Elon Musk claims he has acquired Twitter ‘to help humanity’
Elon Musk has claimed he has “acquired Twitter” in a post to the social network reassuring advertisers it will stay a safe place for their brands, amid fears one of his first actions as chief executive will be to restore Donald Trump’s account, reports The Guardian’s Alex Hern.
After months of uncertainty over whether or not his $44bn acquisition of the social media platform would go through, the Tesla chief executive’s post is the strongest acknowledgment yet that the deal is expected to be sealed before its deadline of 5pm in Delaware on Friday.
Musk wrote in a statement attached to the tweet: “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
He added: “That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
NBCUniversal CEO: Peacock can scale past 15M subs and “We’re well on our way”
NBCUniversal, Comcast’s entertainment arm, talked Peacock on Wednesday as the media giant looks to its streaming service to offset continuing decline for its linear cable and pay TV businesses, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Etan Vlessing.
On a morning analyst call following the release of Comcast’s third quarter financial results, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, asked about the latest strategic focus for Peacock, talked about investing in the streaming platform for scale to better monetize film and TV content overall.
Peacock paid subscribers in the U.S. “surpassed 15 million” as of the end of September, as NBCUniversal took an adjusted EBITDA loss of $614 million related to the streaming service.
“We want to get Peacock to a scale where we’re fairly indifferent between content going on linear and content going on Peacock and having the best platform out there, and we think we’re well on our way to that,” Shell told analysts. He added NBCUniversal was primarily a content business, and engaging and retaining consumers in a fast-changing environment called for adding to existing platforms for reach.
See Also: Seven Upfront 2023: NBCU brings 7Bravo to Aus
Universal Music Q3 earnings beat expectations, streaming growth slows
Universal Music Group NV on Thursday reported better than expected third-quarter core earnings due to a legal settlement, though streaming revenue growth slowed, reports Reuters.
The company said top sellers in the quarter included Korean pop band BTS, BLACKPINK, Ado, INI, and Morgan Wallen.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were 539 million euros ($538 million), compared with 426 million euros in the third quarter of 2021.
Analysts had forecast EBITDA at 524 million euros, according to Refinitiv data.
Revenue rose 13.3% to 2.66 billion euros, with streaming and subscription revenue up 7.7%. The revenue figure included a 71 million euro benefit due to the settlement of a copyright infringement lawsuit, which also influenced EBITDA.
Spotify is considering raising US subscription prices, CEO Daniel Ek says, following Apple and YouTube
For years, there has been one quick solution to at least partially remedy the low royalty payments most musicians receive from streaming services: Raise subscription prices, reports Variety Australia’s Jem Aswad.
In the past several years, streaming has revived a music industry that had seen its revenue literally cut in half due to illegal downloading and plummeting CD sales. Yet the the U.S. subscription price, which was set at $9.99 per month at the dawn of the streaming age more than two decades ago to mirror the cost of a Blockbuster video-rental subscription, implausibly had not budged until recent weeks. In fact, the ground war for market share had become so grueling that streamers were competing in a race to the bottom, via dozens of different plans — including ad-supported, a.k.a. free models, student and family plans, bundling and more — all of which added up to less money for musicians and songwriters.
“It makes no sense,” Milana Lewis, CEO of the distribution and payments platform Stem, told Variety earlier this year. . “The price of everything else on earth is going up, and they all keep finding new ways to make subscriptions cheaper.” Surveys have shown that users are willing to pay more.
News Brands
New York Post says rogue employee was behind vulgar and racist posts
The New York Post said on Thursday that a rogue employee had been behind a series of vulgar and racist tweets and headlines on its website earlier in the day, reports The New York Times’ Katie Robertson.
The posts on Twitter included a reference to Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, falsely attributing statements about her to Representative Lee Zeldin, her opponent in the coming election, as well as posts about Mayor Eric Adams of New York and President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
The employee also used The Post’s internal publishing system to republish an editorial about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and change the byline to Ben Shapiro, the conservative commentator. The headline was changed to say: “We must assassinate AOC for America.”
In a statement, the news organization said: “The New York Post’s investigation indicates that the unauthorized conduct was committed by an employee, and the employee has been terminated. This morning, we immediately removed the vile and reprehensible content from our website and social media accounts.”
Television
Auditions: The 1% Club
Casting has opened for upcoming comedy quiz The 1% Club, reports TV Tonight.
“We are looking for contestants to join legendary comedian Jim Jefferies and take part in a brand new prime-time entertainment TV show being filmed in Melbourne,” a casting notice announced.
“You don’t need to be a genius or a trivia wiz. This is a show about how you think, not what you know!
“If you’d like a chance of winning up to $100,000 apply now.”