Tech

Triller reached an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment to pay $4.57 million to settle the music label’s breach of agreement lawsuit against the TikTok-style video sharing app, according to a court fling. Triller has admitted liability in the dispute, according to the filing, submitted by Sony Music’s lawyers April 26 to the federal district court

Note: This article is based on Variety Intelligence Platform’s special report “Generative AI & Entertainment,” available only to subscribers. Advances in deepfake technology raise the prospect that the day will soon come when the digital likeness of actors can be brought to life for movies and TV without their needing to even lift a finger. These likenesses

Clubhouse is making a major reboot: The once-buzzy audio-livestreaming social app is laying off more than half its staff in what founders say is a necessary strategy pivot. Clubhouse founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth announced the layoffs in a memo to employees Thursday. “We arrived at this conclusion reluctantly, as we have years of

Dylan Mulvaney is addressing the online hate she received following a brand deal with Bud Light that prompted backlash from conservatives. After a several-week break from social media, the influencer — who has been documenting her transition via TikTok since March 2022 in a series called “Days of Girlhood” — posted a video on the

Charlie Collier, who joined Roku last fall as president of its newly created media division, had a compensation package worth $53.3 million last year — more than twice as much as his boss, CEO Anthony Wood, took home. Collier left his post as CEO of Fox Entertainment to head up Roku Media, where he now

Snap, still wrestling with an unpredictable advertising environment, reported first-quarter 2023 revenue that slightly undershot Wall Street expectations even as Snapchat’s user growth continued upward. The company said was not providing formal guidance for revenue or adjusted earnings for the second quarter of 2023. The Snapchat parent company’s Q1 revenue was $989 million, a decline

Amazon, in the midst of paring back its workforce, topped Wall Street forecasts with better-than-expected revenue growth for the first quarter of 2023. The company reported Q1 revenue of $127.4 billion, up 9% year over year, improving over a 7% rise in the year-earlier quarter but still off its historical pace of top-line growth. Net

Dubai-based podcast company Kerning Cultures Network is producing “The Lebanon Heist,” an original investigative probe into the root causes of Lebanon’s devastating financial crisis. Launching in October, the six-part podcast will be produced in English and Arabic, delving into the crash that led to millions of Lebanese citizens being robbed of their life savings, and

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Disney+ subscribers will be able to jump into the Quantum Realm next month when “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” hits the streaming service. The film, starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Jonathan Majors, will

Five years after the end of “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,” Cal Kestis’ friends are scattered across the galaxy dealing with their own demons, while the young Jedi Knight runs guerrilla strikes against key Imperial targets. Reality tore his dreams of resistance into tatters of resentment, and he’s left trying to find a purpose for

Amid broad cost-cutting moves, Meta is shuttering the Facebook Watch originals group, whose small slate of shows included the hit “Red Table Talk” hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, Variety has confirmed. A Meta representative confirmed that the company is shuttering its originals group but declined to provide further comment. The news was first reported by

Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, turned in better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter of 2023 — even as net income dropped sharply on a year-over-year basis. Overall, the company reported revenue of $28.65 billion, up 3% from the year prior, and net income of $5.7 billion (or $2.20 per share), down 24%. Analysts on

Roku came in above analyst estimates on the top line for the first quarter of 2023, as it gained 1.6 million active streaming accounts in the period — also above Wall Street expectations. But the company told investors that the macroeconomic environment was still “challenged” in the quarter. The company posted Q1 sales of $741

Rocío Guerrero, global head of Latin music at Amazon Music, has collected many professional accolades over her career. If there’s a power list of women in the industry, she’s on it. Latin leaders? She’s there, too. And among international executives, the well-traveled native of Spain ranks high as well. But to hear Guerrero’s story is

Jerrell Jimerson, Disney Streaming’s chief product officer and one of the architects of Disney+, has been let go as part of the media conglomerate’s latest round of layoffs, Variety has learned. Jimerson on Wednesday sent a note to his team at Disney Streaming telling them that “after five incredible years at Disney, I will be

In today’s podcast news roundup: Buzzy Cohen gives “Jeopardy!” fans an insider’s look at the popular game show; “Real Housewives” alum Ramona Singer launches a podcast with her daughter, Avery; CNN Audio debuts “The Prince Mixtape,” exploring the Purple One’s life and legacy; the New York Times’ The Athletic preps a deep dive on LeBron

