If last year’s combined 191-day writers’ and actors’ strikes, with all the vitriolic exchange between creatives and management, has not convinced you that television’s riotous superbloom has officially come to an end, the 75th Emmys might. - Los Angeles Times
"Film producer David Ellison's Skydance Media is exploring an all-cash deal to acquire National Amusements Inc., the company that controls Paramount Global, (and) merge the two entertainment businesses." The deal would include, among others, Paramount Studios and the TV networks CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and VH1. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
If signed into law, the proposal, called the No AI Fraud Act, could curb a growing trend of individuals and businesses creating AI-recorded tracks using artists’ voices and deceptive ads in which it appears a performer is endorsing a product. - The Hollywood Reporter
It all started when, in 2021, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti decided he wanted to take the company public using a SPAC (remember those?), all the rage on Wall Street at the time. - New York Magazine (MSN)
"Amazon is laying off “several hundred” employees at Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. Additionally, 500 employees — or 35% of the workforce — are being let go at Amazon-owned livestream platform Twitch." - Variety
As Civic Platform, the leading party in the new governing coalition, put it last year, "Poles deserve real public television, not like Russia Today, but like the BBC." But the old governing party, Law and Justice, had passed legislation that has made depoliticizing the public broadcaster complicated. - Columbia Journalism Review
"Under a new deal with an artificial intelligence company, members of the Screen Actors Guild will be able to create and license digital simulations of their voices for video games and other projects while enjoying safeguards against their potential misuse." - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
“If you want to know your game is not good, you prefer to know it as early as possible, so that you can still do something about it, and not when it’s too late." - The New York Times
"Radio’s second largest ownership group says it has reached an agreement with a 'supermajority' of its debtholders on a deleveraging transaction that will erase over 80% of the company’s debt, … (in exchange for which) Audacy’s debtholders will receive an ownership stake in the reorganized company." - Inside Radio
The screenplay, which is finished, is based on A Life of Jesus by Shūsaku Endō, who also wrote the book on which Scorsese's Silence is based. Scorsese intends the 80-minute film to focus on the core principles of Jesus's teachings rather than retelling the Gospels. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
“There’s an opportunity for cable companies to rebundle streaming services in a way that is friendly to consumers,” MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said. - The Wall Street Journal
“News is no longer received consciously, but rather consumed incidentally like potato chips.” Instead of intentionally seeking news from sources dedicated to journalism, many people now assume the viral nature of social media will automatically alert them to any truly important events or issues. - HighBrow
After dipping in recent years, online piracy is on the rise again. And a not insignificant contingent of filmmakers and their fans believe this theft is justified. - The Daily Beast
But the Golden Globes could, and the intrigue was great as Taylor Swift faced off against Barbie. The doll won. Can the Academy ever go down this path? - Vulture
