Alibaba Group announced Tuesday that it will close down its streaming platform Xiami Music on Feb. 5, as it struggles to keep up with competitors Tencent Music and NetEase in China’s competitive digital music sector. Xiami Music will cease operations due to “business development-related adjustments,” pivoting to become more of a music industry service provider,
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The new streaming service Discovery Plus is launching on multiple platforms as it debuts in the U.S. With the launch officially beginning today, Discovery Plus will be available to customers on the platforms: Roku; Amazon Fire TV streaming devices, Fire TV Edition smart TVs, and later on Prime Video Channels; iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and
Disney’s Hulu + Live TV subscribers will — finally — get Comedy Central, MTV, Nick, BET and other legacy Viacom cable channels as part of their lineup. ViacomCBS announced a new multiyear distribution agreement with Hulu, under which Hulu’s live TV subscription streaming service will add 14 cable networks: BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount
Quibi, after its high-profile collapse, may be close to landing a deal with Roku to sell rights to its multimillion-dollar lineup of original shows. Quibi, the startup led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, is in “advanced talks” on a pact with Roku to acquire streaming rights to the Quibi catalog, the Wall Street Journal
Justin Bieber’s New Year’s Eve concert was appointment viewing for his millions of fans, not just because it was available to all for a reasonable fee of $25 (free to T-Mobile customers) on a night when much of the world remains locked down due to the unrelenting coronavirus pandemic, but also because the engagement represented
Verizon and Hearst Television reached a distribution agreement to stave off a New Year’s Day blackout of the broadcasting group’s channels on Fios TV in five markets. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The telco had alleged Hearst TV was demanding price hikes of more than 45% to carry the local channels. The companies’
The Presidential Inauguration Committee announced plans to include a memorial ceremony for Americans lost to COVID-19 during the events scheduled for Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. The ceremony, which will feature lights surrounding the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, the day before Biden’s inauguration. “The inauguration of President-elect
Times Square in New York City will be closed to the public this New Year’s Eve — but you’ll be able to live-stream the festivities, including the famous 2021 ball drop and musical performances, for free. The six-hour Times Square 2021 Webcast will kick off at 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 31 with the ball
Ticketmaster agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine to avoid prosecution over charges that it illegally accessed systems of a startup rival to steal proprietary info in an attempt to “choke off” the smaller company’s business, federal authorities said. On Wednesday, the ticketing giant entered a three-year deferred prosecution agreement in federal court in
In 2020, the shortest route to a major label deal was undoubtedly TikTok. Thanks to the app’s music-centric platform and algorithm, its stars have come to define an “overnight success” — a term that was once used to deride a career boost, but is now simply a fact. In the last year, breakout artists like
UFC fans are going to pay more to catch the promoter’s premiere fights on Disney’s ESPN Plus streaming sports package next year. As of Jan. 8, 2021, the price of UFC pay-per-view events on ESPN Plus — the exclusive home of the mixed martial arts fights in the U.S. — will increase by $5 apiece,
It’s been a year many are eager to put in the past — especially those who were involved in 2020’s biggest tech and digital flops. The most epic fails of 2020 included Quibi’s spectacular flameout; the release of “Cyberpunk 2077,” unplayable for many; Twitter’s unprecedented celebrity hack; and President Trump’s failure to outlaw Chinese-owned TikTok
Hilaria Baldwin has expanded on her comments about her heritage after posting an Instagram video on Sunday responding to the story that captivated the internet over the holiday break. A Twitter thread posted on Dec. 21 explained how Baldwin had spoken on and off with a Spanish accent, listed her birthplace as Mallorca, Spain, and
When the history of the so-called streaming wars is eventually written, 2020 will be looked back on as an absolutely pivotal period. That’s what prompted the final episode of the year for Variety podcast “Strictly Business” to dispense with the usual guest interview and instead feature a marathon monologue filled with candid assessments of how
Amazon announced that it inked a deal to acquire Wondery, a four-year-old podcast creator and producer. Terms of the deal, under which the Wondery team will join the Amazon Music group, were not disclosed. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was in talks to buy Wondery in a deal worth over
In a new end-of-the-year TV carriage fight, Verizon on Tuesday began notifying Fios TV customers that Hearst Television stations may go dark on Fios as of Jan. 1 — with the telco claiming Hearst is demanding fee hikes of more than 45% to carry its local channels. Verizon’s current agreement with Hearst TV expires Dec.
