The Kingdom’s bet on entertainment at home has been matched by an equally ambitious push abroad — one that is rapidly reshaping Hollywood’s balance sheet. - The Hollywood Reporter
The deal shatters several records: It gives Nexstar control of 265 local stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, reaching 80% of the nation's households. Federal competition law from 2004 limits companies to less than half that level. - NPR
NPR today announced it has received philanthropic gifts totaling more than $110 million — including the largest by a living donor in NPR's history — as a strategic investment in its future. - Editor & Publisher
“The BBC said Wednesday that it plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs to save 10% of its annual budget — £500 million ($677 million) — over the next two years. … The (broadcaster) said earlier this year that it faced ‘substantial financial pressures’ and wanted to cut a tenth of its budget by 2029.” - AP
Among those let go are 20 people from the company's publicity departments, as well as the entire home entertainment and EPK teams. On the digital marketing side, positions at every level, including senior vice president, were eliminated. Layoffs have also occurred throughout the Marvel division due to a reduced production slate. - TheWrap (MSN)
“Further concentrating marketplace power in the hands of a smaller group of distributors that dictate the terms, windows, scheduling, screen-placement of movies, and access to historic film catalogs will have a real and lasting impact on Main Street and millions of movie fans around the world.” - Los Angeles Times
The site forces its human users to approximate the speed at which a machine would return a response; there's a 75-second time limit. So drawings, created with a mouse or finger on a trackpad, have a necessarily slapdash look. - NPR
Nigeria’s film ecosystem is known mostly for Nollywood, the industry headquartered in Lagos. In the largely Muslim north of the country, however, there’s Kannywood, based in Kano, where moviemakers with modest means churn out an amazing number of productions, all while dealing with strict censors. - The New York Times
“This transaction uniquely brings together complementary strengths to create a company that can greenlight more projects, back bold ideas, support talent across multiple stages of their careers, and bring stories to audiences at a truly global scale." - Deadline
According to analysis by the artificial-intelligence-detection startup Originality AI, 23 major news sites are currently blocking ia_archiverbot, the web crawler commonly used by the Internet Archive for the Wayback project. - Wired
“(The corporation) is restructuring its operations with plans for hundreds of layoffs across its film, TV and corporate divisions. Sources tell Variety the layoffs … are expected to result in a ‘few hundred’ eliminations out of 12,000 employees … globally.” - Variety
“U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida wrote in the order that Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was published with the intent to be malicious, but gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint.” - AP
The letter warns that merging two of Hollywood’s major studios will result in “fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.” - The New York Times
“‘It has to resonate and feel authentic to the time,’ says one expert. ‘This generation really sees stereotypes pretty quickly … they’ll see inappropriate behavior quickly, and they will call it out.’” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
“Is the Online Streaming Act worth all the hassle it's getting from the United States? CBC's The House spoke to experts about why this bill has generated so much controversy and whether Canada should stay firm in the face of U.S. pressure.” - CBC
