The Hollywood Reporter reports: “Nexstar, the local TV station giant, is rebranding its national cable channel WGN America as NewsNation, positioning it as a “fact-based and unbiased” competitor to cable news channels like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.”
Deadline reports: “With the nature and business of feature films changing almost daily, Comscore has announced “Movies Everywhere,” a new cross-screen measurement system.”
Gamesindustry.biz reports: “Tencent secured more mergers and acquisitions in the games space than any other company last year. That’s according to a report by Niko Partners, which shows the Chinese games and technology giant invested in 31 deals related to the games industry.”
Variety reports: “Vivendi, the parent company of Canal Plus and Universal Music Group, has acquired a 7.6% stake in Prisa, one of the Spanish-speaking world’s largest media groups, which owns El Pais newspaper, among other assets.”
Billboard reports: “Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited is planning to issue up to 1.5 billion new shares as it eyes more catalog acquisitions, according to a company prospectus released on Thursday (Jan. 21).”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “UBS analyst John Hodulik upgraded his rating on the stock of the Walt Disney Co. from “neutral” to “buy” in a Friday report, lauding the Hollywood giant’s streaming success and arguing its theme parks would benefit from the reopening of the economy after the coronavirus pandemic.”
TechCrunch reports: “Google has threatened to close its search engine in Australia — as it dials up its lobbying against draft legislation that is intended to force it to pay news publishers for reuse of their content.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “Music startup Djooky, an emerging artist platform, has launched a new feature on its app called HitHunter that promises to pay its users cash prizes for identifying potential hits.”
CNET reports: “Apple’s first virtual reality headset will reportedly sport powerful processors, a high-resolution display, a fan and a steep price tag. The VR headset will be considered a niche product and could be “far more expensive” than the $300 to $900 headsets available from rivals, according to a report Thursday from Bloomberg.”
TechCrunch reports: “YouTube is embracing the hashtag. The company has been quietly working on a new feature that allows users to better discover content using hashtags — either by clicking on a hashtag on YouTube or by typing in a hashtag link directly.”
