Digital

Apple’s CODA won the Oscar for best picture. Cool. But what happens when Big Tech stops throwing money around?

Handing Facebook parent Meta Platforms a defeat, a federal judge has granted class-action status to advertisers suing the company over allegedly inflated metrics.

Conservative media outlet The Daily Wire is planning a significant push into kids entertainment, with what it says will be “a minimum of $100 million” investment over the next three years. The move, executives say, is in response to Disney’s positioning on Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Disney has begun to speak out about the bill in response to backlash that it didn’t proactively denounce it initially. “Americans are tired of giving their money to woke corporations who hate them,” said Daily Wire Co-CEO Jeremy Boreing in a statement.

Jeremy Doig has been named chief technology officer of Disney Streaming, where he will oversee the company’s technology organization and global technology strategy for Disney’s portfolio of direct-to-consumer streaming services.

Legal broadcast streaming service provider Didja has announced the addition of programmatically decisioned dynamic ad insertion (DAI) to its LocalBTV platform. Los Altos, Calif.-based Didja provides a free streaming app supported by Roku, Android TV, Apple TV, as well as Samsung and Vizio smart TVs, designed to enable consumers to stream local broadcast stations … with the blessing of the broadcasters.

The second season of Bridgerton is shaping up to be as big a hit for Netflix as its predecessor. The streamer’s weekly top 10 list for March 21-27 shows the Regency-era romance having a huge first weekend. In the three days after its March 25 premiere, Season 2 of Bridgerton amassed 193 million hours of viewing time worldwide — the highest for any English-language Netflix series in its first three days. Season 2 made the top 10 in 92 of the 93 countries where Netflix keeps track of rankings (Japan was the only outlier).

The Justice Department is backing an antitrust bill that would prohibit the largest tech companies from favoring their own products or services. “The Department views the rise of dominant platforms as presenting a threat to open markets and competition, with risks for consumers, businesses, innovation, resiliency, global competitiveness, and our democracy,” Peter Hyun, an acting assistant attorney general, said Monday in a letter to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Apple TV+ has stepped up to the plate and revealed the first half of its inaugural Friday Night Baseball slate, to stream this summer beginning April 8. The games scheduled to stream on Apple TV+ will be available to anyone with Internet access for free (though “for a limited time”), across devices where Apple TV+ can be found (including on the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K and HD, and on tv.apple.com, along with smart TVs, gaming consoles and cable set-top boxes).

About one-third of U.S. subscribers to Netflix share their login credentials with others, according to new data from Leichtman Research Group. The research firm’s online survey of 4,400 consumers confirms the company’s own conclusions in recent years. While 64% of respondents said they pay for and use Netflix only in their own household, 33% indicate some form of sharing. (The remaining 3% are households whose Netflix comes packaged via other subscriptions.)

The long awaited, heavily promoted CNN+ debuts on Tuesday, with a lineup of live and on-demand programming and, in the media world, a dose of doubts.

Among them: Rivals already have staked their space in the streaming universe. The subscription streaming service needs more must-have programming to lure customers already satiated in monthly fees. And CNN+ is launching just weeks from the network getting a new parent, with the combination of Discovery and WarnerMedia, along with new leadership, with Chris Licht scheduled to take over as the network’s new leader in May. Yet Andrew Morse, EVP and chief digital officer, who leading CNN+, is insistent that what the service offers will be unlike anything else out there.

CNN Plus will also likely be shut out of Google TV and Android TV on its first day. WarnerMedia said it’s working to expand distribution.

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk in a response to another user on Twitter said he is giving “serious thought” to starting a rival social media to Twitter. Asked whether he’d consider building a platform with an “open source algorithm” where “free speech and adhering to free speech is given top priority” and “where propaganda is very minimal,” Musk tweeted that he is giving it “serious thought.”

The NFL reportedly is considering a paid streaming service. On Sunday, the possibility of “NFL+” was presented to teams at the league meetings. It would include “games, radio, podcasts and team content.” The development comes at a time when the NFL is selling mobile rights (which are currently available), the Sunday Ticket package (which expires after 2022), and a piece of NFL Media, the in-house multi-platform conglomerate that the league has owned and operated from inception. The league has yet to find a serious taker for NFL Media equity. Some believe it ultimately will be tied to the Sunday Ticket rights.

The live streaming platform Frndly TV has signed a deal with Weigel Broadcasting to add five of Weigel’s diginets to its lineup of streaming services. The deal includes Weigel’s MeTV, H&I (Heroes & Icons), Decades, Start TV, and the new Story Television national network. MeTV and the new Story Television network launched on Frndly TV on March 28 with the others to follow.

The company, supported by Donald Trump, Peter Thiel and other prominent conservatives, wants to help build a “new internet” independent from Silicon Valley’s titans.

Just as Entertainment Weekly shuts down print, Netflix asks producer Shonda Rhimes hard-hitting questions, ‘When did you first know “Bridgerton” would be a global phenomenon?’

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings in upper station management, marketing and creative services, news, IT, digital sales and content, engineering and graphic design.

Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Twitter are hastily rewriting their rules on hate, violence and propaganda in Ukraine — and setting precedents they might regret