Tech

UTA announced Eric Iverson as chief technology officer, where he will lead information-technology strategy — joining the company as artificial intelligence and other tech developments are threatening to disrupt the industry. Most recently, Iverson served as director of product strategy Amazon MGM Studios, where he led product, user experience and AI efforts, and before that

A federal judge Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk‘s X against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, ruling it was “evident” the litigation was intended “to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp.” X, the Musk-owned social network formerly known as Twitter, in July 2023 sued the Center for Countering Digital

Actor and entrepreneur Blake Lively said she’s “mortified” about her joke about Kate Middleton‘s “Photoshop fails” — with the apology coming after the Princess of Wales confirmed Friday that she has undergone treatment for cancer. “I’m sure no one cares today but I feel like I have to acknowledge this,” Lively said in a message

Without fanfare, Joni Mitchell‘s music catalog is again on Spotify — a little over two years after she pulled her work from the streaming platform in solidarity with longtime friend and collaborator Neil Young in a protest over Joe Rogan’s podcast spreading COVID misinformation. Mitchell didn’t announce her return to Spotify, but as of Friday

Pocket FM, a fast-growing audio entertainment startup based in India, said it banked $103 million in Series D funding as it looks to boost its presence in the U.S. and expand into Europe and Latin America. The round — which brings Pocket FM’s total funding to date to $196.5 million — was led by previous

Many in Hollywood have expressed fears that generative artificial-intelligence technology will create massive disruption in the industry, including the potential loss of jobs. New survey results won’t do anything to assuage those concerns: Although 70% of U.S. consumers say they would rather watch a TV show or movie written by a human than by generative

Elliot Page has boarded XR entertainment studio New Canvas’ virtual reality-based series inspired by Hugh Ryan’s acclaimed book, “When Brooklyn Was Queer,” as an executive producer. The series dives into LGBTQ history from the mid-1850s to the present day, celebrating identity, resilience and achievements against adversity. It will be directed by Emmy winner Yasmin Elayat

Streaming video services continue to face challenges like high costs, high churn rates and competition from other media — while a good chunk of U.S. audiences still questions whether the price of their subscriptions is worth it. On average, Americans households that subscribe to streaming video entertainment services said they spend $61 per month for

Former ID-PR brands boss Michael Smith has launched a new communications firm, Midnight Dawn. Smith departed ID-PR in January. “Midnight Dawn has been 25 years in the making and I’m honored to have the privilege of representing a world class group of talent and brands,” Smith said in an exclusive statement to Variety on Tuesday.

Spotify has provided further details on the record $9 billion it paid out to the music industry in 2023, which was first announced in January. For context, the company stated that the “amount has nearly tripled over the past six years, and represents a big part of the $48 billion-plus Spotify has paid since its

Longtime TCM host Ben Mankiewicz will be returning for more in-depth tête-à-têtes with noted filmmakers. Mankiewicz’s “Talking Pictures: A Movie Memories Podcast” has been renewed for Season 2 by TCM and Max. He announced the renewal on the Season 1 finale featuring guest Bill Hader, star, co-creator and director of HBO’s “Barry” and former “Saturday

Don Lemon has released his hour-long interview with Elon Musk, after the former CNN journalist claimed that it upset the X (formerly Twitter) owner so much that Musk canceled the launch of a new interview show named “The Don Lemon Show” that the pair had been planning together. During one section of the interview, Lemon

MrBeast, the YouTuber known for big-money giveaways, is going bigger than ever with his new show on Amazon’s Prime Video. The mega-popular YouTube creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, announced a deal with Prime Video for “Beast Games,” a reality-competition show promising the winner a $5 million cash prize — believed to be the

Minute Media, the sports media company that owns The Players’ Tribune, landed the publishing rights to Sports Illustrated — coming two months after a financial crisis at SI’s former publishing partner led to mass layoffs. ABG had previously licensed the rights to publish Sports Illustrated the magazine to a company called Arena Group — but

Searches by Texas users for the term “VPN” jumped more than fourfold after Pornhub and its parent company’s network of other pornography websites disabled access in the state this week, according to Google data. VPNs, or virtual private networks, establish an encrypted connection between a user and the public internet — and they can also

