Filmmaker Judd Apatow gave a recent interview in which he criticized the film industry for essentially censoring content that’s critical of places like China where human rights abuses are happening.
— FOX News: Tyler McCarthy
Tag: industry
OLDWICK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Canada’s property/casualty insurance industry thus far has fared better than their life counterparts amid the volatile economic and market dynamics created by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a AM Best report.
In its Best’s Market Segment Report, titled, “COVID-19 Taking Its Toll on Canada’s Economy and Insurance Industry,” AM Best states that the country’s overall insurance industry remains well-capitalized. However, for Canada’s life insurance industry, top-line growth has been materially affected, as consumers reacted to COVID-19-fueled economic strain, and agents and life insurance representatives transitioned with varying degrees of success to a digital sales environment. Life insurers’ operating earnings also have been impacted because of the market dynamics and asset valuations, and earnings likely will be pressured by the prolonged volatility in the equity markets and low interest rates, leading to lower fee-based revenue as well. In April, AM Best revised its outlook on Canada’s life insurance industry to negative, owing to the significant disruption to the financial markets caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. AM Best remains concerned about companies with higher exposures to commercial mortgage loans, particularly in the hotel and retail segments, as well as office space, given that many companies have been cautious in returning to an office environment.
Canada’s property/casualty companies continue to show that they have the ability to remain profitable and meet the challenges presented by COVID-19, on top of those presented by increasingly volatile weather and climate conditions, fire and seismic activity, as well as economic volatility and competitive and regulatory issues. The personal auto insurance line remains a soft spot, however, as performance deteriorated again in 2019, and experienced a 10-point rise in the loss and loss adjustment expense ratio, reversing two years of improvement. All auto lines remain exposed to loss frequency brought on by factors such as distracted driving and more miles driven. In addition, inflation and a continual increase in loss severity due to rising repair costs are still affecting the auto lines. Early indications are that frequency trends will be down significantly in 2020, as shelter-in-place requirements, business closures, and remote working arrangements have caused a steep decline in miles driven across the country. AM Best maintains a stable outlook on Canada’s property/casualty segment.
To access the full copy of this market segment report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?record_code=300880.
A video presentation on this market segment report with AM Best Financial Analyst Brian Lynch and Senior Financial Analyst Anthony McSwieney is available at http://www.ambest.com/v.asp?v=ambcanada920.
AM Best will present its annual Insurance Market Briefing – Canada as two complimentary webinars on Sept. 9-10, 2020. “AM Best’s Canadian Outlook: In the Shadow of COVID-19,” will be held on Sept. 9, from 2-3 p.m. (EDT), and “Canada 2020 Hot Topics Panel Discussion,” will be held on Sept. 10, from 2-3 p.m. (EDT). For more information and for registration, please go to http://www.ambest.com/conferences/imbcanada2020.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
Copyright © 2020 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Contacts
Raymond Thomson, CPCU, ARe, ARM, AIAF
Director—P/C
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5621
raymond.thomson@ambest.com
Anthony McSwieney
Senior Financial Analyst—L/H
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5715
anthony.mcswieney@ambest.com
Ann Modica
Associate Director, Credit Rating Criteria,
Research and Analytics
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5209
ann.modica@ambest.com
Christopher Sharkey
Manager, Public Relations
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5159
christopher.sharkey@ambest.com
Jim Peavy
Director, Public Relations
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5644
james.peavy@ambest.com
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#FanDuelBestBall–Today, FanDuel announced the expansion of its industry-leading fantasy sports products with the launch of Best Ball and Daily Snake Drafts ahead of the football season.
Best Ball contests are the simplest way to play fantasy football, bringing the popular season-long fantasy game on to FanDuel’s fantasy platform. The Pro Football Best Ball slates are small, single-entry contests with a shared player pool. Users draft a 20 player fantasy team before or during the football season, then keep that team for the remainder of the season. Unlike other FanDuel contests, there is no salary cap and one player per team. There are also no trades or waiver claims like other season long fantasy football products. Every week, FanDuel automatically combines the scores of your best players at each position (9 players in total) to generate your score for that week. There are only 2-12 users in each contest, and the user with the highest cumulative score at the end of the season wins. As of today, Best Ball contests are available on FanDuel.com or via the FanDuel DFS app, and you can choose from a variety of contest sizes and entry fees starting at $1.
“Best Ball games are perfect for sports fans looking to play fantasy for the first time, or who love the season-long fantasy format,” said John Griffin, General Manager Fantasy, FanDuel Group. “These contests are a hybrid of season-long and daily fantasy, and users can draft a team once and never have to set their lineups again or watch waiver wires, which is incredibly appealing to fans of all levels.”
To celebrate the launch of Best Ball, FanDuel will debut a new commercial featuring former NFL Head Football Coach, Jeff Fisher. The new spot from BBH NY, highlights the fact that FanDuel’s new fantasy sports addition is simple and easy to play. In the hilarious spot, Coach Fisher helps a fan with his Best Ball picks, while multitasking in the kitchen. Only 15 wins shy of being in the top-10 winningest coaches of all time, Coach Fisher is not only a world class talent evaluator, he also cooks a mean paella.
