Comedian Dan Ahdoot wants to show you a side of celebrities you haven’t seen before — which is why he is having them open up their fridges. Anyone appearing on Ahdoot’s new podcast “Green Eggs & Dan,” which was launched by the podcast network Podglomerate Wednesday, has to bring along a photo of the inside
Tech
Fans of Disney movies and TV shows can now dive into a dedicated music hub on Spotify, featuring seven playlist sections with top hits from Disney animated favorites and music from Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars films. Disney’s No. 1 most-streamed song on Spotify is “Let It Go” from the “Frozen” soundtrack, followed by “Moana”’s
IRUN, Spain — When- and why – do people begin to kill for a cause? Having created “What the Future Holds,” maybe the best reviewed to date of any Movistar + Original Series, Spain’s Mariano Barroso (“The Wolves of Washington”) tackles this question head on in “La Línea Invisible,” a six-part series, again from Movistar
July 16, 2019 1:22PM PT Apple has plans to open its checkbooks for podcasts that would be exclusive to its podcasting apps, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The investments would help the company defend its market leadership in an increasingly crowded field, and fend off competitors like Spotify, Pandora and Luminary. News of the plans sent Spotify’s
July 16, 2019 1:05PM PT Live entertainment digital media company LiveXLive Media today announced that AOL and MTV veteran Dermot McCormack has been named president of the company. According to the announcement, McCormack will lead the business and creative operations of LiveXLive, effective immediately. McCormack previously served as AOL’s Global President of Video and Studios,
The Consumer Technology Association announced changes for CES 2020, intended to make the annual tech show more inclusive, including allowing “tech-based sexual products” to be exhibited for the first time. Next year’s CES, set to run Jan. 7-10, 2020, in Las Vegas, will include sex toys on a “one-year trial basis” as part of the
July 16, 2019 9:35AM PT Cloud-based music mastering and distribution platform Landr has raised a $26 million Series B round of funding. The new founding round was led by the Sony Innovation Fund, microphone manufacturer Shure, state-owned financing corporation Investissement Québec and Fonds de solidarité FTQ. Warner Music, Plus Eight Equity Partners, Slaight Communications, YUL
NBC News has joined Quibi’s ambitious bid to build a mobile subscription TV service. NBCUniversal’s news division plans to build a custom set at 30 Rock where it will produce daily morning and evening newscasts, seven days per week, for Quibi, the well-funded mobile video startup from chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman. The
Membership services startup Patreon just got a major cash infusion: The company announced Tuesday that it has raised a $60 million Series D round of funding led by Glade Brook Capital. Existing investors Thrive Capital, Initialized, Index Ventures, DFJ, Freestyle Capital, Charles River Ventures and Otherwise participated in the funding round as well, which brings
July 16, 2019 1:50AM PT Netflix has ordered a multi-part natural history series on the world’s oceans from Freeborne Media, the production outfit of acclaimed natural-history producer James Honeyborne, who created “Blue Planet II.” Each of the series’ episodes will focus on a different ocean, “combining the disciplines of oceanography, geography and earth sciences to
July 15, 2019 11:49PM PT Streaming giant Netflix has added five originals across genres to its India series slate. “Bombay Begums”, created, written and directed by Alankrita Shrivastava (“Lipstick Under My Burkha”), will follow the varied journeys of five women who bond in contemporary urban India. The series is executive produced by Chernin Entertainment (“The
July 15, 2019 5:39PM PT On July 16 of 1969, the Apollo 11 mission launched to send the first man to the moon. 50 years later, the historic mission is being celebrated in a number of ways — including a few high-tech recreations that make it possible to follow it in real-time, 50 years after
July 15, 2019 2:06PM PT U.S. consumers are expected to spend a combined $26 billion on music and video subscription services this year, according to new estimates from the Consumer Technology Association. That’s up from $20.4 billion in 2018, and nearly twice the amount spent on such services in 2017. Propelled by the continued success
Asked to pick their favorite shows on Netflix, users surveyed put “Orange Is the New Black” at No. 1 and “Stranger Things” at No. 2, topping licensed shows like “The Office” and “Friends,” according to a new study. That suggests that for Netflix, the coming departure of some popular old TV shows — not to
July 15, 2019 10:38AM PT Dish’s AirTV subsidiary is releasing a new streaming device designed to combine over-the-air broadcast TV with the company’s Sling TV service and other streaming services. The new AirTV Mini streaming stick looks similar to a Fire TV stick, and is powered by Google’s Android TV software. The AirTV Mini stick
