After launching food trucks, restaurants, and social justice efforts, chef Roy Choi is about to premiere a six-part series, “Broken Bread,” that looks at the ways food can be an agent of change. The series debuts May 15 on PBS channel KCET in Southern California and will stream on Tastemade TV’s streaming platform. In the
Tech
UPDATED: Sony Pictures Television is spinning its free Crackle streaming network into a joint venture called “Crackle Plus” — which doesn’t own rights to the crackleplus.com domain name. But Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, which is assuming control of Crackle as majority owner, says there’s no issue because there were never plans to launch
People who peek into Fox Nation end up wanting to move there. Fox News’ top executive says 85% of people who take a one-week free trial of the company’s subscription-based Fox Nation streaming-video service are electing to stay on board, the latest signal of consumer interest in broadband-delivered video. The trend is surfacing as more
Gigi Hadid is one of America’s top models. At 23, she’s fronted campaigns for a staggering number of fashion brands, including Marc Jacobs, Prada, Chanel and Maybelline. She’s chronicled her adventures on the runway — and off — with her social media account, where 47 million fans follow her on Instagram. She’s branched out as
The global recorded music market grew by 9.7% in 2018 — its fourth consecutive year of growth — to $19.1 billion, according the latest annual report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Streaming revenue grew by 34.0% and accounted for almost half (47%) of global revenue, powered by a 32.9% increase in
April 2, 2019 6:08AM PT Valve accidentally revealed that its upcoming virtual reality headset has a tentative release date of June 15 in a product page, spotted by Twitter user Wario64 on Monday. Valve teased its upcoming Valve Index over the weekend with only an image and a note saying “upgrade your experience May 2019.”
As India, the world’s largest democracy, gears up for a gigantic general electoral process, global social media companies are putting their own houses in order. The election runs in seven phases from April 11 through May 19, with results known on May 23. Approximately 900 million Indians, many of whom are constantly exposed to social
The Singapore government has introduced legislation to combat the spread of misinformation online. The proposed law puts responsibility on media and social media platforms, requires online corrections, and threatens to take away profits of repeat offenders. The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill was introduced by the Ministry of Law, and put to parliament
April 1, 2019 2:53PM PT Chaka Zulu has joined Spotify as Head of Artist and Talent Relations, the company confirmed today. Zulu, the longtime manager of Ludacris and cofounder of the Disturbing Tha Peace label, made the announcement in an Instagram post. “I am excited to share that I am joining the Spotify team as
April 1, 2019 12:53PM PT Tom Conrad has joined Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi to lead product and customer support, becoming the latest addition to the ambitious short-form video venture’s senior management team. Conrad, a former Snap and Pandora exec, had been serving as a board adviser to Quibi since late last year. He was tapped as
Facebook wants to launch a dedicated tab within its app to aggregate content from news publishers, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed during a conversation with Springer CEO Mathias Doepfner Monday morning. Plans for the news section are still in early stages, according to Zuckerberg, who said that the company was looking for input from the news
Jason Rubin can envision an Oculus Rift 2, how Facebook’s virtual reality headset would need to evolve to earn a number, rather than a letter after its name. And it’s clearly much more than what the Oculus Rift S will deliver this spring. Rubin, vice president in charge of content at Oculus, tells Variety that
UPDATED: Discovery and BBC Studios have inked a nearly $400 million programming deal that will see high-end natural history programming from the latter play on a new Discovery global streaming service set for launch by 2020. Under a decade-long deal, Discovery has acquired a raft of BBC content for its new SVOD service and will
Three series from strong creative voices – Shane Meadows’ “The Virtues,” Nir Bergman’s “Just for Today” and the Fabrice Gobert-directed, and Netflix-backed, “Mytho” – shared major honors at an enlarged, hectic 10th Series Mania, now firmly established in festival, industry and discussion forum terms as one of the major TV events in Europe. A story
March 30, 2019 12:07PM PT Christian-focused production company Pure Flix’s latest release, “Unplanned,” had its Twitter account restored Saturday after it was briefly suspended. “Thank you everyone for your support in letting Jack & Twitter know when our Unplanned movie account was recently suspended without cause,” the film’s account tweeted Saturday. “We are back and
