Amazon announced the deal in a blog post:

Amazon Prime Video and the NBA today announced an 11-year media rights agreement, beginning with the 2025-26 NBA season. In a landmark deal, Prime Video will present exclusive global coverage for 66 regular-season NBA games, including an opening-week doubleheader, a new Black Friday NBA game, and all games from the Knockout Rounds of the Emirates NBA Cup, including the in-season tournament’s Semifinals and Finals.

As part of the deal, Prime Video will also be the destination for NBA League Pass, both in the US and internationally.

“The digital opportunities with Amazon align perfectly with the global interest in the NBA,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. “And Prime Video’s massive subscriber base will dramatically expand our ability to reach our fans in new and innovative ways.”

“Elevating our partnership with Amazon allows us to provide more games and access to fans who subscribe to Prime Video around the world at a time of historic interest in the WNBA and women’s basketball,” said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “Amazon has demonstrated its dedication to the growth of our sport throughout our current partnership and will now be a significant contributor to the long-term sustainability of the WNBA for the players, league, and teams.”

In a post on LinkedIn, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy voiced how thrilled he was with the deal:

Couldn’t be more excited about the long-term agreement we just signed with the NBA.

Starting in the 2025-26 season, Prime members will be able to stream an exciting slate of regular season games, the NBA Cup in-season tournament, the entire postseason play-in tournament, first and second round playoff games, and NBA conference finals every other season.

We’ve also expanded our relationship with the WNBA, and will be streaming 30 regular season games annually, 1/3 of all playoff games, and three WNBA finals over the 11 years.

We are honored to work with these amazing products and leagues, and can’t wait to keep innovating the viewing experience for fans.

The deal is a big win for Amazon’s streaming service in an increasingly competitive industry where exclusivity deals are key to preventing user churn.

Streaming have multiplied at an alarming rate, with many studios and major channel groups offering a paid service of their own. As a result, rather than being able to pay one low price to gain access to all available options, consumers are increasingly getting bled dry, $5 and $10 at a time.

Unfortunately, Hallmark is the latest to add to the trend. According to CNET, the feel-good brand will be rebranding Hallmark Movies Now as the new Hallmark Plus, completely with a price raise as well. Whereas the old service was $6 per month, or $60 per year, the new service will cost $8 a month, or $80 per year.

The new service will feature a combination of movies, series, and unscripted reality content.

A Vision for the Future

David Ellison, a young media mogul and CEO of Skydance Media, believes that integrating cutting-edge technology is crucial for transforming legacy media. “He is in this for the next 30 or 40 years,” Greenfield noted. “This is not a quick fix. This is not an easy lift.” Ellison’s long-term vision contrasts sharply with the typically short-term focus of traditional media executives.

Ellison asserts that legacy media has largely failed to incorporate best-in-class technology across its operations. This failure isn’t limited to streaming services but spans the entire business model. “They are not tech, and they have not brought those disciplines together,” Greenfield emphasized. The crux of the issue lies in not just adopting technology but also creating a synergy between content production and technological innovation.

The Content Conundrum

For technology to make a significant impact, there must be substantial content to leverage it. “They have to make a ton of content, invest in a ton of content, and get people to watch it,” Greenfield explained. Paramount Plus serves as a stark example of this dilemma, as it currently struggles with low viewer engagement. The platform’s limited content slate, especially with the impending end of popular shows like Yellowstone, underscores the need for a significant increase in content production.

Greenfield suggests that success hinges on the ability to ramp up content creation dramatically while simultaneously boosting technology investments. “That will be the test: can they make a ton of content while also dramatically ramping the technology spend and make them work in harmony together?” he posed.

Navigating the Industry Decline

The broader context of the interview touched on the challenges facing the entire media sector. Companies like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are experiencing significant stock declines, reflecting the broader struggles of the industry. “There is no proof that anybody can figure out how to navigate the decline of linear television and the growth of streaming,” Greenfield remarked.

Digital-native companies like Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube are currently leading the streaming landscape, leaving traditional media companies scrambling to catch up. This stark reality underscores the difficulty of transitioning from a legacy model to one that fully embraces digital and technological advancements.

Incentives and Investments

Despite the challenges, there are substantial incentives for legacy media companies to innovate. Ellison and his partners at RedBird Capital have invested billions of their own money into transforming their media assets. “They have a significant option grant that comes to fruition. They are obviously heavily incentivized to make this work,” Greenfield noted.

