Now that Amazon has established itself in live sports, most recently through a $1 billion deal to air “Thursday Night Football,” Apple is trying to jump into the game. Apple is in talks with Major League Baseball to acquire the rights to its weekday package, according to people with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be named because discussions are confidential. An agreement would, for the first time, align the most valuable U.S. tech company with a pro sports media package and give Apple a major content boost for its streaming service, Apple TV+.
Univision has added four new executives to strengthen its streaming team in preparation for the launch of its upcoming two-tiered global platform that is slated to deliver Spanish-language content to 600 million people worldwide. Roger Sole has been appointed chief marketing officer, Vincenzo Gratteri SVP of development, Adam Waltuch SVP of streaming partnerships and Rita Chertorivski SVP of business and legal affairs.
U.S. antitrust officials can continue their case to break up Meta, Facebook’s parent company, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the social media giant, which had argued the complaint should be dismissed. The decision allows federal prosecutors to try to prove their allegations that Meta has illegally abused a monopoly in the marketplace for social media — and that its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp should be spun off.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a markup Thursday (Jan. 13) for a tough new online antitrust bill, and computer companies are not happy. The bill, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, was introduced back in October by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chair of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and a self-described leading antitrust reformer, and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. It‘s one of many proposed bills to rein in Big Tech, and not the only one backed by Klobuchar.
Exclusives
Comcast Cable has agreed to carry CNN+, the new streaming news network from AT&T’s WarnerMedia, as part of a new long-term distribution deal between the two companies. The new agreement also renews carriage of WarnerMedia’s Turner cable networks including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, TCM, truTV, HLN and CNN en Español. Comcast will also be able to offer its Xfinity customers on-demand and TV Everywhere content.
Hybridity To Be Permanent At E.W. Scripps
E.W. Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson says the company will be very flexible about work from home hybridity after the pandemic abates, seeing multiple advantages to the new way of working on both the station and corporate levels. Read part one here.
In addition, Charlotte Stoudt is hoining the series as showrunner. Stoudt coming on as showrunner is part of a new, multi-year overall deal that she has signed with Apple. Kerry Ehrin, who served as showrunner on the show’s first two seasons, will serve as a consultant on season 3 while also developing new projects for Apple under her overall deal.
Scripps’ Symson: Omicron Won’t Stop Spot TV’s Upward Trajectory
E.W. Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson weighs in on the company’s streaming and diginet strategies, ad tech’s performance, Newsy’s overhaul and the ever-present threat of ransomware attacks against broadcasters in part one of a two-part exclusive interview.
Former President Donald Trump’s new social media platform Truth Social is expected to launch on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 21, according to the latest Apple App Store listing. Truth Social, which the 45th president announced in October, is the latest conservative alternative to large social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which the former president has repeatedly slammed for censorship.
Major streaming provider Roku has announced that one of its top execs, platform chief Scott Rosenberg, plans to depart the company in the spring after a nearly 10-year run. In an announcement, company founder and CEO Anthony Wood said Rosenberg is “ready for his next professional challenge.” Rosenberg’s current title is SVP and GM of platform business.
According to Atlantic Equities’ Hamilton Faber, Roku faces too much competition in the OTT platform business from Google, Amazon, Samsung and LG to keep growing in the U.S., where its leading market share hovers around 40%.
The FCC plans to vote this month to expand the online activities that define a candidate, and to square its political file rules with the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. According to a draft of the proposed report and order, it would revise the definition of “legally qualified candidate for public office” to include creating a campaign website and the use of social media to further that campaign.
Filming on Paramount+ drama Star Trek: Picard has been shut down since Monday following a sizable COVID-19 outbreak. Sources say more than 50 members of the large production tested positive on Monday, which was the first day of work after the Christmas break. The Patrick Stewart-led series has one of television’s biggest crews, numbering more than 450 staffers. The infections impacted multiple zones, including cast in zone A.
Emma Barnett Meets … premieres tonight on the Bloomberg Quicktake streaming network. Hosted by award-winning British broadcaster and journalist Emma Barnett, the weekly interview series features conversations with leaders in […]
The final season of Lost in Space drove the Netflix series to the top of the streaming rankings for the second consecutive week. The sci-fi show was the only title in Nielsen’s streaming charts for Dec. 6-12 to top a billion minutes of viewing time. Hawkeye and The Wheel of Time also put up solid numbers.
The New York Times will buy The Athletic for $550 million after months of talks, according to a new report from the Information. Representatives for the storied newspaper and the subscription sports news website did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report, which pointed out that acquiring the smaller site will help the Times move toward its goal of 10 million subscribers by 2025. It currently has about 8.3 million.
Canela.TV, one of the first AVOD streaming services for U.S. Hispanics, has launched its app on Samsung TV. Samsung TV owners/users can now enjoy a complete library of Spanish-language movies and […]
