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Comcast reports Q4 revenue up 2% YoY to $31.92B and media revenue, including its TV networks, up 3.5% to $7.22B; Comcast lost 311K cable TV customers — Comcast topped Wall Street's fourth-quarter estimates on Thursday as revenue from the company's broadband business gave it a boost despite losing customers.
Discussion:
Variety, Reuters, Barron's Online, Bloomberg, Deadline, @tvgrimreaper and Comcast
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Comcast reports Peacock's Q4 losses fell to $372M from a $825M loss in Q4 2023 and revenue rose 28% YoY to $1.3B; Comcast didn't disclose a subscriber count — Comcast, led by chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, reported fourth-quarter and full-year results for its entertainment unit and other operations.
Discussion:
The Wrap
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Meta agrees to pay ~$25M to settle Trump's 2021 lawsuit against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg after the company suspended his accounts following the January 6 riot — The president had sued the social-media company after his accounts were suspended following Jan. 6 riot
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MediaPost, Washington Post, New York Times, Poynter, HuffPost, NPR, Digby's Hullabaloo, @mattgertz, @davidfrum.bsky.social, The Hill, Benzinga, The Guardian, AV Club, @rebeccaballhaus, One America News Network, Reclaim The Net, Reuters, @katarinacorleone.bsky.social, Associated Press, RedState, CNBC, Mediaite, Raw Story, @derfbackderf.bsky.social, Politico, Le Monde, Forbes, @philipmai.com, The Verge, Engadget, The Gateway Pundit, The Desk, Daily Mail, @zacheverson.com, The Post Millennial, ABC News, @kjhealy.co, The Atlantic, @annmlipton@esq.social, TVNewsCheck, @documentingmeta@threads.net, NBC4 Washington, The Information, Axios, Variety, The Wrap, ZeroHedge News, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, CNN, The Independent, @noupside.bsky.social, @brianfung.me, @brianstelter.bsky.social, @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social, Business Insider and CBS News, more at Techmeme »
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Fox EVP of Ad Sales Mark Evans says there is an increase in Super Bowl ad buys from AI companies, while ad buys from movie studios and streamers are down — AI-focused ads are up, and movie spots are down, Fox says, as 30-second ads hit an eye-watering $8 million.
Discussion:
Adweek, TVNewsCheck, RetailWire, Gizmodo, The US Sun, The Verge, Awful Announcing, @mousterpiece.bsky.social and Ad Age
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Sources: Fox has sold at least ten 30-second Super Bowl ad spots for $8M+, a record; pre and post-game ad prices have also increased, reaching $4.5M and ~$4M — Super Bowl LIX is still days away, but someone has already scored a key Big Game touchdown.
Discussion:
Axios, Sports Business Journal, CNBC, FTVLive, Awful Announcing, Benzinga, The Mirror US, @jason_kint, @alexweprin, Forbes, CNN, Bloomberg, Us Weekly, The Wrap, Just Jared, Adweek, Associated Press, TVNewsCheck and Deadline
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The BBC apologizes to staff after an internal review found employees felt unable to raise concerns about Russell Brand's misconduct during his tenure at BBC — The BBC has apologised to staff who felt they could not speak up with concerns about Russell Brand's behaviour because he was seen as …
Discussion:
Variety, Daily Mail, The Independent, The i Paper, Sky News, The Mirror, The Sun, Deadline, Irish Mirror, GB News and Irish Independent
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NewsGuard: with news-related prompts, DeepSeek's chatbot repeated false claims 30% of the time and provided non-answers 53% of the time, giving an 83% fail rate — Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek's new chatbot failed to provide accurate information about news …
Discussion:
Politico, @firstadopter, The Mirror, BGR, TechNode, @peark.es, @newsguard.bsky.social, @brianfung.me, Interesting Engineering, Gizmodo, Fortune and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
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Court filing: Elon Musk, seeking to dismiss Don Lemon's lawsuit, blames an “invasive and charged interview” for canceling Lemon's $1.5M partnership with X — - Former CNN star is suing Musk over failed $1.5 million deal — X owner says journalist's interview led to ‘sour’ relationship
Discussion:
@kurtwagner.bsky.social, @kurtwagner.bsky.social and The Root
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How Epic is transforming Fortnite into a content platform, paying $350M to creators in 2024; 36.5% of the total playtime was spent in games made by creators — What are creator made islands competing for players' attention if nothing but decentralized channels in a centralized ecosystem?
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Influence Media Partners secures ~$360M in debt financing through private securitization, collateralized by music royalties from its portfolio of music rights — Rights-backed securitization deals are becoming increasingly common in the music industry. — Today (January 29) brings the latest news from this space.
Discussion:
Billboard, Digital Music News, Influence Media Partners and Variety
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Save the Music, a nearly 30-year-old nonprofit promoting music education in public schools, goes independent after Paramount's decision to end financial support — New York CNN — — Save the Music, the nonprofit foundation that grew in popularity on cable TV in the late 1990s through the 2000s, is going indie.
Discussion:
Castanet.net, @kevdgrussing.bsky.social, Billboard and Digital Music News
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The co-founder of the nonprofit National Trust for Local News, Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, is stepping down as the organization's CEO after four years — Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, who co-founded the National Trust for Local News four years ago, is stepping down as the organization's CEO.
Discussion:
Press Herald, The Maine Wire, NTLN and @dankennedy.net