Tech

Musician Ben Folds is offering his fans a chance to get up close and personal with a new Patreon-powered membership program. Folds’ new Patreon page, which launched Monday morning, includes access to perks like MP3 recordings and live streams from his studio. “Like all recording artists, I’ve kept my eye on what creative tools the

AT&T is changing up its DirecTV over-the-top video strategy — looking to maximize profitability over a land-grab for cord-cutters. This week, AT&T is notifying DirecTV Now subscribers that their monthly pricing will increase by $10 per month starting with the next billing cycle in April. AT&T last raised prices across all DirecTV Now plans less

Sam Toles is exiting MGM to join Bleacher Report, WarnerMedia’s digital sports division, as chief content officer. Toles joins Bleacher Report under newly appointed CEO Howard Mittman, who is taking the reins with the departure of co-founder Dave Finocchio. Based in B/R’s New York office, Toles will head content teams for all the brand’s platforms

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman continue to round out Quibi’s executive ranks: Their latest hire is Becky Brooks, who is exiting CBS Television Distribution after five years, Variety has learned. Brooks most recently was CBS Television Distribution’s senior VP, multiplatform programming and branded content. She’s joining Quibi as a content executive, working alongside Ryan Kadro,

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman continue to round out Quibi’s executive ranks: Their latest hire is Becky Brooks, who is exiting CBS Television Distribution after five years, Variety has learned. Brooks most recently was CBS television Distribution’s senior VP, multiplatform programming and branded content. She’s joining Quibi as a content executive, working alongside Ryan Kadro,

Twitter tapped Donna Lamar, a marketing creative director and production pro who most recently spent a year at Vice Media as group creative director, as the social network’s new executive creative director. It’s a return to Twitter for Lamar, who was creative director of Twitter’s #Studio from October 2016 to February 2018. During her previous

There is magic all around you — and you’ll have join your fellow wizards in a global quest to make sure that it stays hidden from unsuspecting muggle eyes. That’s the premise of “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite,” the upcoming mobile game from WB Games and Niantic, the makers of “Pokemon Go.” The two companies invited

The Critters have voted with their dollars — and they’re not done yet. In under five days, Critical Role’s Kickstarter campaign to produce an animated special has raised $6.54 million as of Friday at 1:30 p.m. PT from around 48,000 fans (aka Critters) of the Dungeons & Dragons weekly role-playing show. It busted the crowdfunding

March 8, 2019 10:36AM PT Apple still hasn’t shared any details about its plans for augmented reality (AR) hardware, but we may not have to wait much longer: Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has had a very good track record when it comes to predicting the company’s roadmap, expects Apple to start manufacturing AR glasses as

Buyers of Samsung’s new Galaxy S10 phone can now get 6 months of Spotify Premium for free: The two companies announced the new joint promotion Friday morning, while also revealing that Spotify will be pre-installed on Samsung phones going forward. Separately, Samsung also announced a promotion with YouTube to give Galaxy S10 buyers access to

March 8, 2019 9:07AM PT Jonathan Prince, the Spotify executive who helped lead the company’s ill-fated policy against “hateful conduct” last year, has left the company to join the work-flow platform Slack, according to his LinkedIn profile. A rep for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment; the news was first reported

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti claims he’s bullish on the digital company’s future healthy growth — touting a strategy of revenue diversification and working to “fix” the monetization problems BuzzFeed and others have with big internet platforms like Facebook and Google. Peretti, in a strategy memo issued to staff Friday, said that media industry is in

Panda TV, the Chinese live-streaming platform backed by young tycoon Wang Sicong, the son of Dalian Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin, is to close down. It ran out of cash and will lay off its entire workforce. There have been rumors for weeks of dire financial problems at the company and layoffs of about 500 staff.

March 7, 2019 7:57PM PT Global streaming giant Netflix has come on board SK Global Entertainment’s project to bring to screen the dramatic Thai cave rescue of 2018. It is now envisaged as a Netflix Original series, rather than a movie. The news was announced Thursday by Lieutenant General Werachon Sukondhapatipak, a representative of Thailand’s

March 7, 2019 10:57AM PT Video game publisher and distributor Valve Corporation has laid off some of the staffers working on its VR initiatives, the company confirmed Thursday. However, a spokesperson said that this doesn’t mean Valve is exiting VR, sending “Variety” the following statement: “Last month, 13 full-time employees were let go and a

Cloud-based collaboration has transformed the world of digital content, and the technology now extends into animation. One company at the forefront of this change, Nimble Studio, aims to provide high-level tools while eliminating high-cost infrastructure, allowing collaboration all over the world among artists who can work from their homes or even at the neighborhood Starbucks. 

