Top News:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Apple offers Apple TV+ for free to anyone with an Apple ID this weekend, the first time it has offered such a promotion — Apple is allowing anyone to access its Apple TV+ streaming service for free from Friday through Sunday. The company announced the weekend of free streaming earlier …
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Meta says the viral AI profiles on Facebook and Instagram were created in 2023 as part of “an early experiment” with AI characters, and it is deleting them — Earlier this week, Meta executive Connor Hayes told the Financial Times that the company is going to roll out AI character profiles …
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Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
Memo: Sameer Singh, TikTok's general manager for North America's ads team, is leaving the company at the end of February, as the company faces a ban in the US — Sameer Singh will remain at the company until the end of February — Sameer Singh, TikTok's North America head of ad sales …
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Ad Age, The Information and Business Insider
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Wall Street Journal:
Many advertisers on TikTok say they will shift ad dollars if and when a US ban actually takes effect, as the yearslong saga has dulled any real sense of urgency
Discussion:
Adweek, @saraheneedleman, CBS News, @arozenshtein, @nathanleamerdc, @meghanbobrowsky, Bloomberg and The Information
Matt Pearce:
The Gannett-Reuters deal aims to supplant The Associated Press, which has resisted journalism's financialization through its longstanding cooperative model — Gannett and Reuters come for one of the final corners for legacy media that had resisted the financialization of journalism.
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David Shepardson / Reuters:
A US appeals court rules the FCC did not have legal authority to reinstate net neutrality rules; incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr opposed the 2024 reinstatement — A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday the Federal Communications Commission did not have the legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules.
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BBC:
The BBC says Gavin & Stacey: The Finale becomes the UK's most-watched scripted show across all broadcasters and streamers since 2002 with 19.3M viewers — Smashing the show's own record from five years ago, the last ever episode of the hit British sitcom took the top spot on Christmas Day
Discussion:
TVLine, AV Club, Metro.co.uk, @ratings_uk, Broadcast, @allyfarrell, @michaelhogan, @tharriesyt, @thecyberdevil, @scottygb, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Advanced Television
Surbhi Misra / Reuters:
Filing: Skydance Media and Paramount Global defend their planned $8.4B merger, calling on the FCC to dismiss opposition from critics as lacking merit — Skydance Media and Paramount Global (PARA.O) on Thursday defended their planned $8.4 billion merger, urging the Federal Communications Commission …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, Yahoo Finance, New York Post and TVNewsCheck
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Anthropic agrees with three publishers to stop Claude from providing lyrics to their songs or new lyrics based on copyrighted content, pending a court ruling — While the case is proceeding, Anthropic's Claude will no longer provide lyrics to songs owned by the music publishers or new lyrics based on copyrighted material.
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
An unredacted lawsuit from Utah's AG claims TikTok has long known that TikTok Live promoted sexual content streams to minors and facilitated money laundering — - Unredacted lawsuit claims TikTok knew about teen safety issues — Lawsuit also alleges company facilitated money laundering
Discussion:
Reuters, Engadget, The Information, KSLTV.com, Gizmodo and @ali_lev, more at Techmeme »
Molly White / Citation Needed:
An in-depth look at Elon Musk's criticisms of Wikipedia, as he joins a growing right-wing chorus of voices attacking information sources outside their control — The world's richest man has joined a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking Wikipedia as part of an intensifying campaign against free and open access information.
Wall Street Journal:
A look at publishers' efforts to get brands to run ads near sensitive stories; WaPo's crossword page was blocked by advertisers seven times in a week in October — Brands are skittish about appearing near stories on politics and violence, but news outlets say their fears are overblown
Bloomberg:
Sources: Getty Images is exploring a merger with rival Shutterstock; deliberations are ongoing and Getty could decide not to pursue a deal — - Getty weighing how to structure combo with stock-photo rival … Getty has been weighing how to structure a combination that would bring together …
Discussion:
Reuters and The Information
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Influencer marketing company Later acquires Mavely, which pays commissions to social-media creators for the sales they generate, for $250M in cash and stock — Later, an influencer and social-media marketing company, acquired social commerce app Mavely for $250 million
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