SiriusXM continues to report progress in its contract negotiations with star personality Howard Stern as the company revealed its third-quarter earnings, with revenue up 1% at $2.025 billion and income up 11% to $272 million. Stern’s contract expires at the end of the year and has been a constant topic of conversation in the company’s business
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Interactive-video firm Eko says it will continue to pursue its patent and trade-secret theft litigation against Quibi, after Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman announced the startup will wind down operations and seek to sell its assets less than seven months after Quibi launched. New York-based Eko sued Quibi in March for allegedly infringing one of
AT&T touted the growth of WarnerMedia’s HBO Max premium streamer, with activations more than doubling in the third quarter to 8.6 million. All told, 28.7 million customers were eligible to get HBO Max at the end of Q3. As of the end of September, HBO and HBO Max subscribers in the U.S. together reached 38
It’s officially the end of the road for Quibi — a quick end for the quick-bite video startup. The company, led by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, confirmed that it intends “to wind down its business operations and initiate a process to sell its assets.” The shutdown comes just a little over six
Boutique production firm Lucia Entertainment is launching “Go Green,” a new digital series aimed at inspiring Americans to reduce their carbon footprint, save money, and live a healthy life through clean energy solutions — with an assist from actors Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle, who make cameo appearances in the show. The unscripted, short-form digital
UPDATED: Quibi, the struggling short-form mobile video startup led by founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman, is shutting shut down the company after failing to find a buyer, according to a new report. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Katzenberg called investor Wednesday to tell them Quibi was shuttering. That came after a
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitch, the popular video game livestreaming platform, to get out the vote — to 435,000 simultaneous viewers. On Monday, Ocasio-Cortez announced on Twitter that she was looking to play “Among Us,” the massively popular murder mystery video game, on Twitch to encourage people to vote. On Tuesday night, she launched
As Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox prepare to unveil their next-generation products, the stakes are sky-high for both companies. But in the latest round of console wars between the hardware giants, Sony and Microsoft are playing very different games. Xbox Series X is out Nov. 10, followed two days later by the PlayStation 5. Both
Snap posted Snapchat’s highest daily active user growth rate since 2017 and significantly topped Wall Street revenue expectations for the third quarter of 2020. On the stellar results, investors rallied behind the stock — which rocketed up more than 20% in early trading Wednesday to new all-time highs. Shortly after the market open, Snap shares
Shares of Netflix dropped in early trading Wednesday, after the streaming giant reported a gain of just 2.2 million subscribers for the third quarter of 2020 — a major slowdown from its record COVID-driven gains in the first half of the year. Netflix stock was down 5.7%, to about $495.34 per share, after the market
Spotify and Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings announced an overall first-look podcast development deal. The partnership will launch with a country music series hosted by radio and TV personality Graham Bunn, available exclusively on Spotify. In addition to “Country Shine with Graham Bunn,” set to premiere Tuesday, Oct. 27, Ithaca plans to develop a slate of
Top Latin recording artist J Balvin will headline this year’s Halloween-night party in Epic Games’ “Fortnite,” which will be simulcast on the Epic-owned Houseparty social app. Balvin will be the featured performer in the “Fortnitemares” event at the Afterlife Party in “Fortnite’s” Party Royale island on Halloween night (Saturday, Oct. 31) starting at 9 p.m.
