Tech

Netflix says it has a plan to hit net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2022, with a big part of the streaming giant’s efforts aimed at operating more eco-friendly film and TV productions. The “Net Zero + Nature” plan was outlined Tuesday in a blog post by Emma Stewart, PhD, who joined

Cameo, the startup that lets users buy video shout-outs from celebrities, has banked $100 million in Series C funding — which the company says gives it a “unicorn” valuation of just over $1 billion. The investment brings Cameo’s total funding to more than $165 million since it was founded in 2017. Led by investment firm

T-Mobile is throwing in the towel on its ambitious “uncarrier” move to shake up cable TV: The wireless provider is shutting down TVision about six month after launching it. The company announced Monday that YouTube TV is becoming T-Mobile’s preferred live TV solution, with the three TVision packages it introduced last fall “winding down” on

Comcast is plugging the Walt Disney Co.’s Disney Plus and ESPN Plus into its X1 cable TV and Flex broadband-streaming platforms — part of the operator’s ongoing strategy to become the one-stop hub for all video entertainment. On Monday, Comcast said it started of the rollout of Disney Plus on X1 and Flex customers, promising

British rock duo Royal Blood will perform a three-song virtual concert — as avatars — during the 2021 Bloxy Awards, taking place on the online gaming platform Roblox on Saturday. The awards, “Roblox’s celebration of the passion, talent, and creativity of the Roblox community of creators and players,” will take place on Saturday, March 27 at 3

YouTube said it will temporarily suspend advertising from David Dobrik’s channels, after a woman said she was raped by a member of his entourage in 2018. Dobrik, 24, rose to fame with comedy and prank videos produced with a group of his L.A. friends called the “Vlog Squad.” A report by Insider last week documented

Westbrook Studios, cofounded by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, is going into business with the family of Nastya, the hugely popular 7-year-old YouTube personality. Under the deal, Westbrook will partner with Nastya to develop a slate of animation projects, ranging from shows aimed at preschool-age kids to “four-quadrant family” programming. Terence Carter and David

As WWE Network is set to move exclusively to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service next month, the media company is removing objectionable material from the wrestling franchise’s archives. WWE is shutting down WWE Network as a standalone service in the U.S. as of April 4, when customers will need to have a Peacock subscription to access

AT&T and WarnerMedia have launched a multi-platform campaign to create awareness in support of #StopAsianHate, unveiling the campaign as part of “A Day of Action,” a national day of mourning and remembrance of communities affected by social injustice. Additionally, AT&T and WarnerMedia have announced a $7 million pledge to aid in the fight for social

Beauty vlogger James Charles will not be hosting a second season of YouTube’s “Instant Influencer” reality competition show. A YouTube rep confirmed that Charles won’t be returning to the show but declined to provide a reason. Previously, the video platform had announced that he would be hosting a second season. “We can confirm Season 2

Ahead of Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey testifying before the House Energy & Commerce Committee this afternoon, the RIAA, the National Music Publishers Association, the American Association of Independent Music, Songwriters of North America and the Music Artists Coalition have jointly penned a letter to committee leadership detailing how Twitter has “failed to meet the basic

BookClub, a virtual book-club platform set to debut this spring, has hired entertainment marketing veteran Pamela Levine as its CMO. Levine most recently was president of worldwide theatrical marketing for 20th Century Fox (now part of Disney) and prior to that served as HBO’s chief marketing officer. Before joining HBO in 2011, she had worked

News Corp plans to acquire Investor’s Business Daily, the stock-analysis and investment research publication, for $275 million — which would add another arrow in its financial-media quiver. IBD, which launched as Investor’s Daily in 1984, is a “high-margin, profitable” business, according to News Corp, the conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch. The 130-employee IBD will be

Spotify is unleashing three original comedy podcasts, including a high-concept scripted show from “Saturday Night Live” alum Fred Armisen. In “The Sketch Factor,” Armisen (“Portlandia,” “Documentary Now!”) plays Xandor Szavost, an inventor, philanthropist and billionaire who’s using his fortune to finance an audio sketch-comedy competition for his own amusement. Each three-to-five minute episode features a

After more than a decade on Twitter, Chrissy Teigen has had enough of the social network. The model, TV personality, author and entrepreneur on Wednesday posted a thread on Twitter, telling her more than 13.7 million followers that she was leaving the platform — before she deleted the account. “Hey. For over 10 years, you

