Entertainment:
·
Please see below for an interesting article on VR filmmaking
and VR experiences at Sundance
·
Oculus hired Pixar veterans to form Story Studio, which will
create and release VR cinema examples designed to “educate, inspire, and foster
community” for filmmakers interested in VR
·
BBC released the first film commissioned for its on-demand
iPlayer: a feature-length documentary about Afghanistan, called Bitter Lake, by
experimental British filmmaker Adam Curtis
·
Dish’s streaming video subscription service Sling TV will
become available to consumers tomorrow, giving subscribers access to a small
portion of live, traditional cable TV content for just $20 a month
·
Visionary VR is a new editing suite for VR films
·
Please see below for an article on the digital distribution of
indie films
·
Hulu has re-opened its Super Bowl advertising site, sponsored
again this year by Toyota
·
Director Alex Gibney's explosive HBO documentary about
Scientology, "Going Clear," which is based on Lawrence Wright's
best-selling book of the same name, premiered Sunday night at Sundance
·
The international channels unit of AMC Networks has acquired
The Strongest Man and four other films from this year's Park City gathering it
was announced early Monday morning
·
Please see below for articles on the SAG Awards
·
In the biggest deal by far so far here at the Sundance Film
Festival, Open Road Films and Sony Pictures have won a pitched bidding battle
for the Rick Famuyiwa-directed Dope - the deal is worth $7MM in minimum
guarantee, with a $15MM P&A
o
http://deadline.com/2015/01/dope-seven-million-dollars-open-road-sundance-film-festival-1201357907/
·
Indiegogo and Vimeo are joining forces with the latter to
serve as the preferred distribution platform for the film funding site
·
Emma Watson is joining Disney's live-action version of Beauty
and the Beast as the lead character Belle, the studio said on Monday
·
The BBC on Monday unveiled BBC Taster, a new web site that it
described as "a space to develop its latest ideas for digital content and
emerging technology."
·
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman's compensation for the latest
fiscal year amounted to $44.33MM, up 19% from the $37.17MM in the previous year
·
The National Football League, after years of old-media
thinking, has finally bowed to reality in 2015 and launched an official channel
on YouTube one week before Super Bowl XLIX
·
PRS for Music Foundation, Arts Council England and Deezer have
announced the latest round of artists to receive Momentum Music funding
·
Fans of the Grateful Dead want a campout style atmosphere
during three 50th anniversary concerts in July at Chicago’s Soldier Field, but
whether the venue will allow it is another question
·
The Canadian Government has announced $1.2MM in funding to
build the capacity of British Columbia's creative industries, including film,
television, digital media, music, book and magazine publishing
Tech:
·
Twice is a new commerce platform that can potentially dethrone
eBay – the team buys the inventory from sellers, spruces it up by photographing
it for its e-commerce site, then ships it off to buyers
·
Stripe and Intuit have partnered to work together on a product
that will instantly recognize earnings that on-demand workers receive and help
them optimize their taxes with write-offs for work-related expenses
·
ROCKI, which makes a device that turns any speaker into a
wireless speaker system, is partnering with Spotify so its users can stream the
music service over their existing speaker systems
·
TransferWise, the fast-growing UK-based P2P money transfer
startup that has reportedly been in talks with Facebook for remittance
services, has raised a large tranche of funding led by A16Z
·
EyeEm Missions, a new social network, can actually help its
photographers make money, rather than just monetize their eyeballs and clicks
·
Pinterest announced a change to its site’s search settings,
which will now introduce search results that are personalized to your
interests, based on whether you’re interested in products for men or for women
·
Google announced the beta launch of the Google Container
Registry for its Cloud Platform
·
Samsung Electronics will be the main supplier of processors
powering Apple’s next handset model
·
Pandora shares closed up 10.4% to $17.57 after an OTR Global
report said 17 advertising agencies expected to increase their advertising
spending at Pandora
·
Facebook has blocked an unspecified number of pages that
featured content allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed on Monday, following
an order from a local court in Turkey
Deals:
·
AT&T continued its southward
expansion on Monday, agreeing to buy Nextel Mexico for nearly $1.9B as part of
its campaign to expand its Latin American presence
·
Blinkbox Music, the UK retail
giant’s re-branded music streaming service after it acquired We7 back in 2012,
is being offloaded to Australia’s Guvera to help the latter “expand into
Western Europe faster”
·
Silicon Valley venture capital firm
Jafco Ventures took a step forward last year with its latest fund, allowing
investors other than Japan-based venture firm Jafco Co. Ltd. to pour in money
·
Two big insurance companies,
PartnerRe and Axis Capital Holdings, agreed to merge on Sunday, creating a new
$11B player in the specialized field of reinsurance
·
Politicians are supporting Comcast's
TWC merger with letters ghostwritten by Comcast
Business:
·
IBM’s stock has been rising on reports that the company is
planning a huge round of layoffs of up to 26% of its workforce, or 118,000
people
·
With nearly $15B in exits through mergers and acquisitions and
public offerings, 2014 was an all-time record year for the Israeli hi-tech industry,
compared with a mere $1.2B raised in 2013
·
SpaceX said Friday that the company has reached an agreement
with the U.S. Air Force, to drop its lawsuit against the USAF--giving SpaceX
the opportunity to bid for national security space launches
·
The Blackstone Group vehicle is among several efforts by big
private equity firms to find investment bargains among oil and natural gas
companies, many of which have been strained by the fall in oil prices
·
Cablevision is prepping a new cellphone service that will dial
up pressure on the wireless industry’s business model
Exec Moves:
·
The Raine Group plans to announce on
Monday that it has hired Tom Freston, the former chief executive of Viacom, as
a senior adviser
Retail:
Startups:
·
LichiFM, a light radio mobile
software that enables users to set up, upload, and create personalized audio clips,
raised $20MM in its Series C
·
TransferWise, a peer-to-peer money
transfer service allowing foreign students and businesses to transact money
globally, raised $58MM in its Series C
Government:
·
The ruble’s plunge has heightened opposition to Putin’s
backing of the rebellion in Ukraine among his wealthiest allies, prompting the
president to shrink his inner circle from dozens of confidants to a small group
of security officials united by their support for the separatists
·
There was a national election in Greece yesterday, and now
there’s a new party in power - out with the conservative party, and in with the
leftist Syriza party
Other:
·
Wind-driven snow falling as fast as four inches per hour is
poised to bring travel and commerce to a standstill from New York to Boston
·
Joe Franklin, a pioneering host of talk shows on both radio
and TV whose spotlight helped jumpstart careers for many notable performers,
died Saturday, at the age of 88, of cancer
·
A former employee of a Fox-owned station shot and killed
himself outside the News Corp. building Monday
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