Forbes reports: “Rambler, a Russian media company, is planning to sue Amazon’s Twitch for allegedly and illegally broadcasting 36,000 Premier League soccer games—and has since blocked Twitch from streaming the games, according to Reuters.”
VentureBeat reports: “Bigscreen and Paramount Pictures announced a multi-year agreement to distribute classic 2D and 3D films in 10 countries through Bigscreen, the social VR movie-watching platform.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “Boom times are here when it comes to music docs. On the heels of Apple TV+ ponying up a whopping $26 million for a film about singer-songwriter Billie Eilish and Amazon paying $25 million for a Peter Berg-directed Rihanna doc, dealmakers say the space will only get hotter.”
Variety reports: “When ET Live first launched on Halloween of 2018, the free “Entertainment Tonight”-branded streaming network kicked off with 15 hours of live programming a week, in three daily installments of entertainment news a day at 9 a.m., 12 p.m. and 4 p.m.”
VentureBeat reports: “The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering asking a court to stop Facebook from moving ahead with plans to integrate its WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger subsidiaries, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.”
The Verge reports: “T-Mobile wanted to merge with Dish back in 2015, T-Mobile CEO John Legere told a federal court yesterday, but Dish shot the deal down over concerns that T-Mobile would “disintegrate.” The details, reported by CNET, confirm stories from 2015 about a potential tie-up between the two companies and explains why the deal never came to be.”
Billboard reports: “Sony Music Entertainment has made a strategic investment in podcast production company Neon Hum to expand its development of original non-music programming.”
Variety reports: “Bay Area rapper Saweetie didn’t intend for “My Type” to come out as a single. But when a clip of the bouncy anthem about desirable (and slightly vulgar) attributes in a partner started to take off on TikTok as part of a social media challenge, it became clear the song would be her defining hit.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “Great Point Media, the London-based financing, sales and distribution banner behind titles such as Florence Pugh’s breakout Lady Macbeth, the BBC/Amazon’s all-star TV film King Lear and Emmy nominated The Cry, has secured a $100 million investment from U.S. institutional fund manager MC Credit Partners.”
The Verge reports: “Trying to get a handle on the progress of artificial intelligence is a daunting task, even for those enmeshed in the AI community. But the latest edition of the AI Index report — an annual rundown of machine learning data points now in its third year — does a good job confirming what you probably already suspected: the AI world is booming in a range of metrics covering research, education, and technical achievements.”