In the annals of “Howard Stern” history, Shuli Egar played an important role as the longtime liaison to the “Wack Pack,” the odd assortment of misfits who regularly call in to the SiriusXM show to provide offbeat banter of questionable entertainment value. So when news arrived in January that the comedian, who also provided impressions

Triller, the short-form video app, has struck a licensing agreement with the National Music Publishers’ Association, which represents most American music publishers. The deal will see the platform compensating the songwriters and publishers covered by NMPA when their songs are used in videos on the platform. NMPA announced the deal on its social media platforms

BuzzFeed announced Danielle Belton, currently the top editor of G/O Media’s The Root website, as the new editor-in-chief of HuffPost. Her appointment comes after BuzzFeed earlier this month laid off 70 HuffPost employees — eliminating nearly 30% of the site’s U.S. newsroom positions — and took other cost-cutting moves following the acquisition of HuffPost from

Veteran producer Will Packer is cranking up the volume on his company’s push into podcasting. Will Packer Media signed a deal with iHeartMedia to produce a slate of original scripted and unscripted podcasts for the iHeartPodcast Network. The first project under the partnership is an urban scripted drama series set in present-day Oakland, Calif., slated

Facebook Watch has announced that “Red Table Talk” — the buzzy, issues-oriented talk show with hosts Jada Pinkett Smith; her daughter, Willow Smith; and her mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris — will return at 9 a.m. PT/ 12 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 31, with new episodes streaming weekly. “Red Table Talk” made headlines last year with

Jemele Hill and Mike Schur have thrown in with Meadowlark Media, the content studio startup focused on sports creators headed by former ESPN boss John Skipper and ex-ESPN host Dan Le Batard. Earlier this month Skipper exited his post as executive chairman of sports-streaming company DAZN to focus on Meadowlark Media, which he launched in

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is to receive S$133,000 ($99,000) in damages and aggravated damages from a Facebook user who linked to an article judged to be defamatory and originally published from overseas. The verdict against Leong Sze Hian was announced in writing on Wednesday by Justice Aedit Abdullah. Submissions were heard by the

Elsa Majimbo, comedian and social-media phenom, has signed with CAA for representation in all areas. A native of Kenya, Majimbo attracted worldwide attention during last year’s COVID-19 lockdowns with her funny, pared-down Instagram monologues — coupled with her contagious laugh, tiny sunglasses and predilection for potato crisps (which Americans call “chips”). Currently, Majimbo and her

After more than a year in all-virtual mode, VidCon is bringing is flagship U.S. convention back to flesh-and-blood format this fall. VidCon, the ViacomCBS-owned events producer for online video and digital creators, announced that the 2021 VidCon US event will return to the Anaheim Convention Center from Oct. 21-24. It also announced its first slate

Vice President Kamala Harris is saluting her Alpha Kappa Alpha sisters in a new documentary film titled “Twenty Pearls: The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.” The documentary — which debuts March 26 on Comcast’s Black Experience on Xfinity channel and will be available nationwide on demand starting March 30 — is narrated by Phylicia

Prince Harry is putting down more roots in the American business scene: He’s joined BetterUp, a San Francisco-based company that provides virtual coaching and counseling to employees and individuals, as a senior exec in the role of “chief impact officer.” BetterUp, founded in 2013, runs a network of more than 2,000 workplace coaches who provide

ViacomCBS is readying itself to write some bigger checks for content flowing to Paramount Plus and its other streaming properties. The company, which bowed the Paramount Plus streaming service earlier this month in an expanded foray onto the streaming battlefield, announced Monday that it plans to sell $3 billion worth of stock. ViacomCBS said it

Veteran television producer Joe Siyam has left his position as Supervising Producer at CBS Media Ventures’ “Entertainment Tonight” to join startup livestream commerce platform, talkshoplive, as vice president of talent and entertainment partnerships. Siyam had been with “ET” for nearly 7 years, during which he oversaw the brand’s coverage of music and major red carpet

Amazon Prime Video France has unveiled a slate of originals, including Cedric Klapisch’s “Greek Salad” — a series sequel to the “L’Auberge Espanole” trilogy — Melanie Laurent’s “Le Bal des Folles,” as well as live sports such as the tennis tournament Roland Garros, and adaptations of popular unscripted formats such as “LOL” and “Celebrity Hunted.”

David Dobrik, who rose to stardom on YouTube and TikTok with over-the-top pranks and comedy skits produced with a group of his L.A. friends, resigned from Dispo, the camera-app startup he co-founded in 2019. Dobrik’s exit from the board of Dispo comes after a report by Business Insider last week that documented sexual-assault allegations by