Top News:
Wall Street Journal:
Meta agrees to pay ~$25M to settle Trump's 2021 lawsuit against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg after the company suspended his accounts following the January 6 riot — The president had sued the social-media company after his accounts were suspended following Jan. 6 riot
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, AV Club, Digby's Hullabaloo, @mattgertz, KGW-TV, The Verge, @kjhealy.co, Reuters, @davidfrum.bsky.social, Engadget, TVNewsCheck, @katarinacorleone.bsky.social, @annmlipton@esq.social, Axios, The Desk, Raw Story, Politico, @documentingmeta@threads.net, Daily Mail, Reclaim The Net, CNBC, RedState, Le Monde, ABC News, @philipmai.com, The Wrap, The Information, Forbes, The Hill, Benzinga, Mediaite, @zacheverson.com, The Gateway Pundit, The Guardian, The Post Millennial, @derfbackderf.bsky.social, @rebeccaballhaus, ZeroHedge News, Variety, The Atlantic, One America News Network, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, CNN, The Independent, @noupside.bsky.social, @brianfung.me, NBC4 Washington, @brianstelter.bsky.social, @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social, Business Insider and CBS News, more at Techmeme »
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Fox EVP of Ad Sales Mark Evans says there is an increase in Super Bowl ad buys from AI companies, while ad buys from movie studios and streamers are down — AI-focused ads are up, and movie spots are down, Fox says, as 30-second ads hit an eye-watering $8 million.
Discussion:
RetailWire, Gizmodo, The US Sun, The Verge, Awful Announcing, @mousterpiece.bsky.social and Ad Age
RELATED:
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Sources: Fox has sold at least ten 30-second Super Bowl ad spots for $8M+, a record; pre and post-game ad prices have also increased, reaching $4.5M and ~$4M
Discussion:
Sports Business Journal, CNBC, Benzinga, The Mirror US, FTVLive, @jason_kint, Awful Announcing, @alexweprin, Forbes, CNN, Bloomberg, Us Weekly, The Wrap, Adweek, Associated Press, TVNewsCheck, Just Jared and Deadline
Julia Alexander / Posting Nexus:
How Epic is transforming Fortnite into a content platform, paying $350M to creators in 2024; 36.5% of the total playtime was spent in games made by creators — What are creator made islands competing for players' attention if nothing but decentralized channels in a centralized ecosystem?
Discussion:
@loudmouthjulia, @simonowens.bsky.social, The Mirror US and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Influence Media Partners secures ~$360M in debt financing through private securitization, collateralized by music royalties from its portfolio of music rights — Rights-backed securitization deals are becoming increasingly common in the music industry. — Today (January 29) brings the latest news from this space.
Discussion:
Billboard, Digital Music News, Influence Media Partners and Variety
NewsGuard's Reality Check:
NewsGuard: with news-related prompts, DeepSeek's chatbot repeated false claims 30% of the time and provided non-answers 53% of the time, giving an 83% fail rate — Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek's new chatbot failed to provide accurate information about news …
Discussion:
The Mirror, BGR, TechNode, @peark.es, @newsguard.bsky.social, @brianfung.me, Interesting Engineering, Gizmodo, Fortune and Reuters, more at Techmeme »
Jordan Valinsky / CNN:
Save the Music, a nearly 30-year-old nonprofit promoting music education in public schools, goes independent after Paramount's decision to end financial support — New York CNN — — Save the Music, the nonprofit foundation that grew in popularity on cable TV in the late 1990s through the 2000s, is going indie.
Discussion:
@kevdgrussing.bsky.social, Billboard, Digital Music News and Associated Press
Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:
The co-founder of the nonprofit National Trust for Local News, Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, is stepping down as the organization's CEO after four years — Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, who co-founded the National Trust for Local News four years ago, is stepping down as the organization's CEO.
Discussion:
Press Herald, The Maine Wire, NTLN and @dankennedy.net
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Trump Media unveils fintech brand Truth.Fi with an investment of up to $250M, which can be allocated to various investments, like bitcoin and other crypto — Truth Social parent Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT.O) said on Wednesday its board of directors has approved the launch …
Discussion:
CNN, Reclaim The Net, The Independent, Forbes, Wccftech, Motley Fool, American Banker, Fast Company, Capital Brief, Benzinga, Axios, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, Quartz, Fortune, CNBC, Trump Media & …, The Guardian, Financial Times, CoinDesk, Reuters, Fox Business, Barron's Online and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Alexandra S. Levine / Bloomberg:
Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley says his US investor group vying to buy TikTok has secured $20B+ and recruited the CEOs of Roblox and Anchorage as investors — - Tinsley's group has recruited Roblox CEO among investors — Unclear if TikTok parent ByteDance will consider Tinsley bid
Discussion:
Benzinga and @bloomberg.com, more at Techmeme »
Meta Investor Relations:
Meta reports Q4 revenue up 21% YoY to $48.4B, net income up 49% YoY to $20.8B, and family daily active people up 5% YoY to 3.35B on average for December 2024 — Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) today reported financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2024.
Jill Goldsmith / Deadline:
US Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduces the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act that would require US ISPs to make “a good faith effort” to block foreign-run piracy sites — U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (Dem-CA) has introduced H.R. 791, the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (or FADPA) …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, @misctakes.com and CMU
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
The US Copyright Office says using AI tools to assist in creative processes doesn't compromise copyright protections as long as the content has human authorship — The U.S. Copyright Office declared Wednesday that the use of artificial intelligence tools to assist in the creative process does not undermine the copyright of a work.
Discussion:
Music Business Worldwide, @rainisto, @brianmcbrearty, @c_valenzuelab, Peter Csathy on LinkedIn, Barney Miller on LinkedIn, @lewisdsorokin, The Hill, @copyrightoffice, VentureBeat, Nem Perez on LinkedIn, Billboard, @cpaxton.bsky.social, Yahoo Finance, US Copyright Office and Bloomberg Law, more at Techmeme »
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