Sources: Twitch remains unprofitable a decade after Amazon's acquisition; Docs show Twitch generated ~$667M in ad revenue and $1.3B in commerce revenue in 2023 (Wall Street Journal)

Mediagazer: Sources: Twitch remains unprofitable a decade after Amazon's acquisition; Docs show Twitch generated ~$667M in ad revenue and $1.3B in commerce revenue in 2023 (Wall Street Journal)

Top News:

Wall Street Journal:

Podcasting is becoming an industry of megastars with huge deals and the biggest audiences; Edison: the top 25 podcasts reach nearly 50% of US weekly listeners— The top shows are adding video, merchandise and live tours and signing megadeals with Spotify, Sirius and Amazon.
Discussion: The Media Leader, 9to5Mac, Max Cutler on LinkedIn, @robenfarzad, @samro, @joshthomastn, @davidharsanyi, @ckwitt3 and @wsj, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Sabrina Quagliozzi /
The Media Leader: How Podcasts became big business.. for a very few (WSJ)

Max Cutler /
Max Cutler on LinkedIn: The Wall Street Journal recently published a story this past weekend about the evolving podcast landscape and how podcasts are creating …

Roben Farzad /
@robenfarzad: “Nearly 100 million Americans 12 and older listen to #podcasts every week...Podcast #advertising revenue is projected to grow 12% to $2+ billion this year and hit nearly $2.6 billion by 2026.” 📌 [still seems small vs other advertising] https://www.wsj.com/... #audio #media

Sam Ro /
@samro: there are ~450,000 active U.S. podcasts, WSJ reports https://www.wsj.com/... [image]

Josh Thomas /
@joshthomastn: Fascinating article about podcasts in the @WSJ. There are 450,000 podcasts and 25 have 50% of all listeners. Also 449,000 have essentially zero audience. It's just talking into the void. https://www.wsj.com/... [image]

David Harsanyi /
@davidharsanyi: I don't think this piece is surprising. One could probably make the same claim about books, movies, and music.

Conor Witt /
@ckwitt3: @itsurboyevan Fat tail dynamics across every category of creator verticals...a few blockbuster podcasts make all the money “There are ~450k active podcasts that published recent episodes. But the top 25 podcasts reach nearly half of U.S. weekly listeners” https://www.wsj.com/... [image] @wsj: Podcasting is turning into an industry of megastars who command the most money and the biggest audiences. But the top 25 podcasts reach nearly half of U.S. weekly listeners, according to Edison Research. https://www.wsj.com/... https://www.wsj.com/...

404 Media:

Some popular sites like Condé Nast's titles and Reuters.com modified robots.txt to block Anthropic's bots, but Anthropic has just made new bots with other names— Hundreds of websites trying to block the AI company Anthropic from scraping their content are blocking the wrong bots …

Discussion:
@josephfcox, @dreid@wandering.shop, @neilsweeneyceo and @josephcox@infosec.exchange, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Joseph Cox /
@josephfcox: New from 404 Media: hundreds of websites are trying to block the AI company Anthropic from scraping their content, but are blocking the wrong bots, in part because AI companies are constantly launching new scrapers. Cat and mouse game https://www.404media.co/... [image] @dreid@wandering.shop: Great, a fucking arms race. — We really are going to need a shared blocklist that doesn't rely on putting your website behind Cloudflare. — https://www.404media.co/...

Neil Sweeney /
@neilsweeneyceo: As if publishers didn't have enough on their plate, they are now in an arm's race with AI bot scrappers. #Wack-a-mole. I would like to hear what pubs and consultants think about this & how to fix it. @ReklaimYours https://www.404media.co/...

Joseph Cox /
@josephcox@infosec.exchange: New from 404 Media: hundreds of websites are trying to block the AI company Anthropic from scraping their content, but are blocking the wrong bots, in part because AI companies are constantly launching new scrapers. Cat and mouse game https://www.404media.co/... [image]

RELATED:
Financial Times: Freelancer.com, iFixit, and others say Anthropic's crawler has aggressively scraped their websites, potentially breaching their terms of service

Discussion:
Boing Boing, @ianb@mastodon.well.com, @glenngabe, @jason_koebler, @matt_barrie, @barelylingual, @bobkitten, @kwiens, @ericholscher, @matt_barrie, @rahll, @readthedocs, @jordancmeyer, @dangoikhman, @dappierai, @kwiens, Read the Docs, PC Gamer, MSPoweruser, The Verge, 404 Media, Hacker News, Slashdot

Discussion:

Jason Weisberger /
Boing Boing: AI crawlers run up a website's hosting bill

Ian Betteridge /
@ianb@mastodon.well.com: Will Dario Amodei be facing 35 years in prison for this illegal scraping of data, as Aaron Swartz did when he scraped JSTOR? — https://www.ft.com/...