Valve’s teasing what appears to be a new virtual reality headset called the Valve Index with an image and the note to “upgrade your experience May 2019.” While there have been leaks about a Valve-designed virtual reality headset, the page for the Valve Index only features an image and those words. The headset appears to
Is it chicken soup for the AVOD soul that will create a category leader? Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, a relatively small entertainment and media company, is hoping to vault into one of the industry’s top ad-supported video-on-demand players through its deal to take control of Sony’s Crackle — the latest in its roll-up
Viacom’s Nickelodeon plans to stir new technology into its Noggin subscription service with the acquisition of Sparkler — a move that promises to give parents tools to guide the learning of their preschool-age kids. Nick on Friday announced the deal to acquire New York-based Sparkler, an early-childhood learning technology platform. The cabler also appointed Sparkler
Paris-based company Indie Sales has enlisted the support of the Mukwege Foundation, the org created by Nobel Peace Prize winning Congolese doctor and activist Denis Mukwege, for its animated documentary “Zero Impunity.” “Zero Impunity” is part of a global transmedia project combining investigative journalism and activism focused on ending the seemingly blanket impunity for sexual
SiliconDust, maker of the HDHomerun connected TV tuners, is getting out of the pay TV business, at least for now: The company has informed its users that it is shutting down its Premium TV service over the next 30 days. The news comes after major Hollywood studios had sued the company supplying SiliconDust with TV
Facebook is bringing live Major League Baseball games back to its video-streaming platform for a third straight year — but is coming to the plate with a much lighter schedule. Under the social network’s 2019 one-year renewal with the league, Facebook will carry six live, regular-season games (one per month) globally on Facebook Watch, excluding
It’s most frightening the first time. That isn’t to say that one every adjusts to the scares while playing through the 40 mini-games of “Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted” with the PlayStation 4’s virtual reality headset. But that first moment when one of the creepy people-sized animatronics lurches into your face screaming as
March 29, 2019 9:37AM PT Google has removed a controversial app from Texas-based Living Hope Ministries that advocated for gay conversion therapy after coming under pressure from civil rights groups and the public. The app suggested that users could “pray away the gay,” and disparaged homosexuality as a “destructive lifestyle.” “After consulting with outside advocacy
The company behind “Fortnite” wants to become the next Facebook or Google, said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. The idea isn’t much of a stretch. While “Fortnite” began life as a relatively mundane game it continues to evolve, first by adding a battle royale mode, and then by leaning on the game’s massive install base
Tubi inked a deal with Cox Communications, giving customers of the cable operator’s Contour service access to more than 12,000 movies and TV shows for no additional charge. Tubi’s partnership with Cox Contour marks its second pay-TV deal after launching on Comcast Xfinity X1 last fall. Apart from YouTube, Tubi is the only ad-supported video-on-demand
Editorial staffers at two Condé Nast titles — music publication Pitchfork and tech/science site Ars Technica — have unionized with the NewsGuild of New York. According to the union, an “overwhelming majority” of eligible staff of both Pitchfork and Ars Technica signed union-authorization cards and have requested voluntary recognition of their respective unions. The two
Netflix has announced three new Italian originals indicating the streaming giant is ramping up operations in the country just as it gets more traction with local subscribers. The new Italian Netflix originals in the pipeline are: a genre show with supernatural elements titled “Curon” which is set in a Northern Italian village; a series adaptation
Sony Pictures Television has found of a new home for its Crackle ad-supported streaming service: The company struck a deal with Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (CSS Entertainment) to launch a new joint venture — dubbed Crackle Plus — that will also run Popcornflix, other streaming channels, and adjacent online video businesses. CSS Entertainment
Netflix — whose name has practically achieved verb status — was the fastest-growing brand from 2018-19 among American companies, according to a new study by Brand Finance, a global brand-valuation consulting firm. The streamer’s estimated brand value more than doubled over the past year, growing 105%, to $21.2 billion, per the study. Brand Finance calculates
Kobalt posted strong results in his earnings report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, with revenues up by 25.3% to $402.1 million. The company also posted a 30% boost in gross collections, to $494 million and projects over $600 million in the same category for the 2019 fiscal year. Gross profit was up