Tech

Meghan McCain, fresh off her exit as the controversial conservative co-host of “The View,” is coming to listeners’ earbuds this fall with an audio memoir exclusively on Audible. McCain’s “Bad Republican” will debut Thursday, Oct. 21, exclusively on Audible, the Amazon-owned premium audio service. According to Audible’s description of the program, McCain “tells her story

Martin Lau, president and executive director of China’s tech and entertainment industry leader Tencent, on Wednesday explained the positive outcome from the maelstrom of new regulation that the Chinese government is currently imposing on the internet. In less than a year, regulators from multiple departments and ministries have besieged the country’s leading private sector companies.

Data firm Genius Sports has hired longtime sports media executive Steve Bornstein to lead its North American business, the second former NFL executive to join the company in the past few weeks. Variety‘s sister site Sportico first broke the news. As Genius Sports’ first president of North America, Bornstein will be responsible for the group’s commercial operations in the U.S.

American cartoon giant DC Comics and South Korean talent agency HYBE have agreed to work with online animation firm Webtoon on content creation. Korea-based Webtoon is part of Asian internet giant Naver, best known for its Naver search engine functions and for the Line messaging app. Naver recently paid $600 million to buy online story

Twitter is turning to the wisdom of crowds for help in curbing misinformation on the social network. On Tuesday, Twitter announced that is launching the test of a new feature that will let users report posts that “seem misleading,” in the same way it lets people report spam and tweets that are abusive or harmful,

OnlyFans, which has become a popular direct-to-consumer subscription service for X-rated content, has jumped into the streaming world — but the U.K.-based company’s new OFTV free streaming service will not include any sexually explicit material. OFTV features original content from more than 100 OnlyFans creators, spanning fitness, cooking, comedy, health, music and more. OnlyFans soft-launched

IMDb TV, Amazon’s premium free, ad-supported streaming service, is now available on Comcast’s Xfinity Flex and Xfinity X1. The launch on X1 marks IMDb TV’s first pay-TV partner launch; terms of the distribution deal were not disclosed.  Comcast’s Flex broadband-only and X1 Xfinity TV customers can access the app by saying “IMDb TV” into the

Coinllectibles, a blockchain company involved in the art world, has announced plans to acquire Hong Kong-U.K. film and TV production company Phoenix Waters Productions. Headed by banker-turned-filmmaker Bizhan Tong, Phoenix Waters was among the producers of “Lockdown,” an English-language thriller that was recently completed and is set for release later this year. Hong Kong firm

DC Universe superheroes will be featured in several upcoming webcomics series, through a new deal between WarnerMedia’s DC Entertainment and Webtoon. Under the agreement, DC and Webtoon, owned by South Korean internet company Naver, will collaborate on standalone webcomics that “will appeal to all fans, without the need to know or read any previous stories,”

Dixie and Charli D’Amelio have taken both Gen Z and Hollywood by storm, with 17-year-old Charli being the No. 1 creator on the digital platform TikTok. Dixie is a top creator on the app as well, along with a growing music career. In a keynote conversation with senior correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister at Variety’s Creators Fest,

When Addison Rae began posting videos to TikTok in 2019, she had no intention of becoming a celebrity. “I had a video with my mom that Mariah Carey had ended up liking, and it was very random,” Rae told Variety. “And you know, it kind of put into perspective for me that social media is

Jennifer Eckhart is launching a second act after leaving Fox Business last year: The former TV producer and journalist is hosting “Reinvented,” a weekly podcast series in which she interviews people who have overcome serious obstacles on their path to success. “Reinvented With Jen Eckhart” is set to debut Aug. 23, with Grammy-winning artist Sean

In today’s podcast news roundup, a fictionalized series delving into John Lennon’s life in the 1970s makes its debut; Josie Duffy Rice joins Crooked Media’s daily news show “What a Day” as co-host; iHeartMedia teams with journalist Robert Evans to launch progressive podcast network Cool Zone Media; and more. DATES “Blood on the Tracks: The

Music producer Nellee Hooper, who has worked with leading acts such as Massive Attack, Soul II Soul, Sade, U2, Madonna and Bjork, has taken the role of head of cultural partnerships at NFT venture Throne, as well as being one of its founding partners as previously reported. Hooper will be responsible for “introducing the Throne

Apple announced new details about its plan to scan users’ iCloud photos for child pornography, as the tech giant remains in damage control after a backlash over the privacy implications of the initiative. Last week, Apple said it will implement a feature to detect photos stored in iCloud Photos that depict sexually explicit activities involving

