Mediagazer: Filmmakers, critics, and users detail why Prime Video failed in Africa; Amazon laid off staff and scaled back operations on the continent in January 2024 (Jesusegun Alagbe/Rest of World)

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

NBC News hires former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as an on-air contributor for NBC and MSNBC; her NBC debut will be on the March 24 edition of Meet the Press — Her new role as a commentator on NBC and MSNBC programs comes shortly after she stepped down as the leader of the Republican National Committee.

Isaac Schorr / Mediaite:

The Daily Wire and right-wing commentator Candace Owens end their relationship after months of controversy over her antisemitic comments — The Daily Wire and controversial right-wing commentator Candace Owens parted ways on Friday, according to CEO Jeremy Boreing.

Discussion: @jeremydboreing, Media Matters for America, HuffPost, CNN, The Guardian, @timodc, Washington Post, @mtracey, @brandyzadrozny, The Daily Beast, New York Post, TMZ.com, The Hill, @sovereignbrah, The Hollywood Reporter, Boing Boing, Deadline and Variety

Bloomberg:

Sources: OpenAI is meeting with Hollywood studios, media executives, and others to form partnerships to encourage filmmakers to integrate Sora into their work — - Startup pitching its new AI video generation tool, Sora — CEO Altman attended LA parties during Oscars weekend

Discussion: The Hill, The Wrap and Lucas Shaw on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:

Sources describe Google's generative AI tools for publishers, intended to be used for simple write-ups; Google is paying small publishers for feedback — Google wants to help journalists write stories with generative AI. Will it succeed? — ∙ Paid

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, MacRumors and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Antenna:

Seven weeks after the AFC Wild Card NFL game, 71% of the 3M people who subscribed to Peacock for the game remained subscribed — The first two months of 2024 brought some big moments for streaming and sports: in January, Peacock's exclusive broadcast of the NFL AFC Wild Card Game and Paramount+'s broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII.

Discussion: Awful Announcing, MediaPost, The Streamable, Sportico and Next TV

Brent Lang / Variety:

Imax partners with NBC to air live coverage of the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony at US Imax locations on July 26 — The television network, which broadcasts the games, will air its live coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony across Imax locations nationwide on Friday, July 26.

Discussion: Alessandra Pavan Bernacchi on LinkedIn, NBC Sports Pressbox, Deadline, Abdul Rehman on LinkedIn, Media Play News, The Hollywood Reporter and CNBC

Dan Primack / Axios:

Donald Trump's Truth Social is going public via a SPAC merger after DWAC shareholders approved the move; TMTG will be listed on the Nasdaq as early as next week — - As Axios reported earlier today, this ends a multiyear saga that's included civil lawsuits, criminal lawsuits, closing extensions and vote postponements.

Jesusegun Alagbe / Rest of World:

Filmmakers, critics, and users detail why Prime Video failed in Africa; Amazon laid off staff and scaled back operations on the continent in January 2024 — Filmmakers, critics, and users blame the platform's struggle in Africa on poor user experience, a lack of local content, and mediocre publicity.

Discussion: Ato Micah on LinkedIn, @restofworld, Manoj Narender Madnani on LinkedIn, David Adeleke on LinkedIn, Fadi Ismail on LinkedIn and The Information

Lance Whitney / ZDNet:

Meta is rolling out a political content option in the Threads app for iOS and Android, letting users choose between “limit” or “don't limit” — With the 2024 US presidential election coming up, you can expect to see a lot more political posts on social networks, including Meta's Threads.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Mashable, Music Ally, Gizmodo and @peterfeld.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

The UK government sets a panel to assess the BBC's current licensing model, examine alternate funding options, and find ways to grow commercial income — Former ITV and Channel 5 bosses will examine the future funding model of the BBC. — The UK government has just set out the panel …

Discussion: Advanced Television

The Associated Press:

The AP and Texas Tribune enter a content sharing agreement; AP will distribute Tribune reporting on Texas and Tribune will get access to AP immigration coverage — The Associated Press and The Texas Tribune today announced a content sharing agreement, in which both organizations will benefit from each other's journalism.

Discussion: @fbajak and Julie Pace on LinkedIn

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Martin Sorrell's ad company S4 rejected merger offers from Stagwell, including one worth $700M in fall 2023; S4's stock price fell 75% in the last year — Madison Avenue titan Martin Sorrell has rebuffed merger offers for S4 Capital, the firm he founded after exiting WPP

Discussion: David Armano on LinkedIn and @davidorr_31