Glenn Gabe /
@glenngabe: ifixit wasn't blocking via robots.txt though. Now they are, so it *should* stop :) -> Anthropic's crawler is ignoring websites' anti-AI scraping policies “ClaudeBot, the web crawler that Anthropic uses to scrape training data for AI models like Claude, has hammered iFixit's [image]

Jason Koebler /
@jason_koebler: Anthropic's AI scraper bot hit iFixit's website a million times in a day in violation of its terms of service ... even if you specifically spell out that you don't want to have your stuff stolen it is often stolen anyway https://www.404media.co/... @barelylingual: @kwiens @AnthropicAI We've had to block what we assume are ai companies spamming our APIs instead of downloading our freely available database dumps over here at Wikipedia @bobkitten: @kwiens @AnthropicAI Post a fake fixit for a fake device so you'll be able to track who misappropriated your data. Mapmakers insert fake towns and roads to detect copying, Trivial Pursuit had 2 fake Q&As out of 6k in the Genus Edition. “How to replace the battery in the Dipsogenic Hampoon...”

Eric Holscher /
@ericholscher: @kwiens @AnthropicAI Yea, they were hammering us over at @readthedocs as well. We were planning to write a blog post on it, since this behavior is definitely gonna get all AI crawlers blocked because of abuse, not even because of the copyright issues.

Matt Barrie /
@matt_barrie: @kwiens @AnthropicAI We have the same issue @AnthropicAI scrapers absolutely smashing our servers, feel like sending them a bill.

Reid Southen /
@rahll: Anthropic AI is ripping off @iFixit en masse against their ToS and tying up their resources. These thieving AI companies need to be held accountable, this shit is out of control. @readthedocs: AI crawlers have downloaded over 100 TB in the last couple months, partially from bugs and abusive behavior. We ask AI crawlers to include rate and bandwidth limits, and ask them to partner with us to mitigate impact and support our work. https://about.readthedocs.com/ ...

Jordan Meyer /
@jordancmeyer: A single scraper cost readthedocs over $5k in May by downloading 73TB of data. Most image, music, and video datasets for AI only contain links to the media files. Downloading them externalizes the network costs to the hosts... https://about.readthedocs.com/ ...

Dan G /
@dangoikhman: @kwiens @kwiens thanks for drawing attention to this issue! We're working on a solution @DappierAI would love to chat with you about it and get your feedback @dappierai: @kwiens We do want to have that conversation! 😁 The current state of AI data scraping is untenable for devs and content owners Our solve is a marketplace approach: turn your content into an AI-ready data model & RAG API, & ensure you get paid whenever your content is used to generate

Kyle Wiens /
@kwiens: @jrhunt @AnthropicAI Our TOS banned ML training before their crawl, afterwards we added them to robots.txt.

Kyle Wiens /
@kwiens: Hey @AnthropicAI: I get you're hungry for data. Claude is really smart! But do you really need to hit our servers a million times in 24 hours? You're not only taking our content without paying, you're tying up our devops resources. Not cool.

Kyle Wiens /
@kwiens: If any of those requests accessed our terms of service, they would have told you that use of our content expressly forbidden. But don't ask me, ask Claude! If you want to have a conversation about licensing our content for commercial use, we're right here. [image]

Eric Holscher /
Read the Docs: AI crawlers need to be more respectful

Jacob Fox /
PC Gamer: iFixit CEO takes shots at Anthropic for ‘hitting our servers a million times in 24 hours’ and even the AI company's own chatbot disapproves

Rafly Gilang /
MSPoweruser: Anthropic washes hands over claims that its AI scraper hits iFixit's site a million times daily

Jess Weatherbed /
The Verge: Anthropic's crawler is ignoring websites' anti-AI scraping policies

Bloomberg:

Thelma, Longlegs, and Civil War are some of at least a half a dozen independent films to break out at the box office in 2024, a much needed boost for the sector— The decline of the independent film business has been a major concern among Hollywood producers and executives in recent years.

