Mediagazer: Tunisian authorities arrest Al Jazeera reporter Samir Sassi, one week after the arrest of Tunisian journalist Zied el-Heni, who criticized a minister (Agence France-Presse)

2:25 PM ET, January 4, 2024

Top News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Sources: The Messenger is seeking to raise around $20M amid layoffs and financial struggles; it launched in 2023 after a $50M raise — Digital news start up The Messenger is seeking to raise around $20 million amid layoffs and financial struggles, sources tell Axios.

Discussion: The Wrap, @henryporters, @jasonshevrin, @themaxburns, @ernie.tedium.co, @scottnover and @rolandsmartin

Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: The Messenger's board weighed shutting the site down at a December 29 meeting, and Jimmy Finkelstein has expressed a willingness to sell the site

Ralph D. Russo / Associated Press:

The NCAA and ESPN announce a $920M, eight-year agreement that will give ESPN rights to 40 championships, including the Division I women's basketball tournament — The NCAA and ESPN announced on Thursday a $920 million, eight-year agreement that will give the network exclusive rights to 40 championships …

Bloomberg:

Sources: TikTok aims to grow TikTok Shop US' merchandise volume tenfold to $17.5B in 2024 and plans to increase merchant fees to 6% of each sale in April 2024 — - ByteDance's video app is fast expanding beyond advertising … The 2024 merchandise volume goal for the US version of TikTok Shop …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Semafor, @yohaas, @herrmanndigital, @rishabhmjain, @alejandrochahin, @carnage4life@mas.to, The Information, WWD, Forbes, Insider Intelligence and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Marchand / New York Post:

YES and MSG Network partner to launch Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment, a 50/50 venture that aims to capitalize on their streaming services — YES and MSG Network are partnering on a new venture that eventually could lead to a direct-to-consumer streaming service that offers the Yankees …

Discussion: The Streamable, Sportico, @stegensurvivor, @yesnetwork, @pitchforkedpuck, @ncostanzo24, @aagave, @mattzeitlin, @lucas_shaw, @andrewmarchand, @loudmouthjulia and The Hollywood Reporter

Agence France-Presse:

Tunisian authorities arrest Al Jazeera reporter Samir Sassi, one week after the arrest of Tunisian journalist Zied el-Heni, who criticized a minister — Samir Sassi joins growing number of journalists imprisoned and prosecuted in country — Tunisian authorities have arrested an Al Jazeera reporter …

Discussion: Committee to Protect … and IFJ

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

RedBird IMI invests in Media Res, the independent studio behind “The Morning Show”; Jeff Zucker plans to take a seat on the studio's board — The former CNN president will return to Hollywood by investing in the studio behind streaming hits like “The Morning Show” on Apple TV+.

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Eric Newcomer's newsletter on startups and VCs generated $1M+ in 2023 after Substack's 10% cut, has 2K+ subs paying $200/year, and hired its first reporter — Eric Newcomer, the founder and author of Newcomer, an independent newsletter covering startups and venture capital …

Discussion: @maddierenbarger, @ericnewcomer, Newcomer, @ericnewcomer, The Guardian and @marisakabas@threads.net

Wall Street Journal:

As Google restricts third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users, marketers, adtech companies, and publishers say Google has not done enough to prepare the market — Search giant plans to remove a technology seen as critical to the digital-ad industry — Google is going forward …

Discussion: Business Insider, Next in Media, The Drum, BGR, Jamie Seltzer on LinkedIn, Curtis Bixel on LinkedIn, Jessica Randazza-Pade on LinkedIn, Brian Mandelbaum on LinkedIn, The Register, Gizmodo, Ad Age, Press Gazette, Digiday and Adweek, more at Techmeme »

Paul Sandle / Reuters:

Layered Reality announces Elvis Evolution, an AI, AR, and holographic-based show, launching in London in 2024 before traveling to Las Vegas, Tokyo, and Berlin — Elvis Presley fans who missed out on seeing their hero when he was alive will be able to catch a glimpse of the King …

Discussion: Billboard, The Guardian, BBC, The A.V. Club, @michaelsocolow, Variety and Rolling Stone, more at Techmeme »

The Information:

Sources: OpenAI offered some media companies as little as $1M-$5M/year to license their articles for model training; Apple offered more but wants more rights — OpenAI has offered some media firms as little as between $1 million and $5 million annually to license their news articles for use …

Discussion: New York Post, Rafael Brown on LinkedIn, @blairmacgregor, @alex, @garymarcus and Thurrott, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

GroupM forms a consortium with Disney, Roku, NBCU, YouTube, and others to push for standardized measurements and ad formats that can be used across streamers — One of the nation's biggest investors of ad dollars wants to push big large streamers to work together when it comes to commercials.

