Tech

United Talent Agency (UTA) has signed Alexis Ohanian, the founder of the software-enabled venture firm Seven Seven Six and former executive chair of Reddit, for representation in all areas. Ohanian is best known for co-founding Reddit in 2005. It’s one of the largest websites in the U.S. and is now worth over $6 billion. Reddit

In a new promotion, WarnerMedia has a deal with Google to bundle three months of HBO Max with the internet giant’s Chromecast adapter for only an additional $15 — effectively providing two free months of the streamer. Chromecast with Google TV is normally priced at $49.99. For a bundled price of $64.99, users can get

Cable giant Comcast, like other traditional pay-TV providers, has been steadily losing video subscribers the last several years. Now Comcast is adding a new option for its broadband-only base: Starting today, Disney’s Hulu + Live TV package is available on Xfinity Flex, the video service available to Comcast high-speed internet customers. Flex users must subscribe

James McAvoy is coming back as Morpheus in Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman: Act II” audio drama — set to premiere exclusively on Audible this fall. The audio series will continue Audible’s adaptation the best-selling graphic novel series written by Gaiman and published by DC. “The Sandman: Act II” will debut Sept. 22, 2021, on Audible

Game giant Activision Blizzard has been hit with a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, alleging the company’s “pervasive frat boy workplace culture” resulted in women employees being continuously subjected to sexual harassment and being paid less than men. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a civil lawsuit

Digital-media company Bustle Digital Group continued its roll-up play: It has acquired Some Spider Studios, the holding company of parenting content brands Scary Mommy, Fatherly and The Dad. The all-stock deal is worth around $150 million, Variety confirmed. Some Spider Studios is BDG’s ninth acquisition to date. The Some Spider brands will join BDG’s portfolio

P-MRC Data, a joint venture between Penske Media Corp. and MRC that provides global music and entertainment consumption data, named Rob Jonas its incoming CEO. Jonas, most recently chief revenue officer at Foursquare, will lead the joint venture, formed in October 2020 by PMC and MRC, which comprises of MRC Data (formerly Nielsen Music), Alpha

As media giants begin raising the curtain this week on their second-quarter financials, the numbers are expected to show signs of growing pains for fledgling streaming platforms and signs of maturity for Netflix and other established players. Results for the quarter that ended June 30 also mark the first earnings cycle to lap the start

Clubhouse is taking down the velvet rope in front of its live audio-chat app. The startup, which kicked off a social-audio gold rush among bigger companies like Facebook, Spotify and Twitter, on Wednesday announced that Clubhouse is now open to everyone — removing its waitlist system that required an existing user to invite you to

Common Sense Media may be best known for giving parents guidance on what film and TV shows are appropriate for their children to view. But now a new for-profit offshoot of the non-profit venture aims to be a kid-friendly content provider in its own right. Launching this summer, Sensical is a free ad-supported app stocked

Verizon Media is getting ready to fly out of the Verizon nest as a private company — and CEO Guru Gowrappan says the digital-media group that encompasses Yahoo and AOL businesses has strengthened its wings for journey. It’s also getting help from a rebound in digital advertising spend: Verizon Media revenue for the second quarter

For the second year in a row, San Diego Comic-Con — the largest fan gathering in North America — has been forced by the pandemic to hold its annual convention as a virtual event. Last year’s Comic-Con@Home was a valiant effort to keep the 51-year tradition alive, but without marquee draws such as Marvel Studios

In today’s podcast news roundup, My Paranormal Network is set to launch next week with a slate of original podcasts and more for fans of the supernatural; Stephen King is getting his first podcast, based on “Strawberry Spring”; NBA star Carmelo Anthony debuts podcast edition of his wine-focused YouTube series; IAB announces details for its

As Jeff Bezos heads into space on Blue Origin’s first crewed mission, Hollywood took to Twitter to weigh in on the historic (and controversial) flight. While some celebrities used the opportunity to make jokes, others took to Twitter to condemn Bezos, who has been widely criticized fire for Amazon’s working conditions and benefiting from tax

YouTube is adding another way for creators to get money: Super Thanks, a feature that lets fans send cash to their favorite channels — it’s like a permanent tip jar that will show up on all of a creator’s videos. YouTube had been beta-testing the feature (previously called “applause”) for several months, and now has