Multi-hyphenate Jenna Andrews has held just about every role in the music industry — including major label artist, A&R executive, publisher and songwriter — and now she’s adding digital series host to her resume. With “The Green Room,” Andrews is giving fans a “look inside” the songwriting process. “When you go into a writing session,
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are bidding adieu to 2020 with their first podcast for Spotify — along with a host of celebrity guests and a few (very) brief words from their young son, Archie. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Tuesday released a standalone holiday special, produced by Archewell Audio and Spotify’s Gimlet,
Spotify has joined the ranks of streaming services like SoundCloud and YouTube as a hub for bootlegs of popular songs. With obscured titles like “Jocelyn Flores but you’re in the bathroom at a party” by eraylandin, a new take on XXXTentacion’s popular “Jocelyn Flores,” and “Dead To Me – Kali Uchis (slowed + bass boosted)” by user
A Delaware computer repair shop owner sued Twitter, alleging the social network defamed him by effectively labeling him a “hacker” after his business was cited as the source for info obtained from a laptop allegedly owned by Hunter Biden that served as the basis for several New York Post articles published in October. In the
The music licensing community was intrigued by the Dec. 21st launch of Songview, a new one-stop platform presented by performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI combining both databases for easier searchability. It’s simple enough to find rights holders for recordings issued by record labels, especially if there’s only one owner involved. But songwriter info can
Hilaria Baldwin responded to accusations that she’s been faking her Spanish accent and cultural roots in an Instagram video on Sunday. “My family is white. Ethnically, I’m a mix of many, many many things,” Baldwin explained. “Culturally, I grew up with two cultures, so it’s really as simple as that.” Her video comes as a
MrBeast, the popular YouTube hype-master, is launching a reprise of “Finger on the App” — quadrupling the cash prize to $100,000 to whomever can literally keep their finger on the game the longest. Jimmy Donaldson, a.k.a. MrBeast, launched the first “Finger on the App” contest June 30. The game had nearly 1.1 million downloads and
UPDATED: Shares of FuboTV took another steep dive Thursday after a team of Wall Street analysts initiated coverage of the internet pay-TV company with a “sell” rating and said its recent stock price run-up was “just plain egregious.” FuboTV shares closed down 16% in holiday-shortened trading Dec. 24, to $44.18 per share. That came after
“May you live in interesting times.” This past year calls to mind that old saying, allegedly an ancient curse directed at one’s enemies. But 2020, with all its tumult and terror, isn’t one to forget for media and entertainment companies. It marked a pivotal year when the sector’s biggest companies made tough decisions to reorient
HBO Max is streaming “Wonder Woman,” the iconic ’70s TV series starring Lynda Carter in the title superhero role — all 60 episodes of the live-action show — starting Wednesday, Dec. 23. The nostalgia trip is designed to get fans geared up for the Christmas Day premiere of “Wonder Woman 1984,” starring Gal Gadot, being
Chinese social media firm Kuaishou and post-production and VFX company Motion Magic Digital Entertainment have both taken further steps towards initial listing of their shares. Kuaishou, which may be the world’s second most downloaded video sharing app after Bytedance’s TikTok/Douyin, is reported to have set a date and target price for its previously announced IPO
Group Nine Media, the digital-media company in which Discovery is a lead investor, is on the prowl for mergers and acquisitions in 2021. Group Nine formed a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a type of “blank check” shell company, with plans to launch as a publicly traded entity and combine with “another target business” in
IAC announced plans to spin off its full stake in Vimeo, the video hosting and software company, to IAC shareholders. In November, IAC announced that Vimeo had a $2.75 billion valuation after raising about $150 million from Thrive Capital and GIC. IAC, headed by chairman Barry Diller, said Vimeo has seen a surge demand in
Vice Media Group’s president of international and chief revenue officer Dominique Delport has stepped down from his dual role at the youth-skewing brand, Variety has confirmed. During his nearly three years with Vice, Delport has been key to the company’s efforts to roll out its offerings and digital platforms around the world — for example, the