Weekly news round-up: Disney expands into China & Facebook's Olympic coverage

Disney signs deal for Chinese viewers
Thanks to Alibaba, Disney is now permitted to stream over 1,000 of its movies in China again, according to CNN. The content will be available to 30 million households, which is not an easy boundary to cross considering Facebook and Twitter remain blocked in the country. 

Facebook expands Winter Olympics digital coverage
Facebook users in the UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Norway are able to watch some of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang after the social media giant partnered with Eurosports to extend its digital coverage. According to Digital TV Europe, the coverage will include daily highlights, interviews and clips on a dedicated Facebook page.  

Qualcomm and Broadcom discuss acquisition
Qualcomm Inc confirmed meeting with Broadcom on Wednesday to discuss the revised $121 billion bid in what Reuters reported as the technology sector’s biggest acquisition ever. While the outcome of the meeting remains unclear, it was confirmed the points of the meeting have determined the next steps in the deal. To date, Qualcomm has rejected the offers from Broadcom as the revised cash-and-stock bid of $82 per share last week was deemed undervalued.   

Outstanding Hollywood VFX awarded
Fox, Disney, HBO and Pixar were recognised at the 16th annual Visual Effects Society (VES) awards. Celebrated for outstanding VFX with four awards was Fox’s War of the Planet of the Apes and Pixar’s Coco respectively. Game of Thrones was the big TV winner taking home Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a photoreal episode, a category GOT was not nominated for. Deadline shared the extensive list of winners here. 

Cyber attack hits the Winter Olympics 
Officials confirmed the Winter Olympics website was taken offline after cyber hackers compromised the site, affecting the TV and internet systems at the games for close to 12 hours. The BBC reported, prior to the game commencing, cyber-security experts expressed concerns that Russia and North Korea might try to target the event.    

MagicLeap keeps surprising
Rony Abovitz, Chief Executive of secretive VR start-up MagicLeap, claimed that his soon-to-be-released VR headset will be better than his previous promises. He described at a media conference earlier this week the headset will be capable of “live holograph streaming” and exciting VR experiences, according to The Register. The date of release is yet to be confirmed.   

Snapchat petition slames latest design
One million people have signed a petition calling on Snapchat to roll back its latest software update, with users complaining the new design is difficult to use. According to the BBC, Snapchat Founder Evan Spiegel said the changes were intended to differentiate interactions with friends from branded content in an attempt to combat the rise of fake news.