Tech

Listen up: Podimo, the Denmark-based subscription service for podcasts and audiobooks, said it secured €58.6 million (about $58.4 million) in funding, as it seeks to grow its market footprint and content lineup. The funding was led by previous investors 83North, Highland Europe and Saban Ventures, with continued participation from Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Heartcore and Headline.

Is the show going to be over for Showtime? Paramount Global is having “early” discussions about shutting down Showtime as a standalone service and migrating Showtime’s slate of premium content into its flagship streamer, Paramount+, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing anonymous sources. Paramount has “broached the idea” of shuttering Showtime in talks

When up-and-coming artists vie for the attention of A&Rs, producers and managers, it often means being ignored and discouraged, while music industry professionals end up flooded with DMs and emails that are nearly impossible to organize and sift through. Enter: Xposure Music, a Montreal-based start-up whose goal is to unlock a “new front door” to

Peter Chernin’s Chernin Group has formed a new investment company, Night Capital, with digital talent-management and media firm Night Inc., whose biggest client is major YouTube creator MrBeast. Night Capital, which has funding commitments of $100 million from TCG, is focused on acquiring majority interests in “consumer-facing companies in partnership with leading talent,” the companies

Twitter shareholders want Elon Musk to keep his word and buy out the social network for $44 billion. But the tech multibillionaire is doing everything he can to try to nix the deal. On Tuesday, at a special meeting of Twitter shareholders, the company’s investors voted in favor of approving Musk’s takeover, which was announced

“Abbott Elementary” didn’t take home the trophy for comedy series at the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards — but the breakout sitcom from Quinta Brunson won the night on Twitter. On Monday evening, the top-tweeted TV show among U.S. users was “Abbott Elementary,” according to Twitter. And Emmy night’s top-tweeted nominee was Sheryl Lee Ralph —

YouTube, the world’s largest streaming platform for music, announced that it has paid more than $6 billion to the music industry in the 12 months between July 2021 and June 2022 — some $2 billion more than it said it paid in the previous 12 months. Like last year, the announcement comes in the form of

Not surprisingly, the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8 — ending a historic 70-year reign — spurred renewed interest in “The Crown,” the popular Netflix series that follows the monarch’s life and events during her time on the throne over multiple decades. “The Crown,” which begins in the late 1940s prior to Elizabeth’s

When Variety’s annual Entertainment & Technology Summit presented by City National Bank returns Sept. 15 at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood, creatives, executives and everyone in between will be looking for ways to use the latest technologies to tell the kinds of stories that hook audiences and keep them coming back to their chosen platform

YouTube’s royalty system has long been criticized by multiple music-industry organizations for opaqueness, a lack of oversight and, many feel, insufficient payments. But a new report in Billboard makes a number of detailed allegations, supported by claims from a number of unnamed sources, who say that YouTube — which is the single largest streaming service

UTA veteran Brett Hansen has moved to Paradigm Talent Agency as senior content agent, a hire that comes as part of Paradigm’s stepped-up effort to rebuild its roster of agents and clients. Hansen is a prominent unscripted TV agent. He’s repped such notables as SallyAnn Salsano’s 495 Productions, Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens’ Propagate

Debbie Allen and Amber Riley are moving into “The Lower Bottoms.” The two actors join the scripted dark comedy podcast — about denizens in a gentrifying neighborhood in West Oakland, Calif. — for Season 2. Also appearing in the second season of “The Lower Bottoms” is Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker, who will guest star

Roku unveiled a software update to its streaming operating system — OS 11.5 — that among other features will introduce a new section on its streaming devices called “The Buzz,” stocked with short-form promotional content from entertainment partners. The goal: to provide another entry point for users to discover and watch new TV shows and

Netflix and Ubisoft have partnered on a new “Assassin’s Creed” mobile game and two other mobile titles that will be available exclusively on mobile to Netflix members globally with no ads or in-house purchases. The other two titles are a new “Valiant Hearts” game, which is a sequel to Ubisoft’s award-winning game “Valiant Hearts: The

The dojos have mojo: “Cobra Kai” Season 5, the latest installment in the popular “Karate Kid” sequel TV series on Netflix, currently has a perfect 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. All 10 episodes of the fifth season, which stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka (reprising their roles from the original “Karate Kid” movies), were

