Cable news channel MSNBC, which rebranded as MS NOW last month, has more changes in store with plans to distinguish itself from other digital subscription offerings by bundling streaming with a 24/7 linear programming network and other services as part of a package scheduled to debut in mid-2026. It follows parent NBCUniversal’s scheduled spinoff of its cable TV holdings as Versant, which is set to begin trading on Nasdaq in January under the leadership of longtime Comcast executive Mark Lazarus. Speaking at an investor meeting Thursday, NBCU execs also shared a strategy for Versant to transition the Fandango at Home streaming hub (formerly Vudu) into a FAST service. Read more

Anthropic continues to close major deals as it reportedly moves toward an IPO, possibly coming as soon as Q1 (although Sasha de Marigny, the company’s chief communications officer, said there are no immediate plans to go public). The Amazon-funded AI startup’s latest contract provides its Claude models to cloud software firm Snowflake in a $200 million multiyear deal. Snowflake’s AI agents will use Claude to help businesses handle complex data analysis. As for the IPO, Financial Times reports Anthropic is working with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati — a law firm whose CV includes IPOs for Google, LinkedIn and Lyft — and may be in a race with OpenAI to see who can be first to offer its shares publicly. Read more

Anthropic has released a new tool called Interviewer available through Claude.ai to collect data on customer usage and preferences. Among the early findings are that “the general workforce wants to delegate routine work to AI but preserve the tasks central to their professional identity.” Anthropic plans to expand the scope of inquiry “through partnerships with creatives, scientists, and teachers” and says it will share the results. The company admits it wants feedback to develop better products, but “also because understanding people’s interactions with AI is one of the great sociological questions of our time.” Read more

Meta Platforms is combining Facebook and Instagram support into a single hub and using AI to improve outcomes for customers seeking help. “In the past year, new account hacks decreased by more than 30 percent globally on Facebook and Instagram and recovering an account is now faster and simpler with the help of AI,” Meta said announcing the change. Users can now report account issues, find answers by querying Meta AI-powered search, and more. The update is coming to iOS and Android for both platforms. Meta is also testing an AI support assistant for Facebook that offers “instant, personalized help.” Read more

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. Read more