SAG-AFTRA calls a strike against League of Legends, formerly exempt from the video game strike, alleging parent Formosa Interactive tried hiring non-union labor (Katie Kilkenny/The Hollywood Reporter)

Mediagazer: SAG-AFTRA calls a strike against League of Legends, formerly exempt from the video game strike, alleging parent Formosa Interactive tried hiring non-union labor (Katie Kilkenny/The Hollywood Reporter)

Top News:

Axios:

The NYT aims to sell podcast subscriptions via Apple Podcasts and Spotify, requiring users to pay to access older episodes, starting Oct. for $6/mo. or $50/year— - “A big part of our strategy is building direct relationships with our customers,” said Ben Cotton, The Times' head of subscription growth.
Discussion: The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times Company, The Streamable, The Hill, The Wrap, @sarafischer, Bloomberg and 9to5Mac

Discussion:

Sean Hollister /
The Verge: The New York Times will now charge for past episodes of its popular podcasts

Alex Weprin /
The Hollywood Reporter: The New York Times to Launch Podcast Subscriptions on Spotify and Apple (Exclusive) The New York Times Company: The New York Times will launch podcast subscriptions on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Matt Tamanini /
The Streamable: Save 40% on PBS Kids Subscription and Stream Safe, Family-Friendly Content

Dominick Mastrangelo /
The Hill: New York Times to launch subscription service for podcasts

Sara Fischer /
@sarafischer: NEW: @nytimes to sell audio subscriptions through @ApplePodcasts & @Spotify —Similar to its deal w @AppleNews to sell @wirecutter & @TheAthletic subscriptions through that app —New $APPL & $SPOT subs will be counted towards NYT's overall sub # total https://www.axios.com/...

Ashley Carman /
Bloomberg: New York Times to Launch Podcast Subscription Plan for Shows Like ‘The Daily’

Variety:

Memo: Paramount unveils “phase two” of layoffs and says 90% of them will be complete after this round, following its August plan to cut 15% of its US workforce— Paramount Global unveiled a second wave of staff cuts Tuesday morning, part of a larger bid by the owner of CBS …

Discussion:
@dylanbyers, TVLine, New York Post, Variety, The Wrap, Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, TVNewsCheck, Next TV, Bloomberg and Advanced Television

Discussion:

Dylan Byers /
@dylanbyers: SCOOP @PuckNews: CBS News anchor Jeff Glor is among those being cut in latest round of Paramount job cuts, which target 2,000 positions overall....

Alexandra Steigrad /
New York Post: Jeff Glor, ‘CBS Evening News’ anchor pushed out for Norah O'Donnell, fired amid Paramount bloodbath

Brian Steinberg /
Variety: Jeff Glor Exits CBS News Amid Paramount Layoffs

David Cohen /
Adweek: Paramount Global Kicks Off Phase 2 of Layoffs

Lynette Rice /
Deadline: Longtime CBS Exec Tina Koyanagi-Rosener & Her 8-Person Team Among Hundreds Cut At Paramount+

Ted Johnson /
Deadline: CBS News' Jeff Glor Among Those Departing Amid Latest Round Of Paramount Global Layoffs

Samantha Masunaga /
Los Angeles Times: Paramount starts second phase of its planned layoffs

Dade Hayes /
Deadline: Paramount Initiates Next Round Of Layoffs In Ongoing Effort To Cut 15% Of U.S. Workforce

Dade Hayes /
TVNewsCheck: Paramount Initiates Next Round Of Layoffs

Jon Lafayette /
Next TV: Paramount Starts New Round of U.S. Staff Reductions

Hannah Miller /
Bloomberg: Paramount Cuts More Jobs as Part of Planned Reductions

Bloomberg:

TikTok says it plans to shut down TikTok Music on November 28 and will delete customer data; the app, originally called Resso, first launched in 2019— TikTok Music will go offline on Nov. 28 and customer data will be deleted, the music division said in a post on its website.

