Mediagazer: Plex raised new funding, larger than the $50M funding it raised in 2021, and expects to be profitable by the end of 2024 (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

3:45 PM ET, January 29, 2024

Top News:

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

Memo: Channel 4 plans to merge commissioning departments, including TV drama and film, leave a London premises, and more, part of a five-year Fast Forward plan — Channel 4 is merging several commissioning departments including TV drama and film and leaving its Horseferry Road premises …

Discussion: The Guardian, @scottygb, @bectu, Broadband TV News, @halalltakeaway, BBC, The Guardian, @jake_kanter and Sky News

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Channel 4 plans to lay off 18% of its staff, impacting ~200 jobs and closing ~40 unfilled roles, to become a “digital-first public service streamer by 2030”

Discussion: Broadband TV News, @scottygb, Variety, CampaignUK, WORLD SCREEN, @joshoewaa, Mediaite and Financial Times

Bloomberg:

Sirius XM acquires rights to SmartLess, a podcast by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes, sources say for $100M+; Amazon previously paid $60M-$80M — - The popular interview program has spent three years at Amazon — Actors Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes host the show

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap, @pkafka@threads.net, Sirius XM Holdings Inc., @frankyarriola, @johnjedwards3, @shaun_obanion, @variety, The Hollywood Reporter, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Bloomberg starts providing AI-generated summaries of companies' earnings calls on its terminal; the company has more than 310,000 subscribers to its terminal — Bloomberg is now providing artificial intelligence summaries of company's earnings calls on its terminal.

Ben Strauss / Washington Post:

Sports Illustrated's union files an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB, alleging retaliation and union-busting after the mass layoffs this month — The union representing the staff of Sports Illustrated filed an unfair labor practice charge against the magazine's publisher …

Discussion: Awful Announcing, Sportico, The Wrap, nyguild.org and Columbia Journalism Review

Wall Street Journal:

How Penguin Random House started actively challenging the removal of books from US school libraries, including through an “Intellectual Freedom” task force — A fiery board meeting inspired Penguin Random House to actively challenge the removal of books from school libraries

Discussion: Matthew Sekol on LinkedIn, Dan Novack on LinkedIn, NPR, @davidmpaige, @michellemanafy@journa.host, Why Evolution Is True and @jbflint

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Plex raised new funding, larger than the $50M funding it raised in 2021, and expects to be profitable by the end of 2024 — Media streamer Plex has raised new capital. The company, which began as a media organization startup, has morphed over the years to become a one-stop shop for all your media …

Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:

TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable, by identifying objects in videos and prompting users to “find similar items on TikTok Shop” — - Feature links products to any posts, not just influencers — TikTok is testing a feature that could make all posts shoppable …

Discussion: @carnage4life, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

An interview with Mail Online executives on rolling out its new £4.99 per month Mail+ tier to all UK users, the £12.99 per month Mail+ Editions app, and more — Mail Online is building on a “great position of strength” from its “huge, loyal, engaged, direct audience” …

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

In response to the George Carlin estate's lawsuit, Dudesy says its YouTube video and podcast with an “AI” George Carlin were “created by two human beings” — Creators still face “name and likeness” complaints; lawyer says suit will continue.

Discussion: Engadget, @nina_metz, @tliterarian, @pluralistic@mamot.fr, Rafael Brown on LinkedIn, The Register, Mostly signs, @irenes@mastodon.social, @lauren@mastodon …, New York Times and Music Ally

Reuters:

German state broadcaster ARD says Israel was blocking two of its long-term Palestinian workers from leaving Gaza, citing security concerns that don't make sense — German state broadcaster ARD on Friday said Israel was blocking two of its long-term Palestinian workers from leaving Gaza …

The Intercept:

Sources: the NYT pulled a The Daily episode about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, after an internal debate on the strength of its reporting — The New York Times pulled a high-profile episode of its podcast “The Daily” about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 amid …

Discussion: CBS News, @markamesexiled, @evanhill, @zei_squirrel, @maryamsaleh, @drboguslaw, @snarwani, @ggreenwald and @kenklippenstein

Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon expects Prime Video's average hourly ad load to be 2 to 3.5 minutes, below traditional TV and most streaming services, and to reach 159M monthly viewers — Move prompts longtime subscribers to cancel Prime altogether, forgoing free shipping; ‘There is only one way to show them that this is not OK’

Discussion: CNN, Insider Intelligence, Fast Company, The Streamable, New York Post and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Patrick Frater / Variety:

CNN Philippines plans to close on January 31, impacting up to 300 jobs; the outlet launched in 2015 under a brand licensing deal and, a source says, lost $89M+ — CNN Philippines is to close down on Wednesday, the company announced on Monday local time. The move means up to 300 jobs will be lost.

Discussion: @cnnphilippines and Deadline

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More News:

Reuters:
UK sanctions Iranian officials who were found by an ITV report to be involved in plots to assassinate two TV presenters from Iran International in the UK

Discussion: CBS News, Press Association and Deadline

Katie Campione / Deadline:
Nielsen: Ted Lasso was the most-watched streaming original in 2023, at 16.9B minutes, despite Apple TV+'s small footprint, followed by Netflix's The Night Agent

Discussion: Variety, The Streamable, Screen Rant, The Hollywood Reporter, The A.V. Club, Nielsen, The Wrap, BGR, New York Times, AppleInsider, UPROXX, Media Play News and The Messenger

Alex Fitzpatrick / Axios:
The New York Times says users played its puzzles and games more than 8B times in 2023, led by Wordle with 4.8B plays, and the NYT Games app had 10M downloads

Discussion: Jonathan Knight on LinkedIn and @counternotions@mastodon …

Jennifer Maas / Variety:
A look at Warner Bros. Discovery's push to expand its gaming division with live services and mobile games, by leveraging its franchises like Game of Thrones

Discussion: @captaingalxy, @benjisales, @variety and Screen Rant, more at Techmeme »

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
A look at the US Copyright Office, which is in the spotlight as it plans to release three key reports in 2024 revealing its position on copyright law and AI

Discussion: @knibbs, @jeffplatsky, @dm_cooper, @toddbigphoto, @tvol and @stevelohr

Reuters:
Report: Zee Media founder Subhash Chandra says his family plans to eventually raise its stake in Zee from 4% to 26% after a merger with Sony India collapsed

Discussion: Livemint

Earlier Picks:

Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: former MGM executive Jonathan Glickman is in talks to join Miramax as its CEO, following Bill Block's departure last year

Discussion: The Wrap, @borys_kit and Deadline

Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu:
[Thread] A look at the factors behind the news industry downturn: advertisers have other avenues to target users, lack of a direct connection with readers, more

Pete Croatto / Poynter:
A look at the 2003 film Shattered Glass on serial fabulist Stephen Glass, the people involved in his rise and fall, and its enduring appeal in journalism school

Discussion: Nick Hirshon on LinkedIn, @sonnybunch, @jonathanchait, @petecroatto, @williams_paige, @billyray5229, @petecroatto, @benmullin, @om and On my Om

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources detail how a $300M investment from Blackstone, structured as a line of credit, became an albatross for Recurrent Ventures due to rising interest rates

Discussion: Media Voices, @markstenberg3, @rafat and Jared Lake on LinkedIn

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
X plans to build a new “Trust and Safety center of excellence” in Austin, Texas, and hire 100 full-time moderators to fight child sexual exploitation material

Discussion: Axios, TechCrunch, The Register, MIT Technology Review, The Information, The Hill, Reuters, @seesyous, @kurtwagner8, The Messenger, Engadget, @alexanotherone.bsky.social and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple and OpenAI are preparing a major announcement of their partnership at WWDC; the new AirTag with a better chip is scheduled to arrive by mid-2025

Greg Brockman / @gdb:
Sam Altman and Greg Brockman respond to Jan Leike, say they've raised awareness of the risks and opportunities of AGI, will keep doing safety research, and more

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: US officials have told Google, Meta, and others about concerns that undersea cables could be vulnerable to tampering by China-owned repair ships

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