In a new sampling strategy to boost HBO Max sign-ups, WarnerMedia is letting Snapchat users in the U.S. watch select pilots of the streaming service’s original series for free — with up to 63 friends. Starting to roll out Tuesday, the first episodes of shows on HBO Max including the “Gossip Girl” reboot, “Euphoria,” “The

Flavor Unit, the production company founded by Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere, struck a multi-project first-look development deal with Audible for a slate of exclusive podcasts. One of the upcoming projects under the pact is Queen Latifah’s “Unity in the Community,” a seven-part limited series in which she goes in search of good news —

CNN disclosed the first details of its long-awaited new subscription streaming service Monday, which will launch in the first quarter of 2022 with 8-12 hours of original live content each day. CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker shared some basic information about CNN Plus with his employees in an internal meeting Monday. A network representative confirmed

In today’s podcast news roundup, Spotify is set to debut a new series from The Ringer about legendary film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert; Kelsey Grammer narrates the scripted podcast “The Lower Bottoms” about tensions in a gentrifying neighborhood in West Oakland, Calif.; Automattic buys Pocket Casts; and more. DATES Gene Siskel and Roger

Sports-journalism upstart The Athletic, which has reportedly been considering potential mergers, is raising the cost of an annual subscription, the first time it has sought a price increase of any sort since launching in Chicago in 2016. Starting Friday, July 16,  The Athletic will charge for new and existing subscribers $71.99 per year. Previously, a

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced that they will be reinstating the indoor mask mandate “regardless of vaccination status” due to a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. The announcement was made by L.A. County health officer Dr. Muntu Davis, who revealed that the new rule will go into effect on

In a scam that might be reminiscent of a modern-day “Paper Moon,” Tatum O’Neal’s verified Twitter account has been hacked by a scammer who shills PlayStation 5 Video Game consoles. The actor and writer came of age onscreen in movies such as 1974’s con-artist tale “Paper Moon” (in which she co-starred with her father Ryan

Genvid wants to bootstrap a new category of large-scale interactive games that unfold in real-time — based on well-known movie, comic book or gaming franchises. It’s banked a big $113 million round to form Genvid Entertainment, a new game publishing unit dedicated to producing what the company calls “massive interactive live events,” or MILEs. To

Pandora’s ‘Billionaires’ program, which launched in 2018 as a way to mark an artist surpassing more than 1 billion streams, is expanding with the launch of eight new genre stations: pop, country, hip-hop, alternative, dance, classic rock, R&B and hard rock. Each ‘Billionaire’ station features top songs from acts who have crossed the streaming threshold

Amazon is packing two more celebrities into its Alexa digital assistant. Starting today, you can have Alexa speak in the voices of Shaquille O’Neal or Melissa McCarthy, replacing Alexa’s default female voice. Owners of Alexa devices can ask Shaq or McCarthy to tell them the weather, play songs, tell jokes, read poems or stories, and

Netflix has signaled its expansion into the world of video games with its latest executive hire, Mike Verdu. Verdu will serve as Netflix’s vice president of game development and will report to COO and chief product officer Greg Peters. According to Bloomberg, which first reported Verdu’s hiring, video games should hit the platform within the

Insert your own joke here: Twitter next month is killing off Fleets — posts that disappear after 24 hours — citing low user adoption. The move to expire the expiring-tweets feature comes less than a year after Twitter widely launched Fleets last November. As of Aug. 3, Twitter Fleets will no longer be available, the

Facebook claims it will be whipping open its checkbook in a big way for creators: CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social-media giant will pay out more than $1 billion to creators on Facebook and Instagram through the end of 2022. Zuckerberg announced the new initiative in a Facebook post Tuesday — but didn’t provide a

“Zola,” the A24 movie inspired by a viral Twitter thread, will be available to rent on demand starting on Friday, July 23, three weeks after its theatrical debut. Similar to many movies that have been released during the pandemic, “Zola” is landing on digital rental platforms earlier than expected. Historically, new films play exclusively in

Brut., the leading digital news publisher in Europe, recently launched a millennials-skewing streaming service, BrutX, and has just raised $75 million from James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, François-Henri Pinault’s Artemis, Orange Ventures and Tikehau Capital. Guillaume Lacroix, the well-respected French producer and visionary co-founder and CEO of Brut. told Variety that this new investment will allow