Mediagazer: Sources: Disney is working on features to increase the hours viewers spend on streaming, including pop-up live channels and more-tailored recommendations (Wall Street Journal)

7:25 AM ET, July 17, 2024

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Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Sources: WBD will lay off ~1,000 employees across sectors including finance, business affairs, and production; source: fewer than 10 Max staffers are affected — Sources tell Variety that nearly 1,000 employees will be laid off across a few sectors in a new cost-cutting move at WBD …

Discussion: Deadline, Quartz, @minotimusic, Jon Malone on LinkedIn, @tvgrimreaper, The Desk, Cord Cutters News, IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap

Jack Queen / Reuters:

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Sara Fischer / Axios:

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Annie Gilbertson / Proof:

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Tim Reynolds / Associated Press:

The NBA's Board of Governors approves the league's next media rights deals with Disney, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video; WBD could still match one of the deals — The NBA's Board of Governors approved the league's next media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video at its meeting Tuesday …

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Elahe Izadi / Washington Post:

Six journalists who worked at DCist, closed by WAMU earlier in 2024, launch the 51st, a worker-run local news site for DC, and a $250K fundraising campaign — The worker-run newsroom will attempt to fill a niche its founders say opened when WAMU closed DCist.

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Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Deezer debuts Playlist with AI in beta, where users can create playlists from text prompts, powered by Google's Gemini 1.5, following rivals' similar offerings — Deezer is the latest music streaming app to introduce an AI playlist feature. The company announced on Monday that a select number …

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Andrew Deck / Nieman Lab:

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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough says that he was “surprised” and “disappointed” after NBC leadership pulled his show on Monday — The MSNBC host returned to the channel Tuesday, saying he was “surprised” and “disappointed” by the decision to preempt his show Monday.

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Disney is working on features to increase the hours viewers spend on streaming, including pop-up live channels and more-tailored recommendations — Entertainment giant makes technical improvements meant to retain subscribers and encourage longer viewing sessions

Discussion: Cord Cutters News, Ars Technica, @tvgrimreaper, IndieWire, @wsjbusiness, @gabrielmalor.bsky.social and Quartz

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Nate Silver joins Polymarket, a predictions market startup that has raised $70M since 2020, as an adviser; he'll continue to produce his Substack newsletter — - “Probabilities really matter when you're trying to make plans,” Silver said in a phone interview.

Discussion: @elliosch, @lyingwithstats, @cwarzel, @zbs.bsky.social, @loudmouthjulia, @cwarzel, @tvmojoe and @DemocracyMattersALot …

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

A survey of 1,500 Britons: 7% pay for news subscriptions, 87% say they prefer ads to paying for content; overall, respondents said only 5% of ads were relevant — Two-thirds of Britons expect to access online content about current affairs and their special interests without paying for it, according to new research.

Discussion: Warren Johnson on LinkedIn and TOOLKITS

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From Techmeme:

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