Netflix ramps up local production in Southeast Asia to attract new subscribers as US rivals pull back; Asia Pacific accounted for just ~11% of its 2023 revenue (Sohee Kim/Bloomberg)

Mediagazer: Netflix ramps up local production in Southeast Asia to attract new subscribers as US rivals pull back; Asia Pacific accounted for just ~11% of its 2023 revenue (Sohee Kim/Bloomberg)

Top News:

Axios:

At Cannes, X CEO Linda Yaccarino says the platform is in conversations with sports leagues about producing more docuseries, like the NWSL series The Offseason— - About 70% of the conversation ahead of the Paris Olympics this summer is about women's teams, she added.
Discussion: Awful Announcing, @xnews, @warriorrabbit.bsky.social, @axios and The Information

Discussion:
@axios: X is in conversations with sports leagues about producing more docuseries on the platform, CEO Linda Yaccarino tells Axios at Women's Sports House in Cannes. https://www.axios.com/...

RELATED:
Bloomberg:

Elon Musk tried to repair his often strained relationship with the ad industry through an appearance at the Cannes Lions, after Twitter skipped 2023's event— Elon Musk attempted to repair his often strained relationship with the advertising industry with an appearance at the Cannes Lions conference in France on Wednesday.

Discussion:

E.J. Schultz /
Ad Age: Cannes Today—Musk meets marketers, Marcel explains 'WoMen's Football'—plus the Grand Prix winners

Arif Durrani /
The Media Leader: How Elon Musk tried to woo back brands at Cannes @joeatlarge@mastodon.world: Can't wait for X/Twitter/whatever to finally die already and take its owner with it. — https://www.axios.com/... #Twitter #twittermigration #x

Megan Graham /
Wall Street Journal: Elon Musk Pitches Advertisers on a Return to X, Months After Telling Some to ‘F’ Themselves

Kerry Flynn /
@kerrymflynn: My dispatch from @elonmusk's appearance at @Cannes_Lions “What is not cool is insisting that there can be no content they disagree with on the platform,” Elon Musk told advertisers at Cannes https://www.axios.com/...

Brittaney Kiefer /
Adweek: Elon Musk's Advertiser Apology Tour Begins at Cannes

Dima Zeniuk /
@dimazeniuk: WPP CEO Mark Read at Cannes Lions conference: “In November, you told us to go f*ck ourselves.... Why did you say that, and what did you mean?” “It wasn't to advertisers as a whole; it was with respect to freedom of speech.” - Elon Musk [image]

Caroline Frost /
Deadline: Elon Musk Forecasts A “10%-20% Chance” Of AI-Related Global Disaster & Doubles Down On Free Speech Over Advertisers' Ask For Censorship — Cannes Lions

Ariel Zilber /
New York Post: Elon Musk clarifies ‘go f-k yourself’ comment as he tries to woo advertisers at Cannes Lions

Kendra Barnett /
The Drum: Elon Musk on why he told advertisers to ‘go fuck yourself’ - and why he wants them back

Liza Foreman /
The Wrap: Elon Musk Rebuffs Advertisers Who Fled X, Touts Free Speech on Platform: 'It's Better to Be Real'

Jon Lax /
@jonlax@threads.net: Elon trying to convince advertisers to spend money on X while running ads telling users to pay for premium because ads are a waste of their time is really something.

Arlo Brady /
Arlo Brady on LinkedIn: Elon Musk's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity interview with WPP's Mark Read today was fascinating on many levels. Four things that stuck me: …

Meg Graham /
@megancgraham: At @Cannes_Lions, WPP's Mark Read asks Elon Musk: “In November, you told us to go fuck ourselves.... Why did you say that and what did you mean?” Musk: “it wasn't to advertisers as a whole, it was with respect to freedom of speech...” [image]

Ben Page /
@benatipsos: Elon here in Cannes “I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time but at least you knownit is genuine, not from the pr dept” #musk @elonmusk [image]

The Guardian:

Sources: WaPo's Will Lewis advised Boris Johnson and others to “clean up” their phones during UK's COVID-era Partygate scandal in December 2021 and January 2022— Sources' claim suggests advice by Will Lewis, an informal adviser to then prime minister, contradicted instructions to staff

Discussion:
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @dougiec3@libretooth.gr, @adambienkov and @7im

Discussion:

Jeff Jarvis /
@jeffjarvis@mastodon.social: Call him Sir Won't Lewis. You won't be publishing incriminating news about me, now will you? You won't read emails from New Corp's hacking scandal; they're gone. You won't have Boris Johnson's Covid party texts; they gone. He won't soon be CEO of the Post. Or Will he? … @dougiec3@libretooth.gr: Three sources say Will Lewis told Tories to delete evidence from their phones to cover up Partygate. — https://www.theguardian.com/ ... #Partgate #BorisJohnson #Tories #England #COVID #Lockdown

