brzeziński / Politico:

Poland's new government taking sweeping steps to free its state media sets off a political war, including the appointment of two dueling chiefs of public TV — WARSAW — Poland's new pro-EU government has taken sweeping steps to free state media from the political stranglehold imposed …

Discussion: Semafor, Reuters, Notes From Poland, Reuters and Financial Times

Larry Neumeister / Associated Press:

A US judge rejects Project Veritas' First Amendment claim in the case of an alleged theft of a diary of Biden's daughter; prosecutors may now get 900+ documents — Criminal prosecutors may soon get to see over 900 documents pertaining to the alleged theft of a diary belonging …

Discussion: Boing Boing, Vanity Fair, The Messenger and Associated Press

Wall Street Journal:

A look at ReelShort, a Chinese-backed app featuring dramas with episodes that last a minute; its CEO says it has generated $22M in revenue since its 2022 launch — ReelShort aims to succeed where Quibi failed—with cheesy plots and supernatural elements packed into one-minute episodes

Associated Press:

Study: social media companies collectively made ~$11B in US ad revenue from minors in 2022; YouTube earned the most at $959.1M from users 12 and under — Social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year, according to a study …

Discussion: MediaPost, Harvard T.H. Chan School … and PLOS, more at Techmeme »

Jennifer Jenkins / Duke University School of Law:

Books, movies, and music from 1928 and sound recordings from 1923 enter the US public domain on January 1; works include D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover — Director, Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain — Please note that this site is only about US law; the copyright terms in other countries may be different.

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, @doctorow, Los Angeles Times, @dukecspd, @internetarchive, @doctorow and @JMarkOckerbloom …

Gene Maddaus / Variety:
The earliest versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse enter the public domain on January 1, as Disney's copyright suits have slowed to a trickle in recent years

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Alexandra Canal / Yahoo Finance:
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Angela Watercutter / Wired:
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Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Nielsen: YouTube's share of US viewership by 2- to 11-year-olds jumped from 29.4% in September 2021 to 33% in September 2023, while Netflix fell from 25% to 21%

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Chartbeat Blog:
A list of 2023's most engaging stories: CNN had the most entries on the list, and most prominent themes were “catastrophe”, “memorial”, and “human connection”

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The Information:
Sources: Reddit expects 2023 ad revenue to grow 20%+ YoY to slightly over $800M; a source says Reddit was not profitable through the first nine months of 2023

Discussion: @elijahlrc@threads.net, @jimmylittle@threads.net, @jimmylittle@threads.net, @carnage4life@threads.net, @documentingmeta@threads.net, @camwilsonreporter@threads.net, @edzitron@threads.net, @ianbetteridge@threads.net, @trace_cohen, MediaPost, Benzinga, @nickit_s@threads.net, The Verge and @carnage4life@mas.to

Maris Kreizman / New York Times:
Goodreads' current combative culture is antithetical to the spirit in which the service began, and fixing that requires more human moderation to monitor users

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Helen Davidson / The Guardian:
An interview with Sebastien Lai about his father and media tycoon Jimmy Lai's sham trial, how Hong Kong “weaponized the law” to shut down Apple Daily, and more

Discussion: Bloomberg and @heguisen

The Economic Times:
Sources: Disney and Reliance signed a non-binding term sheet last week to merge their media operations in India, with Reliance paying for a majority 51% stake

Discussion: Deadline, @ishanagarwal24, The Streamable, CNBC-TV18, Media Play News, @xshenoy, @stufflistings, @indiansportsott, @datta_arvind, @nycknp, Reuters, SwarajyaMag, Times of India, BizzBuzz, India Today, Arijit Barman on LinkedIn, Business Today and Hindustan Times

From Techmeme:

Financial Times:
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says consumer electronics exempt from tariffs may be included in semiconductor tariffs likely coming in “a month or two”

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a lighter and cheaper Vision Pro and a Mac-tethered model with ultra-low latency; iPadOS 19 overhaul will make it more like macOS

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple produced $22B worth of iPhones in India in the 12 months ended March 2025, up nearly 60% YoY, and now makes 20% of its iPhones in the country

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