Kelly Bennett is leaving as Netflix’s chief marketing officer after more than six years leading the streaming giant’s branding and advertising teams during a period of massive growth. Bennett, 46, said in an interview that it’s the “ideal time for me to leave.” He said the decision was his personal choice and that CEO Reed

Critical Role’s ardent fans have broken the Kickstarter record for the most-funded TV or film project ever, pledging over $5.79 million — in under four days — for the production of what has morphed into an animated series about a band of Dungeons & Dragons adventurers. And the campaign is set to run for another

Netflix, Arclight Films International and four other companies are being sued by South Asian regional distributor Plus Holdings over rights to Anthony Maras film “Hotel Mumbai.” Netflix has now shelved its plans to screen the movie in India, where the movie is set, and other parts of South Asia. Dubai-based Plus Holdings claims that it

March 6, 2019 6:50PM PT Apple has yet to give a glimpse of its upcoming video streaming service, but that’s likely to change soon. The Cupertino-based tech giant is expected to unveil its new offering at an event on March 25, according to several February reports by media outlets including Variety. The event could shed

A former executive at the Asian-themed OTT service DramaFever filed suit on Wednesday, accusing Warner Bros. of laying off Asian-American executives due to bias. Chung Chang was vice president of finance at DramaFever, which Warner Bros. acquired from SoftBank in 2016. In October, the company announced that it would shut down the service and lay

Jordyn Woods’ emotional interview with Jada Pinkett Smith on Facebook Watch’s “Red Table Talk” had a record number of viewers on its first day of release — making it the platform’s most-watched original episode ever in that time frame. The episode, “Jordyn Woods Shares The Truth,” was posted at 12 p.m. ET on Friday, March

Facebook’s Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset has disappeared from the website of electronics retailer Newegg, fueling speculations that the company may be getting ready to introduce an updated version of the device. The Rift is also listed as sold out on Bestbuy.com, and out of stock on Microsoft’s online store. Micro Center, another authorized

Tribeca Immersive, the virtual and augmented reality storytelling section of the Tribeca Film Festival, will feature the premiere of “Bonfire,” the latest animated VR film from Baobab Studios that is starring comedian Ali Wong. The Tribeca Immersive program will also include more than 30 other VR and AR experiences, including the world premiere of the

Mark Zuckerberg, in a revamp to Facebook’s approach to privacy after a series of scandals, is pledging that the company will take new steps to protect the privacy of its more than 2 billion monthly users. The Facebook CEO and co-founder posted a nearly 3,300-word manifesto Wednesday, outlining a new vision for privacy on the

Comedy Central is stepping on the gas in its digital-entertainment drive with the launch of its first YouTube channel for originals. The Viacom-owned brand is touting the new Comedy Central Originals YouTube channel as a “one-stop shop for the very best digital original comedy.” The channel (available at this link) launched Wednesday (March 6) and

March 6, 2019 8:53AM PT Sonos is introducing a new version of the Sonos One, its budget-priced smart speaker, this week. The second-generation Sonos One will look and work just like the original, but come with an updated processor, more memory and support for Bluetooth LE. The new Sonos One will also pack 4 microphones

New York-based Hearst Magazines has established an L.A. outpost for video production — where Clevver, its recently acquired network of entertainment news YouTube channels, will be gearing up for a relaunch within the next few weeks. The publishing group opened a new, 20,000-square-foot multimedia production studio in Santa Monica, Calif., which will serve as a

Netflix has acquired rights to adapt Gabriel García Márquez’s masterwork “One Hundred Years of Solitude” as a new series. The project marks the first screen adaptation of the landmark novel. Netflix will produce a Spanish-language original series based on the novel, first published in 1967. It has since sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide

Get ready for robotic speakers to whizz around in your living room while you are having fun in virtual reality: Samsung subsidiary Harman got a patent awarded this week to map sounds from virtual reality (VR) games and experiences to one or more robotic speakers. The patented technology is meant to deal with a shortcoming