The NFL is taking issue with a new report about ESPN’s impending renewal of its Monday Night Football package – Sports Business Journal “reported that a formal agreement between the NFL and ESPN parent company Disney was ‘very close at hand,’ while noting that no contracts have been signed.” Sportico says some insiders dispute the dollar amounts quoted in the article. [Sportico]
Netflix Productions Are More Diverse Than Studio Films, Study Shows – “Fifty-two percent of Netflix films and series in 2018 and 2019 had girls or women in starring roles. And 35.7 percent of all Netflix leads during that span came from underrepresented groups, compared with 28 percent in the top 100 grossing theatrical films.
Those findings were released on Friday by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which Netflix commissioned to look at its own U.S.-based scripted original films and series. The study analyzed 126 movies and 180 series released during 2018 and 2019.” [NYT]
McDonald’s Considers Partial Sale of Digital Startup Dynamic Yield – “McDonald’s Corp. said it is considering selling part of digital startup Dynamic Yield Ltd., which it acquired less than two years ago in a bid to boost sales at drive-throughs and digital kiosks.
Dynamic Yield, which helps retailers provide personalized digital promotions to consumers using streams of customer data, has operated as a stand-alone company within the chain. For McDonald’s, it provides personalized offers for customers of its stores. It also works with other retailers to boost online sales.” [WSJ]
Newspaper company Gannett reports $122.2 million net loss for Q4 2020 – “Overall, revenue fell 17% to $875.4 million. On a comparable basis, circulation revenue declined 13.6%, print advertising revenue decreased 26.9% and digital ad and marketing services revenue eased by 2%.” [USA TODAY]
Lady Gaga’s dogs recovered safely – Lady Gaga’s two French bulldogs, which were stolen by thieves who shot and wounded the dogwalker, were recovered unharmed Friday, Los Angeles police said. [AP]
Josh Golden is departing as president and publisher of Ad Age to pursue new opportunities, he announced today. [Ad Age]
In partnership with Google, public radio station KQED and KUNGFU.AI, an AI services provider and leader in applied machine learning, ran a series of tests on KQED’s audio to determine how they might reduce the errors and time to publish our news audio transcripts, and ultimately, make radio news audio more findable. [Google]
ESPN and ABC Combine to Nationally Televise 49 NBA Games In Second Half of 2020-21 Regular Season [ESPN]