You’ve probably heard that the Tokyo Olympics were a ratings flop for NBC. But by all measures, it was the most-streamed Olympics ever. NBC’s traditional primetime TV ratings for the coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics were the lowest in the broadcaster’s history — the worst since it first started airing the games in 1988. The viewership

Gabourey Sidibe is about to get lost in her first scripted podcast role. Sidibe (“Precious,” “Empire”) will star in podcast “If I Go Missing the Witches Did It,” a satirical paranormal thriller involving her character’s mysterious disappearance, from podcast studio/network Realm. Written by Pia Wilson (staff writer on National Geographic’s “Genius: Aretha”), the satirical series

To say Emma Chamberlain has been busy over the past year would be a grandiose understatement. Despite the pandemic, the famously irreverent YouTuber still managed to produce dozens of videos and ink campaign deals with the likes of Levi’s and Louis Vuitton. She also bought a striking West Hollywood mansion that’s already been sold off

“Radar2021,” Telemundo’s English-language news and commentary YouTube series hosted and executive produced by Gabriela Fresquez and Grace González respectively, is back for a new season with an episode dropping on Thursday at 5 p.m. ET and every Thursday thereafter. Launched last October as part of Telemundo’s “Decision 2020” initiative, a nonpartisan civic engagement effort aimed

James McAvoy says he’s always interested in taking on challenging acting gigs. His newest project — “Twelve Minutes,” an interactive crime thriller in which he stars as a man trapped in a murderous 12-minute time loop — certainly tested the Scottish thespian’s skills and stamina. McAvoy, whose credits include playing Prof. Charles Xavier in several

The life work of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of  “Star Trek,” will be meticulously captured and catalogued in a new digital archive from leading tech company OTOY. The multimedia Roddenberry Archive will produce everything from holographic and digital renderings of the famous Starship Enterprise vessel to TV and movie sets. The effort will be formally

Jukin Media, the 12-year-old digital firm specializing in acquiring and licensing user-generated video, has been acquired by lifestyle media company Trusted Media Brands. The price tag of the all-cash deal wasn’t disclosed. The acquisition brings together Jukin’s library of 70,000 licensed UGC clips — spanning a range of viral stunts, pranks, pratfalls and more —

iQiyi, China’s second largest generalist subscription video platform, weighed in with net losses of RMB1.40 billion ($216 million) in the second quarter of 2021, compared with losses of RMB1.44 billion ($222 million) in the April to June period in 2020. Revenues also improved fractionally, from RMB7.41 billion last time to RMB7.61 billion ($1.17 billion). Net

Is this a sign of bubbling dot-com exuberance? Reddit announced that it is raising up to $700 million in additional funding, giving the community-discussion site a post-money valuation of more than $10 billion, the company said. The new Series F funding, led by existing investor Fidelity Management and Research Co., includes participation from other previous

The previously completed merger of social media giant Facebook and Giphy, the largest provider of GIFs, and meme sharing services, has run into a potential roadblock from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Following an investigation, the CMA has provisionally found that Facebook’s 2020 takeover of Giphy would negatively impact competition between social media

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York under and Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, evidently is in need of some cash. Giuliani this week joined Cameo, which sells personalized video greetings from celebrities and other public figures, soliciting sales from fans for birthday greetings, “pep talks” or, really, anything he’s willing to say or do.

Instagram announced a series of features designed to protect users — particularly celebrities and high-profile creators — from hateful comments posted by users who are not among their regular followers. The Facebook-owned app is launching Limits, a new feature that will automatically hide comments and direct-message requests from people who don’t follow you or who

A group of four major labor unions representing almost 4 million workers is urging the Federal Trade Commission to block Amazon’s proposed acquisition of MGM. In a 12-page letter sent Wednesday to the FTC, the unions’ Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) argued Amazon’s $8.45 billion takeover of MGM should be blocked to prevent Amazon from amassing

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican U.S. representative who is part of the GOP’s anti-vax wing, was suspended by Twitter for one week after she posted a tweet that said the FDA should not approve COVID-19 vaccines and that the vaccines were “failing.” On Monday, Greene had written in a tweet, “The FDA should not approve

In a new issue of the monthly anthology comic series “Batman: Urban Legends,” Batman’s famed sidekick Robin came out as bisexual. The sixth issue of the series, which came out Tuesday, shows the character Tim Drake, the third character to take up the Robin mantle in DC Comics history, agreeing to go on a date