Chinese video streaming giant iQIYI is looking to expand its service across 10 countries within South East Asia. The move would be the NASDAQ-listed company’s first venture beyond Greater China. The move was disclosed on Wednesday by Yang Xianghua, president of membership & overseas business group, iQIYI, as part of a presentation at the APOS
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April 25, 2019 5:58AM PT HBO Asia is to launch its, HBO GO in Malaysia from next month. The South East Asian country will be the fifth to receive the streaming service, following Hong Kong, Indonesia, The Philippines and Singapore Within Malaysia, the company is launching the service exclusively with Astro, HBO’s existing partner for
Netflix just went deeper into hock: The company announced the pricing of unsecured bonds in a transaction raising around $2.2 billion, giving it more cash to invest in content, real estate and infrastructure. The streamer had said Tuesday that it planned to raise $2 billion through a new debt offering, bringing its long-term debt to
Facebook executives expect that the company will have to pay as much as $5 billion as a result of an ongoing FTC investigation into its privacy practices, they revealed in Facebook’s Q1 2019 earnings release Wednesday. As a result of these anticipated charges, Facebook set aside $3 billion in the quarter, which significantly impacted its
The NFL is hoping fans tuning in to the 2019 draft will also be thumbing through Instagram — where they’ll be able to buy the official draft-day hats donned by the top collegiate players picked in the first round. The league is teaming with Instagram to create a first-of-its-kind digital shopping experience for the NFL
April 24, 2019 9:25AM PT Childish Gambino is taking his “Pharos” multimedia franchise to a new platform: Donald Glover’s alter ego released a “Pharos” augmented reality (AR) app for Android phones Wednesday morning, with an iOS version forthcoming at a later time. The app allows users to open up an AR portal in their living
Baobab Studios, the VR studio known for Pixar-quality animated virtual reality short films like “Invasion!” and “Crow: The Legend,” is back at Tribeca Film Festival this week with a new VR short that puts you at the center of the story — and lets you experience bonding around a campfire a million miles from home.
SiriusXM today announced first quarter 2019 operating and financial results — the first since the company completed its acquisition of Pandora Media on Feb. 1 — and its quarterly profit was down 44% from the previous year. It attributed that drop to approximately $76 million of acquisition and other costs related to the Pandora deal, a $31 million one-time benefit
MELILLA, Spain — Spain’s pay TV leader Movistar+ has announced its newest original series, the anti-terrorist police drama-thriller series “La Unidad,” which started filming last week in the small autonomous Spanish community of Melilla, located on the Moroccan coast. One of the biggest international plays to date for Movistar +, the pay TV/SVOD unit of
China’s Tencent Video and global studio Vice Media have joined forces to create a premium youth series exploring hype culture. The eight-part series, with episodes of 25 minutes, will explore a generation obsessed with finding the next big thing. The series to be produced by Vice Studios is earmarked for a late 2019 release through
Variety’s first-ever Silicon Valley conference, presented by PwC, didn’t just bring together the worlds of technology and entertainment, it also provided plenty of insights into the strategies of market leaders, creators and senior executives in this space. Here are 10 key lessons from the event, which was held at the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel in
South Korea’s JTBC Content Hub has become a strategic investor in Iflix, the South East Asia-based video streaming platform. Formed only in 2011, JTBC has rapidly become one of Korea’s most influential broadcasters, with a mix of news, creative dramas and entertainment shows. Its hit dramas include “SKY Castle,” “Misty,” and “Something in the Rain.”