Quibi’s quick-bite originals are now streaming on three connected-TV device platforms — Apple TV, Amazon’s Fire TV and Google TV/Android TV. But there might be nothing that can save Jeffrey Katzenberg’s struggling mobile subscription-video startup at this point. Quibi launched six months ago, at the front end of the COVID pandemic, stubbornly sticking to its
As first-time host of the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon, Kevin Hart knew he had to make the event big and starry. The lineup includes Gabrielle Union, Jack Black, Usain Bolt, Michael B. Jordan and Eva Longoria. “You just go through the phone,” Hart told Variety ahead of the virtual fundraiser. “You just call everybody and
Netflix bid farewell to several senior programming executives in recent weeks — and the company’s two co-CEOs, Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos, maintained that the turnover is business as usual for the streamer. In September, Sarandos named Bela Bajaria VP of global TV, while VP of original content Cindy Holland was given the “Keeper Test”
Netflix is planning a new promotion: letting everyone in a given country access the service for free for a weekend. The company will first launch a test of the 48-hours-for-free promo in India, COO and chief product officer Greg Peters said in the earnings interview posted after Netflix reported third-quarter 2020 results. “An idea we’re
Netflix’s growth in the third quarter cooled considerably after its blockbuster COVID-fueled bump in the first half of 2020. The company netted 2.2 million subscribers in the third quarter of 2020 — below Wall Street’s expectations and under the Netflix’s own previous forecast. The streaming giant also posted net earnings below analyst consensus estimates. Shares
Caroline has signed musician-artist-TikTok star Anson Seabra, the company announced today. The Caroline team will work closely with Seabra’s manager Alex Bender, president of Revere Music Group. The partnership includes distribution through Caroline, which is the indie distribution and label-services wing of Capitol Music Group, as well as all label services including marketing and promotion.
VidCon has a new logo — and a new hybrid events strategy. As part of launching the new look, the ViacomCBS-owned online video and digital creator events division announced that it’s adopting a combo digital and in-person model going forward. VidCon said it has begun planning its annual U.S. event for summer 2021 in its
A group of Portuguese filmmakers took to the streets on Tuesday to protest new local film and TV legislation being voted on in parliament, which they claim will give foreign streaming giants an unfair advantage within the country’s film landscape. Portugal is among the first countries in Europe to implement the European Union’s recently approved
The U.S. Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging the internet giant has locked up a virtual monopoly on search and search advertising to the detriment of consumers and competitors. The federal suit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges Google violated the Sherman Act with
Variety, in partnership with Nickelodeon, presented a one-hour special on the 10 animators to watch as they discussed the passion behind their respective crafts and how they seek to connect with global audiences. The animators, featured in this year’s 10 Animators to Watch, recalled how they gravitated toward the art form and the impact they hope
Streaming startup VENN, two months after its official launch, announced that it has closed a $26 million Series A round of financing to expand its gaming and esports network. The funding brings VENN to $43 million total raised to date. The latest round was led by broadcaster Nexstar Media Group and esports investment fund Bitkraft,
Are we there yet? WarnerMedia is bringing its premium video programming to bored kids and other road-weary passengers through WarnerMedia Ride, a new video service for smartphones and tablets connected to in-car Wi-Fi hotspots connected to AT&T’s wireless network — available at no extra cost. Content in WarnerMedia Ride includes news and sports programming from
ViacomCBS has restructured its streaming operations with a global lens: Tom Ryan, currently CEO of Pluto TV, will assume the role of president and CEO of the newly created ViacomCBS Streaming, overseeing CBS All Access, which will relaunch as Paramount Plus in early 2021, as well as Pluto TV. Marc DeBevoise will step down from
While there’d been vague talk about an Apple music channel for years, it was still a surprise when Apple Music TV suddenly appeared at 9 a.m. ET on Monday morning. Being an Apple product, of course it’s launching with a splash, starting off with videos of Apple Music’s all-time top 100 songs and following later
The British Parliament is launching an inquiry into streaming services and whether artists are paid fairly by Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play and others, according to an announcement Friday. Julian Knight, committee chair of the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Spot said the growth of the streaming market “cannot come at the expense
Apple has launched Apple Music TV, a free 24-hour curated livestream of popular music videos that will also include “exclusive new music videos and premiers, special curated music video blocks, and live shows and events as well as chart countdowns and guests,” according to the announcement. Apple Music TV will be available to U.S. residents
Mary Rahmani has been named Triller’s new global head of partnerships, the company announced today. She was most recently director of music content & artist partnerships, North America at TikTok, where she was responsible for cultivating and overseeing music entertainment collaborations, and appeared at Variety’s Music for Screens conference last year. Prior to joining TikTok,
Amid the growing outcry against Big Tech’s anticompetitive practices, Apple’s enormously lucrative App Store could be one of the first fortresses to fall. In 2019, the App Store generated an estimated $50 billion in gross sales — and Apple kept $15 billion of that. Now the App Store, which is the only way to get