Top News:
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Filing: OpenAI asks a US federal judge to dismiss parts of NYT's copyright suit, alleging it “paid someone to hack OpenAI's products” and violated OpenAI's TOS — OpenAI has asked a federal judge to dismiss parts of the New York Times (NYT.N) copyright lawsuit against it …
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
Internal docs: Tumblr staff compiled users' data in preparation for deals where Automattic would sell the data to OpenAI and Midjourney to train AI tools — Join the newsletter to get the latest updates. — Success — Great! Check your inbox and click the link. — Error
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Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: WBD is no longer pursuing a merger with Paramount, Skydance is doing due diligence, and Comcast is exploring commercial partnerships with Paramount — - Warner Bros. Discovery is no longer pursuing a merger with Paramount Global as its shares trade near a 52-week low, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
IndieWire, The Streamable, The Desk, The Wrap, The Hill, NewscastStudio, New York Post, Forbes, Reuters, Alex Sherman on LinkedIn, @lucas_shaw, NBC 7 San Diego and Cord Cutters News
Sara Fischer / Axios:
The FT launches a venture arm to invest in media and tech startups, starting with $1M for Charter, a media and insights company focused on the workplace — - The company has made several strategic minority investments to date, including one in the Business of Fashion.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Imax reports Q4 revenue of $86M, vs. $89.59M est., down 12% from Q4 2022, when Imax experienced a rapid reopening of cinemas in China, and net income of $2.5M — Overall quarterly revenue came to $86 million, down 12 percent from a year-earlier $98 million, as 'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom …
Discussion:
Variety, The Wrap, Yahoo Finance and IMAX
Antenna:
Among premium SVODs, US subscriber growth fell from 21.6% YoY in 2022 to 10.1% YoY in 2023; 140.5M cancelled their subscriptions in 2023 vs. 104.3M in 2022 — The headlines suggesting that the boom times are over for streaming video have been unavoidable.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Media Play News and Reuters
Jem Aswad / Variety:
TikTok removes all songs published by Universal Music Publishing Group, expanding a licensing spat; at first only songs owned or distributed by UMG were removed — The bruising battle over royalties between Universal Music Group and TikTok entered a new and more severe stage in the early hours …
Discussion:
Billboard, TechCrunch, Reuters, Rolling Stone, The Ankler, Music Ally, CMU, Music Business Worldwide and Digital Music News, more at Techmeme »
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Netflix confirms that it has started removing Apple iTunes billing for longtime subscribers, and now requires them to pay directly on its website — Netflix confirms to The Verge that it has begun booting longtime subscribers off their Apple iTunes billing plans, and will require …
Discussion:
The Wrap, BGR, CNN, Cord Cutters News, 9to5Mac and The Streamable, more at Techmeme »
Ben Strauss / Washington Post:
Authentic says it has recouped its ~$90M SI purchase via licensing; sources: SI has 1M print subs, breaks even, and Minute Media is a potential new publisher — LAS VEGAS — “This is Sports Illustrated, the party!” the DJ yelled. “Tonight is going to be legendary.”
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Docs: Google is paying a handful of independent publishers a five-figure sum for one year to use an unreleased suite of generative AI tools to post stories — In exchange for a five-figure sum, publishers must use the tool to publish 3 stories per day — Google launched a private program …
Julia Angwin / Proof:
Julia Angwin launches Proof, a nonprofit studio aimed at elevating journalism by using the scientific method as a guiding ethos; Angwin is founder, CEO, and EIC — Hello world! — Welcome to Proof News. Proof is meant to be an answer to the existential question that journalists are struggling with right now: What is our purpose?
Discussion:
@juliaangwin and @juliaangwin
Alexandra Topping / The Guardian:
The BBC says it will bolster its procedures for dealing with non-editorial complaints, after finding shortcomings in dealing with a complaint about Huw Edwards — Corporation launched review into complaints procedure after scandal about presenter last year
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