Mediagazer: Sources: AT&T is considering parting ways with its DirecTV unit, including spinning it off into a separate public company or combining assets with Dish (Wall Street Journal)

11:25 AM ET, September 19, 2019

Top News:

Sources: AT&T is considering parting ways with its DirecTV unit, including spinning it off into a separate public company or combining assets with Dish — Telecom giant considers fate of DirecTV satellite unit — AT&T Inc. is exploring parting with its DirecTV satellite unit …

Discussion: CNBC, NBC News, Light Reading, Talking New Media, Ad Age, @brianstelter, @the___spy, Ars Technica, Los Angeles Times, Multichannel News, The Wrap, CNN, Engadget, The Streamable, CNBC and CNET, more at Techmeme »

Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times:

Google is investing “several million dollars” in Project Neon, a three-year partnership with UK news publisher Archant, which will launch three local news sites — Google is investing “several million dollars” into a joint venture with a British local news publisher …

Discussion: Press Gazette, The Keyword and @updatesneon

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Roku OS 9.2 will feature Roku Zones, which aggregate content from particular genres, sorting it according to whether it's free, available for rental or purchase — The Ultra's remote can open whatever app you want with a single button press — Roku is unveiling its fall 2019 lineup …

Discussion: Roku Online Newsroom, Variety, TechCrunch, Multichannel News and The Streamable, more at Techmeme »

The Lenfest Institute for Journalism:

Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund makes first grants: $5.25M to three Philadelphia recipients to support new models for local journalism — Fund's first grants to support new local journalism models, advanced technology for newsrooms — The Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund …

Discussion: @lenfestinst, @pilhofer, @tylrfishr, @tylrfishr, @jroxann and @lenfestinst

Robert Iger / Vanity Fair:

Book excerpt: as he exits Apple's board, Disney's Bob Iger recounts talks with Steve Jobs before Disney bought Pixar, and how their friendship grew — As he exits Apple's board, the Disney chief reminisces about his relationship with its mercurial founder—and how their radical visions aligned to save two companies.

Aaron Rupar / Vox:

CNN booked Corey Lewandowski for an interview just hours after telling Congress he has “no obligation to be honest with the media” — Believe it or not, cable news networks are not obligated to showcase liars. — You might think that Corey Lewandowski's admission during …

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
After Corey Lewandowski pronounced his freedom to lie to media, a look at how a Fox News “straight news” anchor interviewed him and sidestepped the lying issue

Discussion: @oliverdarcy, @politidope, @theplumlinegs, @rachellarris, @sophiatesfaye, @badfoxgraphics, Mediaite and Vox

Hilary Russ / Reuters:

DAZN reaches distribution deal with Comcast, its first in North America; Xfinity Flex box users will have access to DAZN starting today — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media and communications giant Comcast Corp has struck a distribution deal with digital global sports provider DAZN Group …

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Comcast will give internet-only customers free access to Xfinity Flex, its streaming platform with 10K+ movies and shows, which used to cost $5 per month

Discussion: Associated Press, The Verge, @xpangler, corporate.comcast.com, The Wrap, Deadline, Multichannel News, TechRadar.com, Fast Company, Engadget, Deadline, The Streamable, The Wrap and Broadcasting & Cable

Omar Sanchez / The Wrap:

Acorn TV, AMC's British film and TV show streaming service, has passed 1M subscribers in Canada and the US — Acorn TV, AMC's streaming service featuring British film and television programs, has passed one million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, the network has announced, calling it a …

Discussion: The Streamable, Broadcasting & Cable and Deadline

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Medium adds a “Save to Medium” bookmarking feature that lets users save articles to a reading list via sharing extensions on mobile and in Chrome — Most sites don't load in reading mode — Medium's “Save to Medium” bookmarking feature is now live, letting you save articles …

Discussion: blog.medium.com, @ckrewson, @medium, @caseynewton and Medium Help Center, more at Techmeme »

Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:

Survey of nonprofit outlets: foundations supplied under 50% of funding for the first time on record in 2018, as earned income and individual giving increases — “Nonprofit news organizations have much in common even if their scope or mission differs. Their journalistic missions …

