Entertainment:
·
Tapping into a gray area of the net neutrality debate, HBO,
Showtime and Sony are in talks with broadband providers about having their Web
TV services treated as "managed services," giving them a separate
lane that would ensure their content gets special treatment
·
Santa Monica-based food show producer Tastemade said that it
has conducted a brand research study, which finds that brands that integrate
into content do far better with viewers than those who use typical advertising
·
James Caan has departed Fox's multi-camera/hybrid pilot “Fantasy
Life” following its table read today
·
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission said in a sweeping ruling today that cable and satellite providers
must offer consumers an affordable basic lineup and allow them to choose
additional channels
·
For the second time in two months, a freight train has killed
a personal trainer who was filming too close to the tracks
·
MGM delivered strong year-end financial results
·
Lionsgate's sequel “Insurgent” took in $4.1MM Thursday night
as it began rolling out at the North American box office
·
President Barack Obama is set to announce that the American
Film Institute (AFI) and the Screen Actors Guild-America Federation of
Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are teaming up to mentor aspiring
young storytellers from across the country to pursue careers in the cinematic
arts
·
CBS and Turner are off to a great ratings start with their
joint coverage of college basketball’s March Madness, as Thursday’s games
produced the best-ever overnight rating for a first full day of action
·
Sony Pictures Entertainment has announced that the trailer for
Adam Sandler’s “Pixels” has generated 34.3 million views worldwide in its first
24 hours online
·
Financial losses have deepened at Youku Tudou, one of China’s
leading online video companies, as it continued to chase growth
·
Australian actor Hugh Jackman has joined forces with
Australian sportsmen to urge the government to reconsider closing down remote
Indigenous communities
·
Univision has launched a mobile and tablet game app for
Nuestra Belleza Latina (Our Latin Beauty), the media company's first licensed
mobile game app for a TV show.
·
Chinese video-on-demand service YOU On Demand has formed a
partnership with licensed over-the-top (OTT) platform operator Galaxy Internet
Television Company, a joint venture comprising China National Radio, Jiangsu
Television Station, Baidu's iQiyi, and Dr Peng Telecom Media Group
Tech:
·
Free-to-play games are soon coming to consoles owners – these games
make money from in-game purchases and they have largely been confined to mobile
platforms and PCs
·
Elon Musk says the next big software update for the Model S
will roll out in 90 days with an auto-steering function that will make the cars
largely autonomous on the highway
·
Reuters has joined Bloomberg, New York Times and Wall Street
Journal in being blocked in China
·
Medium has announced that the latest update to its iOS app
will finally let users compose posts from their iPhone or iPad
·
Next week at its F8 developer conference, Facebook will
announce new ways for third parties to offer experiences through its Messenger
app
·
The FAA just released a statement indicated that Amazon now
has limited permission to test and develop drones in the United States
·
On the new Apple TV, users will be able to see an App Store
for the set-top box, as well as an official SDK, Siri support, increased
onboard storage and HomeKit support for passing on Siri instructions to
connected home devices
o
http://venturebeat.com/2015/03/20/new-apple-tv-reportedly-coming-this-june-with-app-store-and-siri/
·
Magic Leap is showing what it might look like to use its
hardware for augmented reality gaming in the future, with a new demo of what
the team is apparently “playing in the office” right now
·
Widerun, an Italian company, is making moves to embed virtual
reality firmly in the fitness realm, with a device designed to bring the great
outdoors to indoor cycling
·
A developer involved in the streaming video pirate service,
Popcorn Time, claims the application is being downloaded now at the rate of
100,000 times per day
Deals:
·
Giphy, the betaworks-backed Google
of gifs, has today announced it has acquired Nutmeg, a Gif messaging app
·
The Simon Property Group announced
on Friday that it was raising its takeover offer for a rival mall operator, the
Macerich Company, to $95.50 a share from $91 a share in what it said was its
“best and final offer”
·
FedEx has disclosed the prices for
two acquisitions it paid for last January and December - $1.4B for third-party
logistics provider GENCO Distribution System and $42MM for e-commerce platform
Bongo International
·
Ticketfly has announced the
acquisition of Northern Tickets, a small ticketing company of The MRG Group, a
Canadian entertainment and hospitality company
Business:
·
U.S. stocks rose today, lifted by results from Nike and
another climb in biotechs, as investors assessed the impact of a stronger
dollar on corporate profits.
·
BNY Mellon has announced it will pay $714MM to settle federal
and state allegations of foreign exchange rate fraud
Exec Moves:
·
HTC has announced that longtime
Chief Executive Peter Chou will step down, to be replaced by chairwoman and
co-founder Cher Wang, after struggling for three years to reverse declining
market share
·
Fox 2000 has upped Erin Siminoff to
EVP of Production - she most recently worked on the studio hit “The Fault In
Our Stars”
·
Endemol Beyond USA has named Adrian
Sexton, a digital marketing veteran who previously held top digital media
positions at Participant Media and Lionsgate, as its chief operating officer
·
Longtime Facebook Engineering
Director David Recordon was named the Director of Information Technology at the
White House on Thursday
Startups:
·
Los Angeles entrepreneurs behind
online horse racing site YouBet.com have launched a new startup, called b Spot,
which is looking to bring legal, online wagering to a wider audience - so far
raised $17MM
·
The Quid Intelligence Platform,
which is radically changing how people interact with information, has raised
$39MM in its Series D
·
Maple, which is setting a new
standard in food delivery by pairing the best chefs in the city with top-flight
technology and logistics, raised $22MM in its Series A
·
MarketWatch analyzed 477,358 startup
pitches, and discovered a shockingly unoriginal secret formula for success
Government:
·
President Barack Obama told Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington
would "reassess" its options on U.S.-Israel relations, following
Netanyahu's shifting positions on Palestinian statehood
·
The Obama administration is expected to issue long-awaited
regulations today setting new standards for hydraulic fracturing in the oil and
natural gas industries
·
Despite strong objections from the U.S., Australia has
signaled its readiness to join the new China-led Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank, following Japan which said it would consider becoming a member
·
Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock’s campaign finances are
under investigation by the FBI and local authorities
Other:
·
Please see below for an interesting article on the Bar Exam
and how it has recently come under fire from deans of law schools
·
At TED 2015, Monica Lewinsky gave a powerful talk about her
experiences being one of the first—if not the very first—victim of
cyberbullying
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