Longtime advertising and media exec Scott Donaton is departing his gig at Digitas to join Hulu as the Disney-controlled streaming company’s head of creative. In the newly created role, Donaton will lead Hulu’s in-house creative teams that produce brand marketing campaigns spanning all channels, including TV, digital, social media and in-product assets. In addition, he
Tech
China’s Tencent and India’s Times Internet have participated in a $110 million funding round for rapidly growing Indian streamer MX Player, the companies announced on Wednesday. MX is now valued at $500 million, sources familiar with the matter at the Mumbai bourse told Variety. The streamer is also investing in 20 new originals, which will
Spotify is trying to sell more multi-account family-plan subscriptions — by setting up a special “playground of sound” just for kids. The new Spotify Kids app brings together a hand-picked selection of age-appropriate music, singalongs, soundtracks, and stories for kids as young as 3 years old. The app is available in a beta test period
October 29, 2019 4:58PM PT WarnerMedia is taking a lot of cues from other mobile app experiences for the launch of its upcoming HBO Max service: The service’s apps will allow users to listen to podcasts on the go, follow actors similar to the way one would follow influencers on social networks and find content
WarnerMedia revealed the launch date and pricing of HBO Max — and it will cost the same as HBO’s standalone service. The company revealed that HBO Max will debut in May 2020 in the U.S. and cost $14.99 per month. Existing subscribers of HBO Now will get access to HBO Max for no additional charge,
October 29, 2019 1:54PM PT NBC News is planning to add to the hours of programming it already puts out via its morning “Today” franchise and MSNBC. The NBCUniversal news unit said it intends to expand its NBC News Now streaming-video outlet to a full 24 hour, seven day a week service by winter or
October 29, 2019 10:50AM PT Sony is shutting down its live TV subscription service PlayStation Vue: The company announced Tuesday that Vue will be shuttered on January 30 of next year. “Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected,” Sony said in
Netflix responded to the uproar caused by its test of variable playback speeds late Tuesday, pointing out in a blog post that similar features had long been available on DVD players. The company also said that it had no immediate plans to make the feature available to all of its members. The streaming service recently
The Mouse House is set to unleash a healthy streaming roar, if new research is any indication. Disney Plus has the highest awareness among consumers of the four big new subscription-video packages rolling out over the next six months — and, perhaps more important, also wins top intent-to-purchase marks, according to a recent study by
October 29, 2019 9:01AM PT Talent and literary management company Settebello Entertainment and Chinese talent representation and digital media firm VideoUp are entering into a strategic partnership to help Western celebrities and influencers build presences in the Chinese market. Settebello, set up last year by Byron Austen Ashley, will launch social media presences for the
The sight of Apple logo on a red carpet that ran the length of Lincoln Center Plaza drove home magnitude of the moment for entertainment industry insiders at Monday night’s glitzy premiere of “The Morning Show.” The drama series set behind the scene of a network morning news program in turmoil is leading Apple into
When Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg relocated to Apple in 2017 after more than 15 years at Sony Pictures Television, the first thing they did was set up a whirlwind series of meetings with writers, talent agencies and studios. To launch Apple into the extremely competitive original content marketplace, Van Amburg and Erlicht knew
DarkMatter TV, a new ad-supported video service dedicated to horror, sci-fi, action and true crime, is launching on October 31 — just in time to celebrate Halloween with some scary flicks. The new service will be available on Android, iOS, and a number of smart TV platforms. At launch, DarkMatter will offer access to some
Scopely is now a unicorn. The privately held free-to-play mobile-games publisher announced a $200 million Series D funding round, bringing it to $458 million raised to date. That more than doubles Scopely’s valuation to approximately $1.7 billion, according to a source familiar with the transaction — up a cool billion from $700 million when it
Rolling off its deal with Altice’s SFR in August, Amazon has scored a distribution agreement with Free, another major French telco group. Starting on Tuesday, Amazon Prime will be included in the Freebox Delta plan priced at €5.99 ($6.65) per month, at no additional cost. The bundled offer gives subscribers access to Amazon Original series
