Latest Digital
Netflix Has Mailed Its Last DVD
Netflix has mailed out its last red DVD envelope. The streaming giant on Friday published a blog post commemorating its legacy DVD-by-mail business, which will end its operations today. “In 1998, we delivered our first DVD. This morning, we shipped our last,” the blog post begins. The first DVD it shipped in 1998 was a […]
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‘Fortnite’ Studio Epic Games Cuts 830 Jobs, Plans to Divest Bandcamp
Epic Games — the studio behind the Unreal Engine and the video game Fortnite — is laying off about 830 employees, 16 percent of its workforce, in a pivot of its business strategy. In a note to employees Thursday, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney outlined the plan, which includes shifting Fortnite to being a creator-driven platform. […]
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Apple Beefs Up Podcast and News Offerings With Third-Party Subscriptions and Crossword Puzzles
Watch out New York Times: Apple wants a piece of the puzzle pie. The tech giant has quietly rolled out a puzzles section of the Apple News app, featuring a daily crossword puzzle, as well as a daily mini-puzzle. In a sign of how seriously Apple is looking at puzzles, the company’s crossword puzzles are […]
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What Amazon’s Pivot to Prime Video Ads Will Look Like
Amazon is joining the SVOD-but-with-ads game. The tech giant will begin incorporating ads into series and movies on its Prime Video streaming service early next year in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Germany. Several other countries will see the ad rollout later in 2024. With the move, Prime Video will join the likes […]
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YouTube Adding Generative AI Tools in Creator Push
The video platform YouTube on Thursday announced a suite of creator tools — including a number of products that take advantage of generative artificial intelligence — in a bid to further bolster its leadership in the creator ecosystem. “AI will enable people to push the boundaries of creative expression by making the difficult things simple […]
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Live ‘Strike Force’ Recording and Steve Martin, Martin Short’s Las Vegas Shows Canceled Due to COVID
A handful of upcoming shows in Las Vegas have been canceled or postponed due to COVID-19. This weekend’s planned live Strike Force podcast recording has been canceled after ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel came down with the virus. Kimmel announced the move on his social channels Wednesday. Kimmel was set to co-host the live […]
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Max to Add Sports Tier for $10 Per Month After Promo Period, Launching in Time for MLB Playoffs
Live sports are coming to Max next month. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streaming platform will launch a new premium sports tier Oct. 5, just in time for the Major League Baseball playoffs, which start two days later. The new tier will be called the Bleacher Report Sports Add-On (or B/R Sports), taking the name of […]
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Rich Paul Among Speakers Set for Atlanta Creator Summit UNLOQ404
UNLOQ404 is coming to Atlanta. The inaugural creator summit, presented by UTA and produced by L.A.-based brand, marketing and events agency Crown + Conquer, will debut at Overtime Elite Arena on Oct. 14. The program, which is still being finalized, features confirmed speakers like the CEO of Klutch Sports Group Rich Paul; music executive DJ […]
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Insomniac’s ‘Spider-Man 2’ Aims to Swing to New Heights
In 2018, just months before Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse redefined what a Spider-Man story could look like on the big screen, the team at Insomniac and PlayStation unleashed their own game-changing iteration. Spider-Man became the definitive Spidey video game, with Spider-Man: Miles Morales arriving in 2020. Combined, they have sold more than 33 million copies. […]
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TikTok Hit With $368M Fine Under Europe’s Strict Data Privacy Rules
European regulators slapped TikTok with a $368 million fine on Friday for failing to protect children’s privacy, the first time that the popular short-video–sharing app has been punished for breaching Europe’s strict data privacy rules. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the lead privacy regulator for Big Tech companies whose European headquarters are largely in Dublin, said […]
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ABC News Live Plans Weekday Expansion (Exclusive)
ABC News Live, the network news division’s streaming offering, is expanding its lineup in a fresh push for consumers seeking live news outside of the traditional TV ecosystem. ABC says that correspondent Kayna Whitworth will join the lineup from 5-7 p.m. beginning next week, creating a live news lineup that starts in the mornings with […]
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Former TBS and TNT GM Brett Weitz Hired at X as Linda Yaccarino Overhauls Leadership Team
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X (formerly Twitter) has unveiled a new leadership and sales team at the social platform, including a number of executives familiar to the media and entertainment business. Among the new hires is Brett Weitz, the veteran TV executive who was most recently general manager of the Warner Bros. Discovery channels […]
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Amazon’s Prime Video Pitches HBO, Paramount+ and AMC+ Shows In New Marketing Campaign
What do the NFL, James Bond, HBO’s Game of Thrones and Succession, Warner Bros.’ Barbie, AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and Paramount’s Yellowstone have in common? They are all featured in a new marketing campaign from Amazon’s Prime Video platform. Prime Video is using its kickoff Thursday Night Football game tonight to launch the […]
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Hollywood Tech Vets Michael and Peter Cioni Raise $1.9M in Pre-Seed Funding to Launch AI Production Tools Startup
Entertainment tech entrepreneurs Michael and Peter Cioni have raised $1.9 million in pre-seed funding to launch their new company Strada, which is aimed at building an AI-enabled cloud platform with tools for production and postproduction. Announced backers include filmmakers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Rabbit Hole, This Is Us, Crazy, Stupid, Love); Jason Fotter, a […]
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What Disney Got, and Gave Up, to Make a Deal With Spectrum; Dana Walden and Jimmy Pitaro Talk Details
If there is one key takeaway from the Walt Disney Co.-Charter Spectrum carriage dispute, it’s that the pay TV business is undergoing a period of significant change, and the distributors and entertainment companies will need to get creative in order to get deals done. The result in the Disney-Spectrum dispute marks a major shift in […]
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What Happens If Disney Can’t Agree With Comcast on a Price Tag for Hulu
How much is Hulu worth, exactly? That is the key sticking point between Comcast, led by Brian Roberts, and The Walt Disney Co., led by Bob Iger, as the two companies inch closer to a window where one side or the other can force Disney to buy out Comcast’s 33 percent stake in the streaming […]
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