“Chasing Happiness,” a documentary about the newly reunited Jonas Brothers, will premiere Tuesday, June 4, exclusively on Amazon Prime Video worldwide. The film promises never-before-seen footage of Nick, Joe, and Kevin Jonas, starting with their early days growing up in New Jersey in a family struggling to make ends meet. It follows them to their
Tech
High Fidelity, the virtual worlds startup led by Second Life founder Philip Rosedale, laid off 20 staffers, or about 25% of its staff, this week. Rosedale said in a blog post that the company was changing course to focus on enterprise communication, and blamed lower-than-expected VR headset adoption for the decision. “If you had asked
SoulPancake, the digital media company founded by Rainn Wilson, has tapped a bunch of comedians to talk about depression and suicide — part of a month-long focus on mental health. The Participant Media-owned company is running special block of programming in May dedicated to mental-health issues. A key pillar in the lineup is a documentary
Refinery29 was ahead of the curve among digital-native publishers in emphasizing video as a means of keeping users engaged for longer stretches and on a more frequent basis. Amy Emmerich, president North America and chief content officer for the lifestyle brand aimed at young women, says that that early focus on ramping up short- and
May 8, 2019 6:45AM PT Lindsay Rothschild arrives from Google where she led songwriter and publisher relations for YouTube. Apple Music is continuing to build out its publishing division, recently hiring Lindsay Rothschild as Head of Creative Services, Music Publishing, for North America, Variety has learned. Rothschild arrives from Google where she led songwriter and publisher
May 7, 2019 9:24PM PT In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv, Lionsgate claims the top spot in spending with “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.” Ads placed for the action thriller had an estimated media value of $5.09 million through Sunday for
Android TV didn’t get any keynote stage time at Google’s I/O developer conference in Mountain View, Calif. Tuesday, but the company still used the event to share some updates for its smart TV platform. Most notably, Android TV will be making making it easier to sign up for video subscription services. To do this, Google
When Google introduced the next version of its Android operating system at its Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, Calif. Tuesday, it also previewed a new feature that could give a massive boost to video viewing on the go: Live Caption will allow Android users to turn on captions for any video running on
Google added a new mid-range device to its phone line-up Tuesday: The new Pixel 3a is available for $399 effective immediately. The company is also bringing its entire phone line-up, including last year’s Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL, to a range of new mobile carriers, including Sprint and T-Mobile. The Pixel 3a comes with a
As Google is further integrating the Nest brand, it is also introducing some significant changes to the way Nest products will work. The most notable one: The company will discontinue its Works With Nest program this summer, which has the potential to break a number of existing smart home integrations. Google is justifying this step
Google used its I/O developer conference in Mountain View, Calif. Tuesday to introduce a new smart display device: Nest Hub Max, as the device is being called, features a 10-inch screen, a better-sounding speaker, and an integrated camera for video chatting that doubles as a Nest security camera and also offers gesture control. Nest Hub
Anime network and distributor Funimation has a new general manager: Colin Decker, who was once a senior executive at Crunchyroll, Funimation’s chief rival. Sony Pictures Television appointed Decker as GM after Funimation founder Gen Fukunaga relinquished day-to-day management duties earlier this year to move into a chairman role. On an interim basis, Decker will report
Facebook is tweaking algorithms that determine how videos are surfaced on the social platform, angling to reward video producers that deliver repeat viewers and longer watch times — and demote those that trade in repurposed content. According to Facebook, it’s going to put more weight on three factors for video ranking: loyalty and viewing intent;
In the end, it wasn’t meant to be. Microsoft had pulled out all the stops for its Build 2019 developer conference keynote Monday morning. The company had partnered with Epic Games and Industrial Light & Magic chief creative officer John Knoll for a hugely ambitious demo of its Hololens 2 headset that aimed to recreate
May 6, 2019 6:57AM PT The last vestiges of Amazon’s vision of giving anyone in the world a chance to break into the Hollywood big time are getting mothballed next month. As of June 30, 2019, Amazon’s free, web-based tools for scriptwriters — Storywriter and Storybuilder — will no longer be available, according to a
