Tech

Amid the stalled talks between Amazon and WarnerMedia over getting HBO Max on Fire TV devices, the two sides reached an agreement on one front, at least: Fire TV users who subscribe to HBO Now will continue to be able to access the service, which is being rebranded simply as HBO, as of Aug. 1.

In a surprising move, longtime Sirius XM on-air personality Cousin Brucie Morrow will depart the ’60s on 6 channel after his show this Saturday night, August 2. The 84-year-old Morrow, whose real name is Bruce Meyerowitz, has been a fixture on the channel hosting nights weekly from Wednesday through Saturday since 2005.  He joined Sirius

ViacomCBS is playing the tonnage game with CBS All Access, paving the way for the launch of a renamed and bulked-up version of the direct-to-consumer streaming service in early 2021. CBS All Access is adding 70 shows — representing more than 3,500 episodes in all — from legacy Viacom cable networks including BET, Comedy Central,

Since its founding in 2003, Rooster Teeth has built a large following for original shows like “Red vs. Blue” and “RWBY,” as well as other fan-direct content distributed across its own branded channels. But the first season of the new “Transformers: War for Cybertron” trilogy — produced by Rooster Teeth Studios — will premiere on

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer is hitting back at Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, ahead of Zuckerberg’s appearance at a congressional hearing on Big Tech. Facebook’s “attacks” on TikTok, which is owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, are “disguised as patriotism and designed to put an end to our very presence in the U.S.,” Mayer, who took

Spotify’s user and subscriber growth came in at the top end of expectations, but the company’s bottom line was hit by a 48% increase in operating costs from stock-related compensation charges. In addition, ad revenue fell 21% — which Spotify blamed on the coronavirus pandemic — but the drop wasn’t quite as bad as forecast.

A judge on Tuesday allowed Eko to proceed with its patent infringement lawsuit against Quibi, though she dismissed three of Eko’s nine claims against the streaming startup. U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder dismissed a claim involving Quibi Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, finding no evidence that Katzenberg entered into an “implied contract” when he took a

BuzzFeed is teaming with Lionsgate to make “socially relevant and high-concept feature films” for Gen Z and millennial audiences — whatever that might mean. The companies announced a pact under which they will jointly develop, produce and distribute films. Those will have “unique, primarily digital, distribution strategies,” according to the announcement: In other words, don’t

The fat wad of cash Quibi has spent on high-end programming paid dividends in one area, at least: Jeffrey Katzenberg’s streamer picked up 10 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations in short form categories. Of course, there’s no guarantee that Emmys nods (or even wins) can move the needle for Quibi, which has had a tough time

Hockey is returning to the ice — and Twitter is getting live “look-ins” for the NHL’s Stanley Cup qualifying and playoff games. Under a new pact, starting Aug. 1 fans will be able to vote on Twitter for which games from the NHL’s 2020 postseason they want for the live look-in feature, which will comprise

What normally happens in Vegas each year in January won’t be in Vegas after all. CES 2021, scheduled to run Jan. 6-9, 2021, will not be held in Las Vegas, the Consumer Technology Association announced. It’s the latest event canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has had a resurgence in the U.S. the past

Tinder has swiped right on Jim Lanzone, former head of CBS Interactive. Match Group, parent company of the Tinder dating app, announced that Lanzone has been appointed Tinder’s new CEO. Lanzone takes over the role from Elie Seidman, who is stepping down as chief exec. Lanzone starts at Tinder on Aug. 3, reporting to Match

UPDATED: Most of Google’s workforce probably will not return to the office before the summer of 2021, with the internet giant extending the option to work from home given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The company confirmed to Variety that Google workers will be able to choose to work from home through July 2021. In an

Spotify pacted with Mark and Jay Duplass for the brothers’ first crack at podcasts. Under the development deal, the indie filmmakers, producers and actors will create exclusive original programming for Spotify — both scripted and unscripted podcast series — under their Duplass Brothers Productions banner. Details of specific projects they have cooking for Spotify are

The nation’s local news veterans are launching a bid to take on a few successful upstarts making a market in national sports. An alliance of local-media companies, the Local Media Consortium, will launch “The Matchup,“ a new online sports news effort that aims to give fans of specific teams more news about them from a