Discussion:
@lucas_shaw and Dexerto

Discussion:

Lucas Shaw /
@lucas_shaw: In honor of the biggest blockbuster of the year, I wrote about the resurgence of independent film — the who, what and why — for this week's newsletter. https://www.bloomberg.com/...

Daisy Phillipson /
Dexerto: Longlegs just beat record held by one of the greatest movies of all time

Deadline:

Nielsen and Adobe Analytics: the Paris Olympics opening ceremony drew 28.6M viewers on NBC and Peacock, up 60%+ from Tokyo, plus 666K on Telemundo Deportes— Good news for NBCUniversal: The Paris Olympics are off to a great start with a big win out of Friday's Opening Ceremony.

Discussion:
Mediaite, The Hollywood Reporter, Outsports, StreamTV Insider, The Media Leader, NBCSports.com, Axios, TVNewsCheck, Sports Media Watch, Forbes, New York Times, HuffPost, Bloomberg, Sportico, TVLine, The Desk, The Wrap, Variety and Reuters

Discussion:

Ahmad Austin Jr /
Mediaite: Pat McAfee Calls Out Olympic Organizers for Controversial Opening Ceremony: ‘We Just Want It to Revolve Around Sport’

Rick Porter /
The Hollywood Reporter: TV Ratings: Olympics Opening Ceremony Draws Biggest Audience for Summer Games Since 2012

Jon Holmes /
Outsports: Olympics Opening Ceremony director says ‘Last Supper’ wasn't inspiration, amid anti-LGBTQ backlash

Bevin Fletcher /
StreamTV Insider: NBC, Peacock capture 28.6M viewers for Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony

Sabrina Quagliozzi /
The Media Leader: NBCUniversal strikes gold with Paris Opening Ceremony NBCSports.com: THE OLYMPICS ARE BACK! PARIS OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY ON NBC AND PEACOCK IS MOST WATCHED SINCE 2012, WITH 28.6 MILLION VIEWERS

Sara Fischer /
Axios: Paris Olympics opening ceremony watched by nearly 29M

Richard Deitsch /
New York Times: Olympic opening ceremony draws total audience of 28.6 million viewers, most since 2012

Matt Webb Mitovich /
TVLine: Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Delivers Nearly 29 Million Viewers — Grade It!

Loree Seitz /
The Wrap: Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony Hits 28.6 Million Viewers Across NBC, Peacock - 60% More Than Tokyo

William Earl /
Variety: Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Delivers 28.6 Million Viewers for NBCUniversal, Most Watched for Summer Games Since 2012

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Twitch remains unprofitable a decade after Amazon's acquisition; Docs show Twitch generated ~$667M in ad revenue and $1.3B in commerce revenue in 2023— The live-video service has slowing user growth, and workers are expecting more layoffs, changes ahead

Discussion:

Salvador Rodriguez /
@salrodriguez@threads.net: Nearly 10 years since Amazon bought it for $1 billion, the live-streaming service Twitch remains unprofitable and insiders worry that its at risk of more layoffs. Some are concerned it could become a “zombie brand” at Amazon, which are internal projects or acquisitions that have been sidelined because they haven't lived up to expectations, like the app Goodreads. …

Travis Vocino /
@vocino@threads.net: I remember when Amazon acquired Twitch for $970M in 2014. Their office was near our startup in San Francisco and we would see them for coffee all the time. Despite soaring to $3B revenue in 2023, Twitch still isn't profitable. Twitch gives $AMZN access to a young male audience for ad, high costs of hosting live video are dragging down margins. …

Austin Johnsen /
@eaustinj@threads.net: Delivering video globally is phenomenally expensive. Twitch was only going to get profitable with scale and live is too niche to hit that scale (people want to watch what they want when they want it, not watch a 10 hour stream waiting for something interesting to happen, which is why on demand is 10x+ the scale of live) https://www.wsj.com/...

