The Entertainment Technology Center at USC launched ETCentric in March of 2011 as a news and commentary forum designed to provide our community members with the most vital information impacting media and entertainment. Over the years we experimented with a variety of delivery methods, eventually settling upon an online portal and associated daily email alert, teamed with a social media presence, highlights of ETC projects, and live reporting from key industry events. While it has been our great pleasure to provide this service to our valued members, we now find ourselves in a different era, one that features a much wider collection of targeted news services and social media tools that serve similar objectives. With that in mind — and as a key part of our larger initiative to refocus information-sharing on ETC projects — we have decided to shutter ETCentric and The Daily News Brief in their current forms and launch a new, more dynamic ETC website on January 5. The final day for ETCentric will be Friday, December 12. Continue reading ETC Updating Info Exchange, Will Shutter ETCentric Next Week

Email Insider Summit
(December 7-10, MediaPost, Deer Valley UT, $$)

UnitedXR Europe
(December 8-10, AWE, Stereopsia, Brussels, $$)

Black Hat Europe 2025
(December 8-11, Informa Tech, London, $$)

CineAsia 2025
(December 8-11, FilmExpoGroup, Bangkok, $$)

Agentic AI Voice for Winning SMB Revenue
(December 9, Future B2B, Salesforce, Aircall, Webinar)

Robotics for Warehouse, Fulfillment and Distribution
(December 9, WTWH Media, Webinar)

How Agentic AI Supercharges Creative Performance
(December 10, Adweek, Amazon Ads, Webinar)

The AI Summit New York
(December 10-11, Informa, New York City, $$)

TV & Video Insider Summit
(December 10-13, MediaPost, Deer Valley UT, $$)

An Executive’s Guide to Secure AI Adoption
(December 11, Future B2B, Cyera, Webinar)

How Big Ideas Can Outrun Big Budgets in 2026
(December 11, RP3 Agency, Webinar)

Performance Marketing Insider Summit
(December 14-17, MediaPost, Deer Valley UT, $$)

2025 SVG Summit
(December 15-16, Sports Video Group, New York City, $$)

NewsTECHForum: Empowering the News for Audience & ROI
(December 16, TVNewsCheck, New York City, $$)

Real-Time Personalization for 2026
(December 16, Adweek, Amperity, Webinar)

Pendulum Live Platform Demo
(December 17, Pendulum Intelligence, Virtual Event)

CES 2026 (Consumer Electronics Show)
(January 6-9, CTA, Las Vegas NV, $$)

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an agency of the Department of Commerce, announced new guidelines before the holiday weekend meant to clarify when inventions that are developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence can be legally patented. The agency defines generative AI systems to be “analogous to laboratory equipment, computer software, research databases, or any other tool that assists in the inventive process,” explained USPTO Director John Squires. According to the updated guidelines, AI systems “may provide services and generate ideas, but they remain tools used by the human inventor who conceived the claimed invention.” Continue reading Patent Office Updates Guidelines for Inventions Created by AI

Unless there is breaking news, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming 4-day holiday weekend. We wish you and your families a very happy and safe Thanksgiving. We’ll be back on Monday with the latest in media and entertainment technology news. Continue reading ETCentric to Return After the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend

Google announced the availability of Gemini 3 for select subscribers, with a broader release planned for the coming weeks. The tech giant’s latest AI model will be available via the Gemini app, AI Mode and AI Overviews search tools, and Google’s enterprise products. The model arrives nearly eight months after the launch of Gemini 2.5 as the company looks to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. According to CEO Sundar Pichai, Gemini 3 is the company’s “most intelligent model, that combines all of Gemini’s capabilities together so you can bring any idea to life.” Pichai also announced the Google Antigravity agent platform, that enables developers to code “at a higher, task-oriented level.” Continue reading Google Making AI Search and Coding Smarter with Gemini 3

AMC Networks launched a new streaming service called All Reality yesterday, featuring 2,500 hours of reality television from We TV and other AMC brands. The service is initially being offered as an add-on to Prime Video for $4.99 per month. Available series include “Love After Lockup,” “The Braxtons,” and “The Graham Norton Show,” while an updated version of “Bridezillas” will be the first original series. According to AMC, additional content will be introduced and the service will join more platforms in the near future. All Reality joins AMC’s other targeted streamers including AMC+ (scripted dramas), Acorn TV (international mysteries), Shudder (horror) and HIDIVE (anime). Continue reading AMC Launches ‘All Reality’ Streamer with Unscripted Content

