#Media Mergers

[dailyplanet-loislane]

CNN on the Block: A Risky Gamble for Warner Bros. Discovery?

[loislane-ana]

CNN on the Block: A Risky Gamble for Warner Bros. Discovery?

[firespirited]

You like nice little shows like Warehouse13 or Haven or the Sarah Connor Chronicles? You watched it the first time around by waiting up and watching it on network TV at 9pm, you thought there would be a dvd release, especially as some of them ended airing before the season was over. Nope.

You can either send money to an american to buy the episodes off amazon or itunes, you can find an imported second hand dvd set or you can find someone’s lovingly ripped version with part of the ads still clipped in. The media mergers left a bunch of rights up in the air, especially internationally so it’s just. not. available.

People with most mainstream tastes imaginable should not open their mouth on how anti piracy they are btw. Yea no shit you can depend on legal sources to watch Marvel and listen to tswift and Maroon 5. Thank you so much for signing the petition to close that platform that was the only one i could download this 2008 romanian dungeon synth ep from

[snipsies]

Also super important to keep in mind and be aware of! There’s so much fear mongering and very little media literacy! I didn’t think about this till I saw Hank Greens video (above) and it helped me rationalize and calm down.

[charliejaneanders]

Media consolidation is consistently harmful. It results in unhealthy markets, endless layoffs, a reduction in diversity and quality in cable news, less competition, and a mindless race to the bottom. Yet the need for competent media regulation and antitrust reform is somehow always a distant afterthought, deemed irrelevant by the seme gentlemen who stand to benefit from our apathy.

Techdirt telling it like it is

[elleven-news]

Trump and Paramount Seek Mediator for CBS News Lawsuit

Lawyers for Paramount and President Trump have agreed to appoint a mediator in his $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. The move to bring in a mediator is another indicator that the two sides are trying to resolve the case, over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, out of court. A mediator could help them…

[inventedworld]

THE MERGER

You are the competition. 

So are your neighbors.

So are your kids. 

Since everybody posts photos on social media apps all day long, the value of photos overall has plummeted. That’s just basic economics. 

The recent announcement about two of the world‘s largest stock photography companies merging reflects this market reality. With everyone clicking and posting photos all day long with their cell phones, the challenge of finding interesting photographs isn’t especially hard. It’s worth adding that photography—and video, too, considering just how much video both of these companies also sell—not only suffers devaluation as a commodity with this merger, but also as a by-product of waning audience interest. Ubiquity breeds dispassion. 

There are two things going on here. First there’s the matter about big business and how that affects creative work. Second, and perhaps more importantly, this is a story about creative devaluation. Shutterstock and Getty used to compete, and for many professional media people, each service was effectively interchangeable. They may have had different account numbers and different billing requirements, but it didn’t really matter. If you needed a picture of a giraffe nibbling acacia leaves at sunset, you could easily find one on either site.

What most people don’t realize, of course, is that each of these companies themselves already had gobbled up many other companies. Getty and Shutterstock were already giants. A range of stock footage and animation and graphics and even audio services operated beneath the shade of their umbrellas. If this new merger between their front offices survives anti-trust scrutiny, we’ll effectively be left with  one behemoth to rule them all.

Does anybody care? Should we care? I’m not worried in terms of finding that singular giraffe image, or any other easily identifiable asset that I may need for a quick turnaround production. I worry for reasons that lurk beneath the surface like shallow rocks at the shoreline. 

This concern is really a subset of overall consternation about the seemingly inexorable trend towards corporate consolidation in all industries. Every week we seem to hear that there are fewer and fewer big corporate holding companies that essentially regulate all aspects of modern life. Most people don’t realize that the marquee names they all know are often bulwarks behind which countless other companies purport to operate under their own banners. Most people don’t realize, in other words, that so many big banners are actually just pixelations comprised of a slew of smaller banners.  

For creative people and the work they do this troubles me. The more we face narrower corporate uniformity, the harder it is for fresh voices to find purchase in the global marketplace. The more that creative work must conform to the dictates of mega-corporations, the more we smear the lines of distinction and voice and purpose. If this merger goes through and you’re a pro photographer looking to sell your work as stock, for example, you’ll have essentially just one place where it might be showcased in any meaningful way. Sure, you can post it on social media or your own websites as much as you want, but if you’re trying to do mainstream business, you’re essentially going to be left with only one place to negotiate. As the saying goes, the power of the free press only matters if you happen to own one.

As much as some participants may try to pretend otherwise, creative work often concerns pure commerce. A client needs something—an image, a tune, a video, a hand-carved wooden table—and an artist fills that need. But clearly the souls of artists move from forces far more complex than making a sale. Artists need to make things. They need to make sales to keep making things. Sometimes the can make a living by doing both—making and then selling—but the point is that when the marketplace consolidates, artists have a tougher time selling. That means they then have a harder time making, and because of that, overall culture retreats, becoming duller and grayer.

And who wants to live in a monolithic culture?

@michaelstarobin

facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

[trulymadlykiki]

working in marketing means today’s price is not yesterday’s price

[fiercemillennial]

Cable Wars: DirecTV and Dish Merge – Is This the End of TV as We Know It?

