Top News:
Kashish Tandon / Reuters:
India's Zee Entertainment remains committed to its $10B Sony India merger, calling media reports of the deal falling through “baseless and factually incorrect” — India's Zee Entertainment (ZEE.NS) on Tuesday said it was committed to its merger with Sony's (6758.T) local arm …
Discussion:
Financial Times, Anto Antony on LinkedIn, Bloomberg and Advanced Television
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Bloomberg:
Sources: Zee misses a deadline to pay $200M to Disney's India unit for cricket TV rights, citing a cash crunch; Zee agreed to pay $1.4B+ in August 2022 — - Payment was part of a $1.4 billion cricket rights purchase — Network is saving cash ahead of likely collapse of its merger
Discussion:
Anto Antony on LinkedIn
Etan Vlessing / Hollywood Reporter:
Imax says its 2023 box office was $1.06B, near 2019's $1.1B record and up 24.4% YoY, with $393.2M in North America, its highest grossing year ever in the region — Christopher Nolan's ‘Oppenheimer’ and Taylor Swift's concert film helped drive the rebound in ticket sales coming out of the pandemic.
Discussion:
Variety, ScreenRant and IMAX Corporation
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Steven J. Horowitz / Variety:
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour becomes the highest-grossing concert film of all time, earning $261.6M+ globally, surpassing Michael Jackson's This Is It from 2009
Discussion:
Rolling Stone UK, Forbes, Rolling Stone, Billboard, ScreenRant, Digital Music News and The Hollywood Reporter
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Substack plans to remove some Nazi publications, but its new policy interpretation won't include proactively removing neo-Nazi and far-right extremism content — Substack is removing some publications that express support for Nazis, the company said today.
Discussion:
The Verge, @jbenton, @brianstelter, Engadget, @jasonkoebler@threads.net, @brian.fishman.5@threads.net, @fraying@xoxo.zone, @LyleDAL@universeodon.com, @neurovagrant@masto.deoan.org, @crumbler@threads.net, @ernie@writing.exchange, @thisismissem@hachyderm.io and Rolling Stone, more at Techmeme »
Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal:
Meta plans to start automatically restricting teen Instagram and Facebook accounts from harmful content, including posts about self-harm, in the coming weeks — Efforts to curb harmful material and reduce unwanted interactions with teen social-media accounts come as states sue parent company Meta
Discussion:
Meta, TechCrunch, The Verge, The Hill, NPR and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Fox Corp. debuts Verify, a blockchain protocol developed with Polygon Labs for media companies to register content and grant usage rights to AI companies — Fox Corp., one of the largest media companies in the U.S., has publicly debuted a new blockchain platform called Verify …
Discussion:
Variety, TechCrunch, TVNewsCheck and @bgrueskin
Mia Sato / The Verge:
How the internet reshaped itself around Google's search algorithms, including via SEO tricks, and the company's role in many websites now using similar designs — How the internet reshaped itself around Google's search algorithms — and into a world where websites look the same. — Animations by Richard Parry
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Amazon announces Matter Casting, an Apple AirPlay-like feature to send video from different platforms to Amazon devices, initially supporting Echo Show devices — Amazon.com Inc. introduced a new feature that mimics Apple Inc.'s AirPlay while working across different platforms …
Discussion:
The Desk, The Verge, Thurrott and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »
Nic Newman / Reuters Institute:
Survey of 314 news leaders from 56 countries: just 47% say they are confident about journalism's 2024 prospects; 63% worry about declining social media traffic — The disruptive power of artificial intelligence (AI) will sweep through the information space this year at a time of intense political …
Discussion:
BuzzMachine, Press Gazette, @nicnewman, @charliebeckett, @risj_oxford, HoldtheFrontPage and Fast Company
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Netflix defeats a shareholder lawsuit over accusations of hiding the impact of account sharing; Netflix lost ~50% of its value in 2022 after growth warnings — Netflix (NFLX.O) has defeated a lawsuit filed by shareholders in a federal court in California that accused the streaming entertainment company …
Discussion:
Broadband TV News and The Hollywood Reporter
OpenAI:
OpenAI responds to The New York Times' lawsuit: training is fair use and there is an opt-out, “regurgitation” is a rare bug, and NYT “manipulated” its models — We support journalism, partner with news organizations, and believe The New York Times lawsuit is without merit.
Discussion:
Press Gazette, The Guardian, MediaNama, CMU, The Hill, @andrewyng, Jason Wong on LinkedIn, New York Times, @tomwarren, @isaiahporitz, @jeremymbarr, @verge, @giordanorogers, @minimaxir, @saurabhsachan, @ndiakopoulos, @froomkin, @jamesrbuk, @carnage4life, @quasarfortress, @nomadsvagabonds, @themacrosift, @selmarsmit, @drcolinwplewis, @obscure_jazz, @aimee_maree, @maxkannen, @acidflask, @rohanposts, @sai_prasanna, @nicky_bonez, @gdb, @garymarcus, @jacquesthibs, @techau, @altryne, Puck, The Information, The Register, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @reporterzoe@threads.net, @thatadamguy@threads.net, Thurrott, CNBC, Futurism, Financial Times, The Verge, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, @karlauerbach@sfba.social, TechCrunch, CNN, @martin@openedtech.social, @fifilamoura@eldritch.cafe, @willoremus@mastodon.social and Stratechery, more at Techmeme »
Press Gazette:
An analysis of 23 leading paywalled publishers: the price of a digital news subscription rose by 20% on average in the UK in 2023; Bloomberg's grew by 50% — How annual digital subscription prices at the biggest news titles compare to one year ago. — The price of a digital news subscription …
Discussion:
@baekdal, Media Voices and Press Gazette
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