San Francisco-based AI startup Anthropic, founded in 2021, announced plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. computing infrastructure, starting with the creation of data centers with Fluidstack in Texas and New York (with additional plans for future sites). Fluidstack builds and operates high-performance GPU clusters for researchers and AI teams. The new project with Anthropic is expected to create 800 permanent jobs and about 2,400 construction jobs. Sites are scheduled to come online throughout next year. “These facilities are custom built for Anthropic with a focus on maximizing efficiency for our workloads, enabling continued research and development at the frontier,” according to Anthropic. Continue reading Anthropic Plans to Invest $50 Billion in AI Data Centers in U.S.

Amazon announced yesterday that its Prime Video service is introducing location-based interactive video advertisements in the U.S., allowing local businesses to reach target audiences in specific areas. The ad unit, Interactive Video Ads (IVA), will help advertisers customize national TV commercials with location-specific content such as local pricing and nearest business details based on state data and ZIP codes. The new format, expected to intensify the growing competition between streaming services and broadcasters, is part of a larger effort to bring more small businesses and local buyers to CTV. It also arrives as major streamers, including Prime Video, are pursuing new models such as pause ads. Continue reading Location-Based Interactive Video Ads Coming to Prime Video

Amazon Music announced a new beta feature called “Fan Groups” that enables users to build their own communities for sharing information and opinions about their favorite music genres and artists. The feature, testing now in Canada on iOS and Android, encourages music fans to listen to songs shared within the groups and interact via chat threads and user posts, while driving new music discovery in the process. Artists will also have the ability to join groups, providing an opportunity to share exclusive content and interact directly with their fans. “The new destination transforms music listening into an interactive community for fans without having to leave the app,” explains Amazon. Continue reading Amazon Music Touts Community with ‘Fan Groups’ Beta Test

In less than three years, generative AI has evolved from an experimental toy to a regular presence in studio pitches, previs workflows, and even the festival circuit. Yet one challenge has stymied the full adoption of generative AI in long-form storytelling: establishing and maintaining control over outputs. This challenge also fuels many of the anxieties surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in media production. How can artists maintain their creative voice when a machine is doing all the artistic work, and often doing so with inconsistent results? The Entertainment Technology Center at USC set out to tackle these and related challenges with a new film project, “The Bends.” Continue reading Consistency Is Key: Lessons on Generative AI via ‘The Bends’

Sci-fi short “Europa,” written and directed by Jacqueline Elyse Rosenthal, is the Entertainment Technology Center’s latest project to test the expanding possibilities of virtual production and remote collaboration. To call “Europa” a cloud-first production is to rethink filmmaking from the ground up. This wasn’t just a distributed team working online — it was an ecosystem where every workflow, from previs to final VFX, operated entirely in the cloud. It wasn’t a workaround; it was the foundation. And powering that foundation — every tool, every task, every decision — was AWS. Continue reading ‘Europa’: ETC Teams Up with AWS on Cloud-First Production

Unless there is breaking news over the next few days, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming 3-day holiday weekend. We wish you and your families an enjoyable and relaxing Labor Day. We’ll be back on Tuesday with the latest in media and entertainment technology news. Continue reading ETCentric Will Return Tuesday Following Labor Day Weekend

Unless there is breaking news, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming national holiday. We wish you and your families a very happy and safe 4th of July weekend. Our team will return on Monday with the latest in entertainment technology news. Continue reading Happy Independence Day: ETCentric Will Return Next Week

Unless there is breaking news, ETCentric and The Daily News Brief will not publish during the upcoming national holiday weekend. We wish you and your families a happy and safe Memorial Day. Our team will return on Tuesday with the latest in media and entertainment technology news. Continue reading ETCentric to Return After the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend

Cable giants Charter Communications and Cox Communications are merging in a $34.5 billion deal as the industry continues to contend with the impact of streaming services and related trends such as cord cutting. Charter and Cox are among the cable-based companies that have been focusing more on residential broadband businesses in recent years. The corporate name of the newly combined company will be Cox Communications, to be led by current Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey, while Charter’s Spectrum cable and broadband will serve as the consumer-facing brand. The merger will involve $21.9 billion of equity and $12.6 billion of debt. Continue reading Charter and Cox Merge in $34.5 Billion Cable, Broadband Deal