FanDuel will also offer daily Snake Draft contests for select NBA, NHL, golf and MLB games. Snake Draft contests for the football season will be available in early September. Daily Snake Drafts are single-entry, easy-to-enter, small contests with a shared player pool, letting you draft a team for each game day or week. Unlike other FanDuel contests, there’s no salary cap. In addition, the player pool is shared so players can only be drafted by one user. Everyone in the contest picks players one after another in real-time, with 30 seconds to pick, until your rosters for that week are full.
About FanDuel Group
FanDuel Group is an innovative sports-tech entertainment company that is changing the way consumers engage with their favorite sports, teams, and leagues. The premier gaming destination in the United States, FanDuel Group consists of a portfolio of leading brands across gaming, sports betting, daily fantasy sports, advance-deposit wagering, and TV/media, including FanDuel, Betfair US, and TVG. FanDuel Group has a presence across 45 states and 8.5 million customers. The company is based in New York with offices in California, New Jersey, Florida, Oregon, and Scotland. FanDuel Group is a subsidiary of Flutter Entertainment plc, a leading international sports betting and gaming operator and a constituent of the FTSE 100 index of the London Stock Exchange.
Contacts
FanDuel
Emily Bass
OLDWICK, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Top industry leaders share their thoughts about the pandemic and its impact on the insurance industry in the four-part series, “An Industry Transformed.”
Insurers are learning how to operate, distribute and respond in an all-digital environment. In this segment, a panel discusses the lessons insurers learned during the shutdown, and how they are reshaping operations, sales, product delivery and customer interactions. Watch now: www.ambest.com/ambtv/digital.
Panelists include:
- Bill Pieroni, president and chief executive officer, ACORD;
- Sean Ringsted, executive vice president, chief risk officer and chief digital officer, Chubb Group; and
- Tanguy Catlin, senior partner, McKinsey & Company.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
Copyright © 2020 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Contacts
Lee McDonald
Group Vice President, Publication and News Services
+1 908 439 2200, ext. 5561
lee.mcdonald@ambest.com
Accuracy and ethics make good news
While people are concerned with the future of News and are embracing digital media, traditional journalists will still have to be gatekeepers and leaders of this new era.
The journalism business now encourages user-generated content with much audience interactivity in the local and editorial news as well as on blogs. Several questions emerge about how this is changing the industry.
According to Francine Hardaway, “Today the media-driven by blogs-is assailed on all sides, by the crushing economics of their business, dishonest sources, inhuman deadlines, page view quotas, inaccurate information, greedy publishers, poor training, the demands of the audience, and so much more.”
However, it is those of us who care about the possible decline of good journalism that will help to fix what is becoming “indistinguishable” between real and fake journalism. When bloggers deliberately publish inaccuracies, they later correct them, just to produce even more page views, writes Hardaway.
Hardaway writes about the digital writers who lure readers in for clicks. And “how blogs-even the most trusted ones-invent stories or publish rumors, just to get a post up and some page views, and then wait to see if anyone comments.”
But she also writes that the future of news is promising because there are journalism schools like ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism that is doing a good job at preparing students for the future.
“So Cronkite is inadvertently turning out students who are trained in ethics, quality and accuracy into a quagmire of media manipulation…,” writes Hardaway. She promises to be a part of the faculty that will help to train these students.
Meanwhile, we have learned that this evolution in the news will be ongoing. The digital era will not be the last stage of the news cycle. Therefore, some are wondering how far will the interactive nature of news go.
Writers, Penny O’Donnell, senior lecturer in International Media and Journalism at University of Sydney, and David C. McKnight, associate professor of Journalism and Media Research at the Centre at University of New South Wales, ask “whether editorial priorities had changed in response to this greater interactivity with readers…” They report that 46 per cent said that they did not, while 41 per cent “accepted” that they had.
We have seen where even traditional journalists have accepted the blurring of traditional boundaries between audience and journalists. Some of us consider the interactivity very democratic. But we are reminded that traditional journalists need to be the leaders of this evolution.
O’Donnell and McKnight write that, “there are persistent doubts as to what journalism will look like when journalist put down their old mantle of ‘gatekeeper’ and instead take up a new role as ‘facilitator’ or ‘curator’ of multi-participant news conversations.”
According to the writers, “professional journalist must maintain strict control over editing and the output.”
Susan Currie Sivek writes about the message Richard Gingras, head of news products at Google, conveyed to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, (AEJMC) in Chicago.
She notes that he encouraged educators to take the lead in shaping the changes that are happening in the media through their curricula. “Educators will also have to take risks in their teaching and advising to help students achieve the skill set and perspective Gingras recommends – and perhaps, to bring about a ‘renaissance’ in the field.”