DirecTV, founded in 1994 by Hughes Electronics, is owned by AT&T Inc. and TPG Inc., and has about 11 million customers. Dish, started in 1980 by billionaire Charlie Ergen, is part of his EchoStar Corp. and has about 8 million subscribers. - Los Angeles Times
The Trust’s newsrooms earn revenue from traditional sources: advertising and reader revenue, with events, commercial printing jobs, and branded content in the mix as well. Membership programs — and the small-dollar donations that hopefully come with them — “take time to build." - NiemanLab
Research from Oracle indicates that 90% of consumers are more likely to recall a product or brand associated with a humorous treatment, and 72% would choose a brand that uses humor over their competition. - Fast Company
The series, titled The Takeover, covers the overhaul of the Houston Independent School District by state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles. The lead reporter's long-term partner is a Houston ISD teacher, and HPM management decided just before release that this was too big a conflict of interest. - Texas Monthly
The case against Baldwin, who accidentally shot the movie's cinematographer because the prop gun he was handling turned out to have live ammunition in it, was dismissed due to prosecutors' serious mishandling of evidence. Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had already been convicted; could she now be freed? - The Hollywood Reporter
In some ways, the event had the trappings of a normal short film festival. There were awards and prizes, as well as appetizers, poke boxes and wine. But in other telling respects, it was a clear product of Silicon Valley’s incursion into Hollywood’s territory. - Los Angeles Times
"Reversing the slide will require a whole suite of changes to incentivize studios to return to California. … Some labor leaders tell TheWrap that to reverse the production exodus, California may need to triple the size of its (tax incentive) program and expand the types of productions that can apply." - TheWrap (MSN)
The Stephen King adaptation hit cinemas in the fall of 1994 amid a slew of hits competing for audiences. Yet it went on to become the most popular video rental of 1995. Love for the film hasn't waned; one poll found it the best movie never to have won an Oscar. - BBC
Companies have been accused of signing people up for subscriptions without their consent, renewing their subscriptions without notice, and imposing a gantlet of obstacles to anyone seeking to unsubscribe. - Los Angeles Times
The resurrection of dead franchises and the creation of new ones based on recognizable intellectual properties all target one core emotion: nostalgia. Hollywood is not facing a lack of ideas; rather, it's facing a nostalgia epidemic. - Highbrow Magazine
Unless a user opts out, every profile is visible to the public and every transaction is shown in the feeds of a user's friends. So now — unlike video-focused TikTok and (increasingly) Instagram, or Facebook, dishing out political disinformation and "Shrimp Jesus" — Venmo feeds show what one's friends are up to. - The Atlantic (MSN)
The CSRL study says most local NPR stations lack the resources to systematically gather and report on local news, and in turn, spend too much of its limited resources covering issues that the wealthy care about. - Inside Radio
A DC Circuit panel struggled with both the idea of granting copyright protection for AI-produced works and a computer scientist’s framing of his case to do so during oral argument Thursday. - Bloomberg
