Disney, Fox and WBD Unveil Name of Sports-Streaming Venture: Venu Sports

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Gizmodo, the 22-year-old tech news site, is the latest asset sold by G/O Media, which has been steadily shedding media properties for more than a year. Gizmodo’s new owner is Keleops, a European online tech-media company with offices in Switzerland and Paris, France, that was originally founded 10 years ago as a performance-marketing firm.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Three days after initial reports that a notorious hacking group had stolen info on more than 500 million Ticketmaster customers — and was attempting to sell the data online — parent company Live Nation Entertainment confirmed the breach in a regulatory filing late Friday. On May 20, 2024, Live Nation “identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing company data (primarily from its Ticketmaster L.L.C.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Moonbug Entertainment, the kids media company behind Netflix’s massively popular “CoComelon” series, appointed Courtney Holt its new managing director for the Americas. Holt takes over the position from Andy Yeatman, who is departing Moonbug for an unspecified new gig. Holt, a digital media veteran who has worked at Spotify and Disney, joined Moonbug earlier this year as the company’s first global head of music and strategic audio initiatives, areas he will continue to oversee in his newly expanded role.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tony Billetter, formerly Apple’s head of worldwide business strategy and planning for video and sports, has taken on a similar role at Venu Sports, the recently formed joint venture of Disney, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Dystopian thriller “Leave the World Behind” was the most-watched film — and title overall — on Netflix globally in the second half of 2023, while anime-inspired live action series “One Piece” led on the TV side. The data comes from Netflix’s second edition of “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report,” reflecting viewership on the streamer from July-December 2023 covering 99% of all viewing on Netflix. Subscribers across the world watched about 90 billion hours of Netflix in the second half of 2023, compared with 93 billion hours in the first half of the year.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor For fans of old-school games, it’s kind of like Coke acquiring Pepsi: Atari, which produced one of the first hit home game consoles, announced a deal to acquire the brand of long-time rival Intellivision and the rights to more than 200 games from Intellivision Entertainment. Atari and Intellivision battled it out what is considered the game industry’s first console war, starting in the late ’70s.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Actor Scarlett Johansson said she turned down OpenAI‘s request for her to lend her voice to a conversational ChatGPT system — and that she was “shocked” and “angered” that the company went ahead and used a voice that sounded very similar to hers anyway. Johansson, in a statement provided to Variety, said her lawyers contacted OpenAI to have the voice of Sky, one of the new voices in the GPT-4o conversational chatbot release, pulled down. OpenAI introduced the Sky voice, which sounded very like that of Johansson’s disembodied AI companion in Spike Jonze’s 2013 movie “Her.” The company on Monday said it would “pause” the use of the Sky voice, and said the voice was supplied by another actor.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Julia Phelps, Paramount Global‘s executive VP and chief communications and corporate marketing officer, is exiting after almost 20 years with the company and predecessor Viacom. Phelps had long worked with Bob Bakish, who was ousted as CEO of the company last month and replaced by a three-exec committee. Phelps, in a memo to her team Friday, said she will leave Paramount at the end of May.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney CEO Bob Iger said that as the traditional pay-TV universe continues to shrink, the company is cutting its investment in content for linear TV networks while also amortizing that expenditure across streaming platforms. The strategy is “to reduce pretty dramatically our investment in content specifically aimed in those traditional networks,” Iger said Wednesday at MoffettNathanson’s 2024 Media, Internet and Communications Conference in New York.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The turmoil in TV and advertising has been reflected in a high level of turnover among top TV ad sales executives, so media buyers will be doing business with a number of new faces in this year’s upfront advertising sales market. Madison Avenue’s growing reliance on streaming video has given rise to a new array of top sales honchos. Jeff Collins is leading Fox Corp.’s efforts this year following the retirement of sales stalwart Marianne Gambelli.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tubi hired Mike Bidgoli, a six-year veteran of internet giant Meta, as chief product and technology officer for the Fox-owned free streaming service. Bidgoli, who reports to CEO Anjali Sud, will be responsible for leading the product and engineering teams overseeing the product experience and innovation strategy for Tubi.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku has landed exclusive multiyear rights for Major League Baseball‘s Sunday Leadoff live games, a package previously with NBCUniversal’s Peacock. Starting May 19, Roku will stream Sunday MLB games for free on the Roku Channel. The company also will launch a new MLB Zone to help baseball fans find live and upcoming games, nightly recaps, highlights, a fully programmed MLB free, ad-supported streaming TV channel, and other content across the Roku platform.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer When NBCUniversal kicks off TV’s traditional week of upfront presentations on Monday, picket-free sidewalks outside Radio City Music Hall will be a sight for sore eyes following last year’s noisy protests in the first weeks of what proved to be the nation’s “hot labor summer.” Hosting a programming presentation at a megawatt New York City venue like Radio City or Javits Center is stressful enough. Executives are eager to return to business as usual in wooing Madison Avenue.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor They’re not dead yet: Most of Vice Media Group‘s digital brands — including Vice.com — will be relaunched under a new joint venture formed by the struggling media company. But the future of Vice News remains uncertain. In February, Vice Media had announced that it would stop publishing content on consumer-facing digital outlets and the Brooklyn-based company laid off several hundred employees.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix used to say its goal was to become HBO faster than HBO could become Netflix. Well, Netflix succeeded on that front. Now Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery — ordinarily rivals for consumers’ time and money — are teaming up for a triple-play bundle of Disney+, Hulu and Max. The companies announced a new streaming bundle comprising Disney+, Hulu and Max will be available this summer in the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor An Apple commercial for the new iPad Pro tablet showing an industrial press literally crushing a TV, musical instruments, books and more ignited an angry backlash among many in Hollywood and other creative industries. The ad, titled “Crush!”, shows an array of various objects — including a record player, a piano, a guitar, an old TV set, cameras, a typewriter, books, paint cans and a classic arcade game machine — getting compressed into (voila!) the new iPad Pro.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the upcoming sports streaming venture with Disney/ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery is forging ahead with over 150 engineers now on board dedicated “to building a unique and innovative product” for sports fans outside the traditional cable bundle.

Fox Corp. saw revenue dip for its fiscal third quarter as advertising slid on tough comps with the Super Bowl broadcast the year earlier.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. said it swung to a profit in its fiscal third quarter despite slumps in advertising revenue, largely due to the absence of charges associated with a massive legal setback tied to Fox News Channel and a boost in affiliate fees.