Tencent Music Grows Profits and Subscriptions, as Revenues Fall

If Tristan Thompson had it his way, he’d already be back together with Khloé Kardashian.

Demi Lovato may be one of the top talents to ever come out of The Disney Channel, but the network was not showing her any love this week while celebrating a big milestone! And fans noticed! On Saturday, the TV channel’s

Finding new love is not in the cards for Reese Witherspoon right now!

Boygenius have scored their first UK Number One album with their debut LP ‘The Record’.The trio – comprising Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus – beat off competition from DMA’S new album ‘How Many Dreams?’ to claim the top spot.They have also claimed the top spot on this week’s official UK vinyl albums chart, according to the Official Charts Company.‘The Record’ scored five stars and was described by NME as “the instant classic we were hoping for” and the “indie rock supergroup elevates their songwriting by combining the best parts of their artistry.”The review added: “This debut is a gorgeous testament to what can happen when you allow yourself to fully be seen.

Kanye West has been accused in a lawsuit of allowing a bullying culture to permeate his Donda Academy, among several other complaints.The rapper founded the Christian preparatory private school in Simi Valley, California last September with an aim to “prepare students to become the next generation of leaders”.A lawsuit launched by two former teachers at the school, which Rolling Stone has obtained, claims that the academy fostered an environment of bullying, violated health and safety measures, and had infrastructure and rules in place that negatively impacted student welfare.The two claimants in the lawsuit, Cecilia Hailey and her daughter Chekarey Byers, alleged that they were unfairly fired from the Donda Academy last month in retaliation for reporting code violations.Additionally, they claim that they experienced racial discrimination and received payslips with money missing in the thousands.Representatives for the Donda Academy did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.A lawyer for Hailey and Byers, Ron Zambrano, said in a statement: “Kanye West is clearly as bad at running a school as he is at managing his own personal and professional life, enabling an unsafe and illegal school environment for students that also discriminated against the plaintiffs based on their race.“These egregious violations at Donda Academy are just another example of West’s unusual behaviour, and our clients just won’t stand for it, no matter his celebrity status. Kanye needs to realise his genius is in creating music, not in school administration.”Byers added: “I’m extremely sad about all of this.

XXXTentacion have been sentenced to life in prison.Michael Boatwright, 28, Dedrick Williams, 26, and Trayvon Newsome, 24 were found guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last month after a month-long trial.XXXTentacion, real name Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was killed in a shooting aged 20 as he left a car dealership in Miami, Florida in June 2018.Yesterday (April 6) all three men were formally sentenced to life in prison.Dedrick Williams, Trayvon Newsome and Micheal Boatwright have all been sentenced to LIFE in prison without the possibility of parole. They will spend their rest of their lives in prison for the murder of XXXTENTACION.

Game Of Thrones prequel series House Of The Dragon.The actor, who played Jaime Lannister in the original HBO show, told Entertainment Weekly that he “had not” seen the prequel series but inadvertently caught the opening title sequence one time.“One day it came on and I saw the opening credits,” Coster-Waldau said. “And it was a little strange because it was the same music and the title sequence was kind of similar. I was like, ‘Ah, this is too soon.

The Clash has helped expose a man who made £1.2million from fake vinyl records.Richard Hutter had been selling counterfeit records over a six-year period and was given a suspended jail sentence at Bournemouth crown court earlier this week.He was caught out after a Clash fan demanded his money back because of the poor sound quality on the record he had bought online.When the refund was refused the customer complained to trading standards officers, who then bought two sample records from Hutter’s website, Guns N’ Roses‘ ‘Appetite For Destruction’ and ‘Songs For The Deaf’ by Queens Of The Stone Age. Both turned out to be fake.Hutter’s home address was searched in July 2018 as a result, with officers seizing his phone and laptop, as well as a number of counterfeit records and sleeves, according to The Guardian.In addition to selling the vinyls on his website, it was discovered that he had also been selling them through a US website and eBay.On eBay, he had listed almost 1,200 LPs in the space of one year and he charged customers up to £35 for the counterfeit albums.When questioned, Hutter denied knowing they were counterfeit records and said he had sourced them from Europe and sold them on.

For the second time this week, The Simpsons has appeared to predict the future yet again, spooking fans with its “wildest prediction yet". The animated sitcom’s latest look into the crystal ball involves a bizarre combination: the arrest of Donald Trump and the upcoming Barbie film.

Josie Gibson has stunned her fans as she took to Instagram with some gorgeous snaps before her This Morning return. It was revealed earlier this week that the presenter will be back at the helm of the ITV daytime show next week.

Marcus Rashford has broken a number of personal records this season and has now matched a feat recorded by Wayne Rooney 13 years ago.

A Wythenshawe man and his little brother have both been jailed after their £100,000 drugs racket was brought down. Owen Trainor played a 'leading role' in the supply of cocaine and employed his little brother, Niall, as a ‘trusted’ drugs delivery driver.

