Tech

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, heads will turn at a new May-December romance: TikTok, which is 6 years old, has hooked up with the venerable fest, now celebrating its 75th anniversary. How is it that Cannes — which, in years past, notoriously banned social-media posting from its famous red-carpeted steps — is now welcoming

U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 has extended its strategic partnership with YouTube to make 1000 hours of full Channel 4 and E4 episodes from new and popular series available to watch across Channel 4’s YouTube network in the U.K. and Ireland by the end of 2022. Some of the hit shows to be made available on

Redbox Entertainment, the struggling DVD kiosk and streaming video company, has set a deal to be acquired by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment in an all-stock transaction. The company will operate more than 38,000 kiosks across the U.S. as well as digital media services spanning ad-supported and transactional video services, including Crackle, the streaming

Could Donald Trump return to Twitter after all? Elon Musk, who has reached a $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, said the social network’s permanent ban on the 45th U.S. president was a “morally bad decision” and “flat-out wrong” — one that Musk would overturn, if he successfully closes the deal. Twitter’s ban of Trump

So long and thanks for all the tunes: Apple has bid a fond farewell to the last model in its iconic line of iPod music players — ending the music player’s two-decade run. The tech giant’s original iPod, introduced on Oct. 23, 2001, was the first MP3 player to deliver what was then an unprecedented

Alex Piper, formerly YouTube’s head of unscripted originals, is moving on from the video giant for a new gig leading Night Studios, the newly created content division of talent-management company Night Inc. At Night, whose clients include massively popular YouTube creator MrBeast, Piper will be in charge of unscripted, scripted, animated and documentary programming. Piper’s

Netflix may dive into the ad-supported VOD space as soon as the fourth quarter of 2022 — sooner than it originally signaled. Last month, as Netflix reported an unexpected drop in streaming subscribers in Q1 and forecast a 2 million sub loss for the second quarter, the company announced plans to roll out a lower-cost

Laverne Cox will be honored as advocate of the year at the upcoming 2022 Webby Awards. The actor and producer will be recognized by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) for her LGBTQ advocacy work. “Laverne Cox understands the true power of showing up by example,” Webby Awards president Claire Graves told Variety exclusively

Starzplay has acquired Stephen Dunn’s reimagining of groundbreaking British series “Queer as Folk” for a slew of territories including the U.K., several continental European countries, and Latin America.  The Peacock-produced reboot of the Russell T. Davies series from the ’90s about three clubgoing men in Manchester’s gay village, has been acquired by the streaming service

A bizarre and disturbing trend has swept across TikTok over the last several days: Dozens of posts on the short-form video service — some amassing millions of views — have used video or audio from Amber Heard’s wrenching testimony in the Johnny Depp trial, with the creators of the videos dramatically reenacting it, performing dances

Viewers continue to fall for “Heartstopper” long after its April drop on Netflix. For the third week in a row the series topped Variety’s Trending TV chart, earning nearly 600,000 more engagements for the week of May 2 to 8.  The series was down week-over-week in terms of overall engagements, but first-season re-watches, people discovering

Jessica Casano-Antonellis, after more than four years at Disney where she led PR for Disney+ and Hulu, has joined SiriusXM as SVP and head of communications. Casano-Antonellis succeeds Patrick Reilly, who after 17 years is leaving SiriusXM. Casano-Antonellis reports to CMO Denise Karkos and is responsible for all aspects of the company’s communications function, including

TelevisaUnivision reached a deal with Hemisphere Media Group to acquire Pantaya, a U.S. streaming platform for Spanish-language movies and TV series, snapping up the rival streamer to bolster the ViX service. The companies didn’t disclose a value for the Pantaya deal. Last year, Hemisphere Media bought out the remaining 75% stake of Pantaya it didn’t

Yahoo hired Tapan Bhat as president and GM of Yahoo Finance to oversee its financial and business vertical — marking the seasoned exec’s return to the internet media company after more than a decade. Bhat will report directly to Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone. He starts at the company May 16 and will be based in

Listen to this: The podcast advertising biz is continuing its upward trajectory — with U.S. ad sales expected to grow 47% this year to $2.13 billion, according to a new forecast from trade group IAB and PwC. That’s actually a deceleration from last year. The sector hit $1.45 billion in 2021, representing 72% annual growth,