Snap topped Wall Street estimates on the top and bottom lines in the first quarter of 2019 — and the still-unprofitable company managed to show an uptick in Snapchat users for the first time in a year. Revenue for the quarter was $320 million, up 39% year over year, while it narrowed its net loss
Facebook vice president Fidji Simo told the audience of Variety’s Silicon Valleywood presented by PwC on Tuesday that the company was carefully evaluating how to increase the safety of its live streaming feature in the wake of the New Zealand massacre. “We know that we need to do more to protect people on live,” she said,
After testing them with “Game of Thrones” fans and a few dozen other Subreddits for the past couple of months, Reddit is now launching two new post types to its entire user base: Events will help communities with discussions about TV show episodes, awards shows, breaking news and more; Collections will help to curate posts,
As Apple’s recent star-studded event for its new TV streaming service demonstrated, the worlds of entertainment and technology are becoming increasingly intertwined — a convergence Variety will explore during its inaugural Silicon Valleywood Summit on April 23 in Menlo Park. Entertainment leaders will join tech giants on the latter industry’s home turf to discuss how
Netflix is going back to the debt markets — to fuel more content spending — announcing plans to issue $2 billion in unsecured bonds. The proposed offering would be the seventh time in four years that Netflix is raising $1 billion or more through debt, and would bring its long-term debt to around $12.3 billion
Content is king — but the queen for direct-to-consumer streaming services is overall user experience, according to a new study. It’s well understood that the price/value ratio for subscription VOD hinges on access to content, including exclusive originals and popular library titles. But just as important is an SVOD offering’s ease-of-use and other consumer-friendly features,
The Paramount+ subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service is to begin operations in Latin America and Brazil from next month. The moves are made possible by deals with Claro Video and with Brazil’s NET. The South America expansion in in addition to the platform’s existing presence in the Nordic region and Central and Eastern Europe. The deal
CNN programming is coming to Pluto TV, Viacom’s free streaming TV service, on a dedicated channel launching for users in the U.S. Tuesday. To be clear, however, it’s not CNN’s live broadcast feed — that’s available only to pay-TV customers on traditional cable or satellite services, and via authenticated access on the web and mobile
Verizon has turned to Google for over-the-top TV: The telco will market and resell YouTube TV to wireless and Fios broadband customers nationwide — leading with 5G early adopters — under a pact with the internet giant. The companies didn’t announce YouTube TV pricing, availability or other details; a Verizon rep said only that the
Twitter turned in another quarter that topped Wall Street earnings estimates and grew its user base on both a daily and monthly basis sequentially — as the company touted success of efforts to thwart abuse on the platform. The social network’s Q1 revenue was $787 million, up 18% year-over-year, and net income was $190.8 million
Singapore’s state-backed Mediacorp has struck a trio of new content production deals. They span partnerships with new tech incubators and producers Wattpad and Vice Media, and a series production deal with Spackman Entertainment. Mediacorp says that the trio of moves reflect an initiative to broaden its content ecosystem, explore fresh ideas and new approaches to
Indian content producer Applause Entertainment will produce a local version of hit BBC crime drama “Luther.” With “Luther,” Applause will continue its business model of assuming the risk of producing shows, and later offering them to OTT platforms as finished works. Starring Idris Elba, “Luther” is now five seasons old. The Indian adaptation will be
The skinniest virtual pay-TV offering available is going by the wayside. Philo, the over-the-top TV company backed by four cable programmers, is eliminating its super-skinny bundle that offered more than 40 channels for just $16 per month for new customers. It’s more evidence that OTT players are being forced to adjust their pricing and packaging
April 22, 2019 10:12AM PT Samsung has officially delayed the launch of its much-anticipated foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, after multiple reviewers experienced issues with the device’s screen. The company said in a statement that it would announce a new release data for the device “in the coming weeks.” The Galaxy Fold had first been
The pace of cord cutting is continuing to accelerate this year, according to a new Convergence Research Group report, with 4.56 million TV households opting to ditch pay TV. By the end of the year, 34% of U.S. households won’t have a traditional TV subscription, according to the research company’s latest “Battle for the American
Disney will roll into the subscription VOD wars with a smaller content selection than rivals — with a strategy of playing to quality, not quantity. Disney+, the Mouse House’s new SVOD entry launching in the U.S. this November at $6.99 monthly, will cost nearly half of Netflix’s standard HD plan. But in its first year,
April 19, 2019 5:20PM PT SiriusXM wants to cater consumers without cars, or cars without compatible stereos, with a new $8 plan for mobile and in-home listening. Dubbed SiriusXM Essential, the plan offers access to 200+ channels featuring the network’s entire music programming, as well comedy, news and select sports channels. Consumers will be able
YouTube has turned to one of its homegrown stars — technology vlogger Marques Brownlee, aka “MKBHD” — for its newest original series. The video platform has greenlit series “Retro Tech” featuring Brownlee, in which he’ll unbox and review vintage technology products that have defined pop culture. The show, slated to debut in December 2019, follows