Zach Katz is partnering with Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings on a new venture called Raised In Space. Billed as a “a new investment group for entrepreneurs, start-ups [and] the innovators of tomorrow,” the company will work on identifying tech and music initiatives ripe for investment, with financial commitments ranging from $500,000 to $5 million. The company
Tech
What’s the future of video news on social media? If ABC News’ initial success on the Facebook Watch video platform with its daily “On Location” show is an indication, it’s a diet heavy on short bursts of shocking footage, on-screen graphics and first-person dispatches. ABC News was among the first partners for Facebook-funded news shows announced
NBC Sports has packaged up a new way to connect with golf enthusiasts well beyond TV. In partnership with pro golfer Rory McIlroy, the programmer is launching GolfPass, which builds on several of its existing golf membership programs to deliver an all-in-one offering with perks and content in five areas: playing, learning, watching, traveling and
Google parent Alphabet delivered a better-than-expected holiday quarter earnings report Monday, but investors nonetheless sent the company’s share price down in after-hours trading on fears of lower operating margins. Alphabet generated revenue of $39.3 billion during the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to $32.3 billion during the same quarter a year before. The company’s net
AR/VR pioneer and Hololens co-inventor Avi Bar-Zeev left Apple last month, Variety has learned. Bar-Zeev had been working on Apple’s augmented reality headset, which the company has been developing in secret for a possible 2020 launch. Bar-Zeev confirmed his departure when contacted by Variety, saying: “I left my full-time position at Apple in January. I had
Electronic comic book publisher Madefire brought its app to the Magic Leap AR headset Monday, enabling Magic Leap owners to explore comic panels in a spatial environment. “I think of it as a new stage for storytelling,” said Madefire CEO Ben Wolstenholme during a recent interview with Variety. The partnership between the two companies was
February 4, 2019 6:08AM PT The talking egg that dethroned Kylie Jenner with the most-liked post on Instagram was a project created by three British ad execs — who teamed with Hulu for a 30-second public-service announcement promoting mental-health awareness. The Instagram World Record Egg on Friday teased a big reveal a following the Super
Music streaming service Spotify is in talks to acquire Gimlet Media, the startup behind popular podcasts like “Crimetown” and “Reply All,” according to reports from multiple outlets including Recode and the Wall Street Journal. An acquisition would help Spotify with its podcast strategy, and open up a path to generate revenue that doesn’t rely on
UPDATED: Machinima may not be officially 100% dead, but that might just be a matter of semantics. The nearly 20-year-old digital-media brand dedicated to gamer and sci-fi culture — which once operated one of the biggest channels on YouTube — laid off 81 staffers two weeks ago at its Burbank, Calif., headquarters, according to documents
The saga surrounding the now-defunct augmented reality (AR) headset maker Meta isn’t quite over just yet: At least some of the company’s assets have been acquired by a former investor in the company, who is keeping mum on future plans. All of Meta’s trademarks were recently reassigned to a new company called Meta View Inc.,
February 1, 2019 11:09AM PT Apple apologized to its customers for the massive security flaw in its Facetime video chat app Friday, and promised to roll out a fix next week. The company also said that it was looking to simplify bug reporting procedures. “We sincerely apologize to our customers who were affected and all
Get ready to binge, 007 fans: Netflix and Hulu have divvied up U.S. rights to stream a total of 19 James Bond films featuring the most debonair spy in film history. In the U.S., Netflix as of Friday (Feb. 1) is streaming 11 Bond movies: “Casino Royale” (2006), “Die Another Day,” “Goldfinger,” “The World Is
Sony Pictures Television-owned Funimation has launched a search for a new general manager, as founder Gen Fukunaga is stepping out of day-to-day management at the anime network/distributor into a chairman role. The move comes 18 months Sony Pictures Television Networks acquired a 95% majority stake in Funimation for about $143 million, with Fukunaga retaining a minority stake.
