Tech

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose company has been accused of failing to take actions to protect children on its social networks, apologized to families of kids who have been the victims of online abuse and harm. Zuckerberg, during a Senate hearing Wednesday, directly addressed parents in attendance who said their children suffered harassment and exploitation on

Ryan Kavanaugh has a new podcast about failure. By his own admission, he’s got “plenty of failure stories to tell.” The once high-flying thirtysomething mogul quickly turned into a Hollywood pariah when his Relativity Media sputtered into bankruptcy in 2015. Though he co-financed more than 200 films including “The Social Network,” “Mama Mia!” and “The

Australia’s hardest-rocking ensemble, AC/DC, is back with another entry into YouTube‘s billion-views club: “Back in Black,” the group’s 1980 hit, which as of Wednesday has topped 1 billion lifetime views. The official video for “Back in Black,” first uploaded to YouTube in November 2012, marks AC/DC’s second song to hit the milestone, after “Thunderstruck” (1.39

Daddy Gang, rejoice! Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” hit interview podcast is now available on all major audio platforms after two and half years exclusively on Spotify. Full episodes of “Call Her Daddy” have been available only on Spotify since July 2021, under a three-year deal worth more than $60 million. As of this week,

Universal Music Group, one of the largest music companies in the industry, said it has failed to reach new licensing terms with TikTok — and that as such, it will no longer license content to the app. UMG said that its agreement with TikTok is set to expire on Jan. 31. “The companies have not

Alphabet’s suite of digital subscription services — including YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, YouTube TV and Google One cloud storage — generated $15 billion in revenue for 2023, according to CEO Sundar Pichai. The $15 billion revenue figure from subscriptions is up fivefold since 2019, Pichai told analysts on Alphabet’s Q4 2023 earnings call. The company

YouTube‘s advertising revenue rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2023 — soaring 15.5% — in a strong resurgence of digital ad spending on the video platform. Q4 ad revenue for YouTube came in at $9.20 billion, roughly in line with Wall Street expectations, continuing the momentum from the third quarter of last year. By comparison,

Lewis Howes is aiming to turn his popular podcast “The School of Greatness” into a full-fledged media venture. Howes, a bestselling author, entrepreneur, former pro football player and podcast host, has formed Greatness, touted as a “first-of-its-kind podcast and media network that will bring emerging and established inspirational voices” to audio, video, TV and live

Stephen Chow (aka Chow Sing-chi) has struck a deal with Douyin, the Chinese sister company of TikTok, to produce a slate of mini-drama series for mainland China audiences. Mini dramas are a form of professionally-generated content that has become hugely popular in China, and to a lesser extent in other parts of Asia. Series typically

UPDATED: Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and executive chairman, has given 2 million shares of the streaming company — currently worth about $1.1 billion — to the . Hastings on Jan. 24 disposed of 2 million Netflix shares, which were given as a gift to an unidentified entity, per an SEC filing. The transaction code on

SiriusXM announced a multiyear agreement with SmartLess Media and its three founders — Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes — encompassing exclusive advertising and distribution rights, content, events and more for their popular flagship podcast “SmartLess” and other shows produced by the company. SiriusXM’s deal with SmartLess Media will commence late in the summer

The early-release version of Warner Bros. Games‘ “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” had a weird glitch that let players “have full story completion” after logging on for the first time — prompting the game’s developer to pull the title offline as it sought to fix the issue. “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” is

X, the social network owned by Elon Musk formerly known as Twitter, has finally taken a rudimentary step at the platform level to try slow the spread of fake graphic images of Taylor Swift. As of Saturday, searches on X that include the text “Taylor Swift” returned an error message that said, “Something went wrong.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has weighed in on explicit AI-generated deepfakes of Taylor Swift that have gone viral across social media this week. In an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt, Nadella said, “First of all, absolutely this is alarming and terrible, and so therefore yes, we have to act, and quite frankly all

In a change that reflects AI’s growing influence — and potentially disruptive power — in Hollywood, Netflix added generative AI to the list of potential risk factors on its annual report filed with the SEC. In Netflix’s 10-K report filed Friday, it added this new section to the long section of risk factors (which are

