Business of Media
Apple’s money and Snoop Dogg’s songs back $1.5b startup
Larry Jackson learnt the record business from two of the most influential music moguls ever, Clive Davis and Jimmy Iovine. Now, the 42-year-old former Apple executive is starting a music company of his own called Gamma, reports Nine Publishing’s Lucas Shaw.
Jackson has about $US1 billion ($1.5 billion) in available capital, including equity and debt, according to people familiar with his finances. His biggest backer is Todd Boehly’s Eldridge, whose investments include the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bruce Springsteen’s music catalogue and the film studio A24. Apple, where Jackson worked for the past eight years, has also invested, as has A24.
While he is loath to call Gamma a record label, Jackson is signing artists. He’s cut deals to release new music from Snoop Dogg, Usher and Rick Ross, and forged a joint venture with Snoop Dogg to distribute the catalogue of the pioneering hip-hop label Death Row Records.
With such backing and talent, Jackson instantly becomes one of the most influential black leaders in media, poised to join icons like Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Sean Combs.
Jackson is pitching his company as an alternative to traditional record labels, which many artists feel have taken advantage of them. Gamma is promising artists more control over their work by agreeing to long-term licences instead of ownership.
Lachlan Murdoch defends Fox News’s chief executive amid defamation suit
Lachlan Murdoch, whose family controls the Fox media empire, issued a full-throated show of support on Thursday for Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News Media, as the cable channel faces a $1.6 billion defamation suit that has generated a cascade of unflattering revelations about its inner workings, reports The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum.
“I just think Suzanne Scott has done a tremendous job,” Murdoch said at an investor conference in San Francisco, his first public remarks since Fox News has come under intense scrutiny over its handling of spurious claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
“The brand is incredibly strong. The core business is incredibly strong,” Murdoch said, pointing to Fox News’s significant ratings advantage over its rivals CNN and MSNBC. “It’s a credit to Suzanne Scott and all of her team there. They’ve done a tremendous job of building this business and running this business.”
WhatsApp would not remove end-to-end encryption for UK law, says chief
WhatsApp would refuse to comply with requirements in the online safety bill that attempted to outlaw end-to-end encryption, the chat app’s boss has said, casting the future of the service in the UK in doubt, reports The Guardian’s Alex Hern.
Speaking during a UK visit in which he will meet legislators to discuss the government’s flagship internet regulation, Will Cathcart, Meta’s head of WhatsApp, described the bill as the most concerning piece of legislation currently being discussed in the western world.
He said: “It’s a remarkable thing to think about. There isn’t a way to change it in just one part of the world. Some countries have chosen to block it: that’s the reality of shipping a secure product. We’ve recently been blocked in Iran, for example. But we’ve never seen a liberal democracy do that.
“The reality is, our users all around the world want security,” said Cathcart. “Ninety-eight per cent of our users are outside the UK. They do not want us to lower the security of the product, and just as a straightforward matter, it would be an odd choice for us to choose to lower the security of the product in a way that would affect those 98% of users.”
At SXSW, it’s out with the crypto, in with the chatbots
If last year’s SXSW was driven by panels and events around Web3, NFTs and the metaverse, this year’s has decidedly cooled on the crypto craze and is instead focused on something entirely different: chatbots, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
Though chatbots are by no means new technology, the launch last fall of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has sparked renewed interest in — and anxiety over — the use of AI-powered chatbots across multiple industries, in part because of their growing sophistication. Screenwriters in film and TV have become more wary of the impact ChatGPT could have on the scriptwriting process, given that the chatbot is already capable of churning out short scripts; organizations like the Writers Guild of America West say they are actively monitoring the technology “in the event they require additional protections for writers.”
See Also: Sparrow’s Nest: Road to SXSW Austin Texas – Conference & Festival preview
All of these dynamics will be at play in Austin on March 10, the first day of SXSW, when executives and creatives gather to discuss the ramifications of generative AI. OpenAI’s co-founder and president, Greg Brockman, will participate in a featured discussion to talk about the real-world impact of his company’s generative AI, which also includes the AI-powered digital image creator DALL-E.
News Brands
Network 10 journalists reject management salary offer
Network 10 journalists and editorial staff have rejected a salary offer from management as part of ongoing negotiations towards a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, reports TV Tonight.
Bargaining has been underway since the expiry of the previous EBA at the end of April last year.
Members of the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance overwhelmingly rejected an offer of 10%, being 2.5% per annum for 4 years, cuts to redundancy entitlements and sick leave reduced from 70 days (in the case of extreme hardship) to 16 days.
The MEAA claim was initially for a three-year agreement, seeking pay rises of 6% per annum or CPI -whichever is higher- not cuts to current conditions, 15% superannuation.
Mark Phillips, Communications Director from MEAA told TV Tonight, “Our position was the offer was not adequate and we should continue bargaining, but they decided to put it to members. So we’ve said, ‘In that case vote No.’”
Politico’s executive editor steps down after a year in the job
Dafna Linzer, the executive editor of Politico, is stepping down from her role just a year after joining the company, reports The New York Times’ Katie Robertson.
In an email to staff, Matthew Kaminski, the publication’s editor in chief, said that Linzer had decided to leave Politico later this month.
“We have always been aligned on the goal of making Politico the world’s premier source of news on politics, policy and power. But we saw ourselves diverging over the best way to get there,” Kaminski wrote. “Dafna and I first began discussing the possibility of this move last December.”
Linzer, a former managing editor for politics at NBC News and MSNBC, joined Politico in March 2022, shortly after the publication was bought by Axel Springer, a German media behemoth, for more than $1 billion.
Television
Abbie Chatfield calls it as it is on FBoy Island
Abbie Chatfield won’t be mincing her words on new reality show FBoy Island, reports News Corp’s Jonathon Moran.
“We are calling them what they are,” Chatfield told The Daily Telegraph on set of the reality show. “I feel like the show itself, in calling Fboys what they are is calling out the poor behaviour. The whole point of the show is that when people do things that are a bit cooked, I call them out in real time.”
Chatfield, who has the word “feminist” tattooed on her arm, this week wrapped filming the series that will air on BINGE later this year.
The format has been a big success in the US, but is new to Aussies with FBoy Island a 10-part reality series that will follow three women as they attempt to find love.
The women must choose a partner from the 24 suitors, half of whom are Fboys, or players, and the other half being genuinely in it for love.
Seven returns to Dancing with the Stars
It’s official. Seven is bringing back Dancing with the Stars for a 20th season, reports TV Tonight.
While the ballroom show was not confirmed for 2023 at last year’s Upfronts Seven sources confirmed to TV Tonight that casting is underway and expected to screen in Q2.
Hosts, judges and cast are yet to be confirmed but this will not be an All-Stars season, which Seven has staged in its last two outings.
This year the series will also be produced solely by BBC Studios Australia.
Matt Forde, BBC Studios Managing Director of International Production and Formats told TV Tonight, “Up until this point, we’ve been co-producing with Warner Bros. When we started four years ago, that was the preferred road for local broadcasters. But on this series of the show, it will be wholly produced by BBC Studios ANZ.”