Neil Gaiman’s bestselling graphic novel “The Sandman: Act I” has been adapted as a Hindi-language audio adaptation by Amazon’s Audible and DC, with a voice cast of acclaimed Bollywood actors. The books are also adapted as an ongoing English-language audio presentation by Gaiman and audiobook and audio movie pioneer Dirk Maggs. Maggs previously had a

No one, except maybe Donald Trump and his inner circle, expected the ex-president’s legal challenge to Twitter’s permanent ban on him — on First Amendment grounds — to succeed. But now a federal judge has officially dismissed the suit. Trump, joined by the American Conservative Union and five individuals, sued Twitter (and then-CEO Jack Dorsey)

Devin Nunes, the former congressman who is now CEO of Donald Trump’s social-media rival to Twitter, claimed that his new boss “encouraged” tech mogul Elon Musk to acquire Twitter, to “take on these tech tyrants.” Musk says that’s false. “I’ve had no communication, directly or indirectly, with Trump, who has publicly stated that he will

Reed Hastings made the trek to Rome to open Netflix’s new Italian headquarters in an elegant building just off the Via Veneto of “La Dolce Vita” fame — and the Roman rain gods made sure they knew he was there. Menacing dark clouds interspersed with flashes of sunlight had hovered over the hour-long outdoor presentation

In today’s podcast roundup, “Batman Unburied” flies to the top of Spotify’s charts; HBO Max’s “The Staircase” gets a companion podcast; Slate’s “Slow Burn” Season 7 will unpack the history of Roe v. Wade; Audible is set to unleash “Beast Master” investigative narrative podcast about “Ohio’s bear king”; and more. CHARTS DC’s “Batman Unburied” superhero

Netflix on Friday officially opened its Italian base in Rome, in a classy neoclassical building near the iconic Via Veneto, and announced a substantial slate of originals that stand as testament to what co-CEO Reed Hastings called the streaming giant’s “growing business in Italy.” “The breadth and variety of our Italian slate perfectly represents our

Spotify’s former head of studios for the U.K. and Ireland, James Cator, has joined Amazon-backed podcast outfit Wondery, Variety can reveal. The executive is believed to be taking on the newly created role of head of commercial for Europe. Based in Berlin, Cator will report into Wondery’s head of international, Declan Moore. The move will support

CAMPAIGN UNHCR, the U.N. Refugee Agency, and TikTok have teamed for a music campaign promoting solidarity with refugees from Ukraine and beyond. The campaign begins with #TheWorldNeeds, a global hashtag challenge, the centerpiece of which is Dionne Warwick’s iconic track “What The World Needs Now (Is Love),” with the support of Warner Recorded Music, Warner

It’s not every day that one can write a sentence that reasonably connects the Fox animated series “Bob’s Burgers,” the House of Terror museum of fascist and communist regimes in Hungary, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe — but in 2022, anything is possible. Let’s back up. Ever since the Marvel Studios series “Moon Knight” debuted

A nationwide referendum is to be held in Switzerland on May 15 on a proposed law that would force streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to re-invest 4% of their local revenues in Swiss film and TV productions. Dubbed “Lex Netflix,” the Swiss law –– which is modeled on European regulations that don’t apply

National Geographic Media, majority owned by Disney, has hired a new editor in chief: Nathan Lump, a journalism veteran most recently with Expedia, who will oversee NatGeo’s editorial operations worldwide. Lump joins NatGeo from Expedia Group, where he was VP and global head of editorial and entertainment. He has more than 25 years of experience,

Elon Musk is getting a little help from billionaire friends for his $44 billion Twitter takeover. According to an SEC filing Thursday, Musk has secured $7.14 billion in new financing commitments for the Twitter bid, including $1 billion from Larry Ellison. Ellison, co-founder and CTO of software giant Oracle, sits on the board of Tesla,

Elon Musk is waiting in the wings to get his hands on Twitter — with a slew of new ideas to shake up the social network. But on Wednesday evening, Twitter was trying to keep things business as usual, unveiling a series of content pacts at its NewFronts presentation in New York. “It has been

Cameo, a startup that sells customized video shout-outs from celebrities that was valued last year at about $1 billion, has made major layoffs after a slowdown in business. The company laid off 87 staffers, representing roughly 25% of its headcount. CEO Steven Galanis confirmed the cuts, citing the need to “right-size” the business after its

TikTok is launching a new way for the top creators on its billion-user app make money — and for advertisers to reach the cream of the short-form video crop. The company announced TikTok Pulse, an advertising program to let marketers buy inventory in the top 4% of all videos on the platform in a dozen