Discussion:

Colin Kirkland /
MediaPost: ByteDance To Terminate TikTok Music In November

Kaya Yurieff /
The Information: TikTok to Shut Down Its Spotify Competitor

Sam Gutelle /
Tubefilter: TikTok Music shuts down before making to the U.S.

Ivan Mehta /
TechCrunch: ByteDance is shutting down TikTok Music globally

Brad Hill /
RAIN News: Tik Tok Music to shut down in November

Chance Townsend /
Mashable: TikTok Music is finally shutting down

Dylan Smith /
Digital Music News: R.I.P., TikTok Music — Streaming Service to Shut Down in November Following 2023 Launch

Rob Abelow /
@abelowrob: TikTok Music is dead. TikTok is shutting down the the potential Spotify killer worldwide. Instead, TikTok will focus on the ‘Add to Music App’ feature, which drives fans straight from discovery to consumption on their favorite streaming app.

Ed Carson /
@ibd_ecarson: TikTok obviously realized there is no money in people dancing on the interwebs.

Dan Whateley /
Business Insider: TikTok has admitted defeat in music streaming

Hanna Kahlert /
MIDiA Research Blog: TikTok may be shutting down its music service, but it will still compete with streaming

Coco Feng /
South China Morning Post: TikTok to close music-streaming business in November amid tough competition

Chris Stokel-Walker /
@stokel: Hands up if you ever heard of TikTok Music. No? Most people didn't. https://www.bloomberg.com/...

Tim Ingham /
Music Business Worldwide: TIKTOK TO SHUTTER MUSIC SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE TIKTOK MUSIC IN NOVEMBER

Sarah Fielding /
Engadget: TikTok Music is on its way out — The platform will shut down at the end of November.

Adweek:

Vice relaunches its print magazine, on hiatus since 2019, and debuts $10 per month and $4 per month subscriptions with access to paywalled content— The publisher hopes to reach 10,000 subscribers by next spring — The digital media company Vice relaunched its print magazine and debuted …

Discussion:
VICE

Discussion:

Kevin Lee Kharas /
VICE: VICE Magazine Is Coming Back

The Hollywood Reporter:

Paramount's Pluto TV and M6+ strike a partnership that includes content channels and ad sales in France; French TV company M6 launched the AVOD platform in May— The strategic commercial and editorial partnership is designed to “scale and expand their free streaming and digital businesses in France.”

Discussion:
The Desk, Advanced Television, Variety, TVNewsCheck, Broadband TV News, TVBEurope, WORLD SCREEN and Deadline

Discussion:

Matthew Keys /
The Desk: France's M6, Paramount's Pluto TV announce streaming pact

Julian Clover /
Broadband TV News: M6+ announces strategic partnership with Pluto TV

Matthew Corrigan /
TVBEurope: Pluto TV and M6+ team up with strategic alliance in France

Mansha Daswani /
WORLD SCREEN: Pluto TV Pacts With M6+

Axios:

Sources: Koch's PE arm is in talks with a media entrepreneur to partner on a bid for Forbes valuing the company at ~10% less than its $630M 2021 SPAC valuation— The firm often targets companies that are poorly managed or undervalued. — It will often partner with a strategic buyer …

Discussion:
Talking Biz News

Discussion:

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: Koch PE arm looking to bid for Forbes

Press Gazette:

Trending Now, which offers AI-powered B2B newsletters, changes its logo after BuzzFeed sent a cease-and-desist letter over alleged copyright infringement— An AI-powered aggregator newsletter publisher has changed its logo in response to a legal threat from Buzzfeed.

The Hollywood Reporter:

SAG-AFTRA calls a strike against League of Legends, formerly exempt from the video game strike, alleging parent Formosa Interactive tried hiring non-union labor— The union charges one of the multiplayer game's producers, Formosa Interactive, with attempting to work around its ongoing video game strike …

Discussion:
SAG-AFTRA, Variety, Associated Press, The Verge and Los Angeles Times

Discussion:

Jennifer Maas /
Variety: ‘League of Legends’ Added to Actors' Video Game Strike as SAG-AFTRA Accuses Producer Formosa Interactive of Unfair Labor Practices