October 28, 2019 1:24PM PT Google is just like the rest of us: Sometimes, its investments just don’t pan out. The search giant’s corporate parent Alphabet generated a whopping $40.5 billion in revenue in Q3 of 2019, slightly beating analyst expectations. However, a massive $1.5 billion loss on equity securities dragged down net earnings, and
AT&T is telling investors it has the intestinal fortitude to win in the streaming wars — even as its traditional TV business continues to crumble. In guidance the telco provided Monday as part of its third-quarter earnings, AT&T said it will invest in the range of $1.5 billion-$2 billion in HBO Max next year. It
October 28, 2019 9:21AM PT Apple unveiled its long-rumored AirPod Pro earbuds Monday: For a price of $249, the new model promises to have noise cancellation, as well as a transparency mode that will allow users to let in some ambient noise when they don’t want completely shut out the outside world. AirPod Pros will
AT&T chairman-CEO Randall Stephenson has signaled his willingness to consider selling all or part of DirecTV as the satellite provider struggles with major subscriber losses. The AT&T boss was pressed by Wall Street analysts Monday morning during the company’s third-quarter earnings call about the future of DirecTV, which posted a whopping 1.1 million subscriber loss
The Smosh crew will hit the road in their first-ever live tour early next year. “Smosh: Try Not to Laugh” will hit five cities in February 2020, featuring four members of the long-running YouTube comedy troupe performing in the 90-minute shows: co-founder Ian Hecox alongside Courtney Miller, Damien Haas, and Shayne Topp. Hecox told Variety
As so often, the leaks turned out to be right: Nvidia is indeed introducing a revamped version of its Android TV streaming device, complete with a faster processor and a new remote control. In addition to a $200 Pro model, Nvidia is also introducing a new $150 version with a home theater-friendly form factor that
Spotify kept packing on millions of listeners and subscribers for the third quarter of 2019, with the company claiming it’s growing twice as fast as chief rival Apple. The company also announced that CFO Barry McCarthy will retire from Spotify on Jan. 15, 2020, to be replaced by Paul Vogel, who is currently Spotify’s VP
Streaming giant Netflix has agreed to negotiate what would be its first master contract with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Netflix has previously signed deals with the below-the-line union through third-party companies that are signatory to IATSE’s basic film and TV agreement. IATSE international president Matthew Loeb will head negotiations. News of the upcoming
Traditionally, artists have struggled with the idea of selling their music to advertisers. And others, such as Arcade Fire and Adele, have steadfastly refused, citing artistic integrity. But the relationship between creatives and corporations is only getting stronger with the rise of labels like AWOL and Kobalt, and Josh Ocean, the artist who is signed to
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg — aiming to counter skeptics who believe the social network is a chief culprit in promulgating a flood of misinformation — said his company’s new initiative to support journalism and pay publishers is an imperative to support a democratic society. The Facebook CEO appeared at a media event Friday in New
October 25, 2019 10:06AM PT Netflix has been testing variable playback speeds in its Android app, Android Police was first to report Friday. The new feature allows users to play movies and TV shows at a variety of speeds, ranging from 0.5x (half as fast) all the way to 1.5x. The feature is apparently being
WarnerMedia, looking to jump-start its foray into the streaming wars, will give AT&T customers who subscribe to HBO free access to HBO Max — at least initially. When it launches in the spring of 2020, HBO Max will be available to about 10 million AT&T customers who also are HBO subscribers for no additional charge,
October 25, 2019 3:54AM PT Discovery’s charge into international OTT continues apace. Along with Cyfrowy Polsat it is launching an international streaming service programmed with Polish content. U.S. firm Discovery is making multiple international OTT moves. It has partnered with ProSiebenSat.1 on German AVOD service Joyn, which is being primed for international launch. Its Dplay
Earlier this month, the Cool Japan Fund announced an investment of JPY5.5 billion ($50 million) into Gojek, a large tech startup in Indonesia. Gojek simultaneously confirmed its expansion from ride hailing and food delivery into streaming video. Cool Japan says it will work with Gojek to spread Japanese culture in Indonesia through both the platform’s
Amazon continues to ramp up its free one-day shipping program for Prime — but it’s costing a bundle. For the fourth quarter, the e-commerce giant expects to take a $1.5 billion cost “penalty” versus the year-earlier period related to building out one-day shipping, CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts on Amazon’s earnings call Thursday. Most of