Tech

Susie Banikarim, a journalist with nearly two decades of experience in digital and TV news, is joining Vice News as one of its top editorial execs. Vice Media Group tapped Banikarim as executive VP and global head of newsgathering for Vice News, a newly created role. She will be based out of Vice’s Brooklyn headquarters

In a case of one disrupter telling the story of another, Netflix has boarded a series about the creation of Spotify, the Swedish startup that’s become one of the world’s leading music services. The as-yet-untitled limited series, to be directed by Per-Olav Sørensen (“Quicksand”), is inspired by the book “Spotify Untold” by Sven Carlsson and

The Force remains strong with Disney Plus: The streaming service has now had 22 million global downloads of its mobile app in the four-week period since its initial launch, according to new data. Perhaps even more impressive: Over the past week, Disney Plus has averaged 9.5 million daily active users (84% in the U.S.), according to

Video-measurement firm Tubular Labs announced two additions to its board of directors: Jamie Gutfreund, ex-chief strategy officer of CAA and formerly Hasbro’s chief consumer experience officer, and Greg Coleman, former president of BuzzFeed. Gutfreund and Coleman are not personally investing in Tubular Labs but will receive stock options in the privately held company. They join

Verizon Media, the division comprising brands like HuffPost, AOL, Yahoo, TechCrunch and Engadget, is set to lay off about 150 employees, the latest retrenchment by the telco’s still-declining digital-media group. Verizon confirmed the cuts, which were first reported by CNN. The job cuts represent around 1.4% of the 10,500 employees in Verizon Media, which the

Disney Plus — with an assist from Baby Yoda — was the No. 1 top-trending Google search in the United States for 2019, according to the internet giant. The Mouse House’s incursion into the streaming battles debuted in November in the U.S. and a few other countries but Disney benefited from months-long heavy hype and

Netflix is starting to feel a bit more like regular television to some of its members: The streaming service began a global test of a new feature for its TV apps Tuesday that offers users the option to skip browsing titles, and instead start streaming right away. Dubbed “Watch Now,” the new feature is being

Netflix has dribbled out some viewing data on Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman”: The epically long mobster film was watched by 26.4 million Netflix households worldwide in the first seven days — to at least 70% completion, according to content chief Ted Sarandos. In the first 28 days, Netflix expects about 40 million account holders to

Americans are already a hyper-connected, device-fixated lot. And as 5G takes flight in 2020 and beyond, the number of internet-connected screens in U.S. consumers’ lives will only increase, according to a new study. Today, U.S. households own an average of 11 connected devices, including seven with screens to view content (e.g. smartphones or TVs), a

From Bye, Felicia to The Dress, memes have provided the ideal discursive forum for our ever dwindling attention spans. On this side of the century, most memes have been byte-sized digital novelties that fizzle away without manifesting in the meatspace. But as the gap between URL and IRL draws closer, memes are spilling into real

In five years’ time, cable pioneer John Hendricks has assembled a subscriber base of more than 10.5 million for Curiosity Stream, the niche factual programming streaming service that has been successful in getting picked up by cable operators in the U.S. and abroad. Hendricks, the founder of Discovery Channel, and Curiosity Stream president-CEO Clint Stinchcomb,

Giphy is silent no more: The company is turning up the volume on the meme-fueled business — adding video with sound to its array of millions of shareable animated GIFs and stickers. The Giphy Video launch marks the company’s entry into short-form social video, giving its massive user base the ability to insert snippets of

Facebook is bringing additional media services to its Portal TV device: Portal owners got access to subscription video content Amazon’s Prime Video service and Sling TV Tuesday. Portal now also offers access to FandangoNow’s on-demand movies and TV shows, and Deezer’s music subscription service. Facebook launched Portal TV in September; the TV-attached streaming device with

At Xandr, the ad-technology firm that is part of AT&T, the time to start talking about the advertising of the future is now. The AT&T unit is best known, perhaps, for selling commercial inventory related to the company’s DirecTV. But Xandr CEO Brian Lesser expects to be recognized soon for taking part in many other

“Euphoric” was the word to describe the atmosphere around the Apple TV Plus offices in Culver City, Calif., on Monday morning as staffers awoke to the news that the fledgling service’s cornerstone drama series, “The Morning Show,” had landed three major Golden Globe Award nominations. Apple Worldwide Video had exactly two employees — heads Jamie