Adam Bienkov /
@adambienkov: A reminder that there were 5,000 WhatsApp messages missing from Boris Johnson's phone when he gave it to the Covid Inquiry. Deliberately destroying evidence demanded by a public inquiry is a serious criminal offence punishable by up to a year in prison https://www.theguardian.com/ ... [image]

Tim Dickinson /
@7im: Democracy is Deleted in Darkness

Wired:

Analysis: Perplexity seems to scrape sites using surreptitious methods, ignoring robots.txt, with a Perplexity-tied machine doing so on Wired and other sites— A WIRED investigation shows that the AI-powered search startup Forbes has accused of stealing its content is surreptitiously scraping—and making things up out of thin air.

Discussion:
@bernie_michalik@threads.net, @jessicalessin, @technicallymims@threads.net, @LeftistLawyer@kolektiva …, @benedictevans@threads.net, @katiedrumm, @clive@saturation.social, @johnvoorhees@mastodon …, @carnage4life, @timmarchman.bsky.social, @johnkoetsier@threads.net, @howelloneill@infosec.exchange, @olifranklin, @noahshachtman@threads.net, @rafat and @dmehro, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Bernie Michalik /
@bernie_michalik@threads.net: If you still think Perplexity is good and you should use it after this, idk (via @technicallymims )

Jessica Lessin /
@jessicalessin: Killer reporting from @WIRED. Hopefully this is a wake-up call to publishers about AI companies not being into the business of news. https://www.wired.com/...

Christopher Mims /
@technicallymims@threads.net: perplexity is ignoring robots.txt prohibitions against scraping content @LeftistLawyer@kolektiva.social: The hits are coming hard and fast now. With good reason, nobody trusts the tech sector anymore. Nvidia is now the most *valuable* company in the world. Is anyone seeing a pattern? The bubble will explode soon. — https://www.wired.com/...

Benedict Evans /
@benedictevans@threads.net: Probably not a good thing that Perplexity appears to be breaking robots.txt and lying about it. I hope it's not the new Stability. https://www.wired.com/...

Katie Drummond /
@katiedrumm: A @wired investigation found that Perplexity is ignoring robots.txt — despite vowing to honor block requests. Perplexity has published a list of IP addresses its crawlers use. The company seems to be scraping sites using an IP address *not* on that list. https://www.wired.com/...

Clive Thompson /
@clive@saturation.social: A terrific investigation at @WIRED finds that Perplexity scrapes and (sometimes with bullshit added) summarizes web sites that it has been explicitly told, by those web site owners, not to visit — https://www.wired.com/... Excellent work by @dmehro and @timmarchman @johnvoorhees@mastodon.macstories.net: Wired has corroborated what @robb discovered over the weekend while helping us prevent AI crawlers from accessing @macstories: — Perplexity is straight up shady. @WIRED's story: https://www.wired.com/...

Dare Obasanjo /
@carnage4life: Wired has discovered that Perplexity's crawler ignores robots.txt directives that block AI crawlers. Given the choice of spending millions licensing content like Google & OpenAI or having outdated info, it's sad but not surprising some startups are taking the third option. [image]

Tim Marchman /
@timmarchman.bsky.social: New from me and @dmehro.bsky.social: Despite claiming it isn't, Perplexity, the billion dollar AI search startup Forbes has accused of plagiarism, is scraping websites, including WIRED, from which developers have tried to block its crawlers.

John Koetsier /
@johnkoetsier@threads.net: Whoa Looks like Perplexity AI is scraping content behind robots.txt barriers from hidden IP addresses not publicly acknowledged by the company. So ... Unethically ripping off content , but also doing it in an unethical way. https://www.wired.com/...

Patrick Howell O'Neill /
@howelloneill@infosec.exchange: The fact that there hasn't been stronger legal action from publications against AI-branded plagiarists is wild to me. You have to protect your work when it's being stolen. https://www.axios.com/...

Oli Franklin-Wallis /
@olifranklin: Incredible @WIRED investigation shows Perplexity, the much-hyped, AI-powered Google search alternative funded by Bezos and others, is intentionally ripping off publishers' copyrighted work - and reveals exactly how they're doing it. https://www.wired.com/... [image]

Noah Shachtman /
@noahshachtman@threads.net: .@perplexity.ai is using a secret server to steal journalists' work, often without credit https://www.wired.com/...

Dhruv Mehrotra /
@dmehro: NEW: Perplexity is ignoring the Robots Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt), using a secret server to regurgitate news articles and investigations that take reporters years to create, often without giving us credit. W/ @timmarchman https://www.wired.com/...