Discussion: Adweek, Next TV, Deadline, GroupM and Ad Age, more at Techmeme »

Aditya Kalra / Reuters:

Sources: Disney and Reliance executives signed a non-binding term sheet in December and both have hired law firms to do antitrust due diligence for their merger — Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) and Walt Disney (DIS.N) have appointed law firms …

Discussion: Variety and Wall Street Journal

Kim Masters / The Hollywood Reporter:

A look at the men allied with Nelson Peltz and their histories with Disney: Ike Perlmutter, the ousted Marvel chairman, and former Disney CFO Jay Rasulo — As ousted Marvel mogul Ike Perlmutter and activist investor Nelson Peltz enlist former Disney exec Jay Rasulo in their quest to reshape the studio …

Discussion: @erik_hayden, @thr and @kimmasters

Variety:
Blackwells nominates three candidates to Disney's board to rival Nelson Peltz's proxy fight, and says Disney's ValueAct deal is “a disappointing defensive move”

Discussion: @xpangler, GlobeNewswire News Room, Radio & Television …, The Information, Deadline, Reuters and Bloomberg

Michael Flaherty / Axios:
Hedge funds vie for power at Disney: ValueAct supports Disney's board slate, Trian and Ancora support Nelson Peltz, and Blackwells pushes other board candidates

Discussion: The Information, Los Angeles Times, UPI, Reuters, IndieWire, Bloomberg, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, The Walt Disney Company, Variety, Financial Times and The Hollywood Reporter

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More News:

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
BOA analysis: Amazon's video ad push will boost annual revenue by up to $5B, comprising $3B in video ad sales and $1.8B in Prime users paying to avoid ads

Kari Paul / The Guardian:
Q&A with Jacob Bakkila, who ran the popular @Horse_ebooks Twitter account for two years, on the inspirations behind the language bot, AI chatbots, and more

more at Techmeme »

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
In a lawsuit, a Disney employee claims she was sexually assaulted by former VP of distribution Nolan Gonzales and that management didn't escalate concerns to HR

Discussion: New York Post, ComingSoon.net, Deadline and Bloomberg Law

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
MPA: the Asia Pacific video industry grew 5.5% in 2023 to hit $145B in revenue, with a 13% jump in online video sales to $57B; TV revenue grew under 1% to $98B

Discussion: @livemint, Livemint, WORLD SCREEN and Advanced Television

Michael Schneider / Variety:
After a WGA protest, the Television Academy and Fox reverse an earlier plan and return the Emmy for variety series outstanding writing to the Emmys telecast

Discussion: @scenarist.bsky.social, @jennifergrand.bsky.social, @wgawest, IndieWire, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Earlier Picks:

Oliver Darcy:
Internal note: Alex MacCallum, who became The Washington Post's chief revenue officer in July 2023, is leaving; sources: she's in talks to join CNN

Discussion: @benmullin, @dylanbyers, @dylanbyers, Oliver arcy, Puck and Variety

Advanced Television:
Nielsen: Prime Video's Thursday Night Football averaged 11.86M viewers per game in the US during the 2023 season, up 24% from 2022 season's 9.58M viewers

Discussion: Amazon Studios, The Streamable, Awful Announcing, MediaPost and Media Play News

Marc Schneider / Billboard:
UMG and Tencent Music Entertainment renew their licensing agreement, allowing Tencent to distribute UMG content on QQ Music, Kogou Music, Kuwo Music, and WeSing

Discussion: Variety, Music Ally, PR Newswire and Music Business Worldwide

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitch changes its sexual content policies again and says the platform won't allow streamers to “imply or suggest that they are fully or partially nude”

Discussion: Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Forbes, safety.twitch.tv, @carnage4life@mas.to, ClutchPoints and @MikeElgan@mastodon.social

From Techmeme:

Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Sources: Tim Cook approved a plan to double the AI chip budget for John Giannandrea's team in 2023, but CFO Luca Maestri cut the increase to less than half that

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta adds Dina Powell McCormick, who served as deputy national security adviser to Trump in his first term, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison to its board

Ellen O'Regan / Politico:
Ireland's DPC opens an investigation into how personal data in public X posts was used to train xAI's Grok, which could stoke tensions between the EU and the US

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