7:25 PM ET, August 17, 2022
August 17, 2022
5:50 PM
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Sinclair will roll out its direct-to-consumer streaming service Bally Sports+ on September 26, on iOS, Android, Android TV, tvOS, and at BallySports.com
4:30 PM
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Code inside the Netflix iPhone app suggests that the ad-supported tier arriving in early 2023 won't let users download shows for offline viewing
2:50 PM
Emre Kizilkaya / Nieman Reports:
Amid a largely government-controlled media landscape, a look at four independent outlets in Turkey: Kapsül, Medyascope, Sözcü, and Podfresh
12:50 PM
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
A look at Netflix's gaming initiative, as it experiments with ways to surface games to subscribers and job listings show it is hiring for a cloud gaming service
12:00 PM
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
TikTok launches Shopping Ads, including video shopping ads, catalog listing ads, and live shopping ads, to improve targeting and amplify product discovery
11:25 AM
Amina Niasse / Bloomberg:
iSpot.tv: spending on TV ads by crypto companies fell from an $85M peak in February 2022 to $3M in June and $36K in July, the lowest level since January 2021
10:35 AM
Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:
As part of its ban on political ads, TikTok will remove paid political posts by influencers; election-related posts will be reviewed and could be throttled
9:40 AM
Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter:
German media giant RTL Group launches RTL+ Musik to stream video, including movies, TV, and news, and audio, including music, podcasts, and radio channels
8:55 AM
K.J. Yossman / Variety:
Ofcom's annual Media Nations report shows the UK streaming sector made £2.7B profit in 2021, up 27% YoY; 5.2M UK homes subscribe to Netflix, Prime, and Disney+
8:00 AM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta updates its political ads policy before the US midterms, including banning edits for political, social, and electoral ads running one week prior
7:25 AM
Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
VidMob, which offers tools for marketers to create digital ads, raised a $110M Series D led by Shamrock, source says at a $500M valuation, up from $290M in 2021
7:10 AM
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Timbaland and Swizz Beatz sue Triller, alleging the short-form video app owes them $28M+ after acquiring live-streaming music series Verzuz and missing payments
August 16, 2022
11:51 PM
AAP:
Australia's high court says Google is not a publisher, reversing a lower court decision that said Google was liable for a defamatory article in search results
10:45 PM
David Schuman / CBS News:
Linda Tirado, who received a $600K settlement from Minneapolis after being blinded in one eye while covering 2020 protests, is giving 20% to people in the city
7:10 PM
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
The US government backs Lynn Goldsmith's legal claim that Andy Warhol infringed her copyright on a photo of Prince; the Supreme Court hears the case in October
5:55 PM
Bevin Fletcher / Fierce Video:
The Roku Channel adds NBC local news channels for San Diego, Boston, and the Bay Area, plus NBCUniversal's LX News, six Scripps channels, BBC Kids, and more
5:35 PM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Video streaming options increasingly resemble the bloated cable industry they sought to replace, as companies launch ad-supported tiers and bundle services
5:00 PM
On Substack:
Substack tests Threads, which gives writers a dedicated space to host conversations with subscribers, in its iOS app for a select group of publications
3:20 PM
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Analysis: over the past year, top pay TV providers had a net loss of ~5.425M subscribers; Q2 marked the second consecutive quarter with over 1.9M in net losses
1:45 PM
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
BuzzFeed says 50%-75% of its US ad transactions use first-party data product Lighthouse, as the service expands to the UK, Canada, Australia, and Latin America
12:05 PM
Anya Schiffrin / Poynter:
Former chair of the commission that began Australia's news bargaining code: AU$200M+ from Google and Meta is being injected into Australian journalism annually
11:40 AM
Sara Fischer / Axios:
To expand into niche areas, Morning Brew debuts a creator program letting independent writers work for the company full time while keeping their distinct brands
10:10 AM
