Top News:
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Rotten Tomatoes debuts a Verified Hot badge for films that have a Verified Audience Score of 90% or higher, among other requirements — Movies that are ‘Verified Hot’ by filmgoers will join those that are ‘Certified Fresh’ from critics, in a move meant to give more weight to consumer opinions …
Discussion:
Rotten Tomatoes, Engadget, SlashFilm, Variety, The Wrap, IndieWire, The Playlist, CBR, @jacobtalks4ever, @gigawattconduit, @ellysmelancholy, @screenslate, Digital Trends and Media Play News
Tommy Craggs / Bloomberg:
How the end of a federal ban on sports gambling transformed the way sports media is funded and changed what kind of stories get covered and published — The $10 billion industry transformed how sports media is funded—and written. — Few journalists embody the gambling industry's capture …
Discussion:
@ghaleonq, @patrickhayes_13, @tcraggs22, CommonWealth Beacon, @albertburneko, @kevinmdraper and @travis_waldron
The Wrap:
Document: Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Paramount bid is backed by a group of 19 investors including Fortress, Brock Pierce, and producer Steven Paul — Kazakh investor Nurali Aliyev joins Fortress and producer Steven Paul in the last minute $4.3 billion bid — Cryptocurrency mogul Brock Pierce …
Discussion:
TVNewsCheck and Deadline
RELATED:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Source: Edgar Bronfman Jr. has raised $5.5B for a bid for National Amusements, and plans to submit a bid higher than his initial $4.3B offer in the coming days — - It would also draw out an already long and complicated sale process for Paramount. … - Paramount's special committee is expected to review the bid on Wednesday.
Discussion:
Advanced Television, Broadband TV News, The Wrap, Commercial Observer, @sarafischer, AV Club, Front Office Sports, New York Post, Reuters, Gordon Geist on LinkedIn, Financial Times, Deadline, The Guardian, The Streamable, The Media Leader, The Hill, Quartz, Ad Age, Los Angeles Times, Music Business Worldwide, New York Times, The Desk, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter
Catherine Perloff / Adweek:
Sources and docs: sales reps say Google's targeting of teen minors goes beyond Meta; Google lets advertisers target an “unknown” group that skews toward teens — This activity is broader than the agreement between Google and Meta that the FT reported this month
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Paramount and Canal+ unveil an updated deal under which Canal+ subscribers in France get Paramount+ at no additional cost — Under the updated deal, Canal+ subscribers can access Paramount+ at no additional cost, no matter which subscription plan they have.
Discussion:
Advanced Television, Marco Nobili on LinkedIn, Broadband TV News, Media Play News, WORLD SCREEN and Engadget
Editor and Publisher:
A draft plan circulating among California lawmakers and media leaders would create a Local News Fund with Google and state money, run by a board at UC Berkeley — Following years of legislative work, a draft deal between Google, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks …
Associated Press:
Police in Pakistan charge a man with cyberterrorism, accusing him of spreading misinformation about the identity of the attacker in the Southport stabbing — Web developer in Lahore charged with cyberterrorism, after riots thought to have been fuelled by false reports online
Discussion:
@marcowenjones, @fascinatorfun, Reclaim The Net, Reuters, London Evening Standard, UPI and The Guardian
Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
The UK's Evening Standard tells staff it will move to a weekly print publishing schedule, starting on Thursday, September 26, and rebrand as The London Standard — The Evening Standard print newspaper will rebrand as The London Standard when it goes weekly next month as it returns to a focus on news and analysis from the city.
Anna Gross / Financial Times:
Ofcom says it has 460+ people working on enforcing the Online Safety Act and plans to grow that by 20% to 550+ by March 2025, or 33% of its 1,500 total staff — Online safety rules in the spotlight after violent unrest sparked by spread of misleading news on social media
Discussion:
@paulmarsha11 and @jakdaw09
Tabitha Mueller / The Nevada Independent:
WBD commits $500M+ annually for productions in Nevada over 17 years as part of a UNLV film studio partnership, if the state expands its film tax credits in 2025 — The entertainment studio promised $8.5 billion in investments over 17 years, contingent upon the expansion of film tax credits in the Silver State.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Alex Cooper reaches a multiyear agreement with SiriusXM, replacing Spotify; source: the deal is for a little more than 3 years and is worth as much as $125M — Alex Cooper, host of the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, reached a multiyear agreement with SiriusXM that encompasses exclusive programming …
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Sirius XM Holdings Inc., Axios, The Media Leader, The Hollywood Reporter, Page Six, @litcapital, CMU, RADIO ONLINE, Inside Radio, The Daily Beast, USA Today, Mike Wolber on LinkedIn, Kerry Flynn on LinkedIn, Awful Announcing, @maxwelltani, Natalie Wellens on LinkedIn, Mercury News, Bloomberg, Tubefilter, Digital Music News, Billboard, Hollywood Life, Leigh Fulton on LinkedIn, CNN, The Information, The Hill, The Wrap, The Verge, Barrett Media and Deadline