Mediagazer: Tidal plans to combine its HiFi and HiFi Plus plans into a single $10.99/month “Tidal” plan, below HiFi Plus' $19.99/month; students will still pay $4.99/month (Chris Welch/The Verge)

8:45 AM ET, March 6, 2024

Top News:

Todd Spangler / Variety:

At a tech and media conference, Bob Iger says Disney is working to catch up with Netflix's tech capability and downplays the effects of activist investors — CEO says Nelson Peltz's activist investor proxy fight ‘designed to distract us’; reveals studio has ‘killed a few’ movie projects

Discussion: Broadband TV News, Media Play News, Business Insider, @xpangler, Gizmodo, Next TV, The Wrap, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and TVBEurope

Cormac Pearson / The Independent:

More than 100 MPs back an amendment to the UK's Digital Markets Bill requiring parliament's approval before UK news outlets can be bought by foreign governments — The amendment would require parliament's approval before UK news media organisations could be purchased by a foreign government

Discussion: @tinastowell, @robertjenrick and @pressgazette

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Tidal plans to combine its HiFi and HiFi Plus plans into a single $10.99/month “Tidal” plan, below HiFi Plus' $19.99/month; students will still pay $4.99/month — Tidal seems to have decided that there just aren't enough people willing to pay upward of $20 per month for the highest-possible audio fidelity.

Discussion: Music Business Worldwide, Engadget, TIDAL and Billboard

Emma Roth / The Verge:

A US judge upheld parts of a National Music Publishers' Association's copyright lawsuit against X and dismissed the claim that X engaged in direct infringement — The music labels suing Twitter — now X — for copyright infringement can move forward with parts of their lawsuit.

Discussion: CNN, Billboard, Reuters and US District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, more at Techmeme »

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

The UK announces an extended indie movie tax credit for films that have budgets between £1M and £15M, along with business rates relief for big studios — The UK government is to introduce an extended indie movie tax credit for films that have budgets between £1M and £15M …

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell plans to spend “tens of millions” of pounds to find the next global hit like Bluey; BBC Studio raised its debt facility to £600M — Commercial arm of broadcaster will ‘really go out to the market’ to develop new shows

Discussion: Deadline and @danielthomasldn

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

EY report: the Indian media and entertainment industry grew 8% YoY to $27.9B in 2023; TV shrank 2% YoY to $8.3B due to advertising declining by 6.5% YoY — The Indian media and entertainment industry grew 8% in 2023 to reach a value of $27.9 billion, according to the annual EY report released during …

Discussion: Business Standard and Financialexpress

Apple:

Apple adds transcripts to Apple Podcasts, which let listeners read and search the text of the episode, available in English, French, Spanish, and German — Transcripts offer full-text display for each episode, making podcasts more accessible and immersive than ever before

Discussion: Podnews, Allie Primak on LinkedIn, Ted Hosmann on LinkedIn, Dan Misener on LinkedIn, The Verge, 9to5Mac, @rustyhammer.bsky.social, Dyllon Young on LinkedIn, The Apple Post, RedCircle Blog and Digital Trends, more at Techmeme »

Emma Roth / The Verge:

In response to the EU's ruling, Spotify submits an app update for the EU to provide pricing info within its iOS app and link users to its subscription options — Spotify isn't going to launch the in-app purchases it previously planned for the European Union, at least right now.

Discussion: Engadget, The Sun, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Marcus James B. on LinkedIn, 9to5Mac, The Apple Post, CMU, Total Telecom, MediaNama, The Information, Fast Company and Wired, more at Techmeme »

Mia Sato / The Verge:

TikTok moves its Creativity Program, now rebranded as the Creator Rewards Program, out of beta, and requires videos to be longer than a minute to be monetized — A year ago, TikTok introduced a new way for creators on the platform to make money: make longer videos.