Cable TV is shaking things up! DirecTV and Dish are merging, and it could mean big changes for how we watch TV. Is this the end of cable as we know it? 🤔 #cablewars #merger #streaming #fiercetrends #fiercemillennial

The future of television is about to get a whole lot more complicated. Remember those days when you’d sit down on the couch, flip through the channels, and settle in for a night of TV? Good times, right? Well, get ready to say goodbye to that familiar ritual. DirecTV and Dish, two of the biggest names in satellite television, have announced plans to merge, creating the largest pay-TV provider in…

[fandomaddictwut]

I’ve seen some people complaining about Channing Tatum/his accent in Deadpool & Wolverine, and I just want to set a few things straight.

Channing has been on the docket to play Gambit since 2005, but each and every time, the character was cut from the script, he had a prior contract, or the director kept getting replaced until the project was scrapped 4 years later with the Fox/Disney merger.

He has family in Louisiana and grew up in the bayous (albeit in rural Alabama). This character has meant something to him since CHILDHOOD when it comes to representation in media.

Gambit doesn’t speak SAE (Standard American English). He’s a street urchin from Acadia/New Orleans. He grew up speaking Cajun (a mix of Southern American, Canadian French, and España Spanish grammar applied to a mostly English vocabulary) and Louisiana French (an offshoot of Canadian French from Acadians).

Every person I’ve seen online who ACTUALLY GREW UP around people who speak Cajun, Creole, and/or Louisiana French has said that his accent is SPOT ON, maybe even a little too clear.

All this to say: if you can’t understand Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, you’re not supposed to. That’s the bit: unless you’re used to those dialects and accents, you’re shit outta luck trying to parse it out without help. Hell, even Rogue, who grew up in the South, doesn’t know what he’s saying half the time.

[ejbarnes]

I'm glad that the current administration is finally (after decades of malign neglect) returning to taking the harm done by corporate mergers and acquisitions seriously. Media consolidation in particular is bad for workers employed in the field, bad for consumers, bad for the quality of art and the quality of information -- and bad for democracy. After this, maybe we can actually look further into breaking up some of these conglomerates à la AT&T (consent decree 1982).

CALL TO ACTION to support WGA/SAG-AFTRA: Submit a comment about the corporate monopoly crisis.

August 18, 2023: You can personalize the template message included in the above link, or simply just add your name & email. Seems like it's US only; please boost if you can't sign yourself.

From the WGA:

"More than 100 days into our strike, as we continue to fight for the sustainability of our profession, events in Washington, D.C. provide an opportunity for writers to shine a light on one of the root causes of the strike: media consolidation. For decades, the WGA has advocated for stronger antitrust oversight, bringing attention to the ways that mergers and vertical integration in our industry – from AT&T-Time Warner to Warner Bros.-Discovery to Amazon-MGM to Disney-Fox – have consolidated the power of our employers and harmed writers as well as the diversity of content. In numerous reports and policy filings – including a new report called The New Gatekeepers: How Disney, Amazon and Netflix Will Take Over Media, released yesterday – the WGA has documented the threat to our industry from past and future consolidation and called for more aggressive antitrust enforcement. Our current strike highlights the urgency of the issue; studios gained power through anti-competitive consolidation and vertical integration and then used that power to push down wages and impose more precarious working conditions for writers while profiting off of their work, and currently – together – refuse to bargain a fair contract for writers to mitigate those harms. Last month, the FTC and DOJ jointly released proposed revisions to their Merger Guidelines, a policy document designed to guide law enforcement around consolidation. These new Draft Guidelines are part of an effort by these agencies to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement. Compared with prior versions of Merger Guidelines, they give significantly more weight to the ways that mergers can be harmful and, for the first time, explicitly direct agencies and courts to consider how mergers can hurt workers. The Draft Guidelines have been released for public comment, and the FTC and DOJ want to hear from people who have been affected by consolidation – people like you.”

The FTC and DOJ are accepting comments on their revisions of the Merger Guidelines until September 18.

[mateushonrado]

How I feel after the recent news

Status Post #11122: You only had one job, Paramount.

[jjbizconsult]

Sony Pictures Challenges Skydance with $26 Billion Offer for Paramount

Pick from 100K+ items to enjoy 100%OFF-APP New Users Only

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on a link and making a purchase, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

[thenewsfactsnow]

Reliance-Disney Merger: Ambani's Next Big Media Play

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), spearheaded by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, continue to be hungry for acquisition and consolidating its might in the business across sector. Reports now say that he is all set to acquire over 50 percent stake in Disney India, setting the stage for a colossal merger between the two media giants in the coming months, according to a report by Reuters. Reliable…

[headlinehorizon]

DWAC-Truth Social Merger: High-Stakes Deal Extends Deadline Amidst Scrutiny

In a dramatic turn of events, Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) shareholders have voted to extend the deadline for the merger with Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of Truth Social. Explore the latest news surrounding this high-profile merger and the potential impact on the social media landscape.