This financial commitment indicates a serious effort to leverage technology for business transformation. However, the path to success remains uncertain and fraught with challenges.

Looking Ahead

The future of legacy media depends on its ability to adapt to a rapidly changing technological landscape. Integrating AI and cloud computing can potentially streamline operations, enhance content delivery, and improve viewer engagement. However, these technologies must be paired with a robust content strategy that meets the demands of modern audiences.

As Greenfield aptly summarized, “The real test will be whether legacy media can harmonize content production with technological investment and navigate the tumultuous transition from linear to digital platforms.”

The road ahead for legacy media is undeniably challenging, but with the right combination of innovation, investment, and strategic foresight, there remains a glimmer of hope for these storied institutions to not only survive but thrive in the digital age.

Paramount has been going through a difficult transition. Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish resigned unexpectedly in April, and the company was reportedly in merger talks with Skydance, as well as the Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management duo. Shari Redstone, who controls more than three-quarters of the voting stocks, was rumored to favor a deal with Skydance.

According to ABC News, Redstone said the deal will help fortify Paramount in a competitive industry.

“Given the changes in the industry, we want to fortify Paramount for the future while ensuring that content remains king,” said Redstone, who is also Paramount Global chairwoman.

Skydance was founded by David Ellison, Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s son. ABC reports that Ellison will become chairman and CEO of “New Paramount,” as long as regulators sign off on the deal.

With nearly 80 million monthly active users, Tubi has quickly become one of the biggest streaming platforms, a point the company makes in a funny series of ads in which it declares itself more popular than divorce, babies, water fountains, or Old Faithful.

“The idea for more popular than popular things came from the brief our strategists wrote,” explained Carl Peterson, creative director at Mischief who worked on the idea with partner Eleanor Rask. “They had a line in there about how if Tubi viewers were a country, it would be bigger than France. We thought that was pretty compelling so we just ran with it. Like, babies are common, but when you learn that Tubi is actually way more popular than babies – that felt sticky to us.”

The company is building on that popularity by launching in the UK. The platform will launch with more than 20,000 movies and TV episodes. The company says it is committed to delivery content suited to the UK market.

“Tubi has spent the last decade honing our approach to vast, free and fun streaming in North America, and we feel that now is the perfect time to bring that recipe to UK audiences,” said Anjali Sud, CEO of Tubi. “We are launching with one of the largest and most diverse content libraries in the UK, designed to indulge viewers in everything from blockbusters to original stories to hidden gems. Most importantly, we’re committed to listening to what resonates with UK fans, and bringing them more and more of what they love.”

“At a time when traditional programming feels homogenous and when finding what to watch feels like a chore, Tubi has been effective at delivering delight beyond the monoculture with content that appeals to diverse and vibrant fandoms,” said David Salmon, EVP and Managing Director of International at Tubi. “We believe that we can build a brilliantly broad, culturally ambitious offering that puts UK audiences back at the centre, and makes it fun and easy to enjoy great entertainment from around the world.”

Tubi has won praise for its streaming platform, solid content, and free price. Expanding in the UK should help the platform gain even more users, enabling it to leverage its scale to continue delivering great content.

The company made the announcement on its website:

On Spotify, users discover and enjoy music, podcasts, and audiobooks, with various plans that meet our listeners’ needs. We offer subscriptions for every stage of life and household, depending on how listeners like to stream. And we’re now offering even more options for eligible U.S. subscribers, who can choose one of the plans below.

Basic

• Enjoy the music streaming benefits of your Premium plan without the monthly audiobook listening time. Starting at $10.99/month for eligible users.

At $10.99, the Basic plan is just $1 less than the Premium Individual, at $11.99. While not a big difference, it’s still nice that users can choose not to pay for a feature they may not use.

Content moderation is one of the biggest challenges facing social media platforms. YouTube’s latest effort to address the issue would tap into the power its user base.

Starting today, we are testing an experimental feature to allow people to add notes to provide relevant, timely, and easy-to-understand context on videos. For example, this could include notes that clarify when a song is meant to be a parody, point out when a new version of a product being reviewed is available, or let viewers know when older footage is mistakenly portrayed as a current event.

The company says the initial test will be in the US and only in English. If a note is found to be broadly helpful, it will appear publicly under the video.

Notes will appear publicly under a video if they’re found to be broadly helpful. People will be asked whether they think a note is “helpful,” “somewhat helpful,” or “unhelpful” and why – for example, whether it cites high-quality sources or is written clearly and neutrally.

From there, we’ll use a bridging-based algorithm to consider these ratings and determine what notes are published.

