Venture Beat reports: “Unity announced today a new partnership with Mercedes-Benz. The Unity engine will power the infotainment domain of the MB.OS operating system. It will roll out to the first vehicles in 2024. Mercedes is using Unity Industrial Collection to create the UI for the in-car cockpit. Unity’s tech will power everything from 3D navigation software to virtual avatars and augmented reality experiences.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “France-born online music streaming platform Deezer is planning to expand its operations in Germany in the coming weeks and is looking to replicate its strategy in Brazil where it launched in 2013. The expansion was reported on Friday (August 5) by Reuters, citing an exclusive interview with Deezer CEO Jeronimo Folgueira. Deezer plans its foray into Germany through a local partnership with German broadcaster RTL.”
Tech Crunch reports: “Snap on Wednesday launched the paid version of its widely used social media service in India, bringing its exclusive and experimental features offering to the South Asian nation for just 62 cents a month as it looks to supercharge its customer base by attempting to monetize over 100 million users. The launch of the subscription offering, priced in India at 49 Indian rupees, follows Snap introducing the $4 subscription offering in the U.S., the UK and Canada among a few other key markets in late June.”
Variety reports: “The direct-to-Hulu release of “Prey,” the action-thriller prequel to “Predator,” notched the most viewing hours ever on the Disney-owned streamer in its first three days — among all TV series and movies. That would mean “Prey” had a bigger aggregate viewing-time total over three days than “The Kardashians,” which Hulu in April said was its biggest TV series premiere at the time.”
Games Industry Biz reports: “EA may not have exclusivity on NFL video games any longer, but it has kept the rights to one aspect of the license, today announcing a multi-year exclusive esports deal renewal with the league. “As a trusted partner for more than 30 years, EA’s commitment to football authenticity with Madden NFL is exemplary,” said NFL VP of video gaming Ed Kiang.”
The Verge reports: “Walmart is investigating building its own streaming service, The New York Times reported, and is talking to some big-name content players about which shows and movies it can offer to Walmart Plus subscribers. The company has apparently held discussions with Paramount, Disney, and Comcast about the service, though it’s not clear whether those discussions came to anything. (Walmart declined to comment.)”
Finsmes reports: “Overtime, a NYC-based company that builds new sports leagues aimed globally at the next generation of sports fans and athletes, raised $100m in Series D funding. The round was led by Liberty Media Corporation and return investor Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), with participation from Winslow Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Blackstone and Sapphire Sport.”
Variety reports: “Variety Film Chatter Chart debuted on Twitter on Monday, with “Bullet Train,” “Prey” and “Don’t Worry Darling” topping this week’s list of the most tweeted about movies. Variety Film Chatter Chart, powered by Twitter, tracks the week’s top five trending titles in the world of cinema and the most buzzed about movies based on Twitter engagement.”
Social Media Today reports: “As part of Black Business Month, which is celebrated in August, TikTok has announced that it’s now accepting applications for the third round of its ‘Support Black Businesses’ accelerator program, which aims to help Black-owned businesses thrive on the platform via exclusive access to support resources, education, and networking opportunities.”
Venture Beat reports: “Unity announced today it is partnering with Microsoft and making Azure its cloud solution to create real-time 3D experiences. Developers can use Azure and the Unity engine together, which will also allegedly make it easier for them to get their games on PC and Xbox. Unity says it is ‘creating native capabilities that unlock our tools for more people than ever.'”
