Ellen DeGeneres’ Ellen Digital Network is bringing Lea Michele and viral star Jay Shetty into its programming lineup — doubling down on comedic and uplifting content keying off the popular TV talk show host’s brand. The new projects with Michele and Shetty, announced at Ellen Digital’s Digital Content NewFronts event, join EDN’s slate of shows,
Tech
May 2, 2019 10:39AM PT Spotify wants its listeners to literally respond to ads: The company has begun to test voice ads, which encourage listeners to give voce commands in order to explore additional content related to the ad. The test is limited to a subset of U.S.-based users of Spotify’s free, ad-supported tier. One
May 2, 2019 9:25AM PT Oculus founder and former Facebook employee Palmer Luckey took to Twitter Wednesday night to express his support for the Oculus Quest, Facebook’s latest VR headset that will go on sale later this month. “I endorse Oculus Quest,” Luckey tweeted — a show of support that’s notable, especially since Luckey’s departure
Katie Couric’s career as a digital storyteller continues: She’s been tapped to host “#SeeHer Story,” an inspirational weekly digital series spotlighting “often-overlooked women” for People magazine. The show is part of parent company Meredith’s slate of seven new shows centered around the #SeeHer movement, an initiative launched by the Association of National Advertisers to promote
May 2, 2019 7:09AM PT In the wake of SiriusXM completing its $3.5 billion acquisition of Pandora, 60 people have been let go, according to an internal memo sent to the company’s staff by CEO Jim Meyer. A source noted to Variety that not all of the affected employees were at Pandora; the news was
May 2, 2019 6:28AM PT Gaming peripheral creator turned gamer lifestyle company Razer is, if its CEO can be believed, finally in the process of creating a toaster. The Razer Toaster — a black and green toaster that can burn the company’s iconic triple-headed snake logo into bread — started life as a bizarre side-project
All 100 episodes of “Anger Management,” the sitcom starring Charlie Sheen that previously aired on FX, are now streaming exclusively on free, ad-supported streaming service Tubi. Tubi inked the licensing pact for the show with Lionsgate. “Anger Management” had a record-setting debut on FX in 2012, scoring at the time as the most-watched scripted cable
May 1, 2019 3:15PM PT Niantic’s location-based augmented reality mobile game “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite” kicked off a beta in Austra and New Zealand on Wednesday. Those interested, and who live in the area or have an account from the area, can download the game from the App Store or Google Play to start testing
May 1, 2019 2:19PM PT Vudu, Walmart’s streaming service, on Wednesday announced “Variety’s First Look,” a new entertainment magazine show to air exclusively on the platform. This weekly branded, half-hour program will be produced by Variety Content Studio, the branded content arm of Variety. “Variety’s First Look” will give Vudu viewers inside access to films
YouTube decided that its top priority was to protect children when it disabled the ability for viewers to leave comments on videos featuring kids earlier this year — even though the video giant was aware the move would frustrate many content creators, according to CEO Susan Wojcicki. In February, YouTube announced that it would shut
Vice Media for years has operated independent vertical brands online for different topic areas, which it calls “channels” — like Vice News, Munchies (food), Noisey (music), and Motherboard (tech). As of this week, Vice is folding all of its content into Vice.com with the separate channels either becoming feature sections, getting repurposed into new formats,
Disney has hired Michael Cerda, former chief product officer of Goldman Sachs’ Marcus online consumer bank division, as VP of product for Disney+. Cerda will be responsible for the end-to-end Disney+ consumer experience across mobile and connected-TV devices for the subscription-video service, which is slated to launch in the U.S. on Nov. 12 at an
Nvidia and Red Hat are the latest high-profile companies to join the Academy Software Foundation, a consortium that aims to help Hollywood with the adoption and development of open source tools. The foundation has also taken two additional open source projects, OpenEXR and OpenCue, under its wings. In addition to Nvidia and Red Hat, the
Hulu kicked off 2019 by rapidly packing on subscribers — driven by price cuts and promos — with the streamer announcing that its total customer base has swelled to over 28 million. And the money-losing company, now majority-owned by Disney, is investing in more original content in a bid to sustain that momentum. Hulu’s sub
Netflix is adding high-quality audio feeds to its catalog, and introducing adaptive audio streaming to make sure its members are getting the best-possible sound based on the speed of their internet connection. The streaming service announced Tuesday that it is upgrading the quality of its 5.1 and Dolby Atmos audio tracks, with members with compatible devices