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Mark Hoffman, CNBC's president since 2005 and chairman since 2015, will step down on September 12; KC Sullivan will return to CNBC to replace him as president
9:15 AM
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Spotify is testing an audio feature in Vietnam that prompts users to record reactions to playlists, which will be posted as podcast episodes
8:30 AM
Kanishka Singh / Reuters:
A group of journalists and lawyers sued the CIA on Monday over allegations the agency spied on them during visits to Julian Assange at the Ecuador embassy
8:15 AM
Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
Nielsen strikes a deal with Amazon to measure Thursday Night Football, the first time a streaming service will be included in Nielsen's weekly TV viewing report
7:35 AM
Jesse Brown / CANADALAND:
Sources: Bell Media's VP of News Michael Melling fired CTV's Lisa LaFlamme for pushing back against his ideas; Melling also interfered with CTV's news coverage
August 15, 2022
10:25 PM
Patrick Frater / Variety:
Tencent Music reports Q2 net profit of $133M, down 8.3% YoY, on total revenues of $1.03B, down 13.8% YoY; paying users for music grew 24.9% YoY to 82.7M
10:00 PM
Rebecca Sun / The Hollywood Reporter:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issues a formal apology to Sacheen Littlefeather, who suffered harassment and discrimination at the 1973 Oscars
8:25 PM
Sam Thielman / FOREVER WARS:
Sam Thielman, a freelancer Substack hired to edit several writers, says he was fired in retaliation against a writer he edited who chose to move to Ghost
4:43 PM
Reuters:
Walmart partners with Paramount to include the $4.99/month ad-supported tier of the Paramount+ streaming service as part of its Walmart+ subscription
4:35 PM
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Canadian broadcaster CTV's chief news anchor Lisa LaFlamme says she has been forced out of the network; CTV parent Bell Media cites “changing viewer habits”
3:08 PM
Wall Street Journal:
Walmart partners with Paramount to include the $4.99/month ad-supported tier of the Paramount+ streaming service as part of its Walmart+ subscription
1:40 PM
Lesley Goldberg / The Hollywood Reporter:
HBO Max lays off ~14% of its staff, or ~70 people, impacting reality, casting, international, and acquisitions, as part of leadership changes
12:40 PM
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Nexstar will absorb The CW's debt but won't pay any cash or stock up front for its stake and wants to make The CW profitable by 2025, partly through cost cuts
11:30 AM
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Hacker conference DEF CON permanently bans OANN for violating its privacy policy by “repeatedly taking photo and video showing people's faces” without consent
11:15 AM
Reuters:
Unity Software rejects AppLovin's $17.54B all-stock takeover offer, saying it would proceed with its deal to acquire ironSource for $4.4B in stock
10:55 AM
Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:
Dan Loeb's Third Point increases its stake in Disney and calls on the company to cut costs, explore spinning off ESPN, and integrate Hulu into Disney+
9:15 AM
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Snap says its Snapchat+ subscription, launched in June, now has 1M+ users globally and adds features, including priority Story replies to celebs
8:55 AM
Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
Antenna: 19% of US streaming users canceled 3+ subscriptions from June 2020-June 2022; average monthly customer defections were 5.46% in July, up from 4.46% YoY
7:55 AM
Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Warner Bros. strikes a multiyear deal to distribute MGM's movies internationally, excluding the next James Bond film; MGM's previous partner was Universal
7:31 AM
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Nexstar plans to buy a 75% stake in The CW from Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, both of which will retain 12.5% stakes and supply scripted content
August 14, 2022
11:10 PM
Richard Howorth / New York Times:
A Mississippi indie bookseller on the proposed Penguin Random House-Simon & Schuster merger, as the industry increasingly favors best sellers over new writers
August 13, 2022
7:55 PM
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Sources: the Daily Mail has approached Boris Johnson about writing a column for the paper after he steps down as prime minister
1:15 PM
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Sources: Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are expected to sit for depositions as soon as this month in Dominion's suit against Fox, and there were no settlement talks