1. Comcast to Restructure NBCUniversal Hierarchy Ahead of Peacock Launch
Comcast is reshuffling its senior hierarchy ahead of Peacock’s launch date. The company recently announced that it is consolidating Universal Television and Universal Content Productions under a single business unit to be led by NBCUniversal cable’s chairman, Bonnie Hammer.
Hammer will assume the title of Chairman for NBCUniversal Content Studios and will report to NBCU CEO Steve Burk. The reorganization is being carried out in preparation for Peacock’s launch, Comcast new streaming service, which is to be headed by Comcast Cable’s Matt Strauss.
According to Burke, Hammer was chosen for her ‘strong track record of generating popular and award-winning programming,’ whereas Strauss was selected for his ‘great experience with video, digital technology, and streaming.’
The new appointments are nothing new however. Earlier in January, Hammer was given the position of streaming operations, while NBC Sports Group’s Mark Lazarus was given a bigger role in cable.
Comcast’s NBCUniversal Restructures Its Hierarchy Ahead of Peacock Streaming Launch
2. Lyft Helps Drivers With New Reward System
Lyft recently launched a new ‘driver rewards system’ for their drivers. The system is now live in certain US cities, and was designed to assist drivers manage their daily earnings and workflow. It also offers many improvements over Lyft’s usual system which only tells drivers about ride-requests and offers them the option to either accept or decline them. In contrast, the new rewards system will allow certain drivers to know how far they will need to drive, how much fare they can expect to receive and how much time they will need to spend driving.
The only downside is that these features will only be available to drivers who have reached Lyft’s ‘gold tier.’ For those who could only reach the lower tiers of the program, however, there are other rewards, such as a 4% cash back on gas when using a Lyft debit card and a $5 cash back for every 500 points achieved in the reward system.
https://www.businessinsider.com/lyft-rewards-include-ability-to-see-trip-details-2019-10
3. Apple’s macOS is Now Available
Apple’s new macOS, Catalina is now live and is available as a free software update. The new OS offers the latest Mac versions for Apple Music, Apple TV and Apple Podcasts as well as Sidecar, a special feature which extends a Mac desktop using an iPad as a secondary display or a tablet input device that has Apple Pencil with Mac apps.
For those who want to add iPad apps to Mac devices, Catalina also features the Mac Catalyst, which allows third party developers to transfer those apps to their Mac devices. Finally, Catalina also allows users to enjoy all of their iPad apps in the latest Mac versions, including Twitter, Post-It, Jira, Tripit and GoodNotes, and it also offers Apple Arcade, Apple’s new gaming subscription service.
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/10/macos-catalina-is-available-today/
4. Tesla Delivers 97,000 Vehicles in 3rd Quarter; Falls Short of Target
Elon Musk had said that Tesla will be able to deliver 360,000 to 400,000 vehicles to consumers in 2019. Unfortunately, reaching this goal remains a difficult challenge.
According to their third quarter report, Tesla only managed to deliver 97,000 cars during this period. The total deliveries include 79,600 Model 3 vehicles as well as 17,400 Model S and X cars. In order to reach their year-long goal, however, Tesla will need to complete over 105,000 vehicle deliveries during the fourth quarter.