Elon Musk keeps finding new reasons why he believes he can back out of his $44 billion agreement to buy Twitter. In a Sept. 9 letter to Twitter, Musk’s lawyers called out the social network’s separation agreement with Peiter “Mudge” Zatko — its former head of security who was fired in January — under which

Dane Cook’s new stand-up special, “Above It All,” will be released through the social media platform Moment next month, the comedian announced on Friday. The special will first premiere on October 4 during a special screening event at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood — which, according to his reps, marks the first time a

Audible has ordered four more comedy podcasts from “Saturday Night Live” producer Broadway Video and has renewed its LGBTQ action-comedy “Hot White Heist” — with an all-queer cast led by “SNL” cast member Bowen Yang — for a second season. The new slate of shows, set to hit Audible through starting later this month and

The YouTube Streamy Awards are coming back this year in-person for the first time since 2019. The 2022 Streamys — the annual awards recognizing the internet’s most notable video creators, shows and brands — will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Dec. 4. The show will stream exclusively on YouTube for the fifth

Amazon will bow a new laugh lead-in for its exclusive “” NFL games package, enlisting “Saturday Night Live” alum Taran Killam as the host of “The NFL Pile On” — the league’s first official comedy show. “The NFL Pile On” will premiere Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. ET on Prime Video, airing each Wednesday throughout

Snap founder Evan Spiegel expressed confidence in steering his beleaguered company through tough times with a refined focus on three key areas, as outlined in a keynote interview Wednesday at the Code Conference in Los Angeles.  He identified boosting Snap’s user base of 350 million daily active users, reaccelerating revenue growth and investing in augmented

The legacy of Steve Jobs lives on in the company he founded, according to the people who knew him best. Apple CEO Tim Cook, former design chief Jony Ive and Emerson Collective founder Laurene Powell Jobs gathered Wednesday at the Code Conference in Los Angeles to remember Jobs, hours after the company unveiled iPhone 14

Apple took the wraps off its next-generation smartphones, the iPhone 14, which promise faster performance and super-charged photo and video features — with a new 12-megapixel main camera on the regular iPhone 14s and a 48-megapixel main camera on the Pro series. The standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro have a 6.1-inch screen, while

Kim Kardashian is adding strategic investor to her résumé — and she’s on the hunt for hot new start-up businesses to fund. The TV personality, entrepreneur and social-media influencer has teamed up with Jay Sammons, a 16-year veteran of global investment firm Carlyle, to form private-equity firm SKKY Partners. Kardashian and Sammons will serve as

Welcome (back) to Sunnydale! Wondery is set to debut podcast series “The Rewatcher: Buffy the Vampire Slayer” — hosted by podcasters Alaina Urquhart, a “Buffy” superfan, and Ash Kelley, who has never seen a single episode of the iconic ’90s-era TV show. Urquhart and Kelley are the hosts of Wondery’s popular true-crime show “Morbid.” Each

In today’s podcast roundup, CNN’s Anderson Cooper delves into how to move forward after losing a love one; NPR sets “Invisibilia” Season 9 premiere date; former Obama adviser David Plouffe hosts podcast focused on the 2022 midterm elections for Cadence13; and more. DATES CNN anchor Anderson Cooper hosts limited-series podcast “All There Is With Anderson

Soumya Sriraman, most recently head of Amazon’s Prime Video Channels, has been hired by Qurate Retail Group, the parent company of QVC and HSN, as president of streaming. In the newly created role at the John Malone-controlled company, Sriraman will lead Qurate Retail’s streaming commerce business, which includes the QVC+ and HSN+ streaming services and

After examining the dynamics of competing businesses like Netflix and Blockbuster, Coca Cola and Pepsi and Facebook and Snapchat, superstar Taylor Swift’s well-publicized rivalry with music mogul Scooter Braun over ownership of master recordings of her music is the subject of the latest season of “Business Wars,” a podcast hosted by David Brown on Wondery.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school district in the U.S., said it was targeted in a ransomware attack and had confirmed “an external cyberattack” on its information-technology infrastructure. Despite the disruption, the LAUSD said schools will open as scheduled on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The school district, in a notice released late Monday,

Instagram has suspended Pornhub’s widely followed account on the social platform. Before the sex site’s account was removed from Instagram, Pornhub had 13.1 million followers and more than 6,200 posts. Reps for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment. The move comes one month after Visa and Mastercard cut off