YouTube, as part of promoting subscriptions to the newly secured NFL Sunday Ticket games package, is flying more than a dozen top creators to Kansas City, Mo., for the 2023 NFL Draft – including popular trick-shot specialists Dude Perfect. Dude Perfect, the five-member comedy and sports group with more than 59 million YouTube subscribers, and

YouTube’s advertising revenue dropped for the third quarter in a row, dragging down Google’s financial results as the video platform continues to navigate a soft ad market. Ad sales at YouTube declined 2.6% year over year in the first quarter of 2023, to $6.69 billion. That slightly beat out analyst expectations of $6.6 billion, per

FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver is exiting ABC News as The Walt Disney Company ramps up layoffs, Variety has confirmed. ABC News will hold onto the FiveThirtyEight brand with plans to streamline the statistics-driven news and analysis site. The network plans to create a more efficient structure for FiveThirtyEight leading into the 2024 presidential election and

The winners of the 27th Webby Awards have been announced, with Variety taking home two trophies from the annual awards program that recognizes the best of the internet. The magazine’s Variety Power of Women 2022 from Los Angeles won the Webby People’s Voice Award for events and livestreams in the General Video category, and Variety won the Webby

Spotify packed on more users than it expected in Q1 but revenue fell short of its guidance, which the company blamed on headwinds in its advertising business. For the first quarter of 2023, the company said total monthly active users (free and paid) grew by 22% year-over-year to 515 million “driven by strength in both

Scott Aukerman has created an alt-comedy empire with his podcast “Comedy Bang! Bang!” Aukerman started the radio show-turned-podcast in 2009, where a discussion between him and a famous guest is interrupted by unhinged improvisors playing wacky characters. But miles away from a radio station’s “morning zoo,” “CBB” has attracted a wide array of daring comedians

Note: This article is based on Variety Intelligence Platform’s special report “Generative AI & Entertainment,” available only to subscribers. Generative AI already surpasses human creative capabilities with existing tools in two key respects: speed and cost of production. One of the first major benefits of introducing gen AI to production pipelines is its ability to unlock substantial

Elon Musk’s Twitter has stirred up a new wave of confusion. After the multibillionaire tech baron made good on his threat to yank Twitter blue check-marks from celebrities who weren’t paying him $8 per month last week, the social network has reinstated the badge for many — including on accounts of people who have died.

Activision, Arcane Wonders, Genuine Entertainment, and Evolution have announced that they will be producing “Call of Duty: The Board Game,” a strategic tabletop roleplaying game inspired by the popular video game series “Call of Duty.” It is set to release into retail worldwide in 2024 and preorders will open on Kickstarter in Fall 2023. “We’re

Twitter’s verification woes continue. It appears the company inadvertently awarded a gold verification badge to a parody Disney account that has published racial slurs. As of this morning, Twitter account @DisneyJuniorUK boasted a gold verification badge on the social media site, accompanied by a message reading “This account is verified because it’s an official business

Twitter is no longer labeling any accounts as “state-affiliated media” or “government-funded media,” a change that comes after organizations including NPR and PBS objected to the descriptions from the Elon Musk-owned social network and have suspended their activity on Twitter in protest. According to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn, when he emailed Musk to inquire about

Chloe Sims, star of British reality show “The Only Way Is Essex,” last year moved to L.A. with her three siblings to try to break into Hollywood — an experience they’ve documented in an original show for OnlyFans’ free streaming service. OnlyFans generates billions of dollars in revenue, much of it from sexually explicit content.

If you want to run ads on Elon Musk’s Twitter from here on out, you apparently will need to pay for verified status — or buy at least $1,000 worth of advertising each month. Twitter said advertisers must subscribe to either Twitter Blue ($8/month and up) or Verified Organizations ($1,000/month) to be eligible to buy

The squeaky wheel gets the Twitter blue check-mark, it seems. After Twitter’s mass revocation Thursday of thousands of “legacy” verified blue check-marks, carrying out owner Elon Musk’s long-promised purge of the “corrupt” system, several high-profile accounts still had the iconic blue badges… even though they evidently aren’t paying for Twitter Blue (the subscription service whose