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.
The drama surrounding tennis star Novak Djokovic continues after he was deported from Australia over the weekend due to the nation's COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Djokovic was forced to leave the country on the eve of what was to be his first match in defense of his Australian Open title after three judges ruled in favor of his removal and revealed their reasoning for doing so. Adding to his woes, a law recently passed in France is putting his chances of defending his French Open title in jeopardy. The director of Marist's Center for Sports Communication, Jane McManus, joined Cheddar to discuss the ongoing fallout.
Alex Silverman, senior reporter covering the business of sports at Morning Consult, joins Cheddar News to discuss why the number of those betting on sports doubled in 2021 and what's next for the industry in 2022.
If you have not placed your buffalo wings order yet, hurry up. The biggest weekend in NFL playoff history kicks off in just under 48 hours with six games being played over three days. Sports Analyst at Yahoo Sports Pamela Maldonado joined Cheddar to give us a preview ahead of the Super Wild Card Weekend.
With the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing rapidly approaching, clouds of controversy continue to swirl around China's treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority population, its surveillance state, and security for visiting athletes. Phelim Kine, China correspondent for Politico, joined Cheddar to break down the big storylines surrounding the Beijing Games and highlight what he saw as the complete disregard by top corporate sponsors like P&G, Airbnb, Intel, Visa, and Coca-Cola, for the controversies. "They spend $100 million for every Olympics that they sponsor, and they have frankly shown absolute willful indifference to any type of entreaty to essentially be more vocal about their concerns about human rights in China," he said. Kine also touched on the data privacy fears for athletes as visiting contingents are being told to carry burner phones to avoid security risks.
NFL games continue to be among some of the highest-rated programs on television. In 2021, viewership jumped 10 percent from the previous year to an average of 17.1 million as the league debuted its first 18-week season after running on a 16-week schedule since 1978. Fans — and team owners — welcomed the change with open arms, but a vocal percentage of players were not as ecstatic (despite the union signing off). Those who were against adding games cited health and safety concerns as their main reason. While the extended season means fatter pockets for the league, the opposition asks: is it worth the risk? Cheddar's JD Durkin breaks it all down.
With the Australian Open set to begin on Monday, Novak Djokovic is once again being threatened with deportation from Australia after his visa was briefly reinstated and revoked again over alleged discrepancies. Djokovic’s team will sit for an Immigration hearing on Saturday.
Decorated skier Lindsey Vonn did not hold back when touching on mental health in "Rise," her new memoir. "My mental health is definitely part of my story," she said. "Now I'm just thankful that this conversation is so much more talked about — Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, Kevin Love, Michael Phelps, all have been outspoken about it." She noted that she felt happy that readers, particularly kids, get to see a vulnerable side to her in the book. The gold medalist also went on to note what she's most looking forward to watching in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
It was 'game on' for sports bettors in the state of New York, as mobile betting kicked off on four major betting operating platforms Saturday. This comes at an exciting time for sports fans with some of the biggest NFL games of the season right around the corner. Cam Rogers - Host of Lock It In with Cam Rogers, Betting Analyst at the Bleav Podcast Network joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
