The 11th Hour Dispatch — Wednesday, July 18, 2018
BINGE WATCH
Like most other days, it’s another great day to be Netflix. The streaming giant has struck up a partnership with satellite radio behemoth SiriusXM to launch a comedy-focused radio channel AND it’s bringing Bruce Springsteen’s critically acclaimed Broadway show to the small screen. Netflix is a Joke Radio will likely promote Netflix’s growing collection of stand-up specials through the channel as well as create original radio content. It will join SiriusXM’s decently hefty comedy footprint, which includes channels from Comedy Central and comedian Kevin Hart. Comedy has become one of Netflix’s most popular genres on its service, so this is a bit of a match made in content heaven. The partnership, which is the first time Netflix will distribute a Netflix-branded product that doesn’t involve video, will kick off in January of next year. As for The Boss’s special, we’ll see Springsteen on Broadway drop December 15. You don’t need me to tell you that Netflix snagging content from one of the biggest rock legends ever is a big deal, so let’s move on.
YOUNG MONEY
Walmart and Microsoft have teamed up to take down the mighty Amazon with enhanced cloud computing technologies. Through the five-year agreement, the box store will implement Microsoft’s Azure and Microsoft 365 cloud services across its entire company. It will also be using Microsoft products in machine learning, AI, and data ventures. Both Microsoft with its cloud services and Walmart with its massive amount of semi-unnecessary products are two of Amazon’s biggest competitors — a fact that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called “absolutely core” to the partnership. Another sly slap to the face is that Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a cashier-free tech similar to Amazon Go for Walmart. Microsoft has also stolen a former computer vision specialist from Bezos’ Baby to do so. Mmm I love some good old fashioned Silicon Valley backstabbing.
BIG BUSINESS
The European Union (EU) has slammed Google with a $5 billion antitrust fine — the largest the EU has ever dished out. The strike stems from Google “abusing the dominance” of its Android operating system, which is the most popular OS globally. The EU alleges that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has showed unfair preference for its services by forcing smartphone makers to pre-install bundled Google apps in Play, the Alphabet-owned app store. It also claims that Google violated the EU’s competition rules by forcing phone manufacturers to pre-install exclusively Google search options on devices. The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, has ordered Alphabet to shape up in the next 90 days or face additional fines of up to 5% of Alphabet’s daily worldwide revenue, which is an absurd amount even at 5%. However, Alphabet plans to appeal the ruling, as it sees it as “restrictive of fair competition.” Kind of sounds familiar, Google.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
A 25-foot statue of Jeff Goldblum has popped up in London, and no I did not do it, so please stop asking.
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