Tech

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will open a fresh investigation after Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed on a new, restructured deal. In April, the CMA had blocked Microsoft’s proposed $68.7 billion deal to buy video games giant Activision Blizzard over concerns the deal would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market,

Season four of the podcast “Blowback,” co-hosted by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, will be released on Aug. 25. The podcast is described as “a deeply reported, and cinematically produced, historical podcast that takes a deep look at past wars and moments in history.” Season four will turn to focus on Afghanistan, following seasons on

YouTube has enlisted an interesting partner to help it get the word out about its new rights to show NFL Sunday Ticket. Online sports bettor FanDuel will team up with the Alphabet-backed video-streaming outlet to make a limited-run promotional offer for the Sunday Ticket package, which offers access to NFL games not available on TV

Elon Musk set off a firestorm Friday by announcing that Twitter, now called X, would “delete” the service’s longstanding user-blocking feature — raising the prospect that, as a result, the app could be booted from Apple and Google’s app stores. “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk wrote. “Makes

The private-equity firm that owns MindGeek — which operates a massive network of adult entertainment properties, including Pornhub — has shed the company’s old name and, it hopes, some of the baggage that came with it. “The decision to rebrand the company as Aylo comes in response to the need for a fresh start and

Elon Musk’s latest tweak to Twitter, the former name of what he now calls X: Users will no longer be able to block other accounts — as Musk claims the feature “makes no sense.” “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” the tech mogul posted on X Friday. “Makes no

In this week’s podcast news roundup, Hallmark sets its first-ever scripted podcast, a “romance mystery” starring Malinda Williams, Amanda Seales and Keith D. Robinson; Ron Howard executive produces an improv workplace comedy with iHeart; Audible and the Obamas’ Higher Ground launch “Your Mama’s Kitchen,” in which guests tell host Michele Norris about… their mama’s kitchen;

Netflix is offering hardcore fans of its DVD-by-mail service one last disc-bingeing session before it folds the iconic red envelopes for good. In April, the company announced the shutdown of its dwindling DVD-by-mail business after 25 years. In an email this week to the remaining last-gaspers on the DVD plans, Netflix extended a new “finale

Apple Podcasts has removed all episodes of “The Glenn Beck Program” — roughly 1,900 episodes — and the conservative host says he’s in the dark about the reason why. “All of my podcasts have been removed from Apple/iTunes with no explanation,” Beck posted Wednesday on X (aka Twitter). Reps for Apple did not immediately respond

New York City is the latest government entity to prohibit the use of TikTok — the popular video entertainment app owned by China’s ByteDance — on devices owned by the city. The NYC Cyber Command, a division of the city’s Office of Technology & Innovation, said city workers must stop using TikTok effective immediately after

Filmmaker Justine Bateman doesn’t think there is a thriving future for actors in filmed entertainment as we know it. She believes that artificial intelligence will ultimately suck the creative marrow out of Hollywood. “AI can create a convincing simulation of a hu­­man actor, and the tech is improving at an alarming rate,” says Bateman, the

Google’s YouTube is tweaking features of NFL Sunday Ticket — less than a month before the football season kicks off — in the hopes of luring more paying customers to the pricey sports package. On YouTube and YouTube TV, Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games that are broadcast on Fox and CBS,

Comedian Chris Gethard, after more than seven years and almost 400 episodes of his “Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People,” has taken the podcast independent. Previously, Gethard’s weekly podcast — also known as “Beautiful/Anonymous” — had been produced with and distributed by SiriusXM’s Earwolf comedy podcast network ever since he launched it in 2016. The deal

The price of Amazon Music is increasing for Prime members — following price hikes by Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music. As of Sept. 19, the price of the Amazon Music Unlimited individual plan will increase from $8.99 to $9.99/month, which is still one dollar less than the comparable plan for non-Prime members. The Amazon

UPDATED, 3:55 p.m. ET: X, Elon Musk’s new name for the social network formerly known as Twitter, appears to be adding an approximately five-second delay to links that are redirected to certain sites, including Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Earlier Tuesday, X’s delay also was applied to links to the New York Times and Reuters.

