Top News:
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
WBD reports a $86M profit in Q1 for its DTC unit, which includes streaming, up from $50M in Q1 2023, and 99.6M streaming subscribers, up from 97.7M in Q4 2023 — The entertainment conglomerate led by CEO David Zaslav reported its first-quarter results.
Discussion:
The Streamable and IndieWire
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Jennifer Maas / Variety:
WBD reports Q1 revenue down 7% YoY to $9.96B, and a $966M net loss, down 10% YoY, as TV revenue fell 8% YoY to $5.13B and studio revenue fell 13% YoY to $2.82B — Warner Bros. Discovery reported its first-quarter 2024 earnings Thursday, revealing it had reached 99.6 million paid streaming subscribers …
Discussion:
CNBC, Reuters, Deadline, Advanced Television and CityNews Toronto
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
ITV reports Q1 revenue down 7% YoY to £887M, ad revenue up 3% YoY, digital ad revenue up 14% YoY, and ITV Studios revenue down 16% YoY to £382M — U.K. broadcaster ITV has reported mixed financial fortunes for the first quarter of 2024. — Its advertising revenue growth of 3% …
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Media Leader, Deadline, City A.M., Advanced Television, IDX and The Hollywood Reporter
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney and WBD announce a streaming bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and Max, with ad-supported and ad-free plans, beginning this summer in the US, with pricing to come — Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are breaking ground in streaming with a bundled offering featuring Disney+, Hulu and Max in a single package.
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, @samhaft, 9to5Mac, IGN, Scott Bishoff on LinkedIn, @sherman4949, @sherman4949, @rfaughnder, Tara Sigaroudi on LinkedIn, @rakeshlobster, @sherman4949, Gene Miller on LinkedIn, Engadget, Neowin, MediaPost, The A.V. Club, SlashFilm, The Desk, New York Times, TVLine, Emily Chau Dea on LinkedIn, IndieWire, The Streamable, Next TV, @thekenyeung@threads.net, Reuters, BGR, @jw@threads.net, Wall Street Journal, TV Insider, @counternotions@mastodon …, Awful Announcing, @trustedsystem.bsky.social, CNBC, Adweek, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, The Walt Disney Company, Media Play News, The Wrap, Screen Rant, Consequence, Advanced Television, Bloomberg, WORLD SCREEN and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »
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New York Times:
Sources: if Sony and Apollo acquire Paramount Global, they plan to sell off CBS, cable channels like MTV, and Paramount+, while keeping Paramount Pictures — CBS and other well-known properties would be sold if Sony and Apollo are able to buy Paramount. But the new owners would keep the movie studio.
Discussion:
Quartz, @serwer, Media Play News, The Desk, @brianstelter, @benmullin, @danprimack, @benmullin, Reuters, @ernie.tedium.co and Axios
Financial Times:
TikTok plans to start automatically labeling some AI content, including from Dall-E and Adobe's Firefly, and joins the Adobe-led content credential coalition — Social media companies under pressure to identify deepfakes and prevent spread of misinformation
Discussion:
The Guardian, Engadget, Reuters, ABC News and ZDNet, more at Techmeme »
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
The New York Times Games rolls out a Wordle archive with 1,000+ past puzzles for “Games” and “All Access” subscribers, and adds its WordleBot to NYT Games app — The New York Times Games announced on Tuesday that it's launching a Wordle archive …
Discussion:
The New York Times Company, Fast Company and Gizmodo
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Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:
News Corp reports Q3 revenue down 1% YoY to $2.42B, net profit down 40% YoY to $30M, ad revenue fell 8.9% YoY to $358M, and 3.715M digital subscribers — News Corp posted lower quarterly revenue and earnings due to a slowdown in advertising and declines at its overseas newspaper unit and subscription-video business.
Lisa Schlein / Voice of America:
The UN high commissioner for human rights condemns Russia's crackdown on journalists; at least 30 journalists are currently detained on various criminal charges — United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Tuesday condemned Russia's brutal crackdown on journalists …
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Beth Mellor / Bloomberg:
After Concord said its $1.25 per share offer for Hipgnosis was final, Hipgnosis is set to be sold Blackstone at $1.30 per share, valuing the fund at ~$1.57B — That was topped last week by a $1.30 per share bid from Blackstone, valuing the business at about $1.57 billion.
Discussion:
Billboard, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, City A.M., Music Business Worldwide and Digital Music News
Maggie Harrison Dupré / Futurism:
An investigation into AdVon, the company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers, finds its AI content and fake authors at the LA Times, Miami Herald, and more — A few years back, a writer in a developing country started doing contract work for a company called AdVon Commerce …
Discussion:
Salon, Media Voices, @newsguild, @bcmerchant, @gaufre, @mattdpearce, @willyblackmore, @nxthompson, @caleweissman, @weareyourfek, @shwinyo, @mattzollerseitz, @knibbs, @taylorlorenz, @mags_h11, @mags_h11, @mags_h11, @pkafka, @newsguyusa@threads.net, @johnmcquaid@threads.net, Christopher Rice on LinkedIn, Jacob Hurwith on LinkedIn, @noellemitchell@mstdn.social, Sean Blanda on LinkedIn, @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org, @jvagle@mastodon.lawprofs.org, @jtlg@mastodon.lawprofs.org, @natematias@social.coop and @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social, more at Techmeme »
Nicholas Yong / Rest of World:
Some Singaporean writers resist the government's request to use their works to train a multilingual LLM, citing little clarity on compensation and other issues — Singapore's literary community is pushing back against an official effort to train LLMs using their published works, part of a growing global resistance.
Discussion:
@anupkaphle, @nuurrianti, @incoherentboy and @restofworld, more at Techmeme »
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