Top News:
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Disney plans to launch ESPN's D2C service in August or the fall of 2025, and include integration with ESPN's fantasy platforms and ESPN Bet — - ESPN will launch its flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service in the fall of 2025, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday.
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Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Disney plans to invest $1.5B for a stake in Epic Games and collaborate on a new “universe” connected to Fortnite with content from Disney, Pixar, and more
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Reuters, The Verge, Emil Protalinski on LinkedIn, @genepark, @loudmouthjulia, @fortnitegame, @great_katzby, @bristei, @loudmouthjulia, @ballmatthew, @tomwarren, @disney, The Walt Disney Company, Neowin, Ars Technica, @mgsiegler@threads.net, Yonatan Raz-Fridman on LinkedIn, Fast Company, Neil Duffy on LinkedIn, Polygon, The Information, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Bill Young on LinkedIn, Bloomberg, WORLD SCREEN, Engadget, Variety, Business Insider, Deadline, TVNewsCheck and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney Q1: 111.3M Disney+ subscribers, down from 112.6M in Q3, Disney+ Hotstar adds 700K subscribers to 38.3M, and expects streaming profitability by Q4 2024
Discussion:
@bristei, MediaPost, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, AllEars.Net, Media Play News, The Streamable, IndieWire and ComingSoon.net
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: NFL, NBA, and other sports leagues were kept in the dark about the sports streaming platform being launched by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox — NFL, NBA digest details of new platform looming over their businesses — Sports leagues including the National Football League …
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Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Fubo says it is concerned about the “impact on fair market competition” after Disney, Fox, and WBD announced a sports streaming platform; FUBO closed down 20%+
Discussion:
@matthewkeyslive, @tvgrimreaper, @davezatz, @matthewkeyslive, The Desk, The Wrap, The Desk, Next TV, The Streamable, Media Play News, Cord Cutters News, Sports Media Watch, New York Post, The Guardian, The Walt Disney Company, The Information, MediaPost, Los Angeles Times, Business Insider and Bloomberg
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
A sports streaming platform jointly owned by Disney, WBD, and Fox could reshape the TV industry but could also anger pay TV distributors and sports leagues
Discussion:
@sherman4949, @pkafka, @pkafka, CNBC, The Wrap, Poynter, Charlie Boss on LinkedIn, Wall Street Journal and USA Today
Kenneth Li / Reuters:
Thomson Reuters reports Reuters News Q4 revenue rose 11% YoY to $220M, driven mainly by generative AI licensing, and adjusted EBITDA grew 56% YoY to $61M — Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO) on Thursday reported higher than expected profit but sales of divisions impacted total revenue growth …
Discussion:
Thomson Reuters
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Memo: Warner Music plans to lay off 10% of its staff, or 600 people, wind down its podcast network Interval Presents, and sell the websites Uproxx and HipHopDX — The tough news continues for the music industry as Warner Music announced that it will lay off 10% of its staff, or 600 people, in the coming weeks.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Battle for the Bird book excerpt: how Jack Dorsey's plan to get Elon Musk to save Twitter failed, as Musk dismantled the company after taking over, and more — An excerpt from Battle for the Bird shows how Twitter's two most prominent leaders contributed to its current dilemma.
Discussion:
@business and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »
Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
How the Alliance of Nonprofit News Outlets, launched in August 2023 and now with 32 member publications, helps small news nonprofits reach large funders — “There are haves and have-nots in the nonprofit journalism space. And this isn't right.” … Here's a question I bet …
Discussion:
@fara1, @laurahazardowen and @sarahscire
David Gilbert / Wired:
How a Russian disinformation campaign is using bots, lifestyle influencers, and state-run media to boost calls for a US “civil war” over the Texas border crisis — An all-encompassing Russian disinformation campaign is using everything from bots to lifestyle influencers …
Discussion:
@leahfeiger, @alecluhn, @daithaigilbert, @weilawei@mastodon.online and @w7voa@journa.host
Connor Jones / The Register:
Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center says Iran's cyber operations in Israel show how Iran could target the 2024 US elections, including AI-generated fake news — Tactics are more sophisticated and supported in greater numbers — Iran's anti-Israel cyber operations are providing a window …
Discussion:
Microsoft On the Issues, more at Techmeme »
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
UK-based ITN warns about AI deepfake online videos featuring some of its leading journalists, and says Meta can be slow to act once alerted to such content — Social media platforms such as Instagram are slow to remove harmful deepfake video content. — ITN has warned of the threat posed …
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Q&A with Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine on Medium expecting to turn a profit in 2024, distribution, training LLMs, AI-generated content, media layoffs, and more — The Scene — Amid turmoil in the media industry, online publishing platform Medium expects to post its first profit around the middle of this year.
Discussion:
@bigmeaninternet and @semaforben, more at Techmeme »
Isaiah Colbert / IGN:
Funimation plans to shut down on April 2, and provides an option to merge users' account with Crunchyroll; copies bought on Funimation won't work on Crunchyroll — Funimation subscribers can access their anime history and queue on Crunchyroll by merging their accounts.
Discussion:
Funimation, @eposvox, @minoru79, @eposvox, @jezcorden, Comic Book, @_cckirby, @ordinarygamers, @mcmovieman and CBR
Meduza.io:
Russia says Tucker Carlson is “not correct” to say no Western reporter tried to interview Putin, and Carlson is different from “traditional Anglo-Saxon media” — Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Wednesday that Vladimir Putin gave an interview …
Discussion:
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Claudia Chiappa / Politico:
Tucker Carlson faces backlash from American and Russian journalists after claiming that Western media is not making an effort to hear Putin's side of the story
Discussion:
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Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
News Corp Q2: revenue up 3% YoY to $2.59B, vs. $2.58B est., net income up 95% to $183M, Dow Jones with its highest quarterly revenue since its 2007 acquisition — The second quarter of 2024 marked the highest quarterly Dow Jones revenues since its acquisition in 2007
Discussion:
@johnbuckley_, @katie_robertson, @katie_robertson, Billboard, News Corporation, Reuters and Variety
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