It’s easier to keep up with the Kardashians in the Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg after NBCUniversal launched its reality-TV streaming service, hayu, in those countries Tuesday. The service went live with about 6,000 episodes of unscripted fare from NBCUniversal’s lineup, including “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” “Made in Chelsea” and “The Real Housewives” and
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Michael and David Uslan, the father and son producing team with credits that include “The Dark Knight” and “Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch” have struck a cluster of deals that makes them a two-way conduit for TV formats between Hollywood and Asia. U2K, a company that includes the Uslans and Jon Karas (“Believe in
Dish and its corporate sibling EchoStar have quietly been testing a movie recommendations platform called Flixpert, Variety has learned. Flixpert promises to help people find movies to watch through recommendations from friends and trusted contacts; Dish has been testing mobile apps for the service with a few hundred users. Online footprints suggest that Flixpert has
After nearly 25 years in the Warner Bros. family, Craig Hunegs is exiting his post as head of business for Warner Bros. TV Group and president of the studio’s digital networks wing. Hunegs said he has been discussing his exit with Warner Bros. chairman-CEO Kevin Tsujihara for the past several months. At a time of
Google will shutter its struggling social network Google+ sooner than previously announced: The company said Monday that Google+ will shut down in April of 2019. It also disclosed a new security vulnerability that briefly exposed personal data of some 52.5 million Google+ users. The bug, which was introduced to Google+ in November, allowed developers to
Smart speaker maker Sonos has hired former Tribune exec Eddie Lazarus as its new chief legal officer. Lazarus will be in charge of all legal, regulatory, compliance and SEC reporting issues, among other things. Prior to joining Sonos, Lazarus worked as general counsel and chief strategy officer for Tribune Media. Before that, he was chief of
Rhapsody and Sony Music Entertainment today announced a partnership to launch what they describe as the first on-demand, high-resolution streaming music service in Japan. Rhapsody International is providing its “Powered by Napster” platform including a set of systems, tools and APIs to allow SMEJ to quickly launch and bring its on-demand service to market. The service,
VidCon tapped Sarah Tortoreti as VP of marketing to head up the digital-creator and video confab’s promotional strategies worldwide. Tortoreti joins VidCon from Viacom’s Nickelodeon, where she was director of marketing and brand strategy since April 2016. In early 2018 Viacom acquired VidCon, founded by veteran YouTube creators Hank Green and John Green. In the newly
Is Netflix moving fast enough to bulk up on originals to offset programming that’s about to get pulled by studios like Disney, Fox and WarnerMedia? Original content accounted for 37% of Netflix’s U.S. streams in October 2018, up from 24% a year earlier (and just 14% in January 2017), per video-measurement firm 7Park Data. But
Fox PR veteran Julie Henderson has been named chief communications officer of Snap, parent company of social-messaging and media app Snapchat. Henderson, who is currently EVP and chief communications officer for 21st Century Fox, will report to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Henderson is set to start at Snap immediately after the completion of the sale
The dysfunctional-family superheroes of “The Umbrella Academy” are landing on Netflix worldwide on Feb. 15, 2019. The live-action series is based on the “Umbrella Academy” comic books created and written by Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, published by Dark Horse Comics. The Netflix original series comprises 10 one-hour episodes. “The Umbrella Academy” stars
Asian video-on-demand service, Hooq has unveiled three Indonesian-made original series, and a partnership with online content group Vice. The new shows range from a talk show “TL;DR” that will be co-produced with Vice, to a full-length series, “Check Out The Store Next Door” (“Cek Toko Sebelah the Series”) and a short form series. The partnership
December 8, 2018 3:34PM PT Eros Now, the video streaming arm of Indian film production and distribution giant Eros International, has begun production of an original web TV series. Its human trafficking drama “Flesh” will air in early 2019. “Flesh” stars Swara Bhaskar (“Raanjhanaa,” “Veera Di Wedding”) as a belligerent female cop who takes matters
Fandor, the independent-film streaming service, has laid off nearly all of its employees and sold off its assets, Variety has learned. Reached for comment, Fandor CEO/chairman Chris Kelly sent a statement in which he said Fandor has a deal in place that will let a “new entity” continue to operate the service. He declined to
December 7, 2018 2:43PM PT Kathy Griffin is heading to iTunes. The Emmy-winning comedian is releasing her comedy library there starting Friday night. Griffin now owns the rights to the six seasons of her TV docuseries “My Life on the D-List” and the two seasons of her talk show “Kathy,” which she bought from Bravo
