Will the Metaverse Be Entertaining? Ask South Korea. – Compared with their Korean counterparts, media companies in the United States have only engaged in “light experimentation” with the metaverse so far, said Andrew Wallenstein, the president and chief media analyst of Variety Intelligence Platform.
Countries like South Korea “are often looked at like a test bed for how the future is going to pan out,” Mr. Wallenstein said. “If any trend is going to move from overseas to the U.S., I would put South Korea at the front of the line in terms of who is likeliest to be that springboard.” [NY Times]
Breakup of Google’s Ad Business Would Reshape $500 Billion Sector – If the U.S. government wins the antitrust lawsuit it filed last week and the Alphabet Inc. internet company is required to spin off technology for brokering ad deals across the web, the separated businesses would be valued at tens of billions of dollars, according to ad and media-industry executives.
Selling the assets could be challenging, because the big tech and media companies that could afford such a deal—from Microsoft Corp. to Comcast Corp.—might face antitrust hurdles of their own, the executives said. Some observers said that a spinoff would be more likely and that the resulting enterprise could become an acquirer in an ad-tech business crowded with small firms. [WSJ]
Amazon Raises Price Minimum for Free Online Grocery Delivery – Amazon Prime members who order groceries online through Amazon Fresh will soon pay a lot more to get free delivery.
Starting Feb. 28, online Amazon Fresh grocery orders of less than $150 will incur delivery fees, Amazon.com Inc. said in an email to Prime members.
Delivery charges will be $9.95 for orders under $50, $6.95 for orders between $50 and $100, and $3.95 for orders between $100 and $150, Amazon said.
Currently, Prime members outside of New York City who spend more than $35 on Amazon Fresh grocery orders qualify for free delivery. In the city, the threshold is $50 for free delivery. Customers who order less than that pay a delivery fee of $4.99. [WSJ]
HBO Renews THE LAST OF US For A Second Season – HBO drama The Last of Us has been renewed for a second season. The series from co-creators Craig Mazin (Emmy® Award-winning creator of HBO’s Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (creator and writer of the award-winning The Last of Us franchise and Naughty Dog Co-President) marks HBO’s second largest debut, behind only House of the Dragon. Episode 1 has now surpassed 22 million viewers domestically, up nearly 5x from its premiere night audience.
Episode 2 of The Last of Us tallied 5.7 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts in the U.S. Sunday night, based on Nielsen and first party data, adding more than 1 million new viewers vs. the series premiere. This 22% jump marks the largest week two audience growth for any HBO Original Drama Series in the history of the network.
Dead Space, Remake of the Sci-Fi Survival Horror Classic, Now Available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC – Since its initial reveal in 2021, Dead Space has been a staple fixture on “Most Anticipated” lists from prominent media publications around the world. Now that the game is out, press are highly praising the game with outlets including IGN and Inverse calling it “…undoubtedly the definitive way to experience – or re-experience – one of the best survival horror shooters…” and “…one of the best games of all time” in their respective 9/10 and 10/10 reviews.
McDonald’s testing a new strawless lid, dividing social media users – McDonald’s is testing a new strawless lid for cold beverages in select markets as part of the company’s effort to become more environmentally sustainable. [Fox Business]
NAB to FCC: ATSC 3.0 Transition Is in Peril – The National Association of Broadcasters said that without some action by the FCC, including sunsetting the requirement to broadcast in both the current and next-generation transmission formats, that next-generation format — the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard — is “in peril,” and with it broadcasters’ future. [Broadcasting+Cable]
