Linsey Davis is helping to tie things together at ABC News. You might not see the string during one of her recent hours on the Disney unit’s ABC News Live. On Tuesday evening, Davis’ “ABC News Live Prime” took viewers to Russia to examine how the government was cracking down on citizen protests and spent
Tech
Jeff Bezos, after 27 years building Amazon into a global retailing superpower — and personally amassing an ungodly amount of money — later this year will relinquish the CEO spot. In a surprise announcement, Amazon on Tuesday said Bezos will step down as chief exec in the third quarter of 2021 to become executive chairman.
Morgan Wallen, country music’s biggest new star, suddenly found himself a pariah from the nation’s airwaves after video of him using a racial slur emerged late Tuesday. His music was yanked from major radio networks and streaming service playlists — notably Spotify, where the situation revived the playlist-ban issue based on “hate speech and hateful
Barstool Sports, the rowdy sports-information empire with a knack for smack talk, is getting into longer-form programming. The company intends to launch “Coach Prime,” a documentary series that will follow Deion Sanders in his first season as head coach of the Jackson State Tigers, while calling attention to Historically Black College and Universities. Barstool will
Joe Budden thinks he got shafted by Spotify on his podcast. Now he’s throwing in with Patreon, the platform built to let artists and creators support themselves through fan subscriptions — and Budden, a top podcaster and a prominent voice in the hip-hop community, has signed on to work with Patreon to promote its mission
Spotify packed in a strong end to the pandemic-riddled year, topping forecasts for Premium subscribers to reach 155 million (up 24%) in the fourth quarter of 2020. The audio streamer’s total users grew 27%, to 345 million in Q4, after netting a record gain of 74 million for the full year. The company touted its
Since posting on Instagram on Monday alleging that Marilyn Manson abused her, Evan Rachel Wood has continued to use the platform to build a case against him. In her Instagram stories, Wood has aggregated accusations against Manson from other women. She has also posted instructions — both in her stories and in her feed — about
Douyin, the Chinese version of ByteDance’s TikTok short video app, has filed suit in Beijing against rival Tencent Holdings for alleged monopolistic behavior, seeking $13.9 million in compensation, ByteDance said Tuesday. Tencent prohibits the sharing of Douyin content on its extremely popular apps WeChat and QQ, a practice that ByteDance hopes the court will rule
Amazon announced that founder Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO in the third quarter of 2021, moving into a new role as executive chair. Andy Jassy, currently CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), will become Amazon.com’s CEO at that time. The ecommerce giant made the announcement alongside blowout fourth-quarter 2020 earnings, its biggest-ever quarter
FaZe Clan, one of the gaming industry’s highest-profile esports and entertainment organizations, has signed for representation with UTA. UTA will support FaZe’s efforts to expand into scripted and unscripted entertainment, podcasting, live streaming and brand partnerships. FaZe’s roster of esports players includes existing UTA clients NickMercs, Swagg and Mongraal. The organization’s pro gamers specialize in
Idris and Sabrina Elba are set to executive produce their first anime title — a new animated fantasy series for Crunchyroll, the global anime-streaming service that’s in the process of being sold to Sony’s Funimation group. The couple inked a deal with Crunchyroll to develop “Dantai” (working tile) through Idris’ Green Door Pictures and Sabrina’s
Satellite radio giant SiriusXM saw a 6% revenue gain and added 279,000 subscribers in its satellite radio business, although it faced “headwinds” with its Pandora unit, which lost 63,000 subscribers and recorded a $976 million impairment charge, due primarily to royalty payment costs. The company had warned investors of the charge last month in its
Internet platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are not systematically biased against conservatives or right-wing viewpoints in their content moderation practices, according to an analysis from NYU researchers. According to the report released Monday, “False Accusation: The Unfounded Claim that Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives,” the allegation that social media companies engage in anti-conservative bias
Hispanic media giant Univision Communications acquired VIX, an independent ad-supported streaming service with 20,000-plus hours of free Spanish-language film and TV programming. Univision said it plans to combine VIX with PrendeTV, its AVOD service set to launch sometime in the first quarter, in the U.S. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. VIX, based
YouTube tapped veteran executive Craig Hunter, most recently with Sony Pictures Television, as global head of preschool content for the internet platform’s originals team. In the newly created role, Hunter is in charge of all preschool content that falls under the kids and families vertical for YouTube Kids & Family Originals. Currently based in London,
