The Brief – Monday 5 January: ITV media for equity, Grok posts AI nudes, Zootropolis 2 breaks records for Disney

Welcome to the Brief, The Media Leader’s round-up of media news.

🏋️ ITV has invested in health and fitness app The Body Coach, created by TV presenter Joe Wicks, as part of its Media for Equity fund. ITV has agreed to invest up to £3m in return for ad inventory across ITV’s channels and ITVX. (ITV)

🚫 X‘s AI chatbot Grok has been creating AI-generated nude images of people in response to user queries. The chatbot issued an apology on 31 December for an earlier incident in which it admitted it “generated and shared an image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualised attire,” which it acknowledged could be against US laws related to creating or sharing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). (Jael Holzman/Bluesky)

🔎 Ofcom has been pressured to investigate a November interview conducted by GB News with US president Donald Trump. The programme is alleged to have failed to meet British broadcasting standards, as interviewer Bev Turner failed to challenge Trump’s various misleading or inaccurate claims about climate change, London, and immigration. (The Guardian)

🐘 Disney’s Zootropolis 2 (Zootopia 2 in other markets) has become its highest-grossing animated film in history, surpassing Frozen 2 with $1.46bn at the global box office, including $1.13bn internationally. (Variety)

📺 Warner Bros Discovery is reportedly planning to reject the latest takeover proposal from Paramount, even after Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison agreed to personally backstop the hostile $108bn bid. WBD’s board still views Netflix’s $83bn proposal as superior, though a final decision has not yet been made. (FT)