Mediagazer: Rakuten TV unveils new B2B services to help content owners and distributors set up FAST channels and video apps on Tizen, webOS, Fire TV, Roku, and more (Jamie Lang/Variety)

Clint Rainey / Fast Company:

Chick-fil-A announces Chick-fil-A Play, an app with family-focused original animated shows, scripted podcasts, games, e-books, and more, launching November 18 — What is Chick-fil-A Play? Inside the food chain's surprisingly logical next move. — Since late last year …

New York Magazine:

New York Magazine says the publication and Olivia Nuzzi agreed to part ways, and an independent probe found no inaccuracies or evidence of bias in Nuzzi's work — Last month, the magazine enlisted the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine to review Olivia Nuzzi's work during the 2024 campaign.

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

TelevisaUnivision reports Q3 revenue up 2% YoY to $1.3B, operating expenses up 1% YoY to $878M, and says its DTC business is now profitable after two years — Gains in U.S. advertising revenue and the sale of a set of broadcasting towers helped Spanish-language giant notch increase profits …

Discussion: MediaPost, TelevisaUnivision, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and TVNewsCheck

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Sources: Spotify is piloting its own supply-side platform, starting with video ad inventory, and began testing its SSP plugin with The Trade Desk last week — - Those improvements will help the Swedish audio giant compete against bigger platforms like Meta and Google for ad dollars.

Discussion: @sarafischer and Jeff Green on LinkedIn

Stephen Totilo / Game File:

Netflix shut down AAA game studio “Team Blue”, which hired industry veterans and seemed set to pursue a big-budget multi-device strategy, amid a gaming shake-up — The SoCal studio boasted senior veterans from Halo, God of War and Overwatch — One of Netflix's most intriguing video game studios is no more.

Dan Milmo / The Guardian:

Penguin Random House, UMG, and SAG-AFTRA join 11.5K+ signatories of an open letter saying the “unlicensed use of creative works” to train AI must not be allowed — Statement comes as tech firms try to use creative professionals' work to train AI models

Discussion: The Wrap, TechCrunch, Financial Times, The Hill, Washington Post, Stereogum and The Bookseller, more at Techmeme »

Jamie Lang / Variety:

Rakuten TV unveils new B2B services to help content owners and distributors set up FAST channels and video apps on Tizen, webOS, Fire TV, Roku, and more — Rakuten TV, a leader in European streaming and FAST channels, will unveil its new business line, Rakuten TV Enterprise Services, from Mipcom today.

Discussion: Advanced Television, TVNewsCheck, Broadband TV News and WORLD SCREEN

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Meta is testing facial recognition to combat celebrity scam ads and to help enable faster recovery of compromised Facebook and Instagram accounts — Meta is expanding tests of facial recognition as an anti-scam measure to combat celebrity scam ads and more broadly, the Facebook owner announced Monday.

Vittoria Elliott / Wired:

X data: Elon Musk-backed America PAC spent $166K between July 8 and October 1 to run 59 ads on X targeting swing voters in six states, yielding 32M+ impressions — America PAC purchased ads yielding tens of millions of impressions on X between July 8 and October 1, according to the platform's ad disclosure data.

Discussion: New Republic, Business Insider, Twitchy, New York Times, @scottinoc@threads.net, @silvermanjacob and One America News Network, more at Techmeme »

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

A look at Netflix's movie strategy, with Dan Lin, who took over as film chairman in April 2024, pushing for quality in-house projects and being more selective — Netflix is trying to make better movies. It starts with making less and spending less. — Ted Sarandos is tired of answering questions about movie theaters.

Discussion: Screen Rant, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, ComingSoon.net and Gizmodo

Sara Fischer / Axios:

OpenAI and Microsoft announce a $10M AI local news project operated by the Lenfest Institute, starting with five US metro news organizations — - “The scale, we think, is significant,” he added. … - The new program is being driven in partnership with The Lenfest Institute's Local …

Discussion: The Verge, The Wrap, @lenfestinst, @sarafischer, @jjaron, @lenfestinst, The Lenfest Institute … and Digital Scholarship

David Satin / The Streamable:

Fubo announces that FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass, and Paramount+ with Showtime are now available without requiring a base channel plan purchase — FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass and Paramount+ with SHOWTIME are now avaible through Fubo regardless of whether you buy a base channel plan.

Discussion: Awful Announcing, Digital Trends, Cord Cutters News, Fubo and Streaming Better