A bridging-based algorithm helps identify notes that are helpful to a broad audience across perspectives. If many people who have rated notes differently in the past now rate the same note as helpful, then our system is more likely to show that note under a video. These systems will continuously improve as more notes are written and rated across a broad range of topics.

There is no time frame for a full rollout, but it should be interesting to see how the feature impacts engagement.

The news was first revealed by SponsorBlock, “a crowdsourced extension to skip sponsor segments in YouTube videos.”

SponsorBlock says there are ways around YouTube’s new method, although it will make blocking ads more challenging than it used to be.

According to Reuters, the recently ran a headline entitled: “Christmas Day Tragedy Strikes Bridgeton, New Jersey Amid Rising Gun Violence in Small Towns.” There’s just one issue—the story was completely fabricated and the event in question never occurred.

“Nothing even similar to this story occurred on or around Christmas, or even in recent memory for the area they described,” a post by the Bridgeton Police Department said. “It seems this ‘news’ outlet’s AI writes fiction they have no problem publishing to readers.”

According to Reuters, NewsBreak has had at least 40 incidents since 2021 in which its AI-driven misinformation has caused problems for the communities it claims to serve with its news coverage. Some stories have included incorrect information about programs for homeless and disadvantaged individuals, including wrong information about health care provisions.

Former NewsBreak employees that spoke with the outlet said that much of the engineering behind the app’s algorithm is done from its China offices, even though the company is headquartered in California.

There is evidence that NewsBreak has been aware of the issues for some time, with ,” Norm Pearlstine, former Executive Editor at the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, writing a memo to NewsBreak CEO Jeff Zheng when he served as a consultant for the company.

“I cannot think of a faster way to destroy the NewsBreak brand,” Pearlstine wrote in the memo about the company’s practice of using AI to re-publish stories from news outlets under fictitious bylines.

“I question the legality of creating fake accounts using content publishers put behind their paywalls. If I had learned about the practice while at the LA Times, I would have instructed our lawyer to seek a restraining order and sue for damages,” Pearlstine told Reuters in an interview.

US lawmakers have grown increasingly worried about misinformation from Chinese companies, a factor in the recent legislation to ban TikTok. In such a climate, one wonders how long NewsBreak will be able to fly under the radar. At the same time, the company is a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on AI without the proper safeguards and oversight in place.

Reuters full story goes into extraordinary detail, pealing back the layers on NewsBreak, and is well worth a read.

The company says subscribers will begin receiving an email over the next month informing them of the the price changes. The price hike is similar to last year’s, with the Individual and Duo plans going up $1 and $2 respectively, putting them at $11.99 and $16.99.

The Family plan receives the biggest hike, going up by $3. This makes the plan $19.99 per month. Only the student plan stays the same at $5.99.

Below is an image of the email users can expect:

Spotify angered users when it announced it was discontinuing its music dashboard accessory, effective December 9, 2024.

We have made the decision to discontinue Car Thing. This means that Car Thing will no longer be operational. This decision wasn’t made lightly, and we want to assure you that our commitment to providing a superior listening experience remains unchanged.

Initially, Spotify made no mention of possible refunds for users who purchased the device, leading to massive backlash and at least one class action lawsuit. The company appears to have heard the message loud and clear, and now appears to be offering a refund.

The company’s Car Thing FAQ has been updated with instructions for users wanting a refund.

Individuals seeking a refund can contact customer support with proof of purchase to discuss their options.

It’s a shame that Spotify didn’t start out offering customers a refund and that it took days of complaints and a class action lawsuit for the company to do the right thing.

YouTube has been cracking down on ad-blocking software, using various methods to combat it in recent months. The company has also been rolling out new ad formats and styles in an effort to driver greater revenue.

The latest anti-blocking effort is YouTube’s most aggressive yet, with the company skipping videos altogether if ad-blocking is detecting. As TechCrunch points out, YouTube warned that such action could eventually be taken in an April post:

Viewers who are using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or see the error “The following content is not available on this app” when trying to watch a video.

There are viable alternatives to YouTube, such as Odysee, but users have so far failed to abandon YouTube en masse. Only time will tell if YouTube’s increased focus on ads, not to mention its controversial design choices, will reach a point that it drives people away.

Google has made a number of outreaches to the US news industry in an effort to address complaints that it unfairly benefits from linking to publishers’ news stories, such as the Google News Initiative, a $300 million commitment to help local publishers. The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) is designed to address those complaints, requiring tech companies to pay for the news they link to.

