Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri unsurprisingly seconded his boss’ internal comments to Facebook staff that a government breakup of the tech colossus wouldn’t help fix issues plaguing social platforms like election interference and the proliferation of hate speech. Mosseri, in an appearance Wednesday on NBC News’ “Today,” addressed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent remarks to employees
Tech
Skydance Interactive is gearing up for the launch of its long-awaited “Walking Dead” virtual reality (VR) game, which it has built in partnership with Skybound Entertainment: The company shared a first trailer for “The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners” Wednesday, and also began to show off parts of the game to media and industry insiders
October 2, 2019 1:27AM PT UPDATED: Twitter and Tweetdeck have suffered outages affecting users in various parts of the world. Twitter’s official support account tweeted that it had been experiencing problems at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, U.K. time (10 p.m. Tuesday in Los Angeles). “You might have had trouble Tweeting, getting notifications, or viewing DMs,”
October 1, 2019 6:33PM PT In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv, DreamWorks Animation claims the top spot in spending for the second week in a row with “Abominable.” Ads placed for the kids’ fantasy film had an estimated media value
Movie theater owners are taking the lead in setting requirements for new digital cinema technology. The National Association of Theatre Owners said Tuesday that its executive board approved a resolution that spells out how digital cinema technology will be evaluated. NATO promised that its technology committee will initiate and conduct an open process to understand
Amazon has licensed a selection of Disney titles — including all four “Toy Story” movies, “The Lion King” and “Avengers: Endgame” — for the ecommerce giant’s Prime Video streaming service in Latin America. The deal is set to run for just one year, from Oct. 1 until September 2020. That’s because Disney plans to launch
Location-based virtual reality (VR) startup Nomadic has swapped out its leadership: CEO Doug Griffin stepped down this week, and has been replaced with Cliff Plumer, former CEO of Nomadic competitor The Void, Variety has learned. Griffin became the founding CEO of Nomadic in 2015; Plumer served as the CEO of The Void from 2016 to
The Man in Black is coming to YouTube this fall. YouTube will premiere “The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash,” from director Thom Zimny, on Nov. 11, exclusively streaming the 90-minute documentary for free worldwide. The documentary, for which YouTube acquired streaming rights after its world premiere at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival, features newly
It’s early September, just two months before the Nov. 12 go-live date for Disney Plus. Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services, sits five floors above Chelsea Market, the bustling mall and tourist attraction in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood — in the global nerve center of the Mouse House’s video-streaming operations. On Disney’s earnings call a few
The independent film world has been rattled recently by the apparent closure of do-it-yourself digital distributor Distribber and its parent GoDigital Inc. Los Angeles-based Distribber was launched more than a decade ago as a means of allowing filmmakers to access digital distribution platforms and to monitor their earnings in exchange for an upfront flat fee.
An appeals court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality on Tuesday, but carved out an exception that allows states to set their own rules. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the FCC has the discretion under the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to deregulate internet service. The FCC voted
October 1, 2019 9:16AM PT Parrot Analytics, an analytics company focusing on TV show global demand data and analysis, named Stephanie Allen to the newly created position of partnerships director, brands and media. Allen is based in the company’s L.A. headquarters and reports to Courtney Williams, head of partnerships. Allen most recently was with Reddit,
As widely expected, TiVo unveiled a new version of its DVR dubbed TiVo Edge Tuesday. The company also announced a new ad-supported streaming service called TiVo Plus that will be exclusive to users of the company’s devices. The new TiVo Edge combines 4K Dolby Vision HDR video playback capabilities with Dolby Atmos sound, and can
Viacom’s streamer, Pluto TV, has launched a dedicated “Degrassi” channel on its ad-supported streaming platform. The pop-up channel will be programmed with “Degrassi: The Next Generation” and installments of the later “Degrassi” series. The channel is available on Pluto TV in the U.S. and U.K., offering hundreds of episodes from the teen drama series, which
Pandora is unveiling a major refresh to its mobile app that puts a bigger emphasis on discovery, while also giving users an easy way to fine-tune their favorite stations. The new app is launching for both iOS and Android devices, and will be available to all mobile users in the coming weeks. The revamp of