Esports company ESL is teaming up with Oculus for the Change the Game VR Charity Challenge (VRCC), it announced on Friday. Two teams of influencers will compete for a $100,000 prize during the event. Each will represent one of two gaming charities — Stack Up or Take This. Stack Up is a nonprofit that works
Facebook has 185 million daily active users in the U.S. and Canada. The company has been trying for more than a year to turn them into daily viewers of long-form, TV-style video — but so far, its efforts have been underwhelming. Last Friday, Facebook launched every episode of cult classic “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and two other
Imagine finding yourself in a Victorian-era mystery, complete with dark spirits and a haunting quest of self-discovery. Now imagine you’re doing all of that while wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset, with live actors talking to you, holding your hand, guiding you through their dream-like world. That in a gist is “Chained: A Victorian Nightmare,”
December 7, 2018 9:30AM PT [embedded content] YouTube released its annual Rewind video on Thursday highlighting 2018’s biggest viral events, trends, and more. Epic Games’ battle royale phenomenon “Fortnite” features prominently in the montage. The video begins with Will Smith wishing for a mashup of “Fortnite” and technology-focused YouTuber Marques Brownlee. Cut to a Battle
Google is going to phase out its messaging app Allo at the end of March and move any existing users to Messages, its new default Android SMS and chat app, the company announced this week. The move comes as Google is finding itself struggling to keep up with competitors like Facebook, Snapchat, Line and others.
Fandango is latching on to 2018 Golden Globes hype to try to lure new customers to its FandangoNow streaming service — offering 50% off rentals or purchases of several nominated movies and TV shows for a limited time. The nominations for the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards were announced Thursday (see full list here). FandangoNow’s
December 6, 2018 7:17AM PT DAZN, the streaming-sports outlet led by former ESPN chief John Skipper (above, pictured), is adding documentary programming to its slate of live-sports properties. DAZN will debut “The Journey: Canelo/Rocky,” an original episodic program that takes fans behind the scenes as the December 15th super middleweight championship fight between Canelo Alvarez
Iflix, a streaming service for emerging markets, and Next 10 Ventures have launched a Creators Hub to fund the development of new online video creation in Southeast Asia. Announced at the ongoing Asian TV Market & Forum, as part of a 12-month program, Iflix will invest up to $5 million with selected content creators in
Comcast’s Xfinity Digital Store has joined digital movie-collection service Movies Anywhere, with the cable giant becoming its seventh digital retail partner — and first pay-television partner. For its October 2017 launch, Movies Anywhere partnered with four initial retailers: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple’s iTunes and Walmart’s Vudu. FandangoNow, Fandango’s FandangoNow on-demand video service came aboard this
Two veterans of immersive storytelling have banded together for a new Los Angeles-based augmented reality (AR) startup: Former Felix & Paul chief content officer Ryan Horrigan and former Milk VR and VRSE.works producer Armando Kirwin unveiled their new startup Artie Thursday, laying out a vision to bring intelligent avatars everywhere. “VR and AR are the
December 6, 2018 4:00AM PT The Golden Globes Awards honor the best of both worlds every year, with statuettes handed out to the cream of the crop in television and film. Will “A Star Is Born” and “Black Panther” rack up the most film nominations? Can streaming hits like “Homecoming” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Wattpad, which hosts a platform with more than 400 million user-generated stories, has appointed Devashish Sharma as its first country head for India. Toronto-based Wattpad is home to a community of more than 70 million people who spend over 22 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories. Earlier this year it raised $51 million
In their quest for global domination, Netflix and Amazon view Europe as a key battleground. Both companies have dramatically ramped up operations on the continent in recent years to woo subscribers, creatives and talent. But tensions over content, costs and consequences for the region’s legacy players have been building, and in some cases have boiled
Two of this year’s top-trending YouTube videos were emotionally resonant celebrity events: The birth of Kylie Jenner’s baby girl and the breakup of YouTube power couple Liza Koshy and David Dobrik. YouTube’s 2018 top-trending videos are “really a portrait of the modern celebrity – it’s dominated by YouTube creators who’ve built huge audiences and are
Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority announced a battery of initiatives on Wednesday. They are intended to continue the growth of the industry. IMDA chief executive Tan Kiat How explains their background. Variety: What are the new initiatives? What is the IMDA planning to launch now and in the future?Tan Kiat How: IMDA is committed to