Sony

PlayStation will no longer be removing over 1,300 Discovery TV shows from its platform next month. Sony had previously announced that users would not be able to watch Discovery content on PlayStation after Dec. 31, even if they had already purchased it. However, the firm now says that due to an “updated licensing agreement” with Warner Bros. — which owns the Discovery brand — consumers will now be able to access their previously purchased shows “for at least the next 30 months.”

Tokyo-based Sony Corp.’s quarterly profit totaled 200 billion yen ($1.3 billion), down from 282 billion yen a year earlier. Quarterly sales rose 11% to 2.7 trillion yen ($18 billion), with gains in video games, image sensor and music operations and weakness in its financial and entertainment technology services.

In this repeat of the Talking TV episode from Aug. 18, Pia Blumenthal, design manager for the AContent Authenticity Initiative at Adobe and co-chair of the UX Task Force at the Coalition for Content, Provenance and Authenticity, explains how the proliferation of generative AI is making that job a lot harder. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

A new ESPN facility in Bristol, Conn., has introduced dramatic new virtual set capabilities for the sports network, taking its production game to the next level. Pictured: Studio X, the SportsCenter set, showing the 45’ by 16’ LED “depth wall” that supports dynamic virtual production elements.

The NAB Show New York looks to be gaining back its pre-COVID mojo with attendance on the upswing and vendors keen to meet with many clients who don’t make the springtime trip to Las Vegas.

NBCUniversal Local’s Telemundo outlet in El Paso is the latest to move to the public cloud for newscast production.

Technology executives from Fox Corp., Hearst Television, CBC, Sony and Florical told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week that the lack of a “trigger point” and a shortage of personnel experts in managing IT infrastructures are among the factors slowing down the pace of the industry’s IP transition.

Pia Blumenthal, design manager for the AContent Authenticity Initiative at Adobe and co-chair of the UX Task Force at the Coalition for Content, Provenance and Authenticity, is on the front lines against news disinformation. She explains how the proliferation of generative AI is making that job a lot harder. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

While it is unclear exactly which assets are on the table, a source says that the rights to “slightly less than half” of the catalog, with a price of around $500 million, are likely to go to a major label, with Sony said to be in the lead.

As ATSC marked its 40^th anniversary at last week’s conference, conversations resoundingly turned to alternative uses for the NextGen TV spectrum including datacasting and PNT applications.

Broadcasters’ demands on cameras are increasing, from asking for IP readiness to standards flexibility and better control in multicamera environments. Vendors are answering the call. Pictured: Sony’s CNA-2 camera control network adapter.

A Sinclair/Sony/Avid experiment aims to optimize news photographers’ field time by immediately logging metadata into cameras in the field, while Starlink and 5G rollouts continue to boost reliability in more remote scenarios. Above, Vislink’s MVP Streamur Live Streaming App in action, allowing reporters to broadcast into the production workflow using a mobile device.

For Fox’s 10^th Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., this Sunday, the broadcaster will integrate modular “flypacks” built for the FIFA World Cup along with new augmented reality graphics. Above, State Farm Stadium and the Fox pregame set (Christian Petersen/Getty Images).

Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s chief financial officer, will become its president and COO, Sony Corp. said in a statement Thursday. Kenichiro Yoshida remains chairman and chief executive, signaling continuity at the Tokyo-based maker of PlayStation game machines, Bravia TVs and Spider-Man movies. Also Thursday, Sony reported a 6% decline in net profit for the October-December quarter, at 326.8 billion yen ($2.5 billion).

On the Dot with David Schechter, a new reporting brand from the CBS Local News Innovation Lab, aims to shake up the O&O’s local newscasts with longer-form, cinematically shot deep dives on climate change.

Broadcasters kept their focus largely on a NextGen TV narrative headed into this week’s CES in Las Vegas, where around 100,000 attendees are expected. Sinclair is discussing its own flurry of ATSC 3.0 developments, while the demise of pay TV service Evoca was one setback in the NextGen saga.

Tokyo-based Sony’s July-September profit totaled 264 billion yen, or $1.8 billion, up from 213 billion yen in the previous year, mainly on strong demand for its music and movies, prompting the Japanese entertainment and electronics giant to raise its annual sales and profit forecasts.

The fully remote production launches tonight with a new mobile fleet of 16 that’s producing the games in 1080p with High Dynamic Range with around 250 people onsite for each TNF game. (Courtesy of Prime Video)

IBC’s first in-person event since 2019 may have fewer days and attendees than at its high-water mark, but vendors are packing their schedules with meetings and say they’re excited to be doing business in person again.

Tokyo-based Sony Corp.’s April-June profit totaled 218 billion yen ($1.6 billion), up from 212 billion yen a year earlier, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Friday.

Video walls are getting “bigger and bigger and cheaper and cheaper,” prompting wider adoption among broadcasters who are discovering a broad raft of storytelling and set design opportunities in their adoption. Above, FX Design Group delivered the set for KHON Honolulu, which includes a 3.9 pixel pitch video wall background that stretches nearly 33 feet long and just over 8 feet high.

Nobuyuki Idei, who led Japan’s Sony from 1998 through 2005, died June 2 of liver failure. He was 84. Sony Chief Executive Kenichiro Yoshida said he and the company were indebted to Idei’s vision in preparing Sony for the Internet age.

Sony’s fiscal fourth quarter surged 67% to 111.1 billion yen ($852.7 million) from the previous year, as the Japanese entertainment and electronics company racked up profits in video game and movie divisions, the company said Tuesday.

Attendance may have been almost halved by the pandemic, but tech vendors felt the more intimate environment allowed them to conduct business on a more productive level. On the show floor, the continued shift of broadcast workflows to the public cloud dominated many discussions, while others focused on NextGen TV’s pressing need to monetize.

The broadcasters are writing a new playbook for live coverage of a war where embedding isn’t an option, connectivity can be disrupted at any time and safety is a constant concern. Above: TVU Networks has used three cellular carriers in support of customers covering the conflict in Ukraine: KyivStar, Vodafone and LifeCell.

New research from Sony shows that ATSC 3.0 offers a large variety of innovative usecases using multicast delivery. In addition to high bitrate television broadcasts to stationary televisions, ATSC 3.0 also supports multicast file delivery to the automotive industry since very robust physical layer parameters can be selected and therefore reliable high-speed reception is now possible.

Teed up by riveting playoffs, NBC will rely on the same core technical setup it employs for its regular-season NFL games when it broadcasts Super Bowl 56 on Sunday. “The more you can stick with what got you to where you are, the better off you are,” says Drew Esocoff, the big game’s director. Above, the Infinity Screen by Samsung in SoFi Stadium (Photo: Will Navarro).

Tokyo-based Sony Corp. recorded a 346 billion yen ($3 billion) profit for the fiscal third quarter, up from 310.7 billion yen the previous year. Quarterly sales edged up to 3 trillion yen ($26 billion) from 2.7 trillion yen.

The Long Island newspaper has remade itself as a multimedia news producer with a two-studio, multimillion-dollar production operation and a team of MMJs ramping up extensive video coverage. (Newsday photo)

Major set manufacturers Samsung, LG and Sony glanced over NextGen TV in their presentations, although Hisense and Tablo unveiled new NextGen-enabled products in this year’s heavily slimmed-down event.

Recent supply chain issues notwithstanding, newsrooms are embracing LED video walls for their dropping prices, ease of use and improved quality over older, LCD options. Above: WRDW Augusta, Ga., included a large video wall in its new facility, designed by FX, that it moved into earlier this year. (Source: WRDW)