Tech

Randall Park will hoist a glass in his new talk show — brought to you by Maker’s Mark bourbon and Roku’s recently formed branded-content studio. The actor-comedian-writer, best known for his starring turn in ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” is the host of “The Show Next Door,” a weekly talk show in which Park shoots

Netflix keeps building new ways to try to get tykes watching more of its content. As part of its newest play for young streamers’ eyeballs, Netflix is launching Kids Top 10, a daily chart featuring the most popular children’s content in each country, in kids’ profiles starting Wednesday (mock-up pictured above). It’s a kid-specific version

SpringHill Co., led by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, is in early discussions with a range of potential investors to sell a piece of the media and entertainment firm that would value it at upwards of $750 million, Variety confirmed. The inbound interest in SpringHill has ranged across industries. Parties that have engaged with SpringHill

Quibi is dead — long live Quibi! The Jeffrey Katzenberg-led mobile premium video service flamed out last year about six months after launching. But three of its pricey original series just picked up a total of eight 2021 Emmy Awards nominations — “Reno 911!”, “Die Hart” and “Mapleworth Murders” — the first two of which

Stay-at-home orders during the COVID pandemic have been a boon to the games biz — and may have altered consumer behavior for years to come. About 55% of U.S. video gamers say they have played more during the pandemic, and 90% say they are likely to continue playing even after social distancing is no longer

YouTube Shorts, a bid to tap into the surging popularity of short-form, shareable clips — a format that has fueled TikTok’s massive growth — is going global. The Google video platform initially launched YouTube Shorts in India in the fall of 2020 and has since expanded the feature to 26 more countries, including the U.S.

Spotify and New York’s legendary Electric Lady Studios have expanded their partnership to include a series of live EPs, starting later this month. The series builds from their existing partnership for Spotify Singles and will feature high-quality live audio recordings, distributed exclusively on Spotify. The first “Live at Electric Lady” EP will be from jazz

British government ministers plan to tell social media platforms to unmask those hurling racists abuse at England soccer players online. According to The Times of London, the government wants to “make examples” of the racists and believes tech giants such as Twitter and Instagram need to provide perpetrators’ details to police in a more “timely

In 2020, superhero movies were far from a box office hero. Granted, in a pandemic, not much could be counted on to save the day. Still, all three comic book adaptations that debuted that year — Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Birds of Prey” before the pandemic, and 20th Century’s “The New Mutants” and Warner

The loony-tunes world of digital collectibles known as NFTs is now getting actual Looney Tunes. Warner Bros., in the biggest drop of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for a film to date, is releasing collection of 91,000 limited-edition NFTs featuring characters from “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” including Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Porky Pig — and the pic’s

Audible has landed another big Hollywood talent deal: The Amazon-owned premium audio service announced a multi-project development and first-look deal with Laura Dern and Jayme Lemons through their Jaywalker Pictures banner. Under the pact, Dern, an award-winning producer, actor and activist, and producing partner Lemons are set to executive produce audio projects exclusively for Audible.

A whole bunch of bull is coming exclusively to ViacomCBS’s Pluto TV. Pluto TV will become the exclusive home of Professional Bull Riders’s RidePass, with PBR changing RidePass from a subscription-video service to an ad-supported digital network. The unusual deal also will make RidePass the first dedicated live sports channel on Pluto TV. Beginning July

“One Tree Hill” stars Sophia Bush, Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz are taking fans down memory lane with their new iHeartRadio podcast “Drama Queens,” which recaps all of the onscreen drama from the show’s 187 episodes and provides behind-the-scenes insight from the women behind the characters of Brooke Davis, Peyton Sawyer and Haley

Richard Branson has won the foot race among billionaires to blast off into space. Branson, 70, and a crew of three others briefly achieved weightlessness on Sunday after his Virgin Galactic Unity 22 craft took off from the Spaceport America facility in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. “Nothing could prepare you for the view of

Zaila Avant-garde won the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night, becoming the first Black American winner in the competition’s 96-year history. The 14-year-old from Harvey, La., correctly spelled “murraya” — defined as “a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees having pinnate leaves and flowers with imbricated petals” — to clinch victory. “Does this

The Knewz crew has hit snooze. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has killed off Knewz, its digital news-aggregation service that was a bid to challenge the likes of Google News and Facebook. News Corp in the past has accused Google and Facebook of profiting off its publications’ content without compensation. But in announcing the shutdown of