Invisible Universe, which calls itself an “internet-first” animation studio, has hired Jonathan Schneider as president of studios. Schneider, who has held senior positions at entertainment companies including Disney and Skydance, brings two decades of experience to Invisible Universe. Based in L.A., he will lead Invisible Universe in its adoption of new technologies, including those associated

Broadcast and cable TV dropped to a new low in July 2023 in terms of total share among American viewers — dropping below 50% of total TV usage in the United States for the first time, according to Nielsen. Meanwhile, streaming services like YouTube and Netflix accounted for a record 38.7% of total U.S. TV

Netflix, two years after initially launching a selection of games on mobile devices, is kicking the tires on letting customers play titles on computers and internet-connected TVs. The company announced that is is rolling out a limited beta test to a “small number” of members in Canada and the U.K. on select TVs starting Monday

Mark Zuckerberg thinks it’s time to lose hope of a potential fight between himself and Elon Musk.  “I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on,” Zuckerberg wrote via his Threads account. “I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon

Italian officials are open to the the country hosting a charity cage match between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — seemingly moving closer to reality the is-it-a-joke-or-isn’t-it fight that would pit the two tech billionaire barons against each other. However, contrary to Musk’s latest claim that the cage match will be set in “ancient Rome,”

The Internal Revenue Service filed a claim in Vice Media Group’s bankruptcy case saying the company’s Refinery29 division owes the U.S. government about $40.9 million in back taxes, interest and penalties. The total tax bill for Refinery29, a digital media outlet that focuses on fashion, beauty and wellness topics, runs from the first quarter of

Zoom changed its terms of service to say that it won’t use any customer content — at all — in training generative artificial intelligence models. The update, which the videoconference company announced Friday, comes after observers raised the alarm about a recent change in Zoom’s TOS that appeared to grant the company royalty-free rights in

Katie Drummond, formerly head of Vice Media Group’s global news and entertainment operations, is the new editorial director of Condé Nast’s Wired tech and culture publication. Drummond earlier this month left Vice after more than four years, along with other top editorial staffers, after the company exited bankruptcy and was sold to a consortium of

Disney, trying to swing its streaming business into the black, has set substantial price hikes for Disney+ and Hulu standalone premium plans in the U.S. — while also rolling out a heavily discounted Disney+/Hulu ad-free combo bundle. As of Oct. 12, Disney+ Premium (with no ads) will jump 27%, rising from $10.99 to $13.99/month for

Dave Portnoy said he bought back Barstool Sports, the brash sports and pop-culture media company he founded, from Penn Entertainment for “pennies on the dollar.” In fact, Portnoy paid 100 pennies for Barstool Sports. That’s after Penn Entertainment, a casino and online gambling operator, paid a total of about $550 million to acquire 100% control

Claire Hope, the Canadian pre-teen internet rapper known as Lil Tay, has died, her management confirmed in a statement to Variety. “It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news of our beloved Claire’s sudden and tragic passing,” Hope’s family announced on Lil Tay’s Instagram page, which has 3.3 million followers. “We

Dave Portnoy, now 100% owner of Barstool Sports after former parent Penn Entertainment sold it back to him — concurrent with Penn’s major 10-year sports-betting deal with ESPN — has admitted that Barstool isn’t a good fit in the gambling industry. “[W]e underestimated just how tough it is for myself and Barstool to operate in

Popular podcaster and entrepreneur Alex Cooper of “Call Her Daddy” fame announced The Unwell Network, pitched as a production shingle for catering to Gen Z audiences with “unique voices that embrace social challenges and personal insecurities through honest conversation.” The Unwell Network’s initial talent signings include top creators and influencers Alix Earle and Madeline Argy,

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who was ousted by the network this spring, took aim at colleagues of his former employer for not stepping up to defend fringe conspiracy-monger Alex Jones. On the latest episode of his show on X (formerly Twitter), Carlson hosted Tristan Tate, who along with his brother Andrew Tate

A recent change to Zoom’s terms of service pertaining to AI set off alarm bells in Hollywood and the tech world — with some interpreting the videoconferencing provider’s update as granting the company royalty-free rights in perpetuity for customer video calls and presentations for the purposes of training AI models. In response, Zoom said it