Mediagazer: Venezuelan media mogul Gustavo Cisneros, who co-founded Univision in 1992 and launched DIRECTV Latin America in 1995, dies at 78 as conglomerate Cisneros' chair (Gursimran Kaur/Reuters)

7:00 PM ET, January 1, 2024

Top News:

Julia Kollewe / The Guardian:

UK film, TV, and video game producers will get more generous tax breaks with the new audio-visual expenditure credit and video-games expenditure credit — Industry has said Britain could lose out to other countries, particularly in animation and special effects

Discussion: GOV.UK and Neil Anderson on LinkedIn

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:

Comscore: box office revenue in the US and Canada rose 20% YoY in 2023 to cross $9B, but is still below 2009's $10B+, 2015's $11B+, and 2019's $11.4B — If Hollywood isn't setting off huge fireworks in celebration, it's because revenue is still down from pre-COVID times while worry looms …

Discussion: Variety, Deadline, Associated Press, @lightfootinhwd, @pdergarabedian and Patrick von Sychowski on LinkedIn

Margaret Atwood / In the Writing Burrow:

Margaret Atwood argues that Substack violates its own terms of service by permitting Nazis to publish on its platform, and says Substack can't have it both ways — Or, “A cannot be both itself and non-A at the same time,” Logic 101. — ∙ Paid — This instructive cartoon …

Discussion: @miki_lou@mastodon.social, @MelodyWainscott@zirk.us, @kevinrns@mstdn.social, @hunterwalk@threads.net, @hg_richardson@threads.net, @dfisherwrites@threads.net, @oneunderscore__@threads.net, @dsilverman@threads.net, @scottalister@threads.net, Farnsworth Radio, Mighty Forces Express and @chrisward.de

Bloomberg:

Filing: Baidu's $3.6B deal to acquire Joyy's Chinese livestreaming business YY Live, announced in November 2020, expires as China didn't approve by December 31 — - Tech industry's focus has turned to generative AI now … The Beijing-based company said its $3.6 billion deal for Joyy's YY Live …

Discussion: CNN, more at Techmeme »

The Nation:

Interviews with journalists in Gaza on struggling simply to stay alive, as mounting challenges of reporting have meant the world gets a fraction of the story — The work of Gaza's journalists has been essential these past months, but as the challenges of reporting continue to mount, the world is getting only a fraction of the story.

Discussion: National Union of Journalists …, @cpjmena, @lilahass, @lilahass, @thenation, @grahamstarr, @lilahass, @imran_jan, @jefftparrott, @monaeltahawy and WNYC Studios

Alexandra Topping / The Guardian:

Berrow's Worcester Journal, owned by Newsquest and first published in 1690, hires “AI-assisted” reporters who use an in-house copywriting tool based on ChatGPT — Berrow's Worcester Journal is one of several papers owned by the UK's second biggest regional news publisher to hire ‘AI-assisted’ reporters

Discussion: @darrenwaters

Jessica Murray / The Guardian:

John Pilger, an Australian journalist and documentary filmmaker who covered conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Biafra, dies at age 84 — Celebrated Australian journalist and documentary film-maker covered conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Biafra

Discussion: @johnpilger, The Guardian, @wikileaks, @zei_squirrel, @ggreenwald, @wallacemick, @harrogateant, @jeremycorbyn, @kennardmatt, Associated Press, The Wrap, Sky News, BBC and Deadline

Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:

A look at the rise of AI-generated virtual influencers, with some charging thousands of dollars to promote products, leading to concerns from human influencers — Hyper-realistic ‘virtual influencers’ are being used to promote leading brands — drawing ire from human content creators

Discussion: @gunblaze1969, @jimharris, @brianroemmele, @jaroslawmarciuk, @rizstanford, @alexisgoncalves, OSnews, Business Insider, Ethan Tan on LinkedIn, Dilan Thampapillai on LinkedIn, @digichelle@hachyderm.io, @librarianshipwreck …, @parvXtl@tech.lgbt, LinkedIn and Michael Hobbs on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Martin Peers / The Information:

BuzzFeed, the media star of 2016 that now has a ~$36M market cap, needs just above $100M after its sale of Complex Networks to pay down debt due at 2024's end — Let's hope all those wannabe digital media entrepreneurs are paying attention to the slow disintegration of BuzzFeed, the media star of 2016.

Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:
Filing: BuzzFeed President Marcela Martin intends to resign on January 12 to pursue other opportunities; the CEO and others plan to absorb her responsibilities

Discussion: The Information, @zerohedge and US Securities …

The Information:
Sources: BuzzFeed is close to selling most of Complex Networks to livestream shopping startup Ntwrk for a little above $100M, far below Jonah Peretti's target

Discussion: @tomaxwell and @theinformation

Gursimran Kaur / Reuters:

Venezuelan media mogul Gustavo Cisneros, who co-founded Univision in 1992 and launched DIRECTV Latin America in 1995, dies at 78 as conglomerate Cisneros' chair — Venezuelan media mogul Gustavo Cisneros, who had expanded Cisneros from a family business into an important conglomerate …

Discussion: New York Post and Bloomberg

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:

Paramount Global and Comcast Xfinity strike a new carriage deal, averting a potential January 1 blackout that would have included CBS, MTV, and other channels — The previous deal was set to expire at the end of the year and would have impacted NFL and college football games.

Discussion: @felixindafuture, Deadline, Variety, Awful Announcing, The Desk and Sports Business Journal

A.O. Scott / New York Times:

How some authors are embracing ChatGPT and other chatbots as the latest iteration of an ancient literary conceit, a writer's “muse” — What happens to literature when writers embrace A.I. as their muse? — The robots of literature and movies usually present either an existential danger or an erotic frisson.

Discussion: @stephenmarche, @nytimesbooks and @lalatellsastory@threads.net

Gary Marcus / Marcus on AI:

OpenAI and others will likely face more copyright lawsuits as systems like DALL-E produce copyright-infringing materials without attribution or informing users — At around the same time as news of the New York Times lawsuit vs OpenAI broke, Reid Southen, the film industry concept artist …

The Hollywood Reporter:

Netflix's stock ended 2023 up 65%, Spotify's was up 129%, and Roku's was up 126%; Lionsgate, Sony, and NBCUniversal owner Comcast were also media sector winners — Renewed sector deal chatter helped boost some stocks late in the year despite questions about the advertising and streaming outlook.

Discussion: Deadline and Variety