Virginia Glaze /
Dexerto: Twitch CEO Dan Clancy defends trips & dinners with streamers amid employee backlash

Simon Owens /
@simondowens@threads.net: It's ironic that live programming is the only thing propping up the cable bundle right now, and yet the largest live streaming platform online is struggling to reach profitability. — https://www.wsj.com/...

The Information:

LinkedIn and Pinterest are testing programs that let publishers sell ads on their videos and pages, respectively, in exchange for a cut of the resulting revenue— Social media platforms such as Pinterest, TikTok and LinkedIn are trying a new tack to gain a bigger share of digital advertising …

Discussion:
Search Engine Land, The Media Leader, Jeremy Jankowski on LinkedIn and TVNewsCheck, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:

Jack Benjamin /
The Media Leader: OpenAI seeks to reassure publishers over SearchGPT

Jeremy Jankowski /
Jeremy Jankowski on LinkedIn: A huge thank you to The Information for covering the second year of our signature Pinterest Red Standard program. …

Reuters:

Russia's state-run news agency TASS says the Olympic organizing committee revoked the accreditations of four of its journalists in Paris— Russia's state-run TASS news agency said the Olympic organising committee revoked accreditations for four of its journalists in Paris on Sunday …

Discussion:
The Moscow Times and The Desk

Variety:

WBD says Max and Discovery+ have pulled in more unique viewers in the first two days of the Paris Olympics than in the entirety of the Tokyo games in 2021— In just two days, Warner Bros. Discovery's Max and Discovery+ streaming services pulled in more unique viewers for the Paris Olympics …

Discussion:
ComingSoon.net and Pressroom

Semafor:

A look at Kamala Harris' efforts since early 2022 to improve her relationship with the national media, increasing the cadence of her interactions with reporters— The News — Kamala Harris has spent her last two years as vice president repairing a difficult relationship with the national media …

Discussion:
@semaforben and HuffPost

Puck:

Sources: several Nikkei boardmembers push for consideration of a sale of the Financial Times as they have grown impatient with its economic performance— But first... 🗞️ Will the Financial Times head to the block?: Might the FT, the august salmon-hued internationalist business broadsheet, eventually hit the market?

Discussion:
Talking Biz News

Discussion:

Chris Roush /
Talking Biz News: Is the Financial Times headed for a sale?

London Evening Standard:

Former BBC presenter Huw Edwards is charged with three counts of making indecent images of children; Edwards resigned from the BBC in April 2024— The former BBC newsreader has not appeared in public since allegations about his personal life were made in The Sun

Discussion:
CNN, Press Gazette, The Guardian, Reuters, CBS News, Sky News, @jamesrbuk, PinkNews, @jake_kanter, The Daily Beast, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Mirror and Deadline

Discussion:

Haroon Siddique /
The Guardian: Huw Edwards charged with making indecent images of children

Michael Holden /
Reuters: Ex-BBC news presenter Huw Edwards charged with indecent child picture crimes

Tom Gillespie /
Sky News: Huw Edwards charged with making indecent images of children

James Ball /
@jamesrbuk: Bizarre picture selection from the BBC for the news that Huw Edwards has been charged with making indecent images of children - makes it look uncomfortably like he's presenting the news himself. [image]

Charlie Duncan /
PinkNews: Ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards charged with making indecent images of children

Jake Kanter /
@jake_kanter: Extraordinary 18 months or so for Huw Edwards. From the absolute peak of his powers to a court date on charges of making indecent images of children. [image]

Tim Teeman /
The Daily Beast: BBC Star News Anchor Huw Edwards Charged Over ‘Indecent’ Images of Kids

K.J. Yossman /
Variety: Former BBC Presenter Huw Edwards Charged With ‘Making Indecent Images of Children,’ Police Say

Scott Roxborough /
The Hollywood Reporter: Former BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Charged With Making Indecent Images of Children The Mirror: Ex BBC star Huw Edwards charged over indecent images of children ‘shared on WhatsApp’ and will appear in court

Max Goldbart /
Deadline: Huw Edwards Charged Over Indecent Images Of Children

Poynter:

A few newspaper companies, including Lee and Alden's MediaNews Group, are offering ad-free premium subscription tiers as privacy concerns grow— It's not a new idea, but more publishers are offering it. Audiences, wary of privacy issues and primed by streaming, may be coming around.