Top News:
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Channel 4 plans to lay off 18% of its staff, impacting ~200 jobs and closing ~40 unfilled roles, to become a “digital-first public service streamer by 2030” — “Channel 4 was designed to be ahead of the curve and has never stood still,” says CEO Alex Mahon.
Discussion:
Mediaite, Variety, CampaignUK, Broadband TV News, @scottygb, @scottygb, @joshoewaa and Financial Times
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Max Goldbart / Deadline:
Memo: Channel 4 plans to merge commissioning departments, including TV drama and film, leave a London premises, and more, part of a five-year Fast Forward plan — Channel 4 is merging several commissioning departments including TV drama and film and leaving its Horseferry Road premises …
Discussion:
The Guardian, BBC, The Guardian, @jake_kanter, Broadband TV News and Sky News
Ben Strauss / Washington Post:
Sports Illustrated's union files an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB, alleging retaliation and union-busting after the mass layoffs this month — The union representing the staff of Sports Illustrated filed an unfair labor practice charge against the magazine's publisher …
Discussion:
Columbia Journalism Review
Wall Street Journal:
How Penguin Random House started actively challenging the removal of books from US school libraries, including through an “Intellectual Freedom” task force — A fiery board meeting inspired Penguin Random House to actively challenge the removal of books from school libraries
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
In response to the George Carlin estate's lawsuit, Dudesy says its YouTube video and podcast with an “AI” George Carlin were “created by two human beings” — Creators still face “name and likeness” complaints; lawyer says suit will continue.
Reuters:
German state broadcaster ARD says Israel was blocking two of its long-term Palestinian workers from leaving Gaza, citing security concerns that don't make sense — German state broadcaster ARD on Friday said Israel was blocking two of its long-term Palestinian workers from leaving Gaza …
The Intercept:
Sources: the NYT pulled a The Daily episode about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, after an internal debate on the strength of its reporting — The New York Times pulled a high-profile episode of its podcast “The Daily” about sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 amid …
Discussion:
@ggreenwald, @markamesexiled, @evanhill, @zei_squirrel, @maryamsaleh, @drboguslaw, @snarwani and @kenklippenstein
Katie Campione / Deadline:
Nielsen: Ted Lasso was the most-watched streaming original in 2023, at 16.9B minutes, despite Apple TV+'s small footprint, followed by Netflix's The Night Agent — Ted Lasso went out on a high note at Apple TV+. — According to Nielsen, the series was the most-watched streaming original last year …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, New York Times, AppleInsider, UPROXX, BGR, Media Play News and The Hollywood Reporter
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
A look at the US Copyright Office, which is in the spotlight as it plans to release three key reports in 2024 revealing its position on copyright law and AI — The office is reviewing how centuries-old laws should apply to artificial intelligence technology, with both content creators and tech giants arguing their cases.
Discussion:
@knibbs, @jeffplatsky, @dm_cooper, @toddbigphoto, @tvol, @stevelohr and Publishers Weekly
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
A look at Warner Bros. Discovery's push to expand its gaming division with live services and mobile games, by leveraging its franchises like Game of Thrones — David Zaslav's most critical mission is leading Warner Bros. Discovery through the streaming wars.
Discussion:
@benjisales, @captaingalxy, @variety, Screen Rant, @jmaasaronson and @aegies, more at Techmeme »
Alex Fitzpatrick / Axios:
The New York Times says users played its puzzles and games more than 8B times in 2023, led by Wordle with 4.8B plays, and the NYT Games app had 10M downloads — The New York Times' puzzle and games were played more than 8 billion times last year, the company tells Axios exclusively …
Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Sources detail how a $300M investment from Blackstone, structured as a line of credit, became an albatross for Recurrent Ventures due to rising interest rates — The Blackstone investment was supposed to be a war chest. It became an albatross. — In May 2022, media company Recurrent Ventures announced …
Discussion:
Media Voices, @markstenberg3, @rafat and Jared Lake on LinkedIn
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