Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: AT&T is again exploring a DirecTV sale and is in talks with PE firms for a deal that could value it below $20B; AT&T bought DirecTV for $49B in 2015 — Telephone giant in discussions with private-equity bidders for satellite-TV business wounded by shift to streaming services
Brian Stelter / CNN:
Nielsen: ~23.8M viewers watched Trump's speech for the Republican National Convention across 13 networks, versus 24.6M who watched Biden's speech on 12 networks — New York (CNN Business)President Trump's Thursday night convention speech making the case for his reelection was lower-rated …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, @brianstelter, Los Angeles Times, Our Equilibrium, Forbes, Associated Press, Forbes, @benmullin, The Wrap, @ajkatztv, @twitterdata, New York Times, @twitterdata, Wall Street Journal, Axios, @alexcsinger16, @neverdotard, @rebeccaballhaus, @scottjenningsky, Mediaite, @twitterdata, The Hill, @grynbaum, @twitterdata, Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Hollywood Reporter, MediaPost, The Wrap and Insights - Nielsen
William Turvill / Press Gazette:
DMG Media says Mail Online's iOS revenue could fall by 75% due to Apple's privacy changes but some publishers see upside in ending Google and Facebook dominance — Mail Online has threatened to delete its iPhone app because of a new privacy policy from Apple that threatens to eat into its advertising revenues.
Discussion:
BuzzFeed News, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Mac, @bendreyfuss, @b_fung, @dinasrinivasan, @robenfarzad, MediaNama and @pkafka, more at Techmeme »
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
The White House is compiling a “very large” dossier on WaPo's David Fahrenthold and others, a spokesperson responded when asked for comment on a WaPo story — New York (CNN Business)The White House said in a story published Thursday that it was compiling a “very large” …
Discussion:
@abeaujon, American Press Institute, The Atlantic, @fahrenthold, @kazweida, @fahrenthold, @juddlegum, @rulajebreal, @blackamazon, The Nation, @davidcloudlat, @atrupar, @oliverdarcy, @ddale8, bookforum.com, @birbigs, Poynter, @ianbassin, @danrather, @brianbeutler, @tarasetmayer, @jessecharleslee, @erikwemple, @erikwemple, @erikwemple, @thekenyeung, @nickkristof, @ruthbenghiat, @martinsfp, @anthropunk, @jamalgreene, @vivian, @oliverdarcy, Washington Post, @fahrenthold, The Week, Law & Crime, Otherwise, Forbes, The Hill, Mediaite and Boing Boing
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku, approaching ~40% of broadband household penetration in the US, now often holds an upper hand in negotiations with streamers like HBO Max and Peacock — In virtual deal talks over the past several months, Roku execs have delivered a basic message — in not so many words …
Discussion:
@ericjhonsa, @lanceulanoff, @knieriemen, @richlightshed, @scottporch and Gizmodo
Tim Peterson / Digiday:
TikTok confirms publishers can apply for Creator Fund payments; sources: pubs need to have at least 10K followers and 10K views over the last 30 days — TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer may be jumping ship three months after joining the company, but some publishers are preparing to hop aboard …
Discussion:
@kerrymflynn, CNBC, MediaNama, @xpangler, @neilcybart, @loudmouthjulia, @loudmouthjulia and @loudmouthjulia
Dave McNary / Variety:
California sets rules for slowly opening indoor movie theaters with limited capacity based on coronavirus prevalence and positive test rates in counties — Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced strict guidelines for indoor movie theaters in California to reopen in the coming months.
Discussion:
@gavinnewsom, Deadline, @billfoxla, @robertgarcialb, @thewrap, Orange County Register, New York Times, The Wrap, /Film and Deadline
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Sources: Comcast is pitching X1 software powering its set-top boxes and Flex streaming hardware as a potential operating system to smart TV manufacturers — Comcast wants to turn the software running on its set-top boxes into an operating system for smart TVs, Protocol has learned …
Discussion:
@markgray, Gizmodo, @richlightshed, TheStreet, @robpegoraro and FierceVideo, more at Techmeme »
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Citizen Lab: between January and May 2020, China censored over 2,000 terms related to coronavirus on WeChat to control the narrative about China and the disease — In China, the messaging platform blocked thousands of keywords related to the virus, a new report reveals.
Discussion:
Memex 1.1, more at Techmeme »
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
NBCUniversal's Peacock is trying out a new kind of commercial that asks viewers to speak a phrase to gain gift cards or other promotions from advertisers — Madison Avenue has for decades trotted out a dizzying array of marketing avatars to talk to consumers.
Discussion:
@highway_62, MediaPost, @bristei and @bristei
Isaac Stanley-Becker / Washington Post:
Voting rights advocates say Google declined to remove ads with “active and blatant disinformation” about voting by mail; Facebook removed similar ads last week — Google has declined to remove ads from a shadowy group echoing President Trump's misleading claim …
Discussion:
@tonyromm, @guycecil, @bylenasun, @robpegoraro, @reptomcoleman, @gunnergale, @jvagle, @patrickjmchugh, @pollerphoto and Protocol, more at Techmeme »
Bernard Keane / Crikey:
The Australian government's proposal for Google and Facebook, at the behest of News Corp, is a rejection of law and a classic example of “sovereign risk” — Everyone hates Google and Facebook, right? But the government's proposal to force them to hand a colossal sum of money …
Discussion:
@cejse, @quentindempster, @orpheuseurydice, @mrdenmore and @bernardkeane
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