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[1/2] The logo of Apple company is seen outside an Apple store in Bordeaux, France, March 22, 2019. Although iPhone sales were not as strong as some analysts had targeted, they were still a record for the September quarter. Maestri said iPhone sales set a record for the September quarter, improving 10% over the prior year's quarter and exceeding the company's forecast. In China, which has experienced a sharp economic slowdown, Apple reported fourth-quarter sales of $15.5 billion. That is a gain from the prior quarter, when Apple logged sales of $14.6 billion.

☆ Disney CEO, asked if company is 'too woke,' says it will cater to audience
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LOS ANGELES, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) Chief Executive Bob Chapek, asked to address criticism the company had become "too woke," said on Wednesday that its programming will cater to the audience and reflect the "rich, diverse" world of viewers. "The world is a rich, diverse place, and we want our content to reflect that," Chapek said at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference. Reporting by Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Spotify criticizes Ye's comments, keeps his music
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 25 (Reuters) - As corporations around the world including Adidas AG (ADSGn.DE) cut ties with Kanye West, music streaming service Spotify Technology SA(SPOT.N) said it would not remove the rapper's music unless his label requested it. Music from the artist now known as Ye did not violate anti-hate policies, Spotify chief Daniel Ek told Reuters. The music also can be found on Apple Music and YouTube Music. Since the remarks, Ye has lost high profile and lucrative partnerships. If Ye's label asks for the rapper's catalog to be removed, Ek said, "Obviously we'll respect their wishes."

☆ Spotify profit margins squeezed by slow ad growth; stock sinks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermidOct 25 (Reuters) - Spotify Technology SA (SPOT.N) on Tuesday said third-quarter profit margins were squeezed by slow advertising growth, fanning concerns about the weak global economy's effect on digital advertising. Premium subscribers, who account for most of the company's revenue, grew 13% to 195 million, topping analyst estimates of 194 million. Spotify revenue for the third quarter reached 3 billion euros ($3 billion), up 21% from the same time last year and consistent with analyst estimates of 3 billion euros ($3 billion), according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Spotify posed a quarterly operating loss of 228 million euros ($227.3 million) in the quarter, higher than analyst projections of 168.6 million euros ($167.9 million). Revenue for the fourth quarter would reach 3.2 billion euros ($3.18 billion) with an operating loss of 300 million euros ($298.8 million).

☆ Warner Bros Discovery expects up to $2.5 bln charge on scrapped content
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 24 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery Inc (WBD.O) on Monday put a price tag on its decision to scrap "Batgirl," "The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo" and other series and films deemed unworthy of the investment: as much as $2.5 billion. AT&T Inc's (T.N) WarnerMedia unit and Discovery Inc completed their merger in April to form Warner Bros Discovery. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterIn a regulatory filing on Monday, Warner Bros Discovery detailed how Zaslav and his leadership team plan to achieve the promised cost cuts, which will be substantially completed by the end of 2024. Warner Bros Discovery said it anticipates $800 million to $1 billion in costs related to layoffs throughout the company, and another $400 million to $700 million by consolidating facilities. The company declined to say how the charges would impact its third-quarter results, due for release on Nov. 3.

☆ Warner Bros Discovery expects up to $1.6 bln charge on scrapped content
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 24 (Reuters) - Media company Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) on Monday said it was expecting to book a pre-tax charge of $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion in the third quarter, much of it related to content pulled from the streaming service HBO Max, such as "The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo." AT&T Inc's (T.N) WarnerMedia unit and Discovery Inc completed their merger in April to form Warner Bros Discovery. The coming third-quarter will reflect the removal of 36 titles from HBO Max that failed to attract large audiences, including originals like the teen drama "Generation" and the animated anthology series "Infinity Train." In total, the company expects to write off as much as $2.5 billion in costs related to canceled projects. Warner Bros Discovery said it anticipates $800 million to $1 billion in costs related to layoffs throughout the media organization, and another $400 to $700 million by consolidating facilities.

Now, Netflix is gunning for the last reel of the pay TV business: its estimated $153 billion pool of global advertising revenue. The company and some analysts see its new, cheaper ad-supported service, detailed in a rosy quarterly report on Tuesday, as a way to lift revenue as customers trim spending amid economic gloom. As TV's audience shrinks, it becomes less attractive for advertisers - and a plum target for Netflix to disrupt. Netflix plans to launch an ad-supported version of its service in the United States and 11 other countries in November. Some Wall Street analysts said the ad-supported version of the Netflix service might entice some price-sensitive existing subscribers to switch to the less-expensive option.

From July through September, Netflix attracted 2.4 million new subscribers worldwide, more than double the 1.07 million consensus forecast of analysts polled by Refinitiv. Netflix now has a total of 223.1 million subscribers around the world. For the third quarter, Netflix topped Wall Street projections with revenue of $7.9 billion, up 6% from a year earlier. The company's forecast of 4.5 million customer pickups by the end of 2022 came in slightly ahead of Wall Street estimates, which had averaged 4.2 million. For the fourth quarter, Netflix is projecting revenue of $7.8 billion -- a sequential decline it blamed on the strong value of the U.S. dollar.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Short-video company Triller launches metaverse platform
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Oct 17 (Reuters) - Short-video platform Triller Inc is the latest company to stake its claim in the metaverse with the launch Monday of a new platform called Metaverz. The virtual performance is one of 2,000 events Triller and its subsidiaries plan to host in the next year, a majority of which will happen in the real world and in Metaverz. The Triller video sharing app launched in its current form in October 2019, and has looked to take on larger rival TikTok. Triller recently raised $310 million from Global Emerging Markets, a Luxembourg-based private investment group, in anticipation of going public as soon as next month. Triller CEO Mahi de Silva said the company is losing money, but expects to cross into profitability by 2023.

