Michelle Phan, YouTube’s OG beauty influencer, two years ago told fans she was quitting the video platform, saying she was unhappy, exhausted from the grind and needed time off to reset. Now, she’s back on YouTube — but not with the vlog videos that catapulted Phan to internet fame. Early Saturday, Phan launched a live
Tech
Under a reorg at AT&T’s WarnerMedia, Tony Goncalves, CEO of Otter Media, will now lead the development of the forthcoming WarnerMedia direct-to-consumer service. In addition, Andy Forssell, most recently COO of Otter Media and former CEO of Hulu, will move into the role of EVP and GM of the new, as-yet-unnamed streaming service, reporting to
May 31, 2019 11:50AM PT Samsung seems to have a few more headsets under wraps, if new remarks from the company’s director of developer relations for XR and gaming Farshid Fallah are any indication. At this week’s Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., Fallah said that Samsung had plans to release “multiple AR and
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is selling Placed — a provider of user-location data it bought two years ago — to Foursquare, which was a competitor to Placed. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Snap bought Placed two years ago for $132.5 million in cash, per a company regulatory filing. Foursquare also announced Friday
Amazon reportedly has its eyes on snapping up Sprint’s Boost Mobile — which would give it direct wireless connections with customers to let them instantly buy more products and stream Prime Video and Amazon Music anywhere in the U.S. The e-commerce giant is mulling a bid for Boost Mobile, the Sprint-owned prepaid virtual mobile operator,
After a nearly yearlong search, struggling entertainment tech and DVR company TiVo announced that Dave Shull has been appointed president and CEO. Shull, who also will become a member of the TiVo board, will start in the position effective May 31. Interim president/CEO Raghu Rau will assume the role of vice chairperson. Shull, formerly CEO
May 30, 2019 10:15AM PT Chinese augmented reality upstart Nreal announced a $499 consumer version of its Light AR glasses at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara, Calif. Thursday. The consumer edition is similar to the AR glasses the Nreal first showed off at CES earlier this year, but uses a phone for
Amazon today released “Still Ill: 25 Years of ‘Ill Communication,’” a 15-minute documentary focusing, obviously enough, on the 25th anniversary of the Beastie Boys’ landmark album “Ill Communication.” While a 15-minute documentary might seem short, the format is actually quite informative and effective: By focusing on an eventful five-year period in the group’s history —
Netflix is raising the prices of its most popular streaming plans for U.K. subscribers. The rate hikes come after Netflix has implemented similar increases in the U.S. and parts of Latin America earlier this year. For U.K. members, the monthly subscription rate for its Standard plans, which provides up to HD simultaneous streams per account,
Peleton is bulking up its programming muscle with the hire of two television and digital-media execs to lead the fitness-tech company’s original content division: Jennifer Cotter, a former senior exec at HSN, is its new chief content officer, and longtime Scripps exec Kevin Chorlins joins as senior VP of content. The duo will lead Peleton’s
Peloton is bulking up its programming muscle with the hire of two television and digital-media execs to lead the fitness-tech company’s original content division: Jennifer Cotter, a former senior exec at HSN, is its new chief content officer, and longtime Scripps exec Kevin Chorlins joins as senior VP of content. The duo will lead Peloton’s
Univision will dramatically expand the size of its YouTube creator network with the addition of the ACE Family, a fast-growing channel run by L.A.-based couple Austin McBroom and Catherine Paiz. The ACE Family launched in 2016 with prank videos before turning to vlogging about their family life. McBroom, a former NCAA basketball player, and Paiz,
May 30, 2019 6:55AM PT Streaming has literally changed the world — it’s bringing music and the businesses around it to previously under-optimized territories, and the results are already in full effect. Latin America has become a streaming powerhouse, China and India are well on their way, and the major labels are moving aggressively into
ATTN: hired Mike Hadgis, a seven-year veteran of Vox Media, as the digital-media start-up’s first chief business officer and promoted Taryn Crouthers to chief operating officer. In the newly created role, Hadgis will oversee all of the company’s business and revenue operations, including ATTN:’s ad sales, branded content, consulting, international and experiential deals. He starts
Audiobook publisher Dreamscape Media has struck a deal with Marvel Entertainment to distribute a few dozen of the Marvel’s iconic comic books as read‐to‐me style audiobooks. The titles will be made available for sale, and also added to the free library lending app Hoopla, starting in September. Some of the comic books covered by the
