Gamesindustry.biz reports: “Netflix has appointed former president of games at Scopely, Amir Rahimi, as vice president of its game studios. Rahimi worked at Scopely for almost two years, having previously been SVP and Los Angeles general manager at FoxNext, the VR and theme park unit of 20th Century Fox.”
Hypebot reports: “Music NFT marketplace startup Royal has raised $55 million in Series A funding after having raised $16 million in August. The startup is led by Justin Blau, an EDM artist who performs under the name 3LAU, and JD Ross, a co-founder of home-buying startup Opendoor.”
Gamesindustry.biz reports: “State will pay up to 25% of qualifying expenses for gaming competitions, committing up to $5m a year. The fund is targeted at larger events (costing at least $250,000 to run), and offers to reimburse up to 25% of the money such events spend on in-state goods and services, compensation, and benefits.”
TechCrunch reports: “Looking for the soundtrack from your favorite Netflix show? Now, it will be easier to find thanks to an expanded partnership between Netflix and Spotify. The streaming music service today introduced a new “Netflix Hub” on its app, which will offer a centralized place for finding the official soundtracks, playlists, and podcasts for top shows and movies on Netflix.”
SocialMediaToday reports: “In case you needed another reminder, and in case you were wondering why Facebook’s so focused on winning back young users, a new survey from Forrester, incorporating responses from over 4,600 teenagers in the US, has found that TikTok has seen a 13-point year-over-year rise in weekly usage, while Instagram has declined 4 points in the same period.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “The fund raise was led by entertainment and media-focused investment firm Great Mountain Partners, which also holds what it says is “a significant stake” in Concord. The round also saw participation from the technology-focused Founders Fund, whose portfolio ranges from SpaceX to Spotify.”
TechCrunch reports: “The company formerly known as Facebook is delaying a rollout of end-to-end encryption across all its services until “sometime in 2023”, according to Meta’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, penning an op-ed in the British newspaper, the Telegraph this weekend.”
Variety reports: “HBO Max will get its hands on Fox’s film slate for one final year — under an unusual deal to share streaming windows with Disney Plus and Hulu for half the studio’s titles, starting with “Ron’s Gone Wrong” next month.”
Gamesindustry.biz reports: “Death Stranding developer Kojima Productions has launched a new division dedicated to music, TV and film. Based in Los Angeles, California, the new division is designed to take the game studio’s games to other pop culture areas.”
Digiday reports: “Outbrain today announced its intended $55 million purchase of Video Intelligence — its first acquisition following its July IPO — as it seeks to make inroads to the connected TV space.Outbrain co-CEO David Kostman told Digiday the purchase of Video Intelligence would help boost its existing video business which accounted for 9% of its Q3 revenues and amounts to approximately $100 million of revenue per year.”
