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French streaming service Salto was officially “dissolved” by its partners. Public broadcaster France Télévisions, M6 Group, subsidiary of RTL Group, and TF1 Group, subsidiary of conglomerate Bouygues issued the joint statement (February 15) saying “conditions were not met for the continuation of Salto in its current shareholding.”
The Salto service went sideways after the proposed merger of M6 Group and TF1 Group collapsed after the French Competition Authority snapped its neck requiring the dominant channels of both be sold off. France Télévisions started the process of withdrawing a bit earlier. And the partners could not find an acceptable buyer for the assets, such as they were. “Letters of interest received from several actors for the takeover of Salto could not lead to a realization,” said the final statement. (See more about media in France here) (See more about streaming media here)
At best, the Salto partners did not sufficiently understand the realm they wanted to enter back in 2018 when the project was originally announced. (See earlier report of Salto struggles here) Regulatory and organizational issues delayed the launch for two more years. By that time - just as the coronavirus pandemic upended everything - Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video were beyond dominant. But never criticize somebody for trying. They certainly learned a lot.
By now all have realized that paywalls are massively popular among publishers. As paper and ink publishing hit the skids with most consumers, publishers divined a digital solution. In the words of Rupert Murdoch: “Make them pay.” Euphemistically, paywalls are referred to as subscriptions. No money in the hand, no access. That says a lot about freedom of information, but that’s a slightly different matter.
Now, paywalls abound. Access to TV channels is only available for subscribers. Radio broadcasters are similarly experimenting. Even outside the media sphere, there are paywalls. Tesla Motors, an Elon Musk company, has a paywall of sorts. When the subscription runs out, the car crashes. (See more about paywalls here)
A new paywall twist has arrived in Germany. The Federal Ministry of Justice (BMI) is collecting money for access to its information platform Libra, which illuminates German law issues. It is testing the sense of humor of German journalists, notable those of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) (February 15).
Libra is published by Juris GmbH, a majority State-held company. Until this week, its well-regarded newsletters and archives were available to all. Then (February 14) online access seekers were met with page familiar to all: only available to Juris customers and test users. The following day prospective users were informed of a “free 30-day trial.”
Later that day, access was restored. There had been complaints regarding the Constitutional separation between the press and the State. An official said it was all “a mistake.”
The ire of the thin-skinned autocrat is again on display. Criticism is to be obstructed and if it seeps through punished. Small news outlets are targeted. Big ones, too.
Income Tax Department agents raided the New Delhi and Mumbai India bureaus of UK public broadcaster BBC, reported Reuters (February 14) and a slew of other news agencies and outlets. A spokesperson said “a survey action” was underway for “verification of certain documents.” BBC employees were not allowed to leave or enter the offices and were required to surrender mobile phones and reveal passwords. “We are fully cooperating,” said an email from the BBC. “We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible.” The inspection is expected to proceed through the night. (See more about the BBC here) (See more about censorship here)
The raid on the BBC bureaus, widely understood, is another stage in retaliation by the government of prime minister Narendra Modi targeting the BBC for producing and releasing in January a two-part TV documentary exploring his complicity in 2002 sectarian riots resulting in the deaths of about 1,000 persons, mostly Muslims. An ardent Hindu nationalist, PM Modi has long denied involvement when he was governor of the Gujarat state. Broadcasts of the documentary were blocked in India by the government, which attempted to influence censorship elsewhere. It failed. (See earlier report on the Modi BBC documentary here)
Of course, YouTube and Twitter acceded to government bans on posting excerpts of the documentary in India. YouTube has 236 million subscribers in the country. University students flocked to private rooms to check out the documentary. Many were arrested. A Hindu nationalist group petitioned the Supreme Court to have the BBC removed from the country altogether. It failed, reported Al Jazeera (February 14). All of this has simply ratcheted up awareness of the documentary in India and elsewhere. Hence, PM Modi had to try something else.
Each and every content-producing media outlet is on a binge of cost-cutting. The first stop is always the free coffee. Next are workers. Any still believing the Great Resignation rage, put down that cup. Newsrooms are shedding staff at an alarming pace.
Of course, for publishers and broadcasters to continue publishing and broadcasting a quantity of people are necessary. That’s old thinking. To avoid enlisting executives for menial tasks, newsrooms are turning to artificial intelligence - AI. Let the bots do the work; much cheaper, no coffee necessary.
Swedish public TV broadcaster SVT Nyheter joined the AI parade acquiring workstation software from Limecraft to produce titles and headlines. It hasn’t gone well, reported Journalisten SE (February 13). Apparently, the output quality was not up to par. Reporters had to go back and fix the errors over and over again. “We are starting to approach a kind of pain limit,” said journalist’s union local president Rebecka Mårtensson.
AI in newsrooms has been a “promise” for several years. The benefit is not simply cost reduction, though that’s certainly top-of-mind today. These gizmos can be really efficient at adapting metafiles to screen reality, putting all the parts in the right places in a blink of an eye. (See more about digital transitions here)
When the bots are not up to the task, the results can be catastrophic. Witness the lost US$100 billion in market value that Alphabet, parent of Google, absorbed last week after its just released AI-driven “conversational” chatbot Bard “produced a factual error in its first demo,” reported NPR (February 9). Stock traders can be so unforgiving.
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