Will Keenan has returned to the entertainment industry, joining COY Creator, a startup touting a full-service “business-in-a-box” platform for digital creators, as chief revenue officer. Keenan had joined Endemol Shine North America in 2013, where he launched the company’s Endemol Beyond division. While there, Keenan cultivated a talent and creator roster that included global music

Disney+ is officially in its Taylor Swift era. With the launch of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)” on Disney+ on March 14 at 6 p.m. PT, the megastar is getting a homepage takeover on the streamer. For one day only, the service’s main screen will feature nine curated sets of titles inspired by

Pornhub and other affiliated adult websites have blocked access to users in Texas, amid a legal battle with the Lone Star State’s attorney general over an age-verification law. Last week, a federal appeals court upheld a Texas law requiring pornography sites to institute age-verification measures to ensure only adults 18 and older are able to

On the eve of his official retirement from YouTube, Game Theorist creator Matthew Patrick, better known as MatPat, walked down into his basement where he’s edited and uploaded nearly 3,000 videos on his various YouTube channels throughout his 13-year career.  The room was utterly dark, with the only light coming from a dimly lit blue

Warner Bros. Discovery is hoping to convert college hoops excitement into a bumper crop of new Max subscribers this spring. The media company, ahead of the upcoming 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, is offering U.S. Max subscribers a 30% across all yearly plans (for the first 12 months). This year marks the first

Within 24 hours of this year’s Academy Awards, total views on Variety social video covering the show hit 138 million, becoming the biggest day of Oscars social traffic in publication history. The previous record was held by coverage of the 2023 Oscars, which generated over 122 million views in just one day. Views were tallied

The European Parliament approved on Wednesday a landmark political agreement on artificial intelligence. The world’s first major set of regulatory rules to govern artificial intelligence, the AI Act provides a legal framework for the development and use of artificial intelligence within Europe, calling for greater transparency as well as setting parameters for high-risk AI. European Union officials

Don Lemon, who was fired from CNN last year after 17 years at the network, had been working with Elon Musk‘s X (formerly Twitter) to launch a new talk show on the platform. Now, according to Lemon, Musk has nixed the partnership — coming just a few hours after Lemon interviewed the tech mogul last

Neil Young is bringing his music back to Spotify — because, he said, Apple and Amazon have “started serving the same disinformation” in podcasts that was the reason he quit Spotify more than two years ago. And Young said he can’t boycott Apple Music and Amazon Music, because then his music would have “very little

Chinese creatives are refining a new trend in entertainment: the super-short streaming series. Each episode in the series typically lasts less than two minutes, making them easily consumable on mobile devices. Each series consists of 20 to 100 episodes in total, and covers a wide range of genres such as comedy and romance. “The mini-drama

Roku said access to 15,363 streaming user accounts was obtained by “unauthorized individuals” who in some cases sought to purchase streaming subscriptions via the hack. The company disclosed the breach on Friday, March 8, in a filing with the Maine Attorney General’s Office. According to a report by Bleeping Computer, the perpetrators of the data theft were

Sports news and commentary Deadspin has been sold again — and its entire staff has been laid off. Deadspin, once owned by Gawker Media, became part of private-equity backed G/O Media in 2019. In a memo to company staff Monday, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced that Deadspin was sold to European firm Lineup Publishing.

In what’s poised to be one of the biggest initial public offerings of the year, Reddit disclosed financial details of its forthcoming IPO, through which it’s aiming to raise as much as $748 million. On Monday, in an update to its S-1 filing with the SEC, Reddit said it and its investors will offer 22

Streamers just narrowly avoided getting shut out at the 2024 Oscars: Netflix came away with just one trophy and Apple was shut out, after they garnered a total of 31 nominations. Netflix collected its one trophy for Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” an adaptation of a Roald Dahl story, in the live

Marilyn Monroe, who died 62 years ago, has been reincarnated as a “hyper-real” AI-generated digital avatar that lets fans engage in a conversation with the late actor — who can answer questions “in Marilyn’s signature voice and style,” according the company behind the project. AI technology firm Soul Machines unveiled Digital Marilyn, an interactive experience