Comcast expects to pump $2 billion into NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service in aggregate over 2020 and 2021, while the company is projecting it will not be profitable for the first five years, according to CFO Mike Cavanagh. Cavanagh, who provided the details Monday at UBS’s Global TMT Conference in New York City, tried to put

After building their careers as internet personalities at BuzzFeed, the creators and hosts of three of the company’s biggest shows — Steven Lim, Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej — have formed their own digital-video venture. They quit BuzzFeed earlier this year and founded L.A.-based Watcher Entertainment, with the trio looking to get full creative control

Berlin-based streaming guide JustWatch has acquired media search engine GoWatchIt from Plexus Entertainment, and is using the acquisition to open up its first office in New York. Terms of the deal, which was stock- and cash-based, haven’t been disclosed. GoWatchIt founder and CEO David Larkin will join JustWatch as its new senior vice president of

“Young Sheldon” leads CBS’ Thursday-night schedule. Soon it may help to lead advertisers to a new way of placing their commercials. CBS has joined “Open AP,” the audience-targeting alliance working to accelerate the emerging advertising practice known as “audience buying.” Open AP works to give advertisers a way to buy impressions from particular types of

Ready to start over on “Game of Thrones,” or finally give it a try if you never watched it in the first place? Streaming device maker Roku is giving its customers another chance to watch the first season of the hit show, as well as a number of other popular shows, for free through the

Iconic Bollywood actress, Madhuri Dixit Nene is poised to make her Netflix acting debut with an as-yet-untitled series. Karan Johar is set as creative producer. The series will be a suspenseful family drama about a global superstar, wife and mother who suddenly vanishes without a trace. As police and loved ones search for answers to

After winning six prizes on Friday with his “Delhi Crime” series, Canadian-Indian director Richie Mehta is again making film project “The Price of Tea,” which was previously pitched in Macau, as his top priority. Having attended the International Film Festival & Awards Macao’s project market with “Tea” in 2017, Mehta is back this year on

Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders unveiled plans to launch publicly-funded broadband networks and break up big internet providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T Thursday. “Their greed must end,” the Sanders campaign wrote in its high-speed internet policy proposal. The campaign argued that high-speed internet access should be treated as a public utility,

IMDb TV is now the streaming home of “Chicago Fire” seasons 1-6 — offering catch-up viewing for fans of the Dick Wolf-produced NBC primetime hit starting Friday (Dec. 6) for free. It’s the biggest single licensing pact to date for IMDb TV, which is Amazon’s bid to capture share in the ad-supported VOD space. Terms

In a year in which more than 500 scripted series are on the air and new streaming services seem to debut nearly monthly, some of the biggest money being thrown around for content has gone to a handful of old TV shows, the kind that for years have hummed along evening television without much fuss.

Martin Scorsese’s mafia saga “The Irishman” was watched by 17.1 million unique Netflix viewers in the U.S. in the first five days of its streaming release, according to Nielsen estimates. By comparison, Sandra Bullock-starrer “Bird Box” scored nearly 26 million U.S. viewers in its first seven days of availability (Dec. 21-27, 2018) on Netflix, according

It’s different strokes for different streaming folks as Amazon, HBO Max and Netflix lifted the lid on their international plans in London this week. Amazon said it’s not in the volume game and talked up a select number of hyper-local shows, while Netflix dished on plans to rev up non-English-language originals. The message from HBO

Having premiered on Netflix Nov. 22, “Nobody’s Looking” marks the first collaboration between Gullane and Netflix – their second, “Boca a Boca” is in development- and comes from a long list of new projects that the streaming giant has announced with it’s $87 Million investment in Brazilian content. The series embodies the streaming platform’s push

Sunil Doshi, whose company Alliance Media & Entertainment produced 2017 Tokyo film festival title “Bioscopewala” and distributed Jafar Panahi’s 2018 film “3 Faces” in India, has launched a new content development platform at the ongoing Asian TV Forum & Market in Singapore. The Mumbai-based All Things Small (ATS) is founded by Doshi, journalists Sidin Vadukut,

YouTube has taken a brand-new approach with this year’s YouTube Rewind mashup video — dropping its tradition of highly produced original videos segments. Instead, the 2019 version is a montage of what the platform says were the biggest moments and milestones from around the world on YouTube. The move came after the 2018 YouTube Rewind