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TL;DR

• Anthropic introduced Claude 3.5 Sonnet, an updated version of its Claude 3 AI chatbot that is twice as fast and more powerful. (Bloomberg)

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  Next year, Netflix will open a new in-person experience, Netflix House, in two cities: King of Prussia, PA, and Dallas, TX. (Variety)

• Almost half (44%) of US streaming subscribers have seen the cost of at least one of their services increase in the past year, prompting 45% of those consumers to cancel their subscription. (Forbes)

Audiences

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  Two-thirds of travelers globally, especially younger travelers, are more interested in travel now than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. (McKinsey)

• A third of US streaming viewers have had to create their own streaming subscription account over the last year due to stricter streaming service rules. (Forbes)

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  YouTube Premium is ranked as a must-have service by 75% of US users, a fraction of a percent behind Spotify. (Yahoo)

Platforms

• TikTok’s new “Symphony” marketing management platform will let brands deploy virtual influencers to sell their products for them in the app. (Social Media Today)

• TikTok furthered its integration with Adobe Express, adding 1M+ songs and sounds from TikTok’s Commercial Music Library to the app. (Social Media Today)

• Spotify is now letting non-hosted podcasters upload videos to the platform. (Tech Crunch)

• CVS’s retail media network is turning on self-serve advertising for the first time through a deal with The Trade Desk. (Adage)

• Spotify launched a new Basic streaming plan in the US for $10.99/mo that includes all of the benefits of a Premium plan but without the monthly audiobook listening time. (Tech Crunch)

Content

• The Queen music catalog is being acquired by Sony Music for £1B (around $1.27B). (Variety)

• London's Prince Charles Cinema cancelled a private screening of a film entirely written with AI following a public backlash. (BBC)

• Netflix is ramping up production in Indonesia, increasing its output from 6 titles in 2023 to 10 in 2024. (Bloomberg)

• The WNBA is averaging 1.3M viewers per game, tripling last season’s average of 462K viewers. (CNBC)

Tech & AI

• Meta is dividing its Reality Labs department into two teams, "Wearables" and "Metaverse." (Media Post)

• McDonald's ended its partnership with IBM, shutting down its AI-backed ordering tests at more than 100 US drive-throughs, after an influx of errors. (NYT)

• OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever launched a new AI company devoted to "safe superintelligence." (AP)

• Amazon extended generative AI-powered product listings to Europe, letting sellers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK use the feature. (Tech Crunch)

Location-based entertainment

• Cedar Fair and Six Flags announced a merger and set Charlotte as the headquarters for 42 parks. (Attractions Magazine)

• Magic Kingdom's 'Tiana’s Bayou Adventure' is set to open before the end of the month. (Local 10 News)

• "Inside Out 2" generated $155M at the box office over its opening weekend in the US, the second-highest animation opening ever. (CNBC)

• A cruise ship with some of Broadway's biggest names will sail from Florida to Mexico next spring. (Yahoo)

Travel & hospitality

• Domestic travel represents the bulk of travel spending, and intraregional tourism is on the rise. (McKinsey)

• Restaurants are adopting robots that cook, deliver meals to diners and take away dirty dishes - but with mixed success. (Axios)

• The Bellagio and the MGM Grand will start live streaming roulette and baccarat games to international markets. (Casino.org)

• Europe's biggest food delivery firm, Just Eat Takeaway, struck a deal to offer Amazon Prime members in Germany, Austria and Spain free delivery of food orders above 15 euros. (Reuters)

Gaming

• Apple paused work on its Vision Pro successor, focusing on releasing a cheaper model. (IGN)

• Nintendo announced a slew of new games, including a Princess Zelda standalone game, "Echoes of Wisdom." (Eurogamer)

• Last year's most played games in terms of monthly users were largely older, established titles such as Fortnite and Call of Duty. (BBC)