Tech

Blame it on Vecna. Netflix’s streaming service was unavailable for a brief period early Friday after the highly anticipated release of the final two episodes of “Stranger Things 4.” According to global uptime-monitoring site Downdetector.com, user reports of problems with Netflix spiked around 3 a.m. ET — when “Stranger Things 4” Volume 2 went live.

Technoblade, a top YouTube creator who specialized in Minecraft let’s-play videos, has died a year after he revealed a cancer diagnosis, according to a statement from his family. He was 23. In an emotional YouTube video shared on Technoblade’s channel Thursday, the YouTuber’s father announced that his son had died. “He was the most amazing

Comcast launched the Xfinity Stream app on Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD — which can now act as a substitute for your cable TV set-top box. Xfinity Stream on Apple TV gives Xfinity TV customers another option to access their video services, including all live, on-demand, and DVR programming within their home (i.e.,

Logan Paul, the YouTube creator and digital influencer who’s built a career as a pro fighter, has signed a contract to be a WWE Superstar. Now that Paul is officially under contract with WWE, sources familiar with the pact said, he will stay with the wrestling entertainment company for the near future and will perform

Maggie McLean Suniewick, most recently at NBCUniversal as president of distribution and business development, will be joining Twitter in a newly created role as VP of partnerships. At Twitter, the digital media, tech and entertainment veteran will oversee the social network’s newly formed partnerships team, bringing together Global Content Partnerships (GCP), Developer Platform, and the

Wattpad, the user-contributed fiction platform, will pay writers cash stipends of up to $25,000 — if they meet certain criteria — in return for making their stories exclusive to the platform. The company’s Wattpad Creators Program plans to pay out a total of $2.6 million to writers in 2022. To be eligible, writers must have: published

Howard Stern announced earlier this week a potential run for president in 2024, and it didn’t take long for the Sirius XM radio host to find the perfect running mate. Stern’s vice president pick is none other than Bradley Cooper. The host claimed on his eponymous radio show that he had texted with Cooper about

TelevisaUnivision is putting the polish on ViX+ for the premium streamer’s debut next month — and will try to persuade Spanish-speaking audiences to pay for another service in their monthly mix. The Hispanic programming powerhouse, formed through the merger of Univision and Televisa, is launching ViX+ on July 21 in the U.S and across Latin

The Duffer Brothers are going to take aspiring TV creators behind the scenes in the Upside Down. Matt and Ross Duffer, who are the creators, writers and executive producers of Netflix smash hit “Stranger Things,” launched a class on celeb-focused online learning platform MasterClass about how to develop an original TV series. The debut of

Niantic, the augmented-reality games company behind “Pokémon Go,” is letting go about 8% of its workforce and has scrapped several game titles it had in development, including “Transformers: Heavy Metal.” The company is laying off 85-90 employees, Niantic CEO John Hanke said in a memo to staff Wednesday, which was first reported by Bloomberg. Niantic

In another blow to the creator economy, Substack, a company that provides services for writers to offer paid newsletters, laid off 13 employees, about 14% of its headcount. CEO Chris Best told staffers of the layoffs in a memo, which he posted on Twitter. “Today’s the saddest day we’ve had at Substack,” he wrote. In

Netflix is celebrating the last two episodes of “Stranger Things 4” with a live, virtual watch party late Thursday night — letting fans tune in for a cast Q&A before the Volume 2 eps go live July 1. For the virtual watch party, Netflix has tapped Scener, a co-viewing platform that lets people watch titles

Kevin Hart is the latest celeb hopping on the NFT bandwagon. The popular actor-comedian-entrepreneur is looking to extend his brand to fans who get excited about non-fungible tokens — and he’s angling to make some extra bucks, too. Hart will plant his flag in the Web3 metaverse starting with next month’s premiere of Roku original

Trailblazing trans actor Hari Nef will headline “Lina’s Song,” a new scripted podcast from executive producer Mark Duplass, set in the ’80s punk scene of East Berlin. “Lina’s Song” is set to premiere on Spotify and Apple Podcasts on Aug. 19. The three-part narrative podcast stars Nef as Lina, a trans nightclub performer in 1980s

Satellite radio is now on cable. For the first time, Comcast is making SiriusXM’s audio content — including Howard Stern’s popular talk show, 330-plus ad-free music channels, podcasts, sports talk, comedy, news and more — available to stream on the cable giant’s Xfinity X1, Xfinity Flex and XClass TV platforms. To access SiriusXM content on

