Mediagazer: AT&T has agreed to sell Japanese anime streaming service Crunchyroll to Sony's Funimation Global Group for $1.18B (D. M. Moore/Polygon)

11:55 PM ET, December 9, 2020

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Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

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Philip Bump / Washington Post:

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D. M. Moore / Polygon:

AT&T has agreed to sell Japanese anime streaming service Crunchyroll to Sony's Funimation Global Group for $1.18B — The move consolidates the anime industry in a major way — On Wednesday, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. announced that AT&T and WarnerMedia agreed to sell Crunchyroll to Funimation.

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

Sources: in an investor presentation Thursday, Disney will share growth updates for its streaming platforms and detail content release plans for Disney+ — Some big-budget movies will first go to theaters. Other offerings will debut online. All will ultimately strengthen Disney+.

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Edmund Lee / New York Times:
Hollywood is upset about Warner Bros.'s decision to debut movies on HBO Max, but for owner AT&T, HBO Max serves as an incentive to keep phone customers loyal

Discussion: Washington Post, Business Insider, Variety, The Verge, @edmundlee, @kennethturan and @markberman

YouTube Official Blog:

YouTube says it will remove any content published from today that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the 2020 US Presidential election outcome — Over the past weeks and months, we've seen people coming to YouTube to learn more about where and how to vote or learning more about a candidate or an issue.

Luisa Beltran / Barron's Online:

Adtech company PubMatic, which develops infrastructure for programmatic ads, raises $118M in its IPO and hits a high of $33.16 after pricing shares at $20 — With all eyes on DoorDash's mammoth $3.37 billion offering, PubMatic made its public equity markets debut Wednesday. Shares soared 66%.

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Hamed Aleaziz / BuzzFeed News:

ICE says it “will not enforce the summons” demanding BuzzFeed News identify its sources “at this time” — “The media outlet subsequently declined to provide details regarding the sources of the unauthorized disclosure,” ICE said in a statement. “ICE will not enforce the summons.”

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Sara Fischer / Axios:

Internal email: Google tells its ad partners that it will lift the post-election political ad ban on December 10 — Google informed its advertising partners on Wednesday that beginning Dec. 10, it will lift the post-election political ad ban that went into effect after polls closed on Nov. 3, according to an email obtained by Axios.

Discussion: @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @senatorloeffler, @b_fung, @jeffjarvis, The Hill, CNBC, Business Insider, Politico, Engadget, The Week and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Fox News Media says it plans to launch Fox Weather, an ad-supported streaming weather service, in Q3 2021, initially as a mobile app — If the winds are shifting around cable-news in the aftermath of the 2020 election, Fox News Media intends to cover them: The company plans to launch …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Fox News, Bloomberg, @joelrubin, TVNewser, The Streamable, The Hill and The Wrap

Nicole Lee / Engadget:

Amazon begins rolling out a new Fire TV UI with user profiles, a simpler design, and more — Back when Amazon announced its latest Fire TV products — namely, the third-generation Fire TV Stick ($40) and the Fire TV Stick Lite ($30) — it also said it was going to roll out a new Fire TV interface this year.

Discussion: @abeaujon and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Nathan Grayson / Kotaku:

A measure that could be included in Congress' must-pass spending bill would turn unauthorized streaming of copyrighted material from a misdemeanor into a felony — The United States government is, as we all know, extremely functional. It's so functional, in fact, that it regularly struggles …

Discussion: American Prospect, Protocol, @spiderslash, @kreekcraft, @kebrightbill, @hasanthehun, @mitchbruzzese, @arcanefayth, @dingotech, @kz_frew, @harrisheller, @unite4copyright and Internet Archive Blogs

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