Mediagazer: Q&A with Ghostery CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz about the service turning 15, the state of ad tracking, why regulation is not the best path to protecting online privacy (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)

Top News:

Elsa Keslassy / Variety:

WBD says Max and Discovery+ have pulled in more unique viewers in the first two days of the Paris Olympics than in the entirety of the Tokyo games in 2021 — In just two days, Warner Bros. Discovery's Max and Discovery+ streaming services pulled in more unique viewers for the Paris Olympics …

Discussion: Pressroom, @tvgrimreaper, Media Play News and ComingSoon.net

Deadline:
Nielsen and Adobe Analytics: the Paris Olympics opening ceremony drew 28.6M viewers on NBC and Peacock, up 60%+ from Tokyo, plus 666K on Telemundo Deportes

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, Outsports, ComingSoon.net, StreamTV Insider, The Media Leader, TVNewsCheck, NBCSports.com, Sports Media Watch, Axios, Forbes, New York Times, HuffPost, Bloomberg, Sportico, TVLine, The Desk, The Wrap, Variety and Reuters

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:

Some popular sites like Condé Nast's titles and Reuters.com modified robots.txt to block Anthropic's bots, but Anthropic has just made new bots with other names — Hundreds of websites trying to block the AI company Anthropic from scraping their content are blocking the wrong bots …

Discussion: @josephfcox, @gedankenstuecke@scholar …, @dreid@wandering.shop, @neilsweeneyceo, @josephcox@infosec.exchange, Read the Docs, Financial Times and MSPoweruser, more at Techmeme »

Dylan Byers / Puck:

Sources: several Nikkei boardmembers push for consideration of a sale of the Financial Times as they have grown impatient with its economic performance — But first... 🗞️ Will the Financial Times head to the block?: Might the FT, the august salmon-hued internationalist business broadsheet, eventually hit the market?

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Twitch remains unprofitable a decade after Amazon's acquisition; Docs show Twitch generated ~$667M in ad revenue and $1.3B in commerce revenue in 2023 — The live-video service has slowing user growth, and workers are expecting more layoffs, changes ahead

Discussion: The Information, Salvador Rodriguez on LinkedIn, @salrodriguez@threads.net, @vocino@threads.net, @eaustinj@threads.net, @djlink@mastodon.gamedev.place, Dexerto, @simondowens@threads.net and Ian Whittaker on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Podcasting is becoming an industry of megastars with huge deals and the biggest audiences; Edison: the top 25 podcasts reach nearly 50% of US weekly listeners — The top shows are adding video, merchandise and live tours and signing megadeals with Spotify, Sirius and Amazon.

Discussion: The Media Leader, 9to5Mac, Max Cutler on LinkedIn, @robenfarzad, @samro, @joshthomastn, @davidharsanyi, @ckwitt3 and @wsj, more at Techmeme »

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Diamond Sports Group and Comcast reach a carriage deal to restore 15 RSNs to Xfinity Ultimate TV subscribers on August 1, ending a three-month blackout — Bankrupt regional sports network operator Diamond Sports Group has reached terms with Comcast on a carriage deal restoring 15 RSNs to Xfinity pay-TV systems.

Discussion: Morningstar, Inc., The Desk, @spacemnkymafia, Sportico, Awful Announcing, CNBC, Barrett Media, @alden_gonzalez, @alden_gonzalez, ESPN and Cord Cutters News

Sahil Patel / The Information:

LinkedIn and Pinterest are testing programs that let publishers sell ads on their videos and pages, respectively, in exchange for a cut of the resulting revenue — Social media platforms such as Pinterest, TikTok and LinkedIn are trying a new tack to gain a bigger share of digital advertising …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, The Media Leader, Jeremy Jankowski on LinkedIn and TVNewsCheck, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Russia's state-run news agency TASS says the Olympic organizing committee revoked the accreditations of four of its journalists in Paris — Russia's state-run TASS news agency said the Olympic organising committee revoked accreditations for four of its journalists in Paris on Sunday …

Discussion: The Moscow Times and The Desk

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Twitch rolls out a revamped iOS and Android app, which now shows a TikTok-like feed of recommended content when it's opened, instead of a “Following” list — Twitch's mobile app is getting a major update that puts its TikTok-like feed front and center.

more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Substack lets writers add embeds from predictions market startup Polymarket; Polymarket claims news prediction helps fight against clickbait and propaganda — Are prediction markets “the best tool we have to fight back against bullshit, clickbait, and propaganda,” or “just a euphemism for online gambling”?

Discussion: Semafor, On Substack and The Oracle

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Q&A with Ghostery CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz about the service turning 15, the state of ad tracking, why regulation is not the best path to protecting online privacy — The world of online advertising has changed dramatically since Ghostery first launched in 2009 to help people understand …

more at Techmeme »

London Evening Standard:

Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards is charged with three counts of making indecent images of children; Edwards resigned from the BBC in April 2024 — The former BBC newsreader has not appeared in public since allegations about his personal life were made in The Sun

Discussion: UPI, The Guardian, CNN, @jamesrbuk, PinkNews, @jake_kanter, Sky News, Press Gazette, CBS News, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Mirror and Deadline