Tech

Multiple high-profile accounts on Twitter were evidently hijacked by a coordinated group of cryptocurrency scammers Wednesday, including those of Kanye West, Apple, Barack Obama, Mike Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Uber, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates. The hackers’ tweets have since been deleted from the affected accounts. A Twitter spokesperson directed an inquiry to updates

In “Ghost of Tsushima,” the latest PlayStation 4 exclusive from developer Sucker Punch that releases this Friday, players step into the shoes of Jin Sakai, a samurai warrior during the first Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274. In the process of protecting Jin’s homeland from the invaders, players can traverse just about every inch of

Apple is expanding its news footprint into the podcast space. Launching for free is “Apple News Today,” a daily audio news briefing co-hosted by Apple News editors Shumita Basu and Duarte Geraldino covering “some of the most fascinating stories in the news — and how the world’s best journalists are covering them.” The “Apple News

Two-year-old Bad Robot Games is getting its first CEO: Anna Sweet, a games industry veteran who formerly worked at PC games platform Valve and Facebook’s Oculus. Sweet will join president Dave Baronoff, the longtime Bad Robot exec who has led the division since it was created in 2018 by co-CEOs J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath,

The “watch party” craze continues to gain steam during COVID-19 quarantines. The latest entrant in the suddenly bustling category: Caavo, a Silicon Valley startup that sells a universal remote control, has launched Watch With Friends — an app that let you stream Netflix TV shows and movies synchronized with other users on Roku and Apple

Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service that made its U.S. national debut Wednesday, was initially a no-show on Android and Android TV devices — hit with a delay in getting published to the Google Play store. In reply to a users’ inquiries about why the app wasn’t available in the Google Play store, Peacock’s Twitter account was

Imagine Documentaries and advertising juggernaut Procter & Gamble have brokered a significant co-financing deal for a slate of film and streaming projects, Variety can report exclusively. The deal represents the latest foray into scripted for P&G, the 182-year-old consumer goods producer. The company is credited as the architect of the soap opera, which built narrative

Ziwe Fumudoh isn’t trying to get anyone canceled, although the guests on her popular Instagram live show consistently run that risk. Since quarantine started, the comedian and “Desus & Mero” writer has adapted her YouTube series “Ziwe: A Race-Baiting Series” into must-stream TV where thousands of viewers tune in each week to watch her goad

The “streaming wars” are widely understood to be a clash of content titans fighting for a piece of consumers’ entertainment wallet. But behind the scenes, another intense business brawl is happening between streaming services and the industry’s two connected-TV heavyweights: Roku and Amazon. WarnerMedia launched HBO Max in late May, and more than six weeks

Within days of Hong Kong’s controversial new national security law taking force on July 1, scenes once unimaginable in the financial hub have nightmarishly come true: a 15-year-old girl arrested for waving an independence flag; books potentially offensive to China’s Communist Party removed from public libraries; protesters, fearing life imprisonment for wielding slogans, holding up

Jamie Lee Curtis is producing and lending her voice to a new scripted comedy/mystery podcast series aimed at middle-school kids: “Letters From Camp,” the latest original from Amazon-owned Audible. Cast of “Letters From Camp” also includes 11-year-old Sunny Sandler (“Grown Ups,” “Hotel Transylvania”), Jake Gyllenhaal, Edi Patterson (“Knives Out,” “Righteous Gemstones”), and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (“Barry,”

While Shazam’s mid-year charts are filled with new artists and songs, The Weeknd dominated the two biggest ones — he’s the most Shazamed artist worldwide, and his “Blinding Lights” single is the most-Shazamed song globally and in 16 countries. (Check out Variety‘s cover story on The Weeknd from earlier this year, and our exclusive track-by-track

The British government has banned mobile providers from purchasing Huawei 5G equipment after Dec. 31. All 5G kit supplied by the company must be removed from U.K. networks by 2027. The move is likely to worsen the U.K.’s relationship with China, already under strain due to their differences over Hong Kong. Digital secretary Oliver Dowden

In a much-needed win for Quibi, a judge has denied an injunction that would have forced the company to disable its signature “Turnstyle” feature. Eko, a New York-based video company, filed a lawsuit in March alleging that Quibi stole its trade secrets to develop the video-switching feature. In a ruling on Monday, Judge Christina Snyder

Advertising revenue in the podcast sector in 2020 — like ad spending in other media — is taking a hit because of the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. podcast advertising revenue is expected to grow 14.7% in 2020, to around $812 million, according to the 4th annual IAB U.S. Podcast Advertising Study, which was prepared by PwC.

