Streaming device maker Roku is officially getting into the subscription marketplace business: Later this month, Roku will begin to sell premium video subscription services like Showtime, and Starz and Epix via its Roku Channel, the company announced Wednesday. The offer is similar to Amazon’s existing Amazon Channels video subscription marketplace, and is going to provide
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When Ellen DeGeneres returns to primetime on Jan. 8 with another season of NBC’s “Ellen’s Game of Games,” it won’t be just in a TV-series format; a new companion app equipped with an augmented reality feature will allow users to play even when the show is off the air. Click here to enjoy the podcast:
January 1, 2019 9:00AM PT 20th Century Fox-backed Baobab Studios launched a new face filter on Facebook Tuesday that lets you sing along to a John Legend song: The “Crow: The Legend” augmented reality (AR) filter turns your face into that of Crow, the feathered hero of Baobab’s latest animated VR film. The filter uses eye,
Spencer Neumann is joining Netflix as its new chief financial officer and will exit as Activision Blizzard’s CFO after less than two years, according to reports. As first reported by Reuters, Neumann will start at Netflix in early 2019, replacing CFO David Wells. Netflix announced last summer that Wells planned to step down after 14 years
While the December stock market fluctuations have made everyone take a deep breath, 2018 was another boom year for the music business. A recovery that many of us could not have hoped for in our wildest dreams during the desolate years of the late 2000s continues to take hold, thanks almost entirely to streaming. According
December 31, 2018 2:41PM PT Ushering in the New Year, Amazon Prime Video is bringing in a slate of original content, with new movies and television shows including “Beautiful Boy,” the second season of “Informer,” and the new season of animated show “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle” coming to the streaming service this month.
Here’s how to live-stream the Times Square New Year’s Eve festivities for free online — no TV required — including the iconic ball drop and performances by Bebe Rexha and Lovelytheband. The six-hour New Year’s Eve live-stream from New York City will be available free worldwide on mobile devices and the web, including at TimesSquareNYC.org and TimesSquareBall.net.
December 31, 2018 9:59AM PT Smart speaker maker Sonos seems to be readying a satellite speaker to bring true surround sound as well s voice control to its Playbar soundbar, if a new FCC filing is any indication. A Sonos spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The heavily redacted filing, which was
December 28, 2018 9:54AM PT Samsung’s 2019 smart TVs will allow consumers to browse the web, access their PCs and even edit work documents from the comfort of their living room couch. The company previewed a new feature dubbed Remote Access this week, which integrates both Samsung’s own Knox security framework as well as remote
Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of Netflix, and chief content officer Ted Sarandos will each receive salary and stock-option grants worth about $31.5 million in 2019, according to the company. Netflix disclosed the annual salaries and stock-option allocations, as established by its board of directors, in an SEC filing Friday. Hastings will receive a $700,000
Hey, mom and dad: Let the New Year’s ball drop whenever you want. That’s the message from Netflix, which is back for a sixth year of New Year’s Eve countdowns — designed to help parents ring in 2019 with their kids, while still getting the tykes into bed well before midnight. The streamer launched 14
Back in early 2017, Netflix approached “Black Mirror” creators Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones with an unusual idea. The streaming service had been experimenting with interactive kids content, giving young viewers the ability to choose their own path through a story with a series multiple-choice questions that could be easily answered with the help of
Facebook’s Instagram on Thursday rolled out what it thought was a small-scale test of a new tap-to-advance feature that lets users scroll through posts horizontally. But the new feature went to more users than it expected — touching off an instant freak-out among Instagram users and leading the social network to swiftly pull the plug
December 27, 2018 8:07AM PT [embedded content] The next installment of Charlie Brooker’s “Black Mirror” mind-bending tech-dystopia franchise hits Netflix this Friday with a special movie event. The streamer released the trailer for “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch” (watch above or at this link), which premieres Friday, Dec. 28, on Netflix worldwide. According to Netflix’s description of
The U.S.’s Federal Trade Commission has identified a new “phishing” scam targeting Netflix customers — and issued a warning to consumers to be on guard if they’ve received an email purportedly from the streamer requesting updated payment info. In a blog post Wednesday (Dec. 26), the FTC shared a screenshot captured by police in Ohio
