Gone in Minutes, Out for Hours: Outage Shakes Facebook – Facebook and its family of apps, including Instagram and WhatsApp, were inaccessible for hours on Monday, taking out a vital communications platform used by billions and showcasing just how dependent the world has become on a company that is under intense scrutiny.
Facebook’s apps — which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus — began displaying error messages around 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, users reported. Within minutes, Facebook had disappeared from the internet. The outage lasted over five hours, before some apps slowly flickered back to life, though the company cautioned the services would take time to stabilize. [NY Times]
Selena Gomez Previews Coldplay Collaboration – Let Somebody Go is the new Selena Gomez-Coldplay song coming from the album, Music of the Spheres. Furthermore, that alum is release October 15.
HBO Films has acquired the exclusive North American rights to the acclaimed Harry Haft biopic THE SURVIVOR from New Mandate Films and BRON Studios, in association with Baltimore Pictures, Endeavor Content, USC Shoah Foundation and Creative Wealth Media.
THE SURVIVOR is based on the incredible true story of Harry Haft, who, after being sent to Auschwitz, survives not only the unspeakable horrors of the camp, but the gladiatorial boxing spectacle he is forced to perform with his fellow prisoners for the amusement of his captors. Unbeknownst to those who try to destroy him, Haft is driven by the most important reason any man has to survive, a quest to reunite with the woman he loves. After a daring escape, he makes his way to New York, where he succeeds in using his boxing skills to establish a name for himself in the hopes of finding his one true love. His indomitable spirit lands him in the ring with boxing legends like Rocky Marciano as he fights to make sense of his past and reclaim the life that was stolen from him.
The film stars Ben Foster (“Leave No Trace,” “Hell or High Water”) as Harry Haft, with Vicky Krieps (“Phantom Thread”), Billy Magnussen (“No Time to Die”), Peter Sarsgaard (“Jackie”), Saro Emirze (“Wilsberg”), Dar Zuzovsky (“Hostages”), Danny DeVito (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”), and John Leguizamo (“Latin History for Morons”) rounding out the cast.
TBS to be Exclusive Home of the National League Throughout 2021 MLB Postseason – TBS will be the exclusive home of the National League throughout the 2021 MLB Postseason, beginning with the National League Wild Card presented by Hankook Tire – St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Dodgers – Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 8 p.m. ET.
Live streaming coverage of all MLB Postseason games airing on TBS will be available via http://www.tbs.com and the Watch TBS App. Fans will be able to access the games whenever and wherever they desire by logging in with the username and password provided by their TV service provider. Additionally, all MLB on TBS Postseason game telecasts will be available in Spanish via SAP.
Spotify Introduces Interactive Features To Podcasts – Spotify and Anchor are powering new capabilities to help creators and listeners interact more deeply: Q&A and Polls.
These interactive enhancements will make it easier for listeners to engage with the people behind their favorite podcasts and for creators to hear from their fans and listeners—directly on Spotify. Q&A and Polls allow listeners to respond to short questions posed by the shows’ creators on podcast episode pages in the Spotify app. Starting today, these features are available to all Anchor creators and Spotify listeners in 160 markets around the world. [Spotify]
DraftKings Announces Expansion with Addition of Second-Largest Office in the U.S. at UnCommons in Las Vegas – DraftKings Inc. announced its latest, state-of-the art office location to be based out of Las Vegas, where the company expects to eventually have an expanded team of more than 1,000 employees. The company’s new 90,000-square-foot technology hub will occupy much of an entire building at UnCommons, Matter Real Estate Group’s 40-acre modern workplace and stylized mixed-use community coming to Southwest Las Vegas in early 2022. [DraftKings]
How the Pandemic is Influencing Regional Advertising – MediaaRadar analyzed pandemic regional trends from four states—California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Overall, their data shows that states with stricter policies, like California and New York, were more impacted by the loss of ad buying.
The large dip in Q2 2020 was felt across all regions and primarily in print publications. Ad spend in California and New York fell 49%. In Texas and Florida, it fell 31%. Overall, $450 million of ad spending was lost from Q1 2020 to Q2 2020.
Spend has not yet fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but there are key differences among categories. [MediaRadar]
