Tech

At least 10 staffers and contributors for Bustle, the online women’s publication, were laid off or cut Thursday — the latest sign of distress in the digital media space as companies try to find paths to profitable growth. A spokesperson for parent company Bustle Digital Group declined to say how many employees in all were

Isabella Rossellini is making her virtual reality (VR) debut in the 3rd and final installment of “Wolves in the Walls,” Fable’s animated VR series based on the Neil Gaiman book by the same name. The latest chapter of the series debuted on the Oculus Store Thursday. “Wolves in the Walls,” which first premiered at Sundance

Pluto TV, Viacom’s free streaming video service, has tapped Fran Hazeldine as senior VP of marketing — its first head of marketing. Hazeldine will lead Pluto TV’s brand, growth, content, and partner marketing initiatives, reporting to CEO Tom Ryan. Previously, marketing functions at the company were handled across various divisions. Hazeldine joins Pluto TV from

TCG, a consumer and digital media focused investment firm co-founded by former top News Corp exec Peter Chernin, announced that it closed an inaugural fund with over $700 million of commitments from investors. The company did not identify the investors that contributed to the fund. Chernin, together with former Goldman Sachs and media exec Jesse

Yahoo News published an augmented reality (AR) feature dubbed “Rebuilding Paradise” as part of a new partner program for immersive news content Thursday. The feature takes viewers inside the reconstruction process for a home destroyed in last year’s deadly Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif. “We want to put the user in the middle of the

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, addressed the continuing controversy over her company’s policy to not fact-check political advertising — defending it as a critical part of “political discourse.” “This is a really complicated issue. It is hard, and there are a lot of strong opinions on all sides,” said Sandberg, speaking at Bloomberg’s The

Worldwide royalty collections for creators of music, audiovisual, visual arts, drama and literature reached a record €9.65 billion in 2018 ($10.74 billion), according to the 2019 Global Collections Report published today by CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers). The organization represents 232 member societies in 120 countries, totaling more than 4

Netflix is putting boots on the ground in ever greater numbers and setting up offices and production hubs worldwide. With a splashy regional HQ being prepped in Amsterdam and a Paris office about to launch, as well as new outposts that opened this year in Sydney and Berlin and production facilities in countries including Canada

Days after China launched the world’s largest 5G network, US and Chinese film executives at the Chinese American Film and TV Festival’s co-production summit discussed its impact on the entertainment world. China’s three state-owned carriers China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom made 5G data plans available to consumers last Friday, a key step in

It’s full stream ahead for BritBox in the U.K. The ITV-and-BBC-run SVOD service launched on home turf Thursday after having been available for nearly three years already in the U.S. The platform is also set to feature film and TV content from Britain’s Channel 4 as the result of a new agreement for the broadcaster

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against two former Twitter employees, who are accused of working on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to access account information of dissidents. Ahmad Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah each worked for the company from 2013 to 2015. The complaint alleges that Alzabarah, a site reliability engineer, improperly accessed the

Chinese video streaming giant iQIYI saw a further leap in its subscription base, to 106 million. But the company’s latest corporate filing revealed that losses also expanded to a net $516 million over the three months between July and September. The company, which is an affiliate of Internet search and services group Baidu, said that

Netflix chairman and CEO Reed Hastings said he’s not “worried” about the imminent launch of Disney Plus — but he did indicate that he sees the Mouse House as the most robust new rival in the streaming wars. “Disney is a great company – we admire them,” said Hastings, speaking at the New York Times’

November 6, 2019 1:13PM PT Roku users streamed more than 10 billion hours of entertainment in the September quarter, helping the company to once again rake in big bucks with digital advertising. However, investors were apparently taken aback by Roku’s accelerating losses as well as slight decline in hardware revenues, sending the stock down as

Hallmark Channel has been a defy-the-odds TV success story during the past decade, as the cabler has enjoyed ratings growth and a heightened pop culture profile for its unabashedly feel-good programming. But behind the camera, the independent cable group owned by Crown Media Family Networks has faced an increasingly uphill battle on the distribution front