Discussion: Engadget, Tubefilter, TikTok and Fox Business, more at Techmeme »

Amy Maclean / Cablefax:

C-SPAN is searching for a new CEO as co-CEOs Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain step down this year; VP of Finance Matt Deprey will replace Kennedy as CFO — C-SPAN has started searching for a new CEO with longtime co-CEOs Rob Kennedy and Susan Swain stepping down this year, Cablefax has learned and confirmed.

Discussion: The Desk, @cspansusan, Amy Maclean on LinkedIn, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter

Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:

Ad company Entravision says Meta plans to wind down its authorized sales partner program and end its relationships with all ASPs, including Entravision, by July — ASPs are extensions of Meta's sales teams that have local presences in various countries — Meta Platforms plans to wind …

Discussion: Inside Radio, Radio Ink, RADIO ONLINE and Radio & Television …

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More News:

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Elon Musk's Tesla, which had been famous for shunning advertising, is now running ads on YouTube, TikTok, and Elon Musk's X; the ads started in early 2024

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The Verge:
YouTube star Hank Green interviews The Verge EIC Nilay Patel about the pressure from algorithms, giving work away for free, AI, the fediverse, and more

Discussion: @waxy@xoxo.zone

Sara Fischer / Axios:
NTWRK CEO says the company plans to fold its brand and business into Complex and form Complex NTWRK, less than two weeks after acquiring Complex for $108.6M

Discussion: Megan Rall on LinkedIn

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
Former Rolling Stone EIC Noah Shachtman is returning to Wired as a contributing editor, where he worked in the same capacity from 2006 to 2013

Discussion: @maxwelltani, The Desk, @katiedrumm@threads.net, @noahshachtman@threads.net and MediaPost

Tara Cobham / The Independent:
Presenter Dan Wootton says he's left GB News to launch an independent platform after Ofcom ruled misogynistic comments made on his show broke broadcasting rules

Discussion: Deadline, @danwootton, Mediaite, Broadband TV News, Dan Wootton Outspoken, The Guardian, PA Media, BBC, Sky News, Byline Times and Financial Times

Dan Primack / Axios:
TollBit, a startup whose two-sided marketplace lets publishers make their content available to AI companies for a fee, raised ~$7M in pre-seed and seed funding

Discussion: Olivia Joslin on LinkedIn and TollBit

Earlier Picks:

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google rolls out new changes to its Search ranking to help surface good content, downrank content that summarizes others' work, and more, as AI content spreads

Discussion: Engadget, The Keyword, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Lily Ray on LinkedIn, Wired, @waxy@xoxo.zone, Fast Company, TechCrunch, @hoonofthe.day and @itnewsbot@schleuss.online, more at Techmeme »

A. G. Sulzberger / Reuters Institute:
The NYT publisher's 2024 Reuters Memorial Lecture: journalistic independence, the Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, trans issues, being open to criticism, and more

Discussion: NPR, @mariaramirezny, @risj_oxford, @jongurutz, @risj_oxford, @jbenton, @rasmus_kleis, The Daily Beast and Reuters Institute on YouTube

Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:
Authors Equity, a US book publisher from former Penguin Random House and Macmillan executives, launches with plans to give authors the “lion's share” of profits

Discussion: Sarah Wills on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, Publishing Perspectives and The Bookseller

Matthew Weaver / The Guardian:
TalkTV plans to close down its linear TV channel in early summer 2024 and go online only, weeks after Piers Morgan left his daily show on the channel

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
Source: Amazon Prime Video plans to lay off less than 5% of its staff across its European offices, as part of a restructure impacting Europe, MENA, and Africa

Discussion: The Desk

From Techmeme:

Samantha Subin / CNBC:
The Nasdaq closes down 4%, with Meta down 7%, Nvidia down 6%, Amazon down 5%, and Apple down 4%, as the White House says Trump's tariffs on China now total 145%

Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI recently gave staff and third-party groups just days, vs. several months previously, to evaluate risks and performance of its latest models

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI rolls out a ChatGPT memory feature that references past chats for answers, starting with ChatGPT Pro and Plus subscribers, but not in the UK and the EEA

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