From video apps to sports matches, here are your top entertainment headlines.
Triller Debts
Video-sharing app Triller has agreed to pay Sony Music Entertainment a $4.57 million settlement for breaching the terms of an agreement it reached with the platform.
Last summer, Sony sued Triller for non-payment of music licensing fees after March 2022. The record label ended up canceling its agreement after the payments stopped, but Triller apparently continued to utilize music from Sony's catalog.
The lawsuit was just one of the high-profile cases thrown at the video-sharing and social networking platform. Universal Music Group also sued Triller for non-payment in January. UMG also pulled its entire catalog from the platform in 2021, citing that Triller refused artist payouts. That same year the two sides struck up a new licensing deal.
Triller also was sued in the summer of 2022 by producers Swizz Beats and Timbaland for allegedly holding out on a $28 million payment for the acquisition of their webcast series, Verzuz. The two sides settled for an undisclosed amount last September.
Lamar Jackson's Jackpot
It's been a long time coming for the Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson, but he's finally inked a deal to cement his spot in Charm City.
Jackson and the Ravens front office agreed to a five-year $260 million deal — with $185 million guaranteed. That's enough to be counted as the highest-paid contract in NFL history. But he wasn't able to secure that bag without drama.
Jackson bet on himself and negotiated the historic deal without an agent — a move many sports analysts said would hurt his future prospects in the league. The negotiation period since the end of the season was riddled with rumors and speculation about possible collusion between teams after Jackson expressed the desire to be traded and didn't receive interest from any other franchise.
However, the payday comes with great expectations. With the signing of veterans like Odell Beckham Junior, there is a lot for the QB to prove with the purple birds.
Spring Sports Showdown
And continuing down the path of sports, what are you watching this weekend? The slate is packed and can be a little overwhelming. Here's a guide to tune into the competition(s) that piques your interest the most.
Tonight, a pair of Game 6's are going down in California. The reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors look to even up its series with the Sacramento Kings. The splash brothers and company have home court advantage where they are 33-8 on the season. Just down the Pacific Coast Highway, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are looking to close out the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies to move on to the Western Conference Semifinals.
Elsewhere, the NHL is also amid its playoffs for the Stanley Cup championship. Every series aside from one is going to a Game 6 this weekend between the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers, the Colorado Avalanche and the Seattle Kraken, the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning, the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings, and the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild.
Finally, the annual Penn Relays, the oldest and largest track and field competition in the U.S., will air from Philadelphia on NBC this Saturday.
Adi Kunalic, President of Opendorse, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss the first-ever association-wide deal in college athletics between Opendorse and the NAIA, and how Opendorse is marketing and educating student-athletes to make the most of their NIL deal potential.
With the Beijing Winter Olympics set to get underway on Friday, Dan Wolken, a national columnist for USA Today, joined Cheddar News to break down the big storylines as the pandemic and international conflicts threaten to cast a cloud over the event that is aspirationally seen as a beacon of international cooperation. Wolken noted specific issues over cybersecurity for visiting athletes and disputes over human rights leading to a diplomatic boycott have been making waves even before the opening ceremony. "So you've got sort of these barbs going back and forth already between the Americans and the Chinese, and things haven't even started yet," he said. "We don't even know what's going to happen once the games start and people actually start winning medals."
We are a week away from the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and China has already faced a host of problems leading up to the opening ceremony of the Beijing games. DJ Peterson, president of Longview Global Advisors, joins Cheddar News to discuss the many concerns and controversies surrounding the event.
The Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals will be the two teams competing at Super Bowl LVI after both survived their respective nail-biting conference championships. The Big Game will be held at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, home of the Rams, potentially granting them a home-field advantage. Frank Schwab, a sportswriter for Yahoo Sports, joined Cheddar to discuss what bettors should be looking for at this year’s NFL finale. "Super Bowl, unlike any other game on the NFL schedule, where if people bet once a year, it's going to be on the Super Bowl, especially with so many states having legal betting now," Schwab said.
It's a big weekend for sports betting, with the NFL conference championships and Australian Open finals expected to bring the industry even more traffic. And if record viewership of the divisional playoff game between the Chiefs and Bills was any indication, sports betting will only continue to grow as football season comes to an end. Joe Raineri, sports betting analyst at SportsGrid, joined Cheddar to discuss how these sporting events could impact the industry, which is expected to get even bigger in 2022.
Trysta Krick breaks down the Bengals-Chiefs matchup while Lester Ricard Jr. dissects what will be the third meeting of the season for the 49ers and Rams. Meanwhile, on the hardwood, Brian Bennett says that college basketball bettors should focus on a team's road wins as an early indicator for success in March.
Sponsored by BetMGM
Trysta Krick, host of BetMGM Tonight, joins Cheddar Bets to break down her best plays in the AFC Championship game and gives a fix for the NFL OT rules.
Sponsored by BetMGM
Wednesday marked two years since the basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others died in a tragic helicopter crash. In remembrance, a bronze statue has been temporarily placed at the site with all of the passenger's names included on the memorial.
With the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics right around the corner, experts are warning that climate change is threatening not only the event but also the future of snow sports. Despite being the world's top polluter, China is hoping to use the event to demonstrate the country's commitment to fighting climate change, and pledging to host a "low carbon" games. Xubin Zeng, professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona, joins Cheddar News.
As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics inches closer, sponsors are facing mounting pressure to pull out of the games with China is under fire for controversies like the alleged human rights abuses against its Muslim minority population and the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai. Rick Burton, professor of sport management at Syracuse University, joined Cheddar to discuss what he expects to happen once the games begin. Burton said China is too large of a market for American advertisers to ignore, and he doesn't expect any of them to pull out of the games. "Olympic sponsors right now I think are really just trying to hang on and get through these 17 days, come out the other end," he said.
