Mediagazer: Adobe says its Firefly Video Model is the first “commercially safe” text-to-video generative AI model that was trained on licensed and public domain content (Jeremy Gray/PetaPixel)

Top News:

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Fox Deportes and NBCUniversal's Telemundo will each produce separate Spanish-language broadcasts of Super Bowl LIX in 2025, an unusual arrangement — Each year, Spanish-speaking sports fans can usually find one Spanish-language simulcast of the Super Bowl. This year, there will be two.

Discussion: The Desk, @jeremydstanley.com, Sports Media Watch, Deadline, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter and Barrett Media

Max Tani / Semafor:

Yashica Olden, who was Condé Nast's first head of diversity, equity, and inclusion, quietly left in June 2024, after internal tensions over the Israel-Hamas war — The Scoop — Condé Nast's high-profile head of diversity quietly stepped down in June amid bitter internal tensions …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, @jessesingal, @semaforben, New York Post and @maxwelltani

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Filing: the UK's PA Media Group reports 2023 revenue up 6% YoY to £112.1M and operating profit up 53% YoY to £8.3M, as it grows through revenue diversification — PA Media Group has grown its revenues every year since 2016 helped by a series of acquisitions.

Jeremy Gray / PetaPixel:

Adobe says its Firefly Video Model is the first “commercially safe” text-to-video generative AI model that was trained on licensed and public domain content — Adobe unveiled its Firefly Video Model last month, previewing a variety of new generative AI video features.

Discussion: Neowin, Forbes, Neowin, @joshgong10, @acostin, Silicon Valley Business …, Ars Technica, Reuters, Adobe Newsroom, Digital Trends, Hindustan Times, Thurrott, Engadget, TechCrunch and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:

An interview with IAC chair Barry Diller on his Paramount bid being “more of a duty than a desire”, why Hollywood's hold on entertainment is “gone”, and more — IAC chair hits out at Trump and warns of power shift to Big Tech in film and TV

Discussion: Benzinga, @arogdc, @jonthn_wheatley, @tonytassell and Business Insider

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Sources: Disney plans to simulcast six broadcasts of Monday Night Football, typically a mainstay of ESPN, on the ABC broadcast network — Disney is taking a strategy that lent it a boost during the recent Hollywood labor strikes and working to apply it to its normal course of business.

Discussion: NBCSports.com, Decider, Cord Cutters News, Adweek, Associated Press, Inside Radio, USA Today, The Desk, Sportico, Front Office Sports, Awful Announcing, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter

Ben Smith / Semafor:

Q&A with ATTN co-founder and co-CEO Matthew Segal on the current social ecosystem, vertical video optimization, trying to be the “HBO of short-form”, and more — The News — Born in 2014, the media company ATTN is the product of the Facebook video age …

Jane Clinton / The Guardian:

BBC DG Tim Davie says funding cuts to BBC World Service have helped state-funded media operators from Russia and China broadcast “unchallenged propaganda” — BBC director-general Tim Davie to warn world facing ‘all-out assault on truth’ as state-funded media operators broadcast unchallenged

Ben Quinn / The Guardian:
The BBC launches an independent review of its workplace culture after scandals around presenters like Huw Edwards; DG Tim Davie says no one is “indispensable”

Discussion: The Sun and Deadline

Joseph Bernstein / New York Times:

A look at Pod Save America, which gets 20M monthly downloads, and its parent company Crooked Media, as both have grown into institutions in liberal politics — The hosts of the political podcast have outlasted the wave of anti-Trump #Resistance that made it popular. That's where things get complicated.

Discussion: @bernstein and Fox News

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

The Evening Standard reports revenue down 15% YoY to £26.8m in the FY ending October 1, 2023 and a loss of £20.6M, its highest loss since going free in 2009 — The Evening Standard has reported its highest losses since going free in 2009, for the year before it decided to drop its daily print edition.

Discussion: Financial Times, @baekdal and The Guardian

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:

Legendary Entertainment buys out Wanda Group's remaining 60% equity stake in the studio; Legendary board will be evenly split between management and Apollo — As part of the move, the “Dune” and “Godzilla” studio's board will be evenly split between management and private equity firm Apollo …

Discussion: Bloomberg, @xpangler, @mtfiii, Los Angeles Times, Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and Reuters

Alex Barasch / New Yorker:

A profile of Bang Si-hyuk, a South Korean music producer and chairman of Hybe Corporation who is taking his formula for creating K-pop idols like BTS to the US — Chairman Bang, the man behind BTS, is bringing his formula for creating K-pop idols to America. — Scooter Braun was in a tailspin.

Discussion: @cfnchng, @christataetae, @thelionmutters, @intrnl_mnologue, @sugatheartist and @themarkrussell

Financial Times:

A Venezuelan rights group says the country has cancelled 40+ passports, mostly of journalists and activists, since Nicolás Maduro claimed a re-election victory — Move part of campaign of repression since President Nicolás Maduro claimed re-election win, say rights groups

Discussion: @kenroth, The Art Newspaper and Reuters