According to Axios, Google is now threatening to pause funding for the Initiative in response to the CJPA. The outlet’s sources said that, while previous commitments should be secure, future commitments could be jeopardized nationwide. If Google decides to take such action, it would likely have a disproportionately large impact smaller news outlets.

Google tried similar hardline tactics in Australia when it passed similar legislation as the CJPA. In fact, the CJPA is loosely based on Australia’s legislation. Ultimately, however, Google ended up capitulating to Australia’s demands, despite its initial posturing.

The CJPA has widespread support within the news industry, but only time will tell if Google retaliates as it says it may.

Spotify users started taking to Reddit to complain of the change. User ‘MeowKat090709’ posted a message and screenshot showing the change.

why did spotify put the lyrics behind a premium payment??? this is really annoying since i’m mostly deaf and i rely on the lyrics to understand the songs, but i can’t get a job due to the deafness so i can’t pay for the premium. this has been happening all day and i can’t find anyone who is talking about this, does anyone know why spotify did this, or when it’ll be reverted back to before??

Other users commented that Spotify is becoming increasingly unusable without a subscription, as the company is removing features that were previously available for free.

Rumors started swirling recently that Paramount was up for sale, fueled by CEO Bob Bakish stepping down and leaving the company. According to Variety, Sony Pictures and Apollo are making an all-cash bid for the company, with the goal of taking it private.

Interestingly, the offer is significantly more than Paramount’s current $22 billion valuation. Sony and Apollo are not the only parties interested in Paramount, with the latter considering a merger offer from Skydance Media.

If Paramount accepts the Sony/Apollo offer, Sony would retain majority ownership of Paramount, with Apollo being a minority owner. Shari Redstone could be a major impediment to the deal, however, with Variety reporting that she prefers the Skydance offer.

As Variety points out, if the Sony/Apollo deal is accepted, it would reduce the number of major Hollywood studios to four, from the current five.

AI companies are making deals throughout the industry for access to content, both to provide users with relevant results to queries and to improve the training of their AI models. As the current industry leader, OpenAI has signed a number of deals, with the FT deal being the latest.

The new deal builds on the two companies’ previous relationship, in which FT became a ChatGPT Enterprise customer earlier in 2024, providing ChatGPT access to all employees.

In addition to the stated goal of helping OpenAI “improve its models’ usefulness,” the outlet says the two companies will “collaborate on developing new AI products and features for FT readers.” The deal will give ChatGPT users access to some of FT’s journalism, as well as select quotes and attributed summaries.

“This is an important agreement in a number of respects,” said FT Group CEO John Ridding. “It recognises the value of our award-winning journalism and will give us early insights into how content is surfaced through AI. We have long been a leader in news media innovation, pioneering the subscription model and engagement technologies, and this partnership will help keep us at the forefront of developments in how people access and use information.”

“The FT is committed to human journalism, as produced by our unrivalled newsroom, and this agreement will broaden the reach of that work, while deepening our understanding of reader demands and interests,” Ridding added. “Apart from the benefits to the FT, there are broader implications for the industry. It’s right, of course, that AI platforms pay publishers for the use of their material. OpenAI understands the importance of transparency, attribution, and compensation – all essential for us. At the same time, it’s clearly in the interests of users that these products contain reliable sources.”

OpenAI welcomed the expanded relationship with FT.

“Our partnership and ongoing dialogue with the FT is about finding creative and productive ways for AI to empower news organisations and journalists, and enrich the ChatGPT experience with real-time, world-class journalism for millions of people around the world,” said Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI.

The deal was first reported by The New York Times. Business Insider reports that current owner G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller sent an email to staff confirming the sale.

“This company is made up of four digital media veterans with a profound love for The Onion and comedy based content,” Spanfeller wrote. “The site’s new owners have agreed to keep The Onion’s entire staff intact and in Chicago, something we insisted be part of the deal.”

Purchasing The Onion is a strange turn of events for the founder of a cloud computing company, although it likely comes as a relief to The Onion staff that Lawson does not appear to be poised to make major changes.

Many third-party YouTube apps offer a better experience than the official one for one simple reason—they provide an ad-free experience. YouTube has been cracking down on ad-blockers, and is now taking its fight to third-party clients.

In a support article entitled “Enforcement on Third Party Apps,” the company draws a line in the sand for third-party apps that continue to block ads.

We’re strengthening our enforcement on third-party apps that violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, specifically ad-blocking apps.