December 21, 2018 1:24PM PT Facebook seems to be gearing up for the release of its Oculus Quest VR headset, if a new regulatory filing is any indication: A new FCC filing for a “VR headset” closely matches the design as well as wireless capabilities of the Quest. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the filing
December 21, 2018 1:04PM PT Snapchat corporate parent Snap ended a day of trading with a stock price below $5 for the first time in the company’s history, with shares priced $4.98 at the close of markets, down 1.78% on Friday. Snap’s shares were dragged down by uncertainty in the financial markets over a looming
December 21, 2018 10:22AM PT A German court has issued an injunction against Apple for violating one of Qualcomm’s patents, forcing the company to suspend sales of some of its older iPhone models. Apple is appealing the decision, but has stopped selling iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models in its German retail stores. The injunction
The Kardashian-Jenner multimedia brand has millions of social-media followers — but evidently not enough of them are willing to shell out three bucks per month to get the inside dope directly from the clan’s sisters. This week Kim Kardashian West, Khloé Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kylie Jenner announced that they will stop updating their three-year-old apps
Redbox On Demand, the DVD kiosk operator’s digital video store, celebrates its one-year anniversary this month with a new development: Redbox apps are now featured on all Vizio SmartCast TVs. Redbox apps are already on TVs made by Samsung and LG, as well as the web, iOS and Android devices, Apple TV, Google’s Chromecast and
Guillermo del Toro’s animated “Tales of Arcadia” trilogy, beginning with the award-winning “Trollhunters,” continues Dec. 21 on Netflix, with the debut of DreamWorks Animation’s “3Below.” It follows a pair of ingenious teenage aliens on the run from a coup on their home planet, with their bombastic bodyguard in tow. “There’s a real art to doing
Facebook investors, alarmed by the social giant’s latest privacy problems, pushed the stock down more than 7% on Dec. 19 — wiping out around $30 billion in market value. The stock was essentially flat on Thursday as the market assessed the fallout. At the start of the year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Jan.
Samsung is preparing to integrate third-party voice assistants into its 2019 line of TV sets, Variety has learned from sources familiar with the company’s plans. The company may announce a partnership with Google to integrate Google Assistant as early as next month, when it will unveil next year’s TVs at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
December 20, 2018 9:24AM PT [embedded content] Google’s latest Spotlight Story “Age of Sail” has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Animated Shorts, and has been nominated for 4 Annie Awards. Now, the company is sharing a behind-the-scenes featurette to show us how the piece came together. In the newly-released video, director John Kahrs
Spotify and Wixen Music Publishing — which sued the streaming giant late last year for a headline-grabbing $1.6 billion — announced today that they have settled the lawsuit. According to the announcement, “The conclusion of that litigation is a part of a broader business partnership between the parties, which fairly and reasonably resolves the legal
Netflix’s amazing success over the past decade has been so significant that many others are hoping to repeat it. Discovery Inc. CEO David Zaslav vows a new streaming outlet that brings golf content to overseas markets will become a “Netflix for golf.” 21st Century Fox recently launched a SVOD service for “superfans” of Fox News
Shares of Twitter fell more than 12% Thursday after a Wall Street analyst labeled the company “the Harvey Weinstein of social media.” In a note to investors, Citron Research founder Andrew Left — who is a noted short-seller — cited a study released this week conducted by Amnesty International that found Twitter was “a toxic
NBC Sports is betting that fantasy-sports contests will help boost viewership and subscriptions to its over-the-top video packages. The sports programmer launched the free-to-play NBC Sports Predictor games app, offering fans the chance to win up to $50,000 each week, tied to its TV and live-streaming sporting events. According to NBC Sports, over the next
December 20, 2018 3:00AM PT Google, Apple, Sonos and others will gain some share of the smart speaker market in 2019, but they won’t dethrone Amazon as the market leader any time soon: That’s the gist of a new Emarketer report predicting next year’s smart speaker sales trends. 63.3% of all smart speaker owners will
Bilibili, the Chinese online platform with a strong focus on anime, comics, and games, has struck a deal with Taobao, the largest e-commerce division of Alibaba. The two-pronged deal covers merchandise driven by Bilibili, and joint efforts to expand Bilibili’s IP. The two companies will jointly develop an ecosystem that connects content creators, merchandise and