Comcast launched a new destination with Black content, curated in partnership with the African American Film Critics Association, which is available to customers on Xfinity X1, Flex and Stream App at no additional cost. Dubbed “Black Experience,” the content hub at launch comprises more than 100 titles (and growing). It’s a mix of programming from
Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman are not only relaunching the website for their Thirty Five Ventures multi-media platform Boardroom today, but they’re also announcing some of its new programming. I can exclusively report that in addition to Nick DePaula’s video series about the sneaker industry I first told you about last week, Boardroom will also
Sonic the Hedgehog is getting a brand-new 3D animated show on Netflix. The 30-year-old character will be featured in “Sonic Prime,” a kids-and-family series from Sega of America and WildBrain, set to premiere worldwide on Netflix in 2022. The 24-episode series features Sonic in an adventure where the fate of a strange new multiverse rests
CNN’s “Go There” live daily news show — after a year and half on Facebook Watch and just over 600 episodes — is ending its run on the social platform. Starting Monday (Feb. 1), news junkies will find “Go There” on CNN’s owned-and-operated outlets, including the news network’s website and mobile apps. With the move,
The rebirthed G4 TV is kicking off a weekly content series — dubbed “B4G4” — to get fan feedback on the programming ahead of the gaming network’s official summer 2021 bow. G4, which is being revived under the auspices of Comcast’s Spectator sports unit, will publish content under the B4G4 (“before G4”) banner on its
HBO Max’s day-and-date premiere of “Wonder Woman 1984” the week of Christmas 2020 lassoed significantly more viewing time than any other streaming title for the period, according to Nielsen revised estimates. Previously, Nielsen had said Pixar’s “Soul” on Disney Plus, which bowed Christmas Day alongside Warner Bros.’ superhero sequel “Wonder Woman 1984,” was the most-viewed
AMC Entertainment’s shares took a steep tumble Thursday, not yet a coda to the frenetic activity around the stock market fueled by users on Reddit, TikTok, Robinhood and other social media platforms. AMC’s stock was down more than 50% on Thursday afternoon, one day after it surged more than 300% and skyrocketed to $20.31 per
Three of the execs who co-founded digital content studio Studio71 — Reza Izad, Dan Weinstein and Michael Green — have teamed up for a new venture: Underscore Talent, which they tout as a next-generation management company for creators. Studio71, founded in 2007 as Collective Digital Studios (CDS), is owned by German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, which acquired
Morpheus is returning to your earbuds. Audible has greenlit two more seasons of “The Sandman,” based on Neil Gaiman’s popular graphic-novel series of the same name published by DC. According to Audible, the first installment — released in July 2020 — was the Amazon-owned company’s best-selling original to date. “The Sandman: Act II” and “The
TikTok has been buffeted by the storm around social media, but that hasn’t stopped the platform from logging meteoric growth over the past year. On the latest episode of Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s VP of global business solutions and head of ad sales, discusses how the service and its many tools kept
Apple had its biggest-ever quarter after the launch of the iPhone 12, the tech giant’s first 5G smartphone, blowing past Wall Street estimates. The company posted $111.4 billion in sales for the three months ended Dec. 26, up 21% year over year. It was a quarterly record and Apple’s first quarter of revenue of more
Dish Network’s Sling TV is the latest virtual pay-TV provider to raise rates: The over-the-top service’s Sling Orange and Sling Blue base services are each increasing by $5 per month, to $35/month — a 17% increase — and Sling announced rate hikes for add-on packages. Sling said prices for existing customers will not change until
Robert Downey Jr. has embarked on the next phase of his efforts to help save the planet. The producer, actor and investor announced the launch of , a series of VC funds open to the public with the mission of investing in companies developing solutions to address environmental problems. Downey Jr. made the announcement at
All eyes in Italy’s TV and sports worlds will be on Amazon on Thursday when envelopes for bids to top Italian soccer league Serie A are opened. Amazon is expected to be among the bidders for domestic broadcasting rights to Serie A in a move that could cause huge disruption within the country’s TV and
Tegna wants a bigger piece of the podcast action: The TV station group announced the acquisition of Locked On Podcast Network, which produces some 160 daily shows for teams across the U.S.’s four major pro sports leagues and more than 30 colleges. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Tegna said it will finance the