Business of Media
Meta hit with record $1.9 billion fine over transfer of users’ data to United States
Meta has been hit with a record 1.2 billion euro ($1.9 billion) fine by its lead privacy regulator in the European Union for its handling of user information, and given five months to stop transferring users’ data to the United States, reports the ABC.
The fine, imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), came after Meta continued to transfer data beyond a 2020 EU court ruling that invalidated an EU-US data transfer pact
It tops the previous 746 million euro ($1.2 billion) record EU privacy fine by Luxembourg on Amazon.com Inc in 2021, according to a DPC statement.
The battle over where Meta’s Facebook stores its data began a decade ago after Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems brought a legal challenge over the risk of US snooping in light of disclosures by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Meta said in a statement that it would appeal the ruling, including the “unjustified and unnecessary” fine that “sets a dangerous precedent for countless other companies”.
It will also seek a stay of the suspension orders through the courts.
SiriusXM CEO calls audio ad sales market “Tough”
Amid a weaker advertising market, SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz pointed to positive signs that include an auto sales recovery and a podcast market adapting to anxiety among brand marketers to forecast an ad sales recovery into the close of 2023, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Etan Vlessing.
But U.S. ad sales have softened for the satellite radio giant this year as more audio platforms compete for fewer ad dollars amid anxiety for consumers and brand marketers. “It’s choppy. It’s definitely choppy out there. I watch it every week. And it’s a tough environment,” Witz told the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference during a session that was webcast Monday.
Besides the flagship subscription entertainment service SiriusXM, Witz runs the ad-supported Pandora streaming platform and is looking to lead the ad-driven podcast business by bringing top marketing brands to that growing audio content market.
“Some brands are sitting on the sidelines until they see whether the strength of the consumer is really there,” Witz reported while pointing to increased ad sales demand for the travel and restaurants sectors. But other brands and ad categories face headwinds, including direct response and direct-to-consumer advertising platforms as promotional tools.
TikTok sues Montana, calling state ban unconstitutional
TikTok on Monday sued to block Montana from banning the popular video app, escalating its efforts to stop a prohibition that would be the first of its kind in the nation, report The New York Times’ David McCabe and Sapna Maheshwari.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, the company said Montana’s legislation violated the First Amendment and parts of the U.S. Constitution that limit state powers. The ban was “unconstitutionally shutting down the forum for speech for all speakers on the app,” the company said in the lawsuit.
TikTok sued days after Montana’s governor, Greg Gianforte, signed the ban — which would fine the video app if it operated in the state or app stores if they allowed it to be downloaded — into law. The state law has become a test case for whether it is possible to prohibit the use of TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance, over national security concerns. The ban, which is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, has already raised questions about how it would be enforced within Montana’s borders.
“We are challenging Montana’s unconstitutional TikTok ban to protect our business and the hundreds of thousands of TikTok users in Montana,” Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an exceedingly strong set of precedents and facts.”
News Brands
ABC news chief blasts News Corp as staff rally to support Stan Grant
The ABC’s director of news has blasted News Corp for what he says has been a campaign against the broadcaster that contributed to Wiradjuri journalist Stan Grant standing down as host of Q+A, report Nine Publishing’s Osman Faruqi, Karl Quinn and Angus Dalton.
Grant announced on Friday he would walk away from the program following his final show on Monday night, after being subjected to a tirade of racist abuse.
In the first interview given by a senior representative of ABC management on the issue, director of news Justin Stevens spoke with ABC Melbourne Drive host Rafael Epstein on Monday afternoon.
Though he had been singled out by Grant on Friday as the only senior figure who had offered support, Stevens confessed that he felt he had not done enough, or responded quickly enough, to the abuse to which Grant had been subjected since his appearance as an invited guest and a “reluctant participant” during the ABC’s coverage of the coronation.
“Clearly Stan felt let down by the fact I wasn’t out there and the ABC wasn’t out there publicly defending him in recent weeks,” said Stevens. “I feel devastated that he feels let down by us. I regret not doing this sort of interview 10 days ago.”
Stevens said the scale and tenor of the abuse meant the ABC was dealing with an unprecedented level of attack.
“It’s a completely different ballgame now for us. Sections of the media, particularly in News Limited, will do anything they can to campaign against the ABC,” Stevens said.
Accusing some media of “piling on … with a clear agenda” of seeking to undermine trust in the public broadcaster “just because we threaten their business model”, Stevens said.
See Also: “Endurance is not always strength”: Stan Grant farewells Q+A
NBCUniversal’s new leader, a Hollywood outsider, steps into the spotlight
Mike Cavanagh couldn’t have picked a trickier time to take over NBCUniversal, reports The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin.
Jeff Shell, who oversaw the media company before him, was fired after an investigation into sexual harassment. Linda Yaccarino, who ran the company’s multibillion-dollar ad business, left abruptly this month to become the chief executive of Twitter.
NBCUniversal is losing billions on its streaming service, Peacock, while viewership of its traditional TV networks continues to fade. And Hollywood’s writers are on strike.
But for Cavanagh, 57 — who recently became the acting head of NBCUniversal after his promotion last year to be president of Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company — it may not come close to the toughest situation he has faced in his career.
In 2008, when the U.S. financial system was on the brink of failure, Cavanagh was a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, one of the few major banks that was not at risk of collapse. He spent time alongside Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, and other executives during all-nighters to work out the details of acquiring Bear Stearns, a rival on the verge of bankruptcy.
Television
Disney dumps recent releases from streaming platform
The practice of removing new and recent TV shows and movies from streaming platforms has finally reached Australia, reports News Corp’s Wenlei Ma.
Disney will from May 26 cull a selection of its original titles from Disney+ in Australia, in line with a global move.
There is no confirmed local list of titles that will be dumped but in the US, the shows and movies slated to disappear from its Disney+ and Hulu platforms include The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers sequel series, John Stamos’ show Big Shot, the Willow sequel series, Artemis Fowl movie adaptation,The Mysterious Benedict Society starring Tony Hale, The One and Only Ivan starring Bryan Cranston, Danny Boyle’s Sex Pistols miniseries Pistol, Rosaline and The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
Many titles are on US service Hulu, which is majority owned by Disney, are available on Disney+ in Australia.
While it’s not unusual for older titles to disappear from streaming services as licencing deals expire, cutting recent releases and originals is a relatively new trend. Many of the shows and movies being taken off in this round were released in the past year.
USA wanted to remake Please Like Me
When US youth cable and digital network Pivot launched in 2013 with Josh Thomas comedy Please Like Me, it was a huge win for the creator and star, producers Pigeon Fancier and the ABC, reports TV Tonight.
But it very nearly was a much different version that was going to hit screens.
Executive producer Kevin Whyte speaking recently at Screen Forever said, “It was going to be a remake initially, and they didn’t have the time. Basically, they wanted it to premiere as part of their launch. So we ended up with the help of some partners in America, pushing them towards, ‘Let’s just buy it.’
“We probably would have had Josh performing it…. but we would have been twisting ourselves in knots for a reason because the character is all of a sudden in America. You know, like he’s a college student or something.”