BMI today announced that David Levin has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Licensing, effective immediately. In his newly expanded role, Levin is responsible for all of BMI’s domestic licensing and revenue generation, encompassing radio, television, digital media, cable, satellite and general licensing. Levin, who will oversee teams in New York and Nashville, reports
James Murdoch, former CEO of 21st Century Fox, has invested $20 million in The Void, a startup specializing in location-based virtual reality (VR) experiences, Variety has confirmed. The funding comes through Murdoch’s Lupa Systems, a holding company that Rupert Murdoch’s younger son established with $1 billion in proceeds from the sale of his stake in 21CF
Norah O’Donnell will make her “CBS Evening News” debut, of course, on TV. But that doesn’t mean CBS News isn’t mindful of the new ways in which news aficionados get their information in an era of smartphone alerts and viral tweets. When O’Donnell launches a new era at the venerable newscast Monday night, complete with
In the wake of its streaming rights acquisition by Amazon Prime, epic series “Hernan” has sold to Mexican broadcaster Azteca and pan-regional pay TV network, The History Channel, which have jointly acquired the series for their respective platforms. Produced by Mexico’s Dopamine, a Salinas Group unit, and Spain’s Onza Entertainment, the eight-episode mega-series marks the
July 12, 2019 11:46AM PT It’s the third song by the singer to reach the milestone. The music video for “Can’t Feel My Face” became The Weeknd’s third video to cross 1 billion views on YouTube. The singer achieved the feat before with “Starboy,” with more than 1.5 billion views, and “The Hills,” with more
Penske Media Corporation has announced its acquisition of Art Market Monitor, eight months after PMC bought ARTnews and Art in America. In an email announcement Friday to PMC staff, Jay Penske said, “I’m excited to share with you that PMC is acquiring Art Market Monitor, the leading authority on art market analysis, pricing, and trends. Art
The FX Plus subscription service is shutting down — another casualty of Disney’s acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox’s assets, and a move coming as FX’s content is set to get funneled into the Disney-controlled Hulu service. FX Plus will no longer be available after Aug. 20, 2019, according to a notice on the
“Gears 5,” the forthcoming installment in the “Gears of Wars” third-person shooter game franchise, will be a smoke-free establishment. The game, set for Sept. 10 release, comes from Xbox Game Studios and game developer The Coalition. The decision to remove all smoking references from “Gears 5” came after not-for-profit anti-smoking organization Truth Initiative approached Turner,
Tastemade signed a nonexclusive licensing deal with Hulu to deliver hundreds of episodes of original food, travel and lifestyle shows on the Disney-controlled streaming service. A total of 24 shows from Tastemade, which average 8-10 episodes each, will roll out on Hulu through the end of 2019. The companies declined to say how long the
SuperAwesome, a digital-marketing startup focused on children under 13, is set to launch Rukkaz, its own video platform for kids and family content creators. The ad-supported video-on-demand site is akin to a YouTube multichannel network in that it does not seek to own or produce the kids-targeted content it supports, but rather allows creators to
After a four-month search, Netflix has found its next CMO: Jackie Lee-Joe, the former chief marketing officer of BBC Studios. Lee-Joe succeeds Kelly Bennett, who announced his retirement from the company earlier this year. She will start at Netflix in September and will be based in Los Angeles. Netflix’s pick of Lee-Joe, an Australian national
July 12, 2019 3:05AM PT After a four-month search, Netflix has found its next CMO: Jackie Lee-Joe, the former chief marketing officer of BBC Studios. Lee-Joe Jackie succeeds Kelly Bennett, who announced his retirement from the company earlier this year. She will start at Netflix in September and will be based in Los Angeles. “Jackie
MADRID — “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”) Part 3 wowed at its world premiere in Madrid Thursday night, boosted by the presence of creator Alex Pina, a 23-strong cast headed by the Professor’s Alvaro Morte and Tokyo’s Ursula Corberó and Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos. Just Episode One was screened and its contents
VidCon, a year and half after Viacom bought the online-video event producer, is heading to another international locale: The first VidCon Asia Summit will be held in Singapore from Dec. 3-4, 2019. In addition, VidCon London will return for its second year, to be held Feb. 20-23, 2020, at ExCel London. The first VidCon London
YouTube is expanding monetization features for its creator base beyond ad revenue — to allow higher-priced channel subscriptions, animated Super Stickers in chat and more merchandise partners — which for some, according to execs, has become a significant chunk of their YouTube income. YouTube also plans to widen the availability of YouTube Giving, a way