Multilingual king. Ben Affleck speaking Spanish has made the rounds again and people are definitely surprised. The Air director proved his skills in a new interview with La Cadena SER, a Spanish radio network.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Indie sales agency All Rights Entertainment has achieved a string of pre-sales on “Lendarys,” a family adventure animation film that is currently in advanced stages of production and set for delivery later this year. The film was licensed to KMBO (France); Flins & Piniculas (Spain); Another World Entertainment (Denmark and Norway); Njuta Films (Sweden); Outsider Films (Portugal); Blitz Film (Ex-Yugoslavia), Five Stars Distribution (Israel), Selim Ramia and Co. (Middle East and North Africa), The Film Group (Greece & Cyprus), Kino Swiat (Poland), Nashe Kino (CIS excluding Baltics), ACME Film (Baltic States) and Madness Entertainment (Mexico).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief It is becoming harder not to perceive Tencent, China’s tech and entertainment giant and the world’s largest games firm by revenue, as a utility. It is now too big to be a growth stock darling and too widely-spread to escape the gravity of China’s underlying economic trends. Revenues in calendar 2022 flatlined at RMB554 billion, while net profits dropped 16% to RMB188.2 billion ($27.0 billion). The decrease reflected China’s economic reversal that began in the second quarter of the year with the arrival of a new COVID strain and stricter government measures to combat it. Tencent’s advertising revenues fell slightly, costs rose somewhat, and subscriber number were mixed – rising in music, but falling in video.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The theatrical release of low-budget slasher movie “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” in Hong Kong has been abruptly canceled just two days before its scheduled outing. No explanation has been offered, but suspicions that the film may have crossed one of Hong Kong’s increasingly complicated political red lines are certain to be raised. That is because the Winnie the Pooh character is unflatteringly perceived to have a physical resemblance to China’s president, Xi Jinping. Online search for Winnie the Pooh is heavily censored within mainland China and Winnie the Pooh products are not distributed. China did not permit the import and release of Disney’s 2018 Winnie the Pooh film “Christopher Robin.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Hong Kong-based indie sales agent Good Move Media has added Japanese music drama “Plastic” to its FilMart slate. The film is directed by Miyazaki Daisuke, the Japanese helmer behind “Yamato (California),” which had festival play in 2016, and 2019 slacker youth title “Tourism” in 2019. The new picture is the story of teenagers Juna and Ibuki, who set out to find the psychedelic rock band Exne Kedy. Exne Kedy is a fictional creation from musician Ide Kensuke, who previously released punky album “Kensuke Ide With His Mothership — Contact From Exne Kedy and the Poltergeists,” but the band is actually credited as performing and providing part of the music track in the film. “Plastic” is recently completed and headed for a theatrical release in Japan in July.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Despite a barnstorming address celebrating the re-opening of Hong Kong and China by Bona Film Group COO Jiang De Fu, it is clear that the film industry in China is still suffering its own version of long-COVID, with box office tracking at around half of 2018 levels. “The Chinese box office was RMB60.7 billion ($8.89 billion at current rates of exchange) in 2018. And 83 films made over RMB100 million. 16 films that made over RMB1 billion. Post-pandemic, in 2022, China’s box office was RMB29.9 billion. [Just] 41 films made over RMB100 million. [And] 8 films made over RMB1 billion. We are now only at 50% of the level in 2018,” said Jiang aty a presentation on the first day of Hong Kong’s FilMart.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Singapore’s Mocha Chai Laboratories and Emissary Pictures, a company that straddles New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia, have announced a strategic partnership for the development and production of cross-cultural films, series and content in Asia. The venture will have offices in all four countries and will identify, develop and produce content across genres and formats, including films, television series, documentaries and digital content. The agreement was announced in Hong Kong on the first day of the FilMart rights market. The pair say that they have scripted and unscripted projects in development and production. Slate details, however, remain under wraps as do distribution plans.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The much-decorated Japanese drama “Drive My Car” was named the best film Sunday at the Asian Film Awards, defeating hot favorite “Decision to Leave.” Other notable awards went to Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda whose “Broker” debuted at Cannes, but which was largely shunned in his home country. “Decision to Leave,” which started the evening with ten nominations, was nevertheless rewarded with three awards, best screenplay, best production design and best actress for China’s Tang Wei.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean tech giant Kakao has gained the upper hand in the battle for control of K-pop agency SM Entertainment, after HYBE Corp., the firm behind music idols BTS, said Sunday that it had called off its takeover bid. SM is the second largest talent Korean music talent firm and is behind music acts including Super M, Aespa, BoA and Red Velvet, Girls’ Generation, H.O.T., EXO, Super Junior, SHINee and NCT Dream. HYBE said on Sunday that it will “discontinue the acquisition process […] after observing that the market has been showing signs of overheating due to competition with both Kakao and Kakao Entertainment,” something that it said could “damage shareholder value.”