Whether it’s two-part harmony or a 100-member orchestra, some of the greatest music happens when people come together. Policymaking works the same way. Last year, music and tech came together to support the Music Modernization Act (MMA) – a powerful new law that guarantees fair pay for legacy artists on digital radio, boosts royalties for
May 6, 2019 4:58AM PT The European Union will open a preliminary investigation into Apple following Spotify’s antitrust complaint, according to a report published in the Financial Times. In its complaint filed to the European Commission in March, Spotify, which ranks as the the market leader in music streaming, said Apple was “tilting the playing
All 15 seasons of “The Apprentice” franchise, NBC’s quasi-reality TV show that catapulted Donald Trump to national fame, are now available to binge-watch online — for free. Tubi inked a licensing pact for the show with MGM Television, giving the ad-supported VOD provider exclusive streaming rights to all 192 episodes. Tubi on Monday (May 6)
Vice Media, looking to revitalize its flagging business, has gotten a $250 million cash infusion from an investment consortium including billionaire George Soros. The company’s new debt financing was led by 23 Capital, with participation by Soros Fund Management, Fortress Investment Group and Monroe Capital, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The once-high-flying Vice has
May 3, 2019 2:56PM PT Facebook’s new Oculus Quest headset is set to launch with a series of notable games and experiences later this month — but one key service will be missing: Viveport Infinity, HTC’s Netflix-like VR subscription service, won’t be available on the device. Viveport president Rikard Steiber first mentioned the missing support
Vudu wants to entertain Middle America with a lineup of free, ad-supported original streaming content — and the company also envisions the slate as a great way to get consumers to buy stuff from its parent, Walmart. This week, Vudu pulled back the curtain on its upcoming lineup of free-to-watch originals, which execs say is
May 3, 2019 11:48AM PT AMC Networks has shut off public access to a database for its Sundance Now and Shudder subscription-streaming services that was discovered to be accessible on the open internet, after the company was alerted to the issue by a security researcher. The publicly exposed AMC database included 1.62 million total records
The flight from traditional pay TV subscriptions reached new records in the first three months of this year, and online TV subscription services did little to provide relief for their operators. Altogether, the industry lost north of 1 million pay TV subscribers in Q1 after shedding 3.2 million subscribers through all of 2018. BTIG analyst
Has YouTube become the new center of gravity for primetime? That’s the narrative it wants Madison Avenue to believe — especially as it relates to coveted younger demos. The Google-owned video behemoth now counts 2 billion monthly unique users globally, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced at Thursday’s Brandcast marketing event in NYC. That’s up around
Dish Network, already hurting from cord-cutting, again felt an added sting because of HBO and Univision programming blackouts for the first quarter of 2019. The company posted an 8% decline in both revenue and profit, amid a loss of 266,000 net satellite TV subscribers in the period (versus a decline of 185,000 in Q1 2018)
May 2, 2019 4:45PM PT YouTube’s originals slate is now focused on three areas — music, learning and personality-driven programming — coming after it recently canceled a bunch of scripted shows. It’s still in the scripted game, announcing the renewal of “Cobra Kai” for season 3, but much of its output from here on out
May 2, 2019 4:45PM PT Justin Bieber is teaming up with YouTube to do… something. The Google-owned video giant teased a partnership with Bieber for what it labeled “a top-secret project premiering next year.” It “promises to be one of the most talked-about YouTube originals ever,” said Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s chief business officer, announcing the
YouTube is officially bringing all of its original series and specials — available for free, with ads — starting this year. It’s shift in strategy for YouTube, which has previously made premium content available only to subscribers of YouTube Premium, which costs $11.99 monthly in the U.S. In some cases, however, YouTube will selectively window
Verizon Media, the telco’s digital content unit, is looking for a buyer for its blogging platform Tumblr, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The sale comes amid users turning their back on Tumblr, and Verizon struggling to monetize its user-generated content. A Verizon Media spokesperson declined to comment. There is no word on how much
Facebook permanently banned Infowars founder Alex Jones, far-right provocateurs Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer as well as other prominent far-right figures from its platform on Thursday. The bans follow a previous announcement that the company wasn’t going to allow white nationalism and separatism on its platform anymore. Other far-right figures affected by the ban include