Like that song that’s playing in your Uber? Chances are, your driver is being paid to play it to you. That’s if you are in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, Philadelphia or DC, where a startup called Steereo has been recruiting rideshare drivers to become mobile music promoters. Steereo has teamed up with 15,000 drivers
Snap is looking for another crop of mobile content creators for the second iteration of Yellow, its incubator program aimed at fueling production of original content for the Snapchat app. For the original Yellow Accelerator program, Snap invested $1.35 million in a total of nine content partners last year ($150,000 each), selected from among almost
Netflix has revamped its five-year-old logo animation that appears in front of original productions — and the new look is a veritable color fiesta. The new animation features the same trademark Netflix sound. But the new logo, which will begin playing on the service beginning Friday when subscribers start an original TV show or movie, is
Lauren Schnipper, who led creator partnerships for Facebook for more than four years, has left the social-media giant to join Next 10 Ventures, a startup investing in digital creators worldwide. Next 10 Ventures was founded last year by CEO Benjamin Grubbs, formerly YouTube’s global head of top creator partnerships. The company has raised $50 million in
Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc has set plans to lay off 10% of the company’s employees — resulting in the elimination of 250 jobs across all departments — as it looks to slash costs amid a revenue slowdown. The cuts aren’t surprising: Brooklyn-based Vice last fall instituted a hiring freeze and was hoping to avoid
February 1, 2019 6:43AM PT As expected, Sirius XM Holdings today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Pandora Media, making it “the world’s largest audio entertainment company,” according to the announcement. After years of discussion, Sirius XM acquired Pandora in a $3.5 billion deal last year. Jim Meyer, Chief Executive Officer of SiriusXM,
Netflix is bringing back U.K.-flavored awkward comedy series “Sex Education” starring Gillian Anderson back for a sophomore season. The streamer announced the season 2 renewal Friday, with production on the eight-episode season slated to begin this spring in the U.K. According to Netflix, the series is among its most popular recent originals — on track
Amazon topped Wall Street expectations for the fourth quarter of 2018, posting revenue up 20%, to $72.4 billion, and a record net profit of $3 billion. However, Amazon’s revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2019 was below analyst forecasts, sending the stock down as much as 2% in after-hours trading. The company, which is
John Honeycutt is leaving Discovery after more than 15 years to join Google Cloud as head of its telecommunications, media and entertainment verticals. Honeycutt most recently was chief technology officer at Discovery, serving in the role for four and a half years. In the newly created position at Google, Honeycutt will lead development and implementation of
“The Messy Truth VR Experience,” a new virtual reality (VR) short-doc created by Van Jones and starring “Black Pather” actor Winston Duke, was awarded with the Advanced Imaging Society’s Social Justice Lumiere Award Wednesday night. In an exclusive interview with Variety, Jones opened up about the power of VR to overcome divisiveness with empathy. “Media
UltraViolet is shutting down this summer — and Vudu, Walmart’s video-streaming service, is notifying customers who have used the movie-locker system to not cancel or unlink their UltraViolet accounts prior to the July 31 shutdown date, because doing so would wipe out their entire libraries. As first reported by Variety, the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem — the
As part of its global expansion strategy, Netflix has thrown its doors wide open to storytellers of different cultures. One result of the initiative: “Kingdom,” a story told by South Korean filmmakers that’s rooted in the nation’s medieval Joseon period. Directed by Kim Seong-hun (“Tunnel”) and penned by Kim Eun-hee (“Signal”), the eight-episode series, which
As January 31st wound down in India, there was still no sign of the blowout party that Spotify had planned to celebrate its long-anticipated launch in the country, which multiple sources told Variety was scheduled to take place today. That launch was postponed within the past few days, according to a source close to the situation,
Movie buffs left out in the cold by FilmStruck’s demise will soon get a new streaming service stocked with over 1,000 classic and contemporary art-house films this spring: The Criterion Collection announced that the Criterion Channel will launch April 8 in the U.S. and Canada. The Criterion Channel will be regularly priced at $10.99 per
Many TV viewers realize they can’t get away from inevitable commercial breaks. Now Hulu thinks it has found a way to overhaul the concept for video-streamers, who no doubt thought they’d escaped such stuff. Starting in the second quarter, Hulu will begin testing new kinds of commercials that surface on its screen whenever users decide
January 31, 2019 4:15AM PT Longtime “The Simpsons” producer David Mirkin is working up sci-fi drama-comedy series “Jeff of the Universe” for YouTube Premium. Mirkin is teaming up with producer and distributor Dynamic Television on the live-action project. Mirkin will write, direct, and executive produce the series. Daniel March and Holly Hines will exec produce
Ultraviolet, a cloud movie locker once hailed as Hollywood’s best bet to get consumers hooked on digital movies, is shuttering. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE), the industry consortium that has been tasked with running Ultraviolet, will shut down the service on July 31. DECE will start to inform its users of the wind-down this