Your digest of the week’s top media, entertainment and technology news.
Pay row engulfs BBC
Male presenters at the BBC could be asked to take a pay cut, according to BBC Director of Radio and Education James Purnell. Purnell was responding to questions about revelations about the broadcasters’ top earners. The list of on-air talent paid over £150,000 includes 62 men and 34 women.
ITV appoints new Chief Exec
Carolyn McCall has been announced as ITV’s new CEO, leaving EasyJet after seven years. McCall will replace ITV’s previous CEO Adam Crozier.
ITV Chairman Peter Bazalgette said in a statement: “In a very impressive field of high calibre candidates, Carolyn stood out for her track record in media, experience of an international operation, clear strategic acumen and strong record of delivering value to shareholders.”
Discovery and Scripps merger talks
Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks are reported to have returned to the negotiating table to thrash out a deal to merge the companies. According to Reuters, this is at least the third time that Discovery has attempted to buy Scripps.
LED cinema screens
Samsung has installed its first commercial LED cinema screen. The 34ft, 4K display has been installed in a cinema in South Korea. Samsung and Sony unveiled LED cinema screens last year. The screens are reported to be brighter than commonly used traditional projection systems.
Combating cyber attacks
Kaggle is a data analytics competition platform that could provide the setting for the development of tools to combat cyber attacks. Technology Review shared the new contest that will allow algorithms to battle against each other, and in doing so strengthen machine-learning (ML) systems and develop defences against cyber attacks.
Smarter phones for all
Artifical Intelligence (AI) is dubbed the next big thing for mobile phone creators, according to Wired. Built in AI and ML apps and hardware within smart phones will allow faster ‘smart’ decisions to be made and data to be processed.
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