An Indian court has asked Chinese tech giant Alibaba, and its co-founder Jack Ma, to present evidence about the operation of its news operations. The request stems from a personnel case in which a former employee claims he was unfairly dismissed for refusing to censor content carried by Alibaba apps. The case, reported first by

NewImages Festival has unveiled the XR competition lineup for its 3rd edition, running at Forum des Images in Paris from Sept. 23-27. Sixteen VR or AR projects, including six world premieres, have been selected from the 130 submitted to compete for the Masque d’Or and two Special Jury Prizes. One of the world premieres is

Even though its existence was announced just 15 hours before its release, Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” sold more than 1.3 million copies globally in just 24 hours, according to Republic Records, which released the album. According to the announcement, the album also broke the global record for first-day album streams on Spotify by a female artist with

After nearly six years sitting in mothballs, the G4 video-game TV network is coming back — with some kind of relaunch next year by Comcast. On Friday, the Twitter accounts of G4TV and G4’s Attack of the Show! and X-Play, two popular shows on the network, both posted the same cryptic teaser video, captioned with

Apple has acquired rights to Werner Herzog’s astronomy documentary “Fireball” for its Apple Original film slate and will premiere the film on Apple TV Plus in more than 100 territories. Herzog collaborated with British professor Clive Oppenheimer on the project. The duo teamed on the Academy Award-nominated Antarctic documentary “Encounters at the End of the

Demi Moore hopes her new erotic podcast “Dirty Diana” will help teach people about sex. In the series, created by Shana Feste, Moore plays a woman whose marriage is falling apart as she navigates her finance career and secret life as the host of a website that features recordings of women describing their sexual fantasies.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar is dipping into the nostalgia well with a new “Saved by the Bell” retrospective podcast. Gosselaar claims he hasn’t watched a single episode of “Saved by the Bell,” the cult-favorite teen sitcom on which he played Zack Morris, since he finished shooting his final scene for the NBC show more than two decades

Would you pay for a zero-ads version of Twitter? The social network will “likely” launch a test of a subscription version later this year, according to CEO Jack Dorsey. Dorsey discussed the company’s “very, very early phases of exploring” a subscription offering for Twitter. He didn’t provide an indication of how much a Twitter subscription

Every summer, some 130,000 attendees gather in San Diego for Comic-Con to celebrate entertainment, fandom and geek culture. Amy Vaughn had hoped to be one of them. Vaughn, an engineer, has wanted to attend the event ever since she started cosplaying two years ago. She tried getting passes last year but wasn’t able to register.

Notorious boxer Mike Tyson, at 54 years of age, is stepping back into the ring after more than 15 years, with an exhibition bout set for September. The eight-round match, pitting Tyson against 51-year-old boxing champ Roy Jones Jr., will take place on Sept. 12, 2020, starting at 9 p.m. ET. The fight will be

RLJE Films has released the first trailer for Joe Keery’s social media satire “Spree,” six months after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Music giant Drake, Adel “Future” Nur, Anthony Gonzales, Matte Babel and Alex Hughes are executive producers through Dreamcrew Entertainment. Eugene Kotlyarenko directed “Spree” with “Stranger Things” star Keery playing amoral rideshare

For the first time in its 50-year history, San Diego Comic-Con is happening as a virtual, streaming event. The five-day fan convention kicks off on Thursday, with Comic-Con’s website launching the Online Exhibit Hall, featuring over 350 panels, interviews, themed discussions and sneak peeks. Fans won’t miss out on the long-awaited teasers revealed at the

TikTok is launching a program to fund its most popular creators directly for their videos — with an initial $200 million earmarked for the U.S. But for now, the short-form video app company doesn’t have specifics on how the program will work. “Through the TikTok Creator Fund, our creators will be able to realize additional

Sonequa Martin-Green is officially part of the family. “The Walking Dead” and “Star Trek: Discovery” actor has joined the “Fast & Furious” franchise — by way of video game. She plays new character Vienna Cole in “Fast & Furious: Crossroads,” the upcoming racing/action roleplaying game from Bandai Namco that releases on Aug. 7. It was

As traditional cable programmers struggle, startup VENN is stepping up to the plate with a business model the founders of the live-streaming video-game entertainment network say is custom-built for the over-the-top era. For the Aug. 5 launch, VENN will make its 24-hour, free-to-watch linear network available on Amazon’s Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Gaming and Twitter. In