Sports Illustrated, the iconic sports publication, has gutted its editorial staff. So it might come as a surprise to learn that the Sports Illustrated Invitational — touted as “the ultimate golf excursion for A-List celebrities, athletes and golf enthusiasts” — is still on, to be held in Las Vegas on Thursday, Feb. 8, ahead of

Starting Monday, many of Amazon‘s Prime Video users will see something they’ve never seen before: commercials in TV shows and movies. Amazon will begin serving ads in Prime Video content by default in major markets Jan. 29, unless users opt to pay extra ($2.99/month in the U.S.) to have an ad-free experience. The company promises

The George Carlin estate has filed a lawsuit against Dudesy, the media company behind the recent viral AI-generated hour-long comedy special “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” which featured an approximation of the late comedian’s voice and comedy style that was allegedly generated by a chatbot trained by Carlin’s own material. Filed in California federal

A little over three months after Microsoft closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the tech giant is slashing the ranks of its gaming division. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced the layoffs in a memo to staff. He said as part of integrating Activision Blizzard with the rest of the gaming operations, “we have made

In the latest wave of layoffs to hit the digital media biz, Business Insider said it will cut 8% of its staff in a restructuring aimed at positioning the company for growth. Business Insider CEO Barbara Peng announced the job cuts in a memo to staffers Thursday. “We have already begun to refocus teams and

The HBO Max makeover to Max is heading overseas. In the U.S., Warner Bros. Discovery in May 2023 killed off the “HBO Max” name and replaced it with Max — which folded in a ton of new content from Discovery’s networks like Food Network and HGTV and included several new features. Now the media conglomerate

NPR has hired Katherine Maher, former CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation and most recently chief exec of the Web Summit conference, as its next president and chief executive officer. Maher will start at the public radio broadcaster on March 25, taking over for outgoing NPR CEO John Lansing, who announced last fall he would step

NBCUniversal‘s Peacock deal to exclusively stream the NFL‘s AFC Wild Card matchup between the Kansas City Chief and the Miami Dolphins delivered an end-zone spiking TD for the streamer, according to new data. NBCU already claimed the Jan. 13 playoff game was the biggest live-streamed event in U.S. history — delivering an average audience of

Carrie Bradshaw and the rest of the “Sex and the City” coterie are heading to a binge-watching date on Netflix. Netflix has inked a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to license all six seasons of the popular HBO dramedy, comprising all 94 episodes, Variety confirmed. “Sex and the City” will land on Netflix in early

It’s the beginning of the end for Netflix‘s lowest-cost plan that does not include advertising. In reporting results for the fourth quarter of 2023, in which it added a better-than-expected 13.1 million net subscribers, Netflix touted its ad-supported plan as accounting for 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in markets where it has launched that, and

MrBeast, the massively popular YouTube creator known for big-money giveaways and outlandish stunts, is nearing a deal for a reality-competition show with Amazon‘s Prime Video, Variety has confirmed. Details of the show, including its title, aren’t known. But the idea is that a MrBeast-hosted show for Prime Video would follow the format of his viral

Mythical Entertainment, the digital media company founded and led by YouTube creators Rhett & Link, appointed Jacob Moncrief — who is returning to Mythical after more than two years at Westbrook Media — as chief operating officer and promoted Brian Flanagan to the role of president. In his role as COO, Moncrief (above left) will

“The Last of Us Part II Remastered” is finally here, complete with a host of new features to draw in new fans and entice existing players.  Chief among them is No Return, a roguelike experience which allows users to complete a series of randomized encounters before facing off with a fearsome boss. It also gives

UPDATED: Sports Illustrated has been hit with mass layoffs — decimating the editorial team of the nearly 70-year-old sports media brand. The union that reps SI’s editorial workers, which is affiliated with the NewsGuild of New York, said in a post on X that on Friday staff members of Sports Illustrated were notified that its

Apple’s marketing team spins the Vision Pro headset — which costs a cool (hot?) $3,500 apiece — as the “ultimate entertainment device.” However, out of the gate, Apple Vision Pro will lack three of the biggest entertainment apps on the planet: Apps for Netflix, YouTube and Spotify will not be available on the tech giant’s