November 6, 2019 11:41AM PT At 2:18 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2018, Fox News Channel took to Twitter to tell its followers that a federal appeals court had ruled against the Trump administration’s desire to end the U.S. program that gives immigrants a chance to continue working and living in the United States.  After that,

In 2019, a female singer-songwriter who has been making music for over 20 years — collaborating with big named like R.E.M. and the Red Hot Chili Peppers while consistently releasing her own albums — should be defined by her body of work, not her relation to a man. And yet the headline of a recent

November 6, 2019 7:26AM PT Eric Sundermann, head of content for The Fader, was fired by the company after an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct that initially emerged on Twitter. A rep for the company confirmed Sundermann’s departure to Variety, but denied a report in Billboard stating that publisher Andy Cohn was also under

Niantic, the company behind games like “Pokemon Go,” “Ingress” and “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite,” began opening up its technology to third-party developers Wednesday, allowing them to build their own location-based augmented reality (AR) games and applications on top of its platform. Niantic is kickstarting these efforts with a $10 million fund for indie developers. The

An army of the undead along the U.S.-Mexico border will collide with drug lords and the American military in “Narcos vs Zombies,” a Mexican TV production coming to Amazon Prime Video in 2020. Amazon announced “Narcos vs Zombies,” an eight-episode series that blends sci-fi, horror and action genres, will be available exclusively next year on

PewDiePie, the popular and controversial YouTube creator, has the same name recognition as NBA superstar Lebron James among young American males — but Pewds has a higher favorability rating than King James and other celebrities, according to a new study. The findings come from research firm Morning Consult, which surveyed Gen Z and millennial consumers

November 5, 2019 10:34AM PT For some new subscribers to Disney Plus, there’s an extra cost to getting the ad-free streaming service: A commercial. Consumers signing up for the much-anticipated Disney streaming-video outlet will see an offer to take out a similar subscription to Starz’ own over-the-top offering, according to a person familiar with the

Want to watch “Sesame Street,” but don’t have an HBO subscription? There’s now another option, courtesy of the library streaming platform Kanopy: Users can now stream 24 episodes of the kids show for free, without any commercials. Granted, the episodes in question aren’t exactly new: Kanopy is streaming a dozen episodes each from “Sesame Street”

Critical Role’s upcoming animated series “The Legend of Vox Machina” — based on storylines in the group’s long-running role-playing show — has found a streaming home. Amazon’s Prime Video nabbed exclusive streaming rights to two seasons of “Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina,” which originated as a fan-supported project on Kickstarter and set a

Paul Maidment, the editorial director of G/O Media whose directive to Deadspin staff to write only about sports led to the entire editorial team quitting last week, has resigned his position effective immediately. “It is the right moment for me to leave to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity,” Maidment said in a memo sent to company

November 5, 2019 8:05AM PT Vevo has released the complete list for its 2020 Vevo DSCVR “Artists to Watch” campaign. “Artists to Watch,” now in its sixth year, presents 20 artists Vevo believes will break through in the coming year, according to the announcement. The platform will premiere two performances from one artist per day, with

America’s finest news source is jumping on the podcast bandwagon. The Onion, the satirical news brand owned by G/O Media, inked a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment to create original podcasts. The first project is “The Topical,” a new daily podcast (seemingly a spoof of the New York Times’ popular “The Daily”) focused on current

SiriusXM announced today that Alex Luke has been named senior VP, digital content for both SiriusXM and Pandora. Luke will lead programming for Pandora and editorial content on the Pandora and SiriusXM digital platforms, according to the announcement. In his newly created position, he will report directly to Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s president and chief content

The NBA is making a cord-cutting play: NBA TV, the league’s 24-hour basketball channel previously available only through a cable or satellite TV provider, is now available as a standalone streaming service. Pro hoops fans can subscribe directly over the internet to NBA TV, which carries over 100 live games per season along with original

Two businesses founded by former music-industry exec Steve Stoute — marketing technology agency Translation Enterprises and artist services firm UnitedMasters — are joining forces to produce new culture-based marketing insights under the leadership of former Nielsen exec Damian Garbaccio. Garbaccio, who has joined Translation Enterprises as president, is tasked with unifying Translation and UnitedMasters’s creative,