VidCon announced the 11th annual VidCon US will be held June 17–20, 2020, at the Anaheim Convention Center. VidCon, which is owned by Viacom, also unveiled its first slate of featured creators for the annual flagship confab celebrating online video and digital creators. Those include well-known names in the YouTube space like Molly Burke, Joey
October 1, 2019 5:49AM PT Facing new competition for consumers’ entertainment spending, Sony is slashing the price of the PlayStation Now game-subscription service — with the monthly tier now starting at $9.99, down from $19.99 previously. Sony Interactive Entertainment also said PlayStation Now will add new limited-time titles such as “Grand Theft Auto V” and
CNN is bringing back Anderson Cooper’s live weekday digital news show — originally funded by Facebook for its Watch video service — with a new iteration that won’t be as heavy on the D.C. beat. The new “Anderson Cooper Full Circle” premieres Tuesday, Oct. 1, streamed live on CNN mobile apps and web at 5
IPG Mediabrands’s UM media and marketing agency tapped Dawn Reese, formerly a top exec at RTL Group’s now-defunct StyleHaul, to head UM Studios. Reese has been named senior VP, managing director of UM Studios, the agency’s creative content unit. She is based in L.A. and reports to Brendan Gaul, UM’s global chief content officer and
In today’s film news roundup, Kino Lorber has started a VOD platform, Tony Todd is starring in a horror-comedy, the Red Nation International Film Festival sets its lineup and ballet dancer Kirsten Bloom Allen starts a production company. VOD DISTRIBUTION Arthouse distribution specialist Kino Lorber is launching VOD platform Kino Now with more than 600
October, the spookiest month of the year, is here and Amazon has updated its slate of movie and television offerings accordingly. “The Babadook,” the indie Australian movie that’s the stuff of nightmares, will be available to stream on Oct. 14. HBO’s continuation of Alan Moore’s macabre meditation on superheroes, “Watchmen,” premieres on Oct. 20. For
WarnerMedia announced several operational executive appointments for HBO Max, its premium service teed up to enter the streaming wars next year, under the leadership of Otter Media CEO Tony Goncalves. HBO Max is slated to launch in the spring of 2020, with some 10,000 hours of content, including originals, library titles and licensed programming. WarnerMedia
“Please don’t.” My wife wasn’t exactly happy when I told her that I wanted to install a device in our living room that would be able to recognize her face and record videos whenever somebody walked by. What ultimately won her over was the photo frame — but my family never quite made peace with
Starting tomorrow, PUBG Mobile players can take on the form of key characters from “The Walking Dead” and use weapons and vehicles featured in AMC’s long-running zombie apocalypse series. Beginning Oct. 1 and into early 2020, PUBG Mobile players can opt to traverse the battlefield as familiar heroes — or legendary villain Negan — from
September 30, 2019 8:51AM PT Verizon has acquired the software, technology and other assets of Disney-backed augmented and virtual reality startup Jaunt XR. Terms of the acquisition haven’t been disclosed, but the acquisition is likely going to be the final chapter in Jaunt’s story. “Jaunt will be assisting Verizon with the transition of select portions
September 30, 2019 7:33AM PT As promised, Amazon finally launched YouTube TV — Google’s $50-per-month internet pay-TV package — for most of its Fire TV devices. The move comes after Amazon and Google reached détente on their years-long business spat earlier this year. Under the agreement, in July, Amazon launched the free YouTube app on
Hayu, NBCUniversal’s subscription video platform specializing in reality TV programming, has launched in The Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore. The expansion brings to 14 the number of markets in which the service now operates. Targeting a base of viewers who are keen fans of the reality genre, Hayu includes over 6,000 episodes of reality content
Hayu, NBCUniversal’s subscription video platform specializing in reality-TV programming, has launched in the Philippines, Hong Kong and Singapore. The expansion brings to 14 the number of markets in which the service now operates. Targeting viewers who are keen fans of the reality genre, Hayu includes more than 6,000 episodes of reality content from more than
Did Major League Baseball’s first batch of exclusive game broadcasts on YouTube knock it out of the park — or were they just a decent digital at-bat? Overall, across 13 MLB games live-streamed on YouTube during the 2019 season, the live average number of views was 1.2 million, including pre- and post-game shows. Total average
There’s no question Hulu wants to get its viewers in the Halloween mood — the streaming service will add a fresh slate of horror movies to its collection once October hits. In addition to watching Jigsaw psychologically torture victims in “Saw,” “Saw 2” and “Saw 6,” audiences will also be able to see the original