With many summer camps and other activities suspended because of COVID-19, Ghetto Film School is launching a new program to encourage teens and young adults to whip out their cameras and express themselves through short film. GFS Film Credits, sponsored by AT&T and WarnerMedia is a “short film challenge” aimed at creators between 14 and

E.W. Scripps Co. clinched a deal with SiriusXM to sell podcast network and producer Stitcher, which includes Scripps’ other podcast-related businesses, for up to $325 million. Scripps bought Stitcher for $4.5 million in 2016 and combined it with Midroll Media, which it bought for $55 million the year prior. According to E.W. Scripps, the $325

Nicole Thea, a London dancer and influencer who had gained a following for her YouTube videos following her pregnancy, died Saturday. She was 24. Thea had named her unborn son Reign; he did not survive either, according to an Instagram post on her account from her mother. A cause of death was not released. “It

Giancarlo Esposito is taking another villainous turn. In upcoming video game “Far Cry 6,” the “Better Call Saul” star takes on a lead role as president Antón Castillo, the dictator of a small fictional island nation, Yara, experiencing violent upheaval. “He’s in the middle of, unfortunately, a revolution. He’s trying to empower the people to

Imperative Entertainment and Pegalo Pictures are teaming up on “American Skyjacker: The Final Flight of Martin McNally,” a new podcast about a hijacker whose idolization of D.B. Cooper ended in a 37-year prison stint. The 10-part series will debut on all platforms on July 21. The podcast will take listeners back to the late 1960s

UPDATED: Amazon instructed company staff to delete TikTok from their phones because of potential “security risks” earlier Friday — but the ecommerce giant now says that was sent by mistake. “This morning’s email to some of our employees was sent in error,” an Amazon spokesman said in a statement to Variety. “There is no change

Is Netflix going to turn another boffo earnings report fueled by “quarantine and chill”? Investors pumped up shares of the streamer to a new all-time high Friday, with Netflix stock rising more than 4% in morning trading on a bullish Wall Street analyst call on second-quarter 2020 subscriber growth. Shares were above $529 apiece —

Shout! Factory, a specialty distributor and channels operator, will become a major North American home for the iconic Japanese “Ultraman” shows following a deal with Alliance Entertainment / Mill Creek Entertainment. The multi-year alliance provides Shout! Factory and its multi-platform streaming service, Shout! Factory TV with exclusive SVOD and AVOD digital rights in the U.S.

Sony is making a strategic investment of $250 million in Epic Games, the maker of massive hit game “Fortnite,” to acquire a minority interest in the gaming company. The companies said the investment “allows Sony and Epic to aim to broaden their collaboration across Sony’s leading portfolio of entertainment assets and technology,” as well as

Peacock is getting its hands — or, more accurately, feet — on a big batch of the U.K.’s Premier League soccer matches. NBCUniversal’s Peacock, set to launch nationally July 15, will be the exclusive U.S. home for more than 175 Premier League matches during the 2020-21 season, available only to subscribers of the Peacock Premium

Twenty years after its debut, durable gaming title “The Sims” is getting the reality-TV show treatment — a la “Project Runway” — in which 12 contestants vie for a $100,000 grand prize. Electronic Arts’ “The Sims Spark’d,” a show centered on challenges in the virtual-world game, will launch later this month on TBS under Turner

Comcast is making its most radical move yet to embrace cord-cutters. The cable giant is launching an app for Sling TV, the over-the-top subscription television service from rival Dish Network, on the Xfinity Flex device for broadband-only customers. It’s a move that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, as Comcast — like

Reacting to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down production, Bron Media is launching an animation division for series television, short-form content and motion pictures. On Wednesday, Bron Digital announced the appointment of industry veteran Jason Chen to lead production and technology. The company said the shutdown has delayed its theatrical releases such as “Candyman” and “Ghostbusters:

Demi Moore has taken a turn into audio erotica, toplining forthcoming original scripted drama series “Dirty Diana” from podcast and media startup QCode. Moore will star in and executive produce the podcast, created by writer-director Shana Feste (“Country Strong,” “Run Sweetheart Run”) and written by Feste and Jennifer Besser through their Quiet Girl Productions shingle.

Former Hulu exec Johannes Larcher, who most recently worked for Dubai-based MBC Group, has been appointed head of WarnerMedia’s HBO Max International. Larcher, who is a dual U.S.-Austrian national, will join the company in August and report to Gerhard Zeiler, chief revenue officer for WarnerMedia, and president of WarnerMedia International Networks. Larcher worked at Hulu