Ash Parrish /
The Verge: SAG-AFTRA calls for a strike against League of Legends

Globe and Mail:

Netflix pauses funding for some professional development programs in the Canadian film and TV industry as Canada imposes a 5% tax on foreign streamers' revenue— /arts/arts/arts//artsThe future of several professional development programs crucial to the health of the Canadian film …

Discussion:
@mgeist and iPhone in Canada Blog

Discussion:

Michael Geist /
@mgeist: The CRTC moved ahead with Bill C-11 mandated streamer payments without addressing issues such as what constitutes Cancon and what existing payments will be counted as contributions. This was the inevitable response: Netflix pulls millions in sponsorship. https://x.com/...

CNBC:

Warner Bros. Discovery partners with Google to add its “caption AI” tool built on Vertex AI to Max to automatically generate captions for unscripted programming— Warner Bros. Discovery is partnering with Google to integrate the internet giant's AI technology …

Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, Engadget, The Wrap, Variety, Quartz, The Keyword, Google Cloud, @dfwsam.bsky.social, The Verge and TechHive, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Etan Vlessing /
The Hollywood Reporter: Warner Bros. Discovery Inks AI Deal With Google For Captions on Programming

Todd Spangler /
Variety: Warner Bros. Discovery's Max Using Google Gen AI Platform to Create Closed Captions

Rocio Fabbro /
Quartz: AI-generated captions are coming to Warner Bros. Discovery — with help from Google

Thomas Kurian /
The Keyword: Customers are putting Gemini to work Google Cloud: Warner Bros. Discovery Deploys AI-Powered Captioning Solution Built Using Google Cloud AI @dfwsam.bsky.social: This makes me reconsider my subscription to your services. — You may want to do so too. [embedded post]

Umar Shakir /
The Verge: Max is getting Google AI-generated closed captions

Ben Patterson /
TechHive: Google AI is now writing closed captions for Max shows

Deadline:

Sources: UK's Evening Standard has made plans to use AI to write reviews under the name of its former art critic of 30 years Brian Sewell, who died in 2015— Deadline understands that London's historic Evening Standard newspaper has been making plans to revive its former writer using artificial intelligence.

Discussion:
@jscalzi@threads.net, @_zeets, @eddiehenryjames, @siddhantadlakha, @chrismoranuk, @sturgios, @wendyide, @willardfoxton and @nina_metz

Discussion:

John Scalzi /
@jscalzi@threads.net: This is ghastly. No matter how many words of this fellow they stuff into a large language model, it won't ever approximate him, because the critic he was is not found in his now-dead words, it was found in his once-active mind. This is a point the bean-counters at this paper seem to miss, or don't care about. …

Siddhant Adlakha /
@siddhantadlakha: This went really well for Lionsgate with those (wildly inaccurate) A.I. generated critic quotes

Chris Moran /
@chrismoranuk: AI has many, many possible applications for good. This is not one of them. And it shouldn't take more than 30s of contemplation to know that.

John Sturgis /
@sturgios: Hard to think of anyone who would write a better piece about what a stupid idea this is than...Brian Sewell https://deadline.com/...

Wendy Ide /
@wendyide: This is utterly obscene if true and an insult to the staff members who have lost jobs.

Willard Foxton Todd /
@willardfoxton: Lay off 150 staff including 70 editorial staff, replace with AI replicating a dead man. https://deadline.com/...

New York Times:

How WhatsApp Channels, launched in late 2023, are driving traffic to digital news outlets, especially readers from outside the US, as social media traffic falls— An illustration of a man sitting on a green chair reading a newspaper called “World News” as he looks at his phone behind it.Jackson Gibbs

Discussion:
TVNewsCheck, @hanaatameez, @mikeisaac, @simondowens@threads.net

Discussion:

Hanaa' Tameez /
@hanaatameez: where....have i seen.....this story....before.... [image]

Rat King /
@mikeisaac: meta wants it to be much more than just a media thing — especially since they've shied away from courting publishers to the degree they did years ago — focusing on creators, organizations, etc etc but at least some publishers like the early numbers https://www.nytimes.com/...

Rat King /