May 1, 2019 6:00AM PT Hulu plans to launch another ad format tailored to the viewing habits of the streaming-video junkie. The company, controlled by Walt Disney and Comcast, said it plans to launch a new format that “will make it possible for marketers to target binge viewers with a creative that is situationally relevant
VideoAmp, a company focused on optimizing cross-platform advertising, has raised $70 million in new funding led by investment bank the Raine Group. The funding brings total funding to about $106.6 million. Raine Group invested $50 million in the round with venture-capital firm Ankona Capital contributing $20 million. Previous VideoAmp investors include Mediaocean and RTL Group. VideoAmp
Chuck Rosenberg is charting an unusual course for a TV-news outlet. NBC News will be ecstatic in coming days if Rosenberg’s conversations with newsmakers are heard but not seen. A former U.S. Attorney and FBI Chief of Staff, Rosenberg these days is better known as a contributor for MSNBC. Starting today, he will add to
April 30, 2019 2:01PM PT Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt will step down from the board of Alphabet, Google’s holding company, in June, Alphabet announced Tuesday afternoon. Diane Greene, who until recently led Google’s cloud business, will also depart from the board. Alphabet announced that one of those two board seats will be filled by
Apple posted better earnings and revenue than Wall Street expected for the March 2019 quarter — even as sales of its flagship iPhones were $6.5 billion lighter in the period, down 17%. For the quarter ended March 30, which is Apple’s fiscal year 2019 second quarter, the company reported revenue of $58.0 billion, down 5%
Condé Nast wants Madison Avenue to believe that its video programming represents a “new primetime” for reaching coveted audiences that are abandoning TV — and the media company has a gigantic development slate prepped in a bid to drive even more viewership in the coming year. All told, Condé Nast said it has 50 returning
Easter, Passover and 4/20 will all be left behind in April, but there’s plenty to celebrate with Netflix’s May lineup. Netflix is handing viewers a red pill to go down the rabbit hole of not one, but all three “Matrix” movies. Viewers can also watch Hunter S. Thompson’s alter ego Raoul Duke take different types
Less than a week after Jim Spanfeller, CEO of the newly formed G/O Media, said he was not expecting to make layoffs at the company — encompassing the former Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion, sold by Univision earlier this month — it has let go 25 staffers. The 25 employees leaving G/O Media represent
Facebook is giving its Portal video chat device a number of updates that turn it into more of a full-fledged smart display: Amazon’s Prime Video service is coming to Portal later this year, the social networking giant announced at its f8 developer conference in San Jose, Calif. Tuesday. At the conference, Facebook also announced an
Smosh, one of YouTube’s most popular and longest-running comedy squads, has officially joined the Studio71 creator network. The move isn’t a surprise: Smosh earlier this year was acquired by Mythical Entertainment, the company formed by Rhett & Link, hosts of comedy show “Good Mythical Morning” — which also is part of Studio71’s roster. Smosh had
There are ten new virtual reality headsets coming out in 2019, at least according to Valve — which is contributing one to that number. Two of those are coming from Facebook-owned Oculus: the Oculus Rift S — which offers an iterative improvement over the Rift — and the Oculus Quest — a sort of hybrid
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg used his keynote speech during the company’s F8 developer conference Tuesday to announce a redesigned Facebook app and website. The new app will be available Tuesday to U.S. consumers, and come to the rest of the world in the first half of the year. Facebook’s new desktop version will roll out
Get ready for Instagram influencers to peddle more stuff to you: Facebook is set to announce at its f8 developer conference in San Jose, Calif. Tuesday that Instagram is rolling out a feature called shopping from creators next week. The new feature will allow creators to tag products in their photos, and make them instantly
Two former Roku executives are getting ready to compete with their old colleagues in the TV advertising space: Steve Shannon, formerly senior vice president of content and services at the streaming device maker, and Jim Lombard, who headed advertising sales at Roku, came out of stealth with their new smart TV advertising startup Tetra TV
Google has released its ranking of the most searched boy bands so far in 2019. Why now, when barely a quarter of the year has passed? Because, as *NSYNC made famous back in 2000, it’s gonna be May. (Read more about the nearly 20-year road to meme here.) So where does the group that just