Broadband TV News reports: “beIN Sports has secured exclusive rights to the Formula 1 World Championships in ten territories across Asia. The new media rights agreement begins this year and runs until the conclusion of the 2025 championship. It includes rights to all Grand Prix, Sprint Races, Qualifying and Practice sessions.”
Music Ally reports: “There’s a big figure in the start-of-the-year blog post from Twitch’s chief product officer Tom Verrilli and chief monetization officer Mike Minton. “Streamers earned over $1 billion across Twitch in 2022,” they wrote. That’s a mixture of channel subscriptions, tips and shared advertising revenues, although the blog post didn’t break down the overall figure into those categories. Instead, it focused on summarising the various tools and programs that Twitch launched last year to help streamers to make money.”
IGN reports: “Episode 1 of HBO’s The Last of Us TV adaptation has been made available to stream in its entirety free on YouTube ahead of Episode 3 releasing this Sunday. As spotted by VGC, the almost 120 minute-long episode was uploaded to the YouTube channel of Sky TV (where the show is available in the UK) and will likely soon be uploaded to HBO’s YouTube too.”
Deadline reports: “Prolific character actor David Dastmalchian has today announced the launch of his genre-focused production company, Good Fiend Films, which will look to produce character-driven projects across horror, sci-fi and fantasy for film, television, audio and publishing. Dastmalchian, who has recently been seen in such blockbusters as Dune and The Suicide Squad, envisions his shingle as a home for stories about complex characters from all walks of life.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “Reservoir Media has struck a new deal with Rock and Roll and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee Dion Francis DiMucci, professionally known as Dion. The company says that the deal includes Dion’s entire publishing catalog and future works, as well as synchronization rights to his recording masters. Dion has released over 40 albums and has earned 39 Top 40 hits, as well as 11 Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits.”
Games Industry Biz reports: “Mobile games firm Metacore has acquired Supercell’s Everdale title. The Finnish studio ended development for the multiplayer mobile title in October 2022. With the acquisition, Supercell has given its ownership of Everdale and all of the game’s assets to Metacore. Additionally, Metacore has appointed Johannes Peltola as game lead to oversee the title’s development.”
Digital Music News reports: “SiriusXM announced the return of The Grammy Channel in collaboration with the Recording Academy, celebrating the 65th Annual Grammy Awards by honoring the artists, albums, and songs nominated this year. The channel will feature Adele, Beyonce, Brandi Carlile, Jack Harlow, Miranda Lambert, Lizzo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, The Black Keys, and many more, leading up to a live broadcast of the event on Sunday, February 5. The limited-edition channel is live now through February 7.”
Deadline reports: “Amazon Studios is getting into business with Critical Role, the company behind Prime Video’s The Legend of Vox Machina animated series, with a multiyear exclusive overall television and first-look film deal. The first official project under the new pact is animated series Mighty Nein, based on Critical Role’s successful second campaign.”
Tech Crunch reports: “Code-hosting platform GitHub has announced that 100 million developers are now using the platform. The figure represents a substantial hike on the 3 million users GitHub counted exactly 10 years ago, the 28 million it claimed when Microsoft acquired it for $7.5 billion five years ago, and the 90 million-plus it revealed just three months ago.”
Variety reports: “Abramorama, a New York-based film distribution and marketing company, is launching a global video-on-demand rental service. It’s collaborating with Artinii.Pro, a cloud-tech driven media enterprise, to extend film offerings through the digital platform Abramorama at Home. To kick off the partnership, six music and social issue documentaries including “Long Live Rock,” “Herb Alpert Is…” and “Cosplay Universe,” will be available to watch starting on Thursday.”