Netflix hired N’Jeri Eaton, previously head of content for Apple Podcasts, to lead podcasting for the streaming giant’s marketing division. Eaton is joining Netflix as director of podcast programming, according to a spokesperson. She will be part of the company’s editorial and publishing team, which will be headed by Michelle Lee, former editor in chief

Amazon’s Prime Video and IMDb TV have inked a multi-year licensing deal with Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, bringing blockbusters like “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “F9” to the company’s streaming platforms. Under the new agreement, Prime Video will will have an exclusive pay-one window for UFEG’s slate of live-action films in the U.S. (starting with the

Netflix has acquired the global rights to Toby Meakins’ horror thriller “Curs>r,” starring Asa Butterfield (“Sex Education”), Iola Evans (“Carnival Row”) and Eddie Marsan. The deal was negotiated by producer and financier Anton (“Greenland: Migration,” “His Dark Materials”) and Stigma Films. The film, a dark twist on the ‘80s gaming obsession, wrapped principal photography in

China’s market regulator has fined Tencent, Alibaba and other tech giants for failing to properly report 22 past merger deals, sending tech shares tumbling Thursday. The country’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued a fine of RMB500,000 ($77,000) for each late Wednesday — chump change for Big Tech behemoths but the max allowed by

Fidji Simo, a 10-year Facebook veteran and one of social giant’s highest-ranking women execs, is joining online grocery company Instacart as CEO. Simo, who first joined Facebook in 2011, most recently led development and strategy for the company’s flagship app. As head of the Facebook app, a role she assumed in March 2019, Simo managed

In a twist on the traditional streaming-service payment model, Portishead have released their 2015 cover of ABBA’s “SOS” exclusively on SoundCloud — which not only brings the song to a major streaming platform for the first time, it utilizes SoundCloud’s “fan-powered royalty” system, whereby revenue from its streams are driven directly by the artist’s fan

“I can’t sit down,” says Gwen Bethel Riley, senior vice president of music at Peloton, the game-changing fitness company founded in 2012. “I think that’s a sign of a really successful festival.” She’s talking about “All For One,” a first-of-its-kind, three-day musical event leading up to the July 4th holiday that offered Peloton members 25

The NFL and Twitter have renewed their content partnership — which dates to 2013 — and are now kicking their collaboration into live audio. Under the multiyear deal extension, the NFL is making a full-season commitment to produce exclusive content on Twitter Spaces, the social network’s new live-audio feature. The NFL is the first sports

Endeavor’s China offshoot announced Thursday that it has acquired the Shanghai-headquartered digital marketing agency Mailman Group and its Seven League subsidiary. Prior reports estimate the deal to be valued at $60 million. The move comes as Endeavor seeks to expand its footprint in the sports marketing space in China and the broader Asia-Pacific region. The

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — A funny thing happened on the way to Sun Valley this year. Despite predictions that turnout for the annual Allen & Co. conference would be lighter after last year’s COVID-forced cancellation, attendance at the three morning sessions on the first full day of the gathering was strong and included the mega-mogul

Disney Streaming Services tapped Ajay Arora, previously Netflix’s director of product innovation for growth, as senior VP of product, commerce and experimentation. In the new role, Arora will oversee and build out the Disney Streaming group’s commerce and experimentation teams in San Francisco, where he will be based, as well as in New York and

Cinedigm promoted tech exec Tony Huidor, a six-year company veteran, to the newly created position of chief technology and product officer. Huidor, who joined the streaming entertainment firm in 2015, was most recently SVP of product and technology and general manager of Cinedigm Digital Networks. He will continue overseeing product development of all desktop and

Tencent’s WeChat social media platform on Tuesday evening blocked and wiped all past content of the accounts for the campus LGBTQ groups of China’s top universities, striking a major blow against LGBTQ awareness and rights. Many campus LGBTQ clubs have never been officially recognized or condoned, but have been able to operate unofficially for years

TikTok videos were not loading for many users across the U.S. Tuesday, amid what appeared to be a widespread technical outage for the popular short-form video platform lasting more than an hour. Problem reports for the app shot up at about 3:45 p.m. ET Tuesday, per monitoring site DownDetector. Most of the user-reported issues (70%)