T-Mobile said it officially closed its merger with rival Sprint — creating a wireless carrier with over 100 million customers nationwide — and reiterated its pledge to not increase customers’ fees for the next three years. The deal, worth more than $31 billion based on T-Mobile’s closing stock price Tuesday, ends the nearly two-year effort
Tech
J.K. Rowling has launched “Harry Potter at Home,” a digital hub with a cauldron full of treats to keep young children occupied while they are held captive at home during the coronavirus crisis. The hub, which includes contributions from publishing houses Bloomsbury and Scholastic, has magical craft videos, fun articles, quizzes, puzzles and more for
During the coronavirus pandemic, Americans are staying home — and, as you would expect, they’re streaming more than ever. U.S. consumers’ viewing of streaming has continued to increase through March. Over the first three weeks of March 2020, the total estimated number of minutes streamed to the TV was 400 billion, up 85% compared with
With coronavirus lockdowns across the region causing a spike in stay-at-home viewing, Friday’s news that Southeast Asian video streamer Hooq is to close within a matter of days came as a shock to its friends and competitors alike. Compared with its regional rivals, Hooq had the most blue-chip backers in Singaporean telecoms giant Singtel, WarnerMedia
The 2020 Digital Content NewFronts are moving about two months later as live-streamed virtual presentations, with organizers citing the need for more time for participants to prep. Previously, the annual NewFronts had been scheduled for April 27-May 6 at various venues in New York City — but with the COVID-19 pandemic it became clear earlier
Roku users — finalmente — will soon be able to use voice controls and conduct searches in Spanish on the streaming-media platform. With the Spanish-language support, Roku customers in the U.S. and Mexico will be able to speak commands en español into their remotes and other voice-enabled Roku devices to launch channels; search for titles,
The slightly delayed India launch of streaming platform Disney Plus Hotstar is now set for Friday. The service will be available in two price tiers. Disney Plus VIP subscribers get access to the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bollywood films, Hotstar originals, unlimited live sports and Star TV serials for INR 399 ($5.30) a year. For
Twitter, stepping up its enforcement of misleading and harmful coronavirus-related claims, required Fox News host Laura Ingraham to delete a tweet from 10 days ago that misrepresented details of an unproven treatment for coronavirus. In the now-deleted tweet from March 20, Ingraham, host of the cable network’s “The Ingraham Angle,” wrote, “Lenox Hill [Hospital] in
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, during which millions of self-isolating individuals are tuning into home entertainment, the trends shaping global content have never been more evident. Recent findings by London-based media research firm Ampere Analysis, which delivered a presentation as part of virtual event MIPTV Plus, reveals an unscripted boom among streamers (best
YouTube is now streaming the benefit special “Fox Presents the iHeart Living Room Concert for America” through Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on iHeartRadio’s YouTube Channel. The one-hour event, which debuted on Fox Sunday night, March 29, was created to help fight the spread of the coronavirus and to “celebrate the resilience and strength of
Reed MIDEM announces that Midem 2020, which was due to take place June 2-5 in Cannes, is cancelled due to concerns about the coronavirus. The next edition of Midem will take place June 1-4, 2021, in Cannes, the organization said. “The situation related to the coronavirus is changing daily, as are government announcements and restrictions.