Discussion: @jcstearns

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

Researchers: many smart TVs and streaming dongles from Roku, Samsung, Amazon and others are sending user data to companies like Netflix, Microsoft, and Facebook — The smart TVs in our homes are leaking sensitive user data to companies including Netflix, Google and Facebook even when some devices are idle …

Discussion: Washington Post, @geoffreyfowler, ZDNet, @mmnjug, @dhh, @ilvestoomas, @justinbrookman, @geoffreyfowler, @faizsays, @upma23, @hoofnagle, @valaafshar, Wired, The Mac Observer and Slashdot, more at Techmeme »

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Tumblr and WordPress.com parent company Automattic raises $300M Series D from Salesforce Ventures at a post-money valuation of $3B — Automattic, the company best known for WordPress.com and its contributions to the open source, non-hosted WordPress alternative, has raised $300 million …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Matt Mullenweg and Axios, more at Techmeme »

Dylan Byers / NBC News:

HBO's five-year deal for The Big Bang Theory is the clearest sign yet of AT&T's intention to transition HBO from a premium brand to a mass-market broadcaster — Analysis: Like Netflix, HBO could become home for a lot of good content and even more not-as-good content — but not the edgy, prestige work it became known for.

David Cohen / Adweek:

Nielsen Social Content Ratings, which measure talent's promotion of TV shows on social media, now include Instagram in addition to Twitter and Facebook — Facebook and Twitter were already being tracked — The Nielsen Social Content Ratings now measure talent's promotion …

Discussion: Variety and Broadcasting & Cable

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Marcela Kunova / Journalism.co.uk:
BBC tests a browser extension that blurs out text, images, and headlines of articles based on personalized trigger words that can prompt anxiety in readers

Megan Graham / CNBC:
CBS, Viacom, and WarnerMedia say they will no longer run e-cigarette advertising on their networks, a week after WarnerMedia's CNN announced a similar ban

Discussion: New York Times, Times of India, The Wrap, The Verge, USA Today and The Hill

Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:
Nielsen acquires a minority stake in OpenSlate, which evaluates brand safety of video content on YouTube and Facebook; source: deal values OpenSlate at $100M+

Discussion: @bjqool, @roomnoise, @nielsen and @digitalshields, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:
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Discussion: The Verge, @tonyromm, @tonyromm, Newser, Mashable, CNET, Engadget and MarketWatch, more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
Only one of The Correspondent's five full-time hires for its English-language version is based in the US, with others in Italy, Nigeria, India, and London

Discussion: @jbenton and @niemanlab

Earlier Picks:

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Plex adds Lionsgate as a worldwide content partner for its ad-supported streaming service, joining Warner Bros., which was previously announced as a US partner

Discussion: Variety, @media_evan, Windows Central, The Streamable and 9to5Mac

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Misinformation reporters talk about how they identify the people behind troll accounts and avoid traps designed to thwart their reporting

Discussion: @gmikewebb, @donie and @grahambrookie

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook debuts $149 Portal TV, a streaming box supporting Prime Video, Showtime, and CBS All Access that can also make video calls while viewing Facebook Watch

Discussion: Facebook, Morning Brew, TechCrunch, @auchenberg, 9to5Google, Vox, Fast Company, @davezatz, @mikedrucker, @ow, @amahnke, Fortune, CNET and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »

Tal Axelrod / The Hill:
NYT announced Tuesday that it is shutting down its Spanish-language platform, NYT en Español, which debuted in 2016, saying it was not financially successful

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @niemanlab, The Wrap, American Press Institute, New York Times, @raju, @hshaban, @hugobalta, @hechaenchicago, The Hill and RealClearPolitics

From Techmeme:

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Sources: EU may accept Apple's proposal to open its NFC payments tech to rivals, and may close its antitrust probe in May, letting Apple avoid hefty fines

Gaby Del Valle / The Verge:
The US Senate reauthorizes FISA's Section 702; some communication service providers had threatened to stop cooperating with the US government in case of a lapse

George Steer / Financial Times:
Nvidia closed down 10% on Friday, falling the most since March 2020 and losing more than $200B of its market value, as investors pull back from AI bets

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