RELATED:

Axios:
Forbes' lawyer demands that Perplexity AI remove articles sourced from Forbes, seeks assurances that Perplexity AI won't infringe on Forbes copyrights, and more

Discussion:
@johnvoelcker and Talking Biz News

Discussion:
@johnvoelcker: An AI-generated story using @Forbes' original reporting without appropriate credit led to an AI-generated podcast ... and an AI-generated YouTube video that “outranks all Forbes content on this topic within Google search.” Buy popcorn. Or weep. No, both. https://www.axios.com/...

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: Forbes threatens legal action against Perplexity

O'Reilly Media:

How generative AI model providers can create business models that reward copyright holders and content creators, much like what has happened on the web— Last month, The New York Times claimed that tech giants OpenAI and Google have waded into a copyright gray area by transcribing …

Discussion:
@ainemacdermot.bsky.social and Tim O'Reilly on LinkedIn

Discussion:

Áine /
@ainemacdermot.bsky.social: Like Elon rewarding fascists for shit posting, ignoring people who had been contributing real content for 17 years kinds of rewards? You tech bro fuckers are laughable. [embedded post]

WBEZ:

Unionized journalists at WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times voted overwhelmingly for Chicago Public Media CEO Matt Moog's immediate removal, after layoffs in April— Unions for the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ criticized Matt Moog, who announced he planned to leave last year but later oversaw layoffs.

Discussion:
@naderdissa, @laphilip, @artsjournalnews and @markjacobnews@threads.net

Discussion:

Nader Issa /
@naderdissa: Matt Moog quoted George H.W. Bush in 2022, vowing “emphatically, without reservation” he wouldn't lay off WBEZ or Sun-Times staff. In 2024, he laid off 14 WBEZ/Sun-Times workers. Today, he says he's “personally attacked” by our unions' no-confidence vote https://www.wbez.org/... [image]

Lisa Kurian Philip /
@laphilip: 🤔 https://www.wbez.org/... [image] @artsjournalnews: “Under Mr. Moog's stewardship, we have seen a loss of talented and expert staffers and continued revenue declines, stunting our efforts to achieve sustainability even as we receive generous foundationsupport that should fuel growth,” the unions wrote https://www.wbez.org/... [image]

Business Insider:

MoffettNathanson: Q1 2024 was the worst quarter the pay-TV business has ever seen, losing 2.37M subscribers, down 6.9%, and even YouTube TV slightly shrank— - Pay TV just suffered its worst quarter in history — a stunning 6.9% drop. — The TV industry used to hope digital services …

Discussion:
Nielsen, Next TV, @penenberg, @nicksologist, @chrifamouamo1, @pkafka, @thatniggaephy, @chrifamouamo1, Cord Cutters News, @pkafka and Awful Announcing

Discussion:

Daniel Frankel /
Next TV: Amid Another Worst Quarter Ever for U.S. Pay TV, Even YouTube TV Lost Subscribers in Q1, Analyst Says

Adam L. Penenberg /
@penenberg: @pkafka It's dismal and has gotten more expensive. Talking to you, @Ask_Spectrum It's like you're begging customers to pull the plug, like we'd be doing you a favor.

Nick Hennen /
@nicksologist: @pkafka @DylanByers I dumped @YouTubeTV . — as much as I love it it is way over priced @chrifamouamo1: @pkafka Shocked that xfinity and the others haven't offered genre packs or tiny tiers They're still playing the all or nothing game

Peter Kafka /
@pkafka: @mhudack Slowly and then all at once

Some Black Guy /
@thatniggaephy: @pkafka Wrote about the trend from an spend POV in South Africa https://techcabal.com/...

@chrifamouamo1:
@pkafka The fact that over 1M people **successfully** canceled comcast/spectrum/dish in just 12 weeks is truly impressive Think about the 2M that likely called and were relegated to new promos or talked out of it....

Luke Bouma /
Cord Cutters News: YouTube TV Reportedly Lost 150,000 Subscribers in The 1st Quarter of 2024 As Every Major Live TV Provider Saw Subscribers Drop

Peter Kafka /
@pkafka: It's boring to keep saying cable TV is collapsing but boy oh boy is cable TV collapsing. Pay TV - including digital substitutes like YouTube TV and Hulu Live - lost a record 2.37 million subscribers in Q1. That's a drop of 6.9%.