Social media giant Facebook is investing $100 million to support local news organizations during the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to its previous commitment to spend $300 million over a three-year period. Around $25 million of the new package will be emergency grant funding for local news via the Facebook Journalism Project. A further $75 million is
Google on Friday removed the Android version of the Infowars app from the Google Play online store, after comments made by Infowars founder Alex Jones about the COVID-19 pandemic were deemed false and harmful. Google Play was that last major internet platform that provided an outlet for Infowars, which trades in right-wing conspiracy theories and
YouTube is launching a global campaign with top creators, music artists and celebs urging people to stay home during the COVID-19 pandemic — and watch YouTube videos. The video platform has been promoting the hashtag #StayHome for the past several weeks. Now YouTube has lined up several big influencers and celebrities to promote the message
March 27, 2020 2:44PM PT Eight-bit diehards, get your thumbs ready: pop rock darlings Weezer have launched a nostalgia-heavy online side-scrolling action game, playable via web browsers. The “The End of the Game” game has users playing as one of the band’s four members and jumping and shooting their way in a (surprisingly difficult) boss
Google and parent Alphabet are pitching in to help small businesses, health organizations and governments dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The internet company has earmarked more than $800 million for coronavirus relief, about three-fourths of which ($610 million) is in the form of Google Ad credits to small and midsize businesses and governmental orgs, Alphabet
While it might seem counterintuitive that music streams would decline at a time when so many Americans were ordered to stay home, data-savvy label executives were neither startled nor concerned by the 7.6% drop in plays that happened in the March 13-19 tracking week. Simply put, the say it’s down to focus on news and
Wondering if you need to get tested for COVID-19 — and what to do next if you have symptoms of infection? Apple now has an app for that. The company Friday released a free screening tool and set of resources to help people stay informed and take the steps to protect their health during the
Hooq, the multi-territory streaming service in Asia backed by WarnerMedia and Sony, filed Friday for voluntary liquidation in Singapore. In recent weeks it had been reported that the company had failed to make full remittances to some of its in-production original series. The company was started in 2015 and remains majority controlled by Singaporean phone
LG Electronics USA is the first TV manufacturer to support Movies Anywhere, the digital-movie streaming service joint venture of four major Hollywood studios. Movie Anywhere’s collection of 7,900-plus movies, including new releases and classics, are now available to customers with LG Smart TVs (2017 models and later, running webOS version 3.5 or later). Movies Anywhere
March 27, 2020 5:34AM PT Apple is making the Final Cut Pro X video-editing suite and Logic Pro X recording-studio package available for free 90-day trials amid the stay-at-home COVID-19 crisis. “We hope customers who are home and looking for something new to master will try out these free trials and start making some awesome
BBC Studios and China’s Huawei Video have struck a deal in which British TV content is supplied to Huawei consumer mobile devices in 26 countries. The deal was announced to coincide with the launch of Huawei’s P40 cell phone. Some 300 hours of drama, comedy and factual shows will be available to stream via Huawei’s
Grammy Awards are great, but the Recording Academy’s greatest contribution to the music industry is arguably MusiCares — its charitable foundation to support music industry workers in need. In simpler times, it helps people with everything from emergency health care to substance-abuse treatment, but these days it has focused on helping music people — everyone,
Dish Network’s over-the-top Sling TV service is offering free access to its 45-channel live TV bundle for 14 days. The company is positioning the move as a “public service” as millions of Americans are quarantined at home during the COVID-19 crisis. From March 26 to April 5, U.S. consumers who are not current customers of
A collaborative series charting Australians’ experiences of the chaos and confusion unleashed by Covid-19 has been unveiled as the first original content production at documentary-specialist streaming platform iwonder. “Coronavirus & Me” will make use of user-generated-content submissions, edited together to make short documentaries. These will evolve in real-time to reveal how society is adapting to
Disney Plus zoomed out of gate in Europe and the U.K. on Tuesday, according to third-party data estimates — reflecting pent-up demand for the Mouse House’s streaming service and, perhaps, agita among parents looking for relief amid governmental stay-at-home directives. On March 24, Disney Plus debuted in the U.K., Ireland, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and
BuzzFeed, hoping to forestall layoffs with an economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic already under way, is reducing the salaries of most employees. CEO Jonah Peretti said he won’t be taking any compensation until the crisis has passed. Peretti announced the salary cuts at a BuzzFeed all-hands meeting Wednesday and provided additional details in
The buyer of Moviefone — who snapped up the site for the fire-sale price of $1 million in a bankruptcy auction — has now come forward: It’s Cleveland O’Neal III, creator and producer of syndicated daytime entertainment show “Made in Hollywood.” O’Neal’s holding company Born in Cleveland LLC was the winning bidder last week in
March 25, 2020 10:01AM PT UPDATED: Netflix’s streaming service was unavailable Wednesday to some users for about an hour, the company confirmed. “Some of our members in the U.S. and Europe were unable to use Netflix via our website for around an hour this morning,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to Variety, sent
With Italy, France and Spain in full lockdown in the face of the unrelenting coronavirus outbreak, their respective film industries are preparing to take exceptional measures that could limit the anticipated economic damage by opening themselves up to an uncharted gamble in streaming. To date, dozens of film releases have been postponed to between July and October