Oct 14 (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch started a process that could reunite his media empire, News Corp (NWSA.O) and Fox Corp (FOXA.O) disclosed on Friday, saying they would consider combining at his behest, nearly a decade after the companies split. If a deal goes through, the combination will allow Murdoch greater control over his media assets and help the companies trim costs. Media companies are fighting decades-low growth in advertising sales and for users' attention against deep-pocketed social media and content websites. It make sense, in this context, to reunite Fox and News Corp to create a company with complementary assets and greater scale, the person familiar with the proposal said. His son Lachlan Murdoch is chairman and CEO of Fox Corp.As of market-close on Friday, News Corp had a market cap of $9.31 billion and Fox Corp was $16.84 billion, according to Refinitiv.

The $6.99 cost for the "Basic with Ads" plan is $3 less than Netflix's lowest-priced tier without commercials. Subscribers to the plan will see roughly four to five minutes of advertising per hour, Netflix said. A "limited number" of movies and TV shows will not be available on the ad-supported plan because of licensing restrictions, "which we're working on," it added. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterNetflix executives had adamantly opposed adding commercials to their service for years. Other streaming services including Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max have cheaper, ad-supported options or will offer them soon.

The U.S. aviation giant is looking to digital technology to accelerate production of new aircraft, said Susan Doniz, Boeing's chief information officer, at the Reuters Momentum conference in Austin on Tuesday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSome employees expressed reluctance over tools Boeing offered to help them, too. The metaverse, not just a place where Boeing may one day build its planes, is a concept where people can have an avatar in vast virtual lands. There even is discussion about creating "digital twins" of the real world -- and its problems, said Morgan McGuire, Roblox's chief scientist. "There's a lot of things in the real world that are really serious and are really bad," McGuire said at the conference.

The U.S. aviation giant is looking to digital technology to accelerate production of new aircraft, said Susan Doniz, Boeing's chief information officer, at the Reuters Momentum conference in Austin on Tuesday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSome employees expressed reluctance over tools Boeing offered to help them, too. The company deployed the HoloLens, mixed-reality headsets from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), so staff could wire aircraft with manuals before them digitally. There even is discussion about creating "digital twins" of the real world -- and its problems, said Morgan McGuire, Roblox's chief scientist. "There's a lot of things in the real world that are really serious and are really bad," McGuire said at the conference.

Oct 11 (Reuters) - As online gaming platform Roblox Corp (RBLX.N) confronts a lawsuit alleging it enabled a California girl's exploitation, its chief scientist said finding dangerous content in the company's virtual world is nothing like spotting it in video. He had no comment on the recent lawsuit but said Roblox was built with safety and civility at the forefront. San Mateo, Calif.-based Roblox is deploying bots to patrol user-generated games and press buttons to detect any dangerous content that players have disguised. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register"This is more like shutting down speakeasies," he said, referring to U.S. prohibition-era bars hiding from law enforcement. McGuire said Roblox bars users from posting phone numbers or off-platform links.

"Either Twitter is going to fix this, or we'll fix it by any means we can, which includes not buying Twitter ads." Twitter's challenges in identifying child abuse content were first reported in an investigation by tech news site The Verge in late August. Like all social media platforms, Twitter bans depictions of child sexual exploitation, which are illegal in most countries. Ghost Data identified the more than 500 accounts that openly shared or requested child sexual abuse material over a 20-day period this month. Twitter suspended over 1 million accounts last year for child exploitation material, according to the company's transparency reports.

☆ Netflix dismisses lawsuit against the creators of 'The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/IllustrationSept 23 (Reuters) - Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) dropped its lawsuit against the creators of "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical" after reaching a settlement, according to person familiar with the matter. The streaming service filed a copyright infringement suit against Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear in Washington in late July, three days after a sold-out performance of "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical" in the U.S. capital's Kennedy Center. They subsequently released an album of titled "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical," which won a Grammy Award and led to the stage show. Barlow & Bear canceled a performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London that had been scheduled for September, according to a post on Instagram account of "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by William Mallard, Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ NFL says Apple will sponsor Super Bowl halftime show
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 1, 2022; Inglewood, CA, USA; The NFL shield logo is seen at midfield at SoFi Stadium. Super Bowl LVI between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will be played on Feb. 13, 2022. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY SportsRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSept 22 (Reuters) - The National Football League has reached a multiyear partnership with Apple Music to sponsor the Super Bowl Halftime Show, beginning with the American football championshipgame in February 2023, the league said on Thursday. The tie up will be a key promotional platform for Apple following on from their digital music device the iPod and iTunes software. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Christian SchmollingerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ YouTube in challenge to TikTok to give Shorts creators 45% of ad sales
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A 3D printed Youtube and Tik Tok logo are seen placed on keyboard in this illustration taken, September 15, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationLOS ANGELES, Sept 20 (Reuters) - YouTube unveiled a new way for creators to make money on short-form video, as it faces intensifying competition from TikTok. The Google-owned (GOOGL.O) streaming service announced Tuesday that it would introduce advertising on its video feature Shorts and give creators 45% of the revenue. That compares with its standard distribution of 55% for videos outside of Shorts, and TikTok's $1 billion fund for paying creators. "We want YouTube to be the place that gives (creators) the greatest support within the changing digital landscape," said YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan.

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