Bloomberg:

Netflix ramps up local production in Southeast Asia to attract new subscribers as US rivals pull back; Asia Pacific accounted for just ~11% of its 2023 revenue— - Streaming giant is backing big-budget shows in Indonesia — Thai production rises to 10 titles this year, from six in 2023

Discussion:
Sohee Kim on LinkedIn, @lucas_shaw and The Hollywood Reporter

Discussion:

Sohee Kim /
Sohee Kim on LinkedIn: My latest story from Jakarta: — Netflix is ramping up local production in Southeast Asia, aiming to boost its subscriber base in the populous region even as US rivals are pulling back. …

Lucas Shaw /
@lucas_shaw: While most US Entertainment companies pull back on spending in other markets, Netflix is plowing ahead. It will make 10 shows in Thailand this year. @soheefication https://www.bloomberg.com/...

The Desk:

London-based sports content studio C15 Studio emerges from stealth to launch FAST channels in partnership with Formula 1, Triton Poker, and others— The developer of free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels dedicated to programming from Formula 1, Triton Poker and professional squash …

Discussion:
Matthew Keys on LinkedIn and Sportico

Politico:

Snap agrees to a $15M settlement with California after a three-year probe into employees' allegations of discrimination, retaliation, and sexual harassment— Women who worked for the company in the last decade may be eligible for compensation. — SACRAMENTO, California …

Discussion:
The Hill, @suhaunah, @calcivilrights, CRD, @kimzetter, Courthouse News Service, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle

Discussion:

Suhauna Hussain /
@suhaunah: new: Snap, the parent of Snapchat, has agreed to pay $15 million to settle allegations of rampant sex discrimination, harassment, pay equity violations & retaliation. settlement resolves a three-year investigation by @calcivilrights https://www.latimes.com/... @calcivilrights: NEW: We've reached a $15M settlement with Snapchat over allegations of discrimination against its female staff, including unfair pay, sexual harassment, & retaliation. Women are entitled to equality in every job, workplace, & industry. Learn more below ⬇️ https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/ ... [image] CRD: Civil Rights Department Obtains $15 Million Settlement Agreement with Snapchat Over Alleged Sex-Based Employment Discrimination

Kim Zetter /
@kimzetter: “women at [Snapchat] were actively discouraged from applying for promotions or lost promotions to less-qualified male colleagues. Women also faced unwelcome sexual advances and other harassment.... When the employees spoke up, the company leaders retaliated with negative

Natalie Hanson /
Courthouse News Service: Snapchat reaches $15 million settlement over gender discrimination, harassment claims

Suhauna Hussain /
Los Angeles Times: Snap to pay $15 million in discrimination and harassment settlement

Variety:

Timbaland and Swizz Beatz strike a distribution deal with X for their music series Verzuz, which they sold to Triller in 2021 but have since reacquired— Earlier in the year, Swizz and Timbaland reacquired Verzuz from their previous partner Triller and now own 100% of the platform …

Discussion:
TMZ.com, Rolling Stone, Monique Pintarelli on LinkedIn, WTOP News and Billboard

Discussion:

Larisha Paul /
Rolling Stone: Timbaland and Swizz Beatz Are Bringing Verzuz Back on X

Monique Pintarelli /
Monique Pintarelli on LinkedIn: “We are beyond thrilled to have found the best partner for Verzuz. Not only are we excited to have Verzuz on X, we're excited to help X build the biggest entertainment company in the world.” … WTOP News: ‘Verzuz’ will return after Swizz Beatz, Timbaland lock in new distribution partnership with X

Variety:

A look at Paramount's failed merger talks with Skydance and how Shari Redstone's unilateral decision to call off the talks shows her unusual power— For Shari Redstone, it was nothing personal. But the longer the negotiations went on, the more Redstone fell out of love with the idea …

Discussion:
@xpangler, The Hollywood Reporter, @xpangler, @asharma, @carlquintanilla, @xpangler and

Discussion:

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: How did Paramount end up in such a vulnerable position? In short, under Bakish, the company made the ill-fated decision to go for broke on streaming — right when traditional TV advertising and cable TV affiliate revenue took a turn for the worse https://variety.com/...

Alex Weprin /
The Hollywood Reporter: Shari Redstone Goes for Broke: Can Paramount Pick Up the Pieces?

Todd Spangler /
@xpangler: With Paramount Global's M&A negotiations playing out publicly for the past six months, a level of fatigue and resignation has set in across the company. Insiders say they have been bracing for job cuts — no matter what sale scenario might have unfolded https://variety.com/...

Amol Sharma /
@asharma: “Redstone's ability to make such a unilateral decision to call off the talks is a testament to her unusual power, even with her empire's diminished state.” https://variety.com/...

Carl Quintanilla /
@carlquintanilla: “.. two minutes before the June 11 meeting's scheduled start time, the Skydance CEO and others received a bombshell via email. .. expletives flew as they processed the news.” @Variety @Variety_Cynthia $PARA https://variety.com/... [image]

Todd Spangler /