Top News:
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q4 revenue up 12.5% YoY to $8.83B, vs. $8.71B est., paid users up 12.8% to 260.3M, vs. 256M est., $938M net income, up from $55M; NFLX jumps 8%+ — - Netflix added 13.1 million subscribers during the fourth quarter. — The company now has 260.8 million paid subscribers.
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@pkafka, @jasonkilar, NME, Netflix, NBC 7 San Diego, @sherman4949, @tvmojoe, @lucas_shaw, @tvgrimreaper, @sherman4949, Associated Press, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, Business Insider, Financial Times, Thurrott, NBC Bay Area, Axios, The Streamable, IndieWire, Sarah Whitten on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, Media Play News and The Messenger, more at Techmeme »
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John Koblin / New York Times:
Sources: Netflix plans to begin streaming HBO's Sex and the City in early April 2024, but the series' spinoff And Just Like That will remain exclusive to Max — Media companies that had been reluctant to are increasingly offering shows to Netflix, which is pulling further ahead in the streaming wars.
Discussion:
Deadline, The Wrap and Rolling Stone
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Netflix plans to to retire its ad-free Basic plan in some countries where ad-supported plans are available, starting with Canada and the UK in Q2 2024
Discussion:
Business Insider, Mashable, iPhone in Canada Blog, BGR, Broadband TV News, Benzinga, @tvmojoe, @alex, The A.V. Club, Engadget, @tim_bays, @tvgrimreaper, @sherman4949, AppleInsider, @dtgeek@mastodon.social, The Messenger, Variety, @ianbetteridge@writing …, Hollywood Reporter, 9to5Mac, CNBC and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »
Pranav Dixit / Engadget:
Netflix says user engagement with games on its service tripled in 2023 and Grand Theft Auto has become its most successful launch to date
Discussion:
Benzinga and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »
Peter White / Deadline:
Netflix says it's not interested in acquiring “linear assets”, and it does not believe further M&A will “materially change the competitive environment”
Discussion:
@tvgrimreaper, The Wrap, Forbes and Bloomberg
CNBC:
Netflix buys the exclusive rights to WWE programs like Raw, airing in 2025 in the US, Canada, Latin America, and more; filing: the 10-year deal is worth $5B+
Discussion:
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Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:
The Los Angeles Times' layoffs have hit the outlet's Latino-focused vertical De Los, which was launched in 2023, and the Washington, DC bureau — “We are not in turmoil. We have a real plan,” the paper's owner, billionaire businessman Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said.
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Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
The Los Angeles Times plans to lay off off at least 115 people, or more than 20% of the newsroom, citing annual losses of between $30M and $40M — The Los Angeles Times announced Tuesday that it was laying off at least 115 people — or more than 20% of the newsroom — in one of the largest …
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@mattdpearce, Washington Post, @nickbaumann, Deadline, The Guardian, @davidfolkenflik, @cmsub, @borisk, @bcmerchant, @byjackharris, @jeffbercovici, @jeongpark52, @latguild, @morgan_sung, @passionweiss, @josephfcox, @josephfcox, @aaschapiro, @rogerwcheng, @melissagomez004, @aritbenie, @emma_dumain, @noahshachtman, @mikeisaac, @jason_koebler, Daniel Melling on LinkedIn, @ferniecommaalex, @alexbruell, @bernstein, Newser, @morgan_sung, @erinoverbey, @erinblogan, The Overspill, @elex_michaelson, @laura_nelson, @lucas_shaw, @buffywicks, @ivanthek, @loisbeckett, @justinbaragona, @jbflint, @joaquincastrotx, @sagaftra, @farhip, @fbajak, @lydiadepillis, CNN, Associated Press, @kbode@threads.net, @jbflint, @blowryontv, @tim_bays, @bryancurtis, @sammy_roth, HuffPost, @jeridansky@sfba.social, Politico, @kalihays1@threads.net, @lpolgreen@threads.net, @emilybellnyc@threads.net, New York Times, LAist, The Wrap, New York Post, @cwarzel@threads.net, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast, @sorayamcdonald@threads.net, @mcwm@threads.net, The Hill, The Messenger, @taylorlorenz@threads.net, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, 6abc, Variety, Talking Biz News, The Wrap, Fox News and Poynter
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Originality AI: 88%+ of the top US news outlets now block AI companies' web crawlers; leading right-wing outlets, like Breitbart and Newsmax, mostly permit them — Nearly 90 percent of top news outlets like The New York Times now block AI data collection bots from OpenAI and others.
Discussion:
@sauthoff.bsky.social
Ariel Shapiro / The Verge:
An interview with NPR podcasting chief Collin Campbell on its “broadcast-to-podcast” strategy, navigating the new podcasting landscape, and more — Today, I have a preview of an interview with NPR's new podcasting chief, Collin Campbell. Campbell, who is an alum of WNYC …
Discussion:
The Verge and Blubrry Podcasting
Noam Cohen / Bloomberg:
As Wikimedia Russia shuts down, a look at the Kremlin-compliant Wikipedia alternative Ruwiki, which recently went live, led by an ex-Wikimedia Russia director — A campaign to replace the country's Wikipedia with a more pliant alternative seems near completion.
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
How podcast networks, like Acast and iHeartMedia, are testing AI tools to increase their ad sales, translate shows into different languages, and more — It seems it's not just big digital publishers like BuzzFeed and BDG looking to generative artificial intelligence tools as ways to streamline their sales process.
Discussion:
Inside Radio
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Some independent outlets in Baltimore are seeing a spike in online traffic, subscribers, donations, and social media followers, after The Baltimore Sun's sale — “We're taking the opportunity to remind people that we are an independent, trustworthy news source in the Baltimore region — and they are responding.”
Discussion:
@halleteri, @sarahscire, @sarahscire and MediaPost
James Tapper / The Guardian:
A filing in a class action suit by 10 US artists against Midjourney and others lists 16,000 artist names whose work Midjourney had allegedly used for training — US lawyers approached about class action against Midjourney and other AI firms accused of ‘copyright laundering’
Discussion:
Isabelle Doran on LinkedIn and Cointelegraph
New York Times:
In 2023, no US films ranked among the 10 highest grossing in China, which is producing more high-quality movies that resonate with domestic audiences — No American films ranked among the 10 highest grossing in China last year as viewers who once flocked to foreign blockbusters continued to disappear.
Discussion:
@thedragonfeeder
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google unveils a new Gemini-powered chat-based tool in Google Ads to build Search ad campaigns, out in beta to all English language advertisers in the US and UK — Google announced today that Gemini, its family of multimodal large language models, now powers the conversational experience within the Google Ads platform.
Discussion:
MediaPost, @googleads, @quinnypig, Social Media Today, Digiday, The Decoder and Google, more at Techmeme »
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