Hulu sells an ad-free version of its streaming service, just like Netflix. But the majority of Hulu subscribers are on the $5.99-per-month ad-supported plan, which is half the price of the $11.99 no-commercials version. Hulu has previously disclosed subscriber numbers — announcing 28 million customer accounts earlier this month — but hasn’t broken those out
Amazon just made smart displays even more affordable: The e-commerce giant introduced a new version of its Echo Show smart display Wednesday that costs just $89.99. The new Echo Show 5, as it is being called by the company, features a 5.5-inch display, which is about half the size of the company’s full-sized Echo Show
May 29, 2019 6:00AM PT HTC’s Viveport Infinity VR subscription service will be coming to Windows Mixed Reality headsets next month. VR headsets powered by Microsoft’s platform will have access to the service starting June 5, the company announced Wednesday. Viveport Infinity offers subscribers access to an unlimited number of VR games and apps for
Tidal has announced a series of listening events across the globe for members to experience the forthcoming album from Prince’s estate, “Originals.” The 15-track album features 14 previously unreleased Prince recordings of songs he composed that were made famous by other artists, including “Nothing Compares 2 U,” “Manic Monday” and “The Glamorous Life.”. The tracks
Funimation, as part of its expansion push under Sony Pictures Television’s ownership, acquired Manga Entertainment, a London-based distributor of anime titles in the U.K. and Ireland. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Funimation will merge Manga’s business with the Funimation U.K. home entertainment business and will begin distributing many shows in the Manga catalog
NBC is serving up the video news for which it is known – but doesn’t mind if you don’t get it through your TV. NBC hopes a rising generation of news junkies will turn to its new streaming-video service for the long and short of it all. The new offering, NBC News Now, provides minutes-long
May 28, 2019 9:18PM PT In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv, Universal Pictures claims the top spot in spending for the second week in a row with “The Secret Life of Pets 2.” Ads placed for the animated film had an estimated
May 28, 2019 4:36PM PT Facebook’s new Oculus Quest virtual reality (VR) headset seems to be a hit with early adopters, causing inventory shortages at a number of retailers. A week after its official launch, the headset was sold out at Amazon, Walmart and Newegg Tuesday. A Facebook spokesperson acknowledged the inventory issues in a
May 28, 2019 3:43PM PT Industry veteran Monika Shergill has been hired by Netflix as it new head of series and international originals with a focus on India. Shergill was previously executive VP and head of content at Viacom 18 Digital Ventures from 2015, where she was responsible for launching several multi-lingual series on its
May 28, 2019 12:55PM PT Twitter is looking for a “master in the art of Twitter” to be its “Tweeter in Chief” — someone who will be in charge of how the social network portrays itself on its own platform. “You’ll set the tone of who we are and how we act, and tell our
Apple has been sued by three consumers who allege that the company violated their privacy by sharing information about their music listening habits with third parties. The lawsuit, which was filed late last week in California, alleges that Apple has been selling this type of data directly, while also giving iOS app developers access to
MacKenzie Bezos, one of the world’s richest women after her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, joined a pledge to donate at least half her wealth — currently estimated to be around $37 billion — to charitable causes. MacKenzie and Jeff Bezos finalized the terms of their divorce in April, under which she will get
May 28, 2019 6:31AM PT Chinese entertainment tech firm VSOCloud has set up a joint venture company in Malaysia, with Prodigital Lab, part of leading local production and services firm KRU. The new VSOCloud Southeast Asia will use the Suzhou-based Chinese parent’s rendering and crowd-sourcing platform to provide rendering services to film, animation and other
Reddit has appointed Personal Capital chief marketing officer Porter Gale to its board of directors, the company announced Tuesday. Gale is Reddit’s first female board member, and her appointment coincides with the departure of longtime board member and Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois. “Porter has extensive experience building bold, fast-growing companies that put their
Confirming a previous Variety report, a new company called Meta View announced Tuesday that it has acquired the intellectual property assets of failed augmented reality (AR) startup Meta. Meta View won’t be selling Meta’s AR headset anymore, but said that it would continue to support existing users of the device. Meta View is being led