We already have Disney+, Apple TV+, ESPN+, BET+, Discovery+ and others — now the latest in the “plus” category is Snapchat+, looking to snap up a portion of consumers’ discretionary income. Snap on Wednesday launched Snapchat+, described as providing “a collection of exclusive, experimental and pre-release features” available in Snapchat for $3.99 per month. The

“The Prophecy,” Kerry Washington’s first foray into audio as an executive producer, is set to premiere next month on Audible with the actor starring in the modern-day spin on three Bible stories. Joining the cast are David Oyelowo (“Selma”), Asa Butterfield (“Sex Education”) and Steven Pasquale (“Rescue Me”), alongside Washington, Laurence Fishburne and Daniel Dae

Elmo just got a COVID-19 vaccine shot — in a new public service announcement from Sesame Workshop aimed at persuading human parents to get their young kids COVID shots, too. The beloved red Muppet is three-and-a-half-years-old, according to Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind “Sesame Street.” That means he recently became eligible for a

A star-studded Glastonbury 2022 edition has yielded record breaking audiences for the BBC across its digital platforms. Popular sets from the festival included Pyramid stage headliners Paul McCartney, who revealed surprise guests Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl, and Billie Eilish, as well as performances from Crowded House, Diana Ross, Little Simz, Megan Thee Stallion, Noel

Netflix customers seem to have a love-hate relationship with the industry’s biggest subscription streamer. Netflix remains the most indispensable service among major streaming platforms, with 31% of U.S. members saying they would keep the service if they could only have one video subscription, according to Whip Media’s 2022 Streaming Satisfaction Report. In second place is

Howard Stern announced on his SiriusXM radio show that he is “not fucking around” when it comes to possibly running for president in 2024 (via Mediaite). The radio personality said his potential presidential run hinges on Donald Trump also running in 2024, as Stern said, “I’ll beat his ass.” “I said to [co-host] Robin [Quivers],

Roku is thinking local: In the streaming platform’s first local news programming pact, Roku is adding eight NBC local news channels to the Roku Channel — available to stream live for free. Through the partnership, NBCUniversal Local will bring local news channels from its owned-and-operated NBC stations in eight major U.S. markets — New York, Los

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani has resigned as director of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, the digital arm of giant Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries. His son Akash Ambani, formerly a non-executive director, has been appointed as the chair of the Reliance Jio Infocomm board of directors. Pankaj Mohan Pawar has been appointed managing director of the company and

Radio host and entrepreneur Charlamagne Tha God is producing the first Black Effect Podcast Festival in partnership with iHeartMedia, aimed at celebrating and amplifying Black voices in the podcast industry. The event will take place Sunday, Aug. 28, at the Brooklyn Mirage’s Avant Gardner venue in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Charlamagne Tha God will join popular

After falling to second on Variety’s Trending TV chart last week, “Stranger Things” was back up top for the week of June 20 to 26. The show climbed 10% week-over-week in terms of overall engagement as fans gear up for the drop of Season 4’s last two episodes on July 1. Stranger Things stars Millie

Fuse Media has secured distribution for two of its free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels — Fuse Backstage and Fuse Beat — on Amazon Freevee. Amazon’s Freevee, formerly IMDb TV, is a free streaming video service with thousands of premium movies and TV shows available on-demand. It also is adding a growing array of FAST

The negotiations over streaming-service royalties are one of the most complex, contentious and important battlegrounds in the contemporary music industry, pitting some of the world’s largest companies — Amazon, Apple, Google/ Alphabet, Pandora/ SiriusXM/ Liberty Media and upstart Spotify — against music publishers and labels. It’s so contentious that even as the battle over rates

The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll is getting a hunk, a hunk of streaming love. The Elvis Presley Channel is now available on platforms in the U.S. representing 100 million-plus devices, offering a continuous, linear free stream of Elvis concerts, documentaries, specials and movies as well as other lifestyle and entertainment programming. The channel is

Donald Trump’s media and technology venture is part of a new federal grand jury investigation, which is seeking information about the financial dealings of the shell company Trump Media & Technology Group intends to merge with, according to a new regulatory filing. Last year, Trump Media & Technology Group announced plans to combine with Digital

Brooklyn-based film and television studio and streaming network FilmRise has announced that its original streaming series “BriannaPlayz” is set to play exclusively on The Roku Channel in the U.S. and in the U.K. FilmRise’s new show featuring popular YouTuber Brianna Arsement, and stitching together the best of Brianna as she takes viewers into the world of videogame