Broadband TV News reports: “Unilever has joined a beta program launched by Disney that allows consumers to purchase items without disrupting the viewing experience. Known as Gateway Shop, the commerce-led format connects the stream to the shopping cart. Consumers taking part in the beta will received personalised prompts for products that are sent directly to their phones via push notifications or email.”
Social Media Today reports: “The X team is super excited this week, because MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson), the most popular YouTuber of all time, has uploaded one of his videos directly to X, as a means to test X’s monetization capacity, according to Donaldson’s post.”
GamesBeat reports: “Nifty Island has unveiled an open social gaming platform that aims to give new life to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Whether that can be done in the current NFT gaming doldrums is an open question. Bu tthat said, Nifty Island has launched its first Web3 game, hoping to give new utility to NFTs.”
Next TV reports: “TelevisaUnivision said it plans to launch an ad-supported version of the premium tier of its ViX streaming service this year. The new streaming service will offer ViX’s premium content at a lower price than the ViX Premium tier, which costs $6.99 a month. The price for the new service has not yet been disclosed. TelevisaUnivision will continue to offer ViX Gratis, the ad-supported free tier launched in 2022.”
TechCrunch reports: “Amazon is officially rolling out the ability to create AI-generated images on Fire TV devices. Starting today, the feature is available in the U.S. for users with a second-generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Fire TV Omni QLED Series. Fire TV’s new feature is powered by Amazon’s Titan Image Generator, which the company announced during its AWS re:Invent 2023 conference in November.”
WCCF Tech reports: “Today, Ubisoft announced some changes to its Ubisoft+ subscription service. The multi-access and PC access will now be known as Ubisoft+ Premium, featuring access to the latest games and DLCs. On the other hand, Ubisoft+ Classics (previously available on PlayStation Plus as part of the Extra and Premium subscription tiers) now becomes its own subscription available on PC.”
Engadget reports: “There are few things as American as watching football on a Sunday. If anyone needs further proof, NFL and Peacock have it: The January 14 Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card has set a new record for the United States’ most streamed live event in history. According to a joint release from NBC-owned Peacock and Comcast, the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins game — the first playoff ever exclusively live-streamed — reached 27.6 million viewers.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “London-based audio technology start-up Bronze, which specializes in AI-assisted music tools, has closed a $1.3 million pre-seed round. The company’s investors include Disclosure, Arca, Jimmy Napes, DAO Jones, Method Music and September Management. Founded by record producer Lex Dromgoole and songwriter/composer Gwilym Gold, Bronze has also collaborated with XL Recordings, Oscar-winning sound-designer Nicolas Becker and musicians Arca and Jai Paul.”
TechCrunch reports: “OpenAI says it wants to implement ideas from the public about how to ensure its future AI models “align to the values of humanity.” To that end, the AI startup is forming a new Collective Alignment team of researchers and engineers to create a system for collecting and “encoding” public input on its models’ behaviors into OpenAI products and services, the company announced today.”
The Hollywood Reporter reports: “Adobe and the Adobe Foundation are committing $6 million to launch a film and television fund to help underrepresented creators starting out in their careers. The Adobe Film & TV Fund will support the work of existing nonprofits that serve historically excluded communities, with the inaugural cohort of grantees including Easterseals, Gold House, Latinx House, NAACP, Sundance Institute and the India youth-focused Yuvaa.”