Viewers who are using these third-party apps may experience buffering issues or see the error “The following content is not available on this app” when trying to watch a video. We want to emphasize that our terms don’t allow third-party apps to turn off ads because that prevents the creator from being rewarded for viewership, and Ads on YouTube help support creators and let billions of people around the world use the streaming service. We also understand that some people prefer an entirely ad-free experience, which is why we offer YouTube Premium.

We only allow third-party apps to use our API when they follow our API Services Terms of Service, and when we find an app that violates these terms, we will take appropriate action to protect our platform, creators, and viewers.

The news is not unexpected, but still a disappointing turn of events.

The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) is designed to boost local journalism, which has been decimated by the rise of the internet, search, and most recently AI. Under the CJPA, at the end of each quarter, journalist platforms and publications would receive payments from advertising revenue, based on the number of views their platform receives.

The bill is by no means unanimously embraced by the journalist community. The News/Media Alliance has come out in favor of the bill, as have many other organizations.

“We applaud the California Assembly for taking decisive and direct action to save journalism through passing the California Journalism & Preservation Act (CJPA),” said News/Media Alliance President & CEO Danielle Coffey. “We are extremely encouraged to see this progress at the state level, which shows that Americans understand the importance and value of journalism to keeping their communities safe and informed and holding those in power to account. We look forward to the CJPA moving on to the Senate and working with policymakers there to pass the CJPA and restore fairness and balance to the marketplace.”

In contrast, Free Press has come out in opposition to the CJPA, saying it is the “wrong solution” to the problem.

“Not all policies to support local news are good ones. Unfortunately, lawmakers in California have devised a bad solution,” said Senior Director of Journalism and Civic Information Mike Rispoli. “The California Journalism Preservation Act fails to properly address the causes of the state’s journalism crisis: namely, a lack of market incentive to produce public-interest journalism, runaway media consolidation, mismanagement, and changing consumer habits.”

Google is clearly not in favor of the bill, with Jaffer Zaidi, VP of Global News Partnerships, saying the CJPA will only benefit large media conglomerates and do little to help local journalism.

By helping people find news stories, we help publishers of all sizes grow their audiences at no cost to them. CJPA would up-end that model. It would favor media conglomerates and hedge funds—who’ve been lobbying for this bill—and could use funds from CJPA to continue to buy up local California newspapers, strip them of journalists, and create more ghost papers that operate with a skeleton crew to produce only low-cost, and often low-quality, content. CJPA would also put small publishers at a disadvantage and limit consumers’ access to a diverse local media ecosystem.

Zaidi says the CJPA is “unworkable” in its current form, and the company is testing the removal of links to news sources in California in response.

As we’ve shared when other countries have considered similar proposals, the uncapped financial exposure created by CJPA would be unworkable. If enacted, CJPA in its current form would create a level of business uncertainty that no company could accept. To prepare for possible CJPA implications, we are beginning a short-term test for a small percentage of California users. The testing process involves removing links to California news websites, potentially covered by CJPA, to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience. Until there’s clarity on California’s regulatory environment, we’re also pausing further investments in the California news ecosystem, including new partnerships through Google News Showcase, our product and licensing program for news organizations, and planned expansions of the Google News Initiative.

Zaidi says Google is committed to working with lawmakers and publishers to achieve “a healthy news industry in California.”

We’ve been engaging with California publishers and lawmakers throughout the legislative process and have proposed reasonable and balanced alternatives to CJPA. A healthy news industry in California will require support from both the California government and a broad base of private companies. This support should involve predictable, broad-based contributions, structured in ways that do not harm smaller, local publishers to benefit the largest players and hedge fund owners. It must also maintain the principles of the open web, which is critical to ensuring news publishers can connect with people for free.

Looking ahead, we will continue our efforts to work with lawmakers on alternative paths that will allow us to continue linking to news and supporting the news ecosystem in California.

It remains to be seen if the bill will pass. If it does, however, it could completely reshape how Californians get their news.

First reported by Windows Central, Choudhry’s last day was Friday, April 5. The outlet describes Choudhry’s departure as “amicable and coincidental.”

Choudhry was well-known for his contributions to the Xbox, and is reportedly well-loved within the company. The exec has a long-standing reputation of prioritizing customers and developers.

Choudhry’s departure will likely be felt throughout the Xbox division, as well as the company at large. There is no indication at this time of the exec’s future plans. Interestingly, as of the time of writing, Choudhry’s LinkedIn profile still lists him working for Microsoft.