The 11th Hour Dispatch — Wednesday, September 5, 2018
BIG BUSINESS
WarnerMedia, alongside actor Michael B. Jordan, has released new diversity protocols for television and film projects across its divisions. The policy focuses on increasing the number of women and people of color involved in these projects. It states that WarnerMedia and its companies, including Warner Bros., HBO, and Turner Broadcasting, will make its “best efforts to ensure that diverse actors and crew members are considered for film, television and other projects, and to work with directors and producers who also seek to promote greater diversity and inclusion.” The AT&T-owned company did not institute diversity benchmarks for its companies, a position many advocates have argued for, but a large media conglomerate making itself publicly accountable for inclusivity practices is better than nothing. Jordan, who was the first major film star to announce inclusion riders — contractual clauses that require certain ratios of underrepresented people in casts and/or crews on a project — across the board for his production company Outlier Society Productions, said in a statement, “The WarnerMedia family has introduced an approach that accomplishes our shared objectives, and I applaud them for taking this enormous step forward.” The actor stars in the upcoming Warner Bros. movie Just Mercy, which is the first project under the new diversity policy.
BINGE WATCH
Scener, a service that allows you to provide color commentary over your bingewatching marathons, officially launched. Think of it kind of like the Twitch of streaming entertainment mixed with YouTube reaction videos. The Chrome extension enables users to commentate over a piece of content without infringing on copyrights by simply adding a synchronized overlay of the commentary on the content. The startup hopes to spark a new kind of content creator through its service. Influencers will now be able to invite fans to come watch a piece of content alongside them without getting into legal hot waters, so get ready for the Jake Pauls of the world to have your children bingewatching like super political documentaries, because that’s the world we live in and I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if you told me this already existed.
YOUNG MONEY
Roblox, an incredibly popular 3D video game with 70 million monthly active players, picked up $150 million in funding, placing its valuation well over $2.5 billion. The round was led by Greylock Partners and Tiger Global Management. The company has raised $251.6 million to date and plans to use the latest injection to further build out its tech infrastructure and expand internationally. Unlike the Microsoft-owned Minecraft, which the game is often compared to, Roblox is completely created by players and independent developers. And thanks to its in-game virtual currency Robux — which costs real green to spend in the game — it’s paid out $70 million to developers this year alone.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
If you need me, I’ll being in Mexico City getting a PSL from this Starbucks that only employs senior citizens.
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