Tech

The Ghoul Boys are back in town for one last hurrah, just in time for Halloween. The seventh and final season of “BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural” with Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara — one of the digital media company’s most popular franchises — will premiere on the BuzzFeed Unsolved Network’s YouTube channel on Oct. 15 at

Twitch, the Amazon-owned livestreaming service that caters to video gamers, confirmed that it has experienced a data security breach. The hack allegedly resulted in the theft of information on payout amounts to livestreamers, Twitch source code and details on a purported Steam rival from Amazon Game Studios. In a tweet Wednesday morning, Twitch said, “We

It’s official: Kelly Campbell is the new president of Peacock, NBCUniversal announced. The appointment comes two days after Campbell announced that she was leaving Disney’s Hulu, where she had served as president for less than two years. Variety previously reported that she was in talks about a top Peacock job. Campbell will join the Peacock

French media entrepreneur Serge Hayat, a shareholder in Federation Entertainment and Echo Studio, has boarded Rocambole, a subscription-based European literary streaming platform boasting serialized original novels. The service, whose layout looks similar to Netflix, launched in June 2020 and already showcases more than 200 titles across different genres, written by a pool of more than

Longstanding Indian animation firm Toonz Media Group has teamed with digital R&D firm Guardianlink to launch a NFT design lab, creating digital assets for brands and celebrities. The new facility will kick off by turning some of Toonz’ proprietary characters and series into non fungible tokens. NFTs, which have taken the art world by storm

Kelly Merryman has exited YouTube after more than six years leading the video platform’s content partnerships. She has been hired by Aura, a provider of digital security solutions for consumers, as president and chief operating officer. Merryman had served as YouTube’s VP of content partnerships since 2015, overseeing a 300-person team spanning TV, film, sports,

Snap is rolling out new ways for Snapchat creators to make money on the app — part of the company’s efforts to keep the most popular content creators on its platform in the face of ongoing competition from the likes of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. The new programs include Spotlight Challenges: an extension of the

Online video sharing platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Vimeo and Twitch have to follow new guidelines set out by U.K. media regulator Ofcom to keep people better protected from harmful content. The guidance, published on Wednesday, requires platforms to provide clear rules around uploading content; have easy reporting and complaint processes; and restrict access to

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has responded to claims made by an ex-employee that alleged that the company was hiding from investors and the public its shortcoming to prevent the spread of hate speech and misinformation. In a lengthy post shared on Zuckerberg’s official Facebook page on Tuesday evening, the CEO offered a statement that he

YouTube permanently suspended two channels of disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, who was found guilty of sex trafficking last week, and will not allow him to create any new channels going forward. But YouTube hasn’t banned Kelly’s music: The internet video giant will continue to offer the singer’s music catalog on YouTube Music. On Tuesday,

Netflix has moved fast to roll out official merchandise for “Squid Game,” in a bid to capitalize on the unexpected success of the Korean survival thriller. The streamer’s merch for “Squid Game” (at this link) includes T-shirts with the show’s logo and key images from the series ($34.95), a shirt that lets you pick a

All products and services featured by Variety are independently selected by Variety editors. However, Variety may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. When you’re in the mood for a really good scare, a well-crafted horror novel is often the best

Leading digital distributor Ingrooves will begin delivering music created in Dolby Atmos to DSPs, the company has announced. “We have worked closely with Apple, Amazon Music and TIDAL to develop an easy-to-use system that enables us to deliver Dolby Atmos tracks on behalf of hundreds of Ingrooves-distributed independent labels and artists,” said head of product Elliot

Facebook appeared to have fixed networking issues that made its flagship app — as well as Instagram and WhatsApp — unusable Monday in an outage lasting more than six hours. Users reported a spike in problems accessing Facebook’s family of services starting around 11:35 a.m. ET. The issues preventing users from posting content or refreshing

Carlos Watson indicated Monday morning that he had much to discuss with advertisers, even though his company, Ozy Media, has been besieged by a torrent of difficult news about its relations with investors, vendors and staff. “This is our Lazarus moment,” the executive told interviewer Craig Melvin on NBC’s “Today.” Madison Avenue isn’t so sure.

Creative studio STURDY. has teamed with Shawn Mendes manager Andrew Gertler to launch STURDY.exchange, a new NFT marketplace for artists, Variety can exclusively reveal. After a beta launch last week that sold out of a 5,000-piece art project by Somehoodlum (Drake, 21 Savage), STURDY.exchange is now live with a collection of original music, film and

After less than two years as Hulu’s president, Kelly Campbell has left the Disney-controlled streaming service. Campbell’s sudden departure was announced to staff by Rebecca Campbell, Disney’s chairman of international operations and direct-to-consumer, who said that Kelly was no longer with Hulu “effective immediately” but did not provide a specific reason. Kelly Campbell’s direct reports

Lindsay Lohan will get behind the mic to host her first podcast, in a deal with digital content studio Studio71. On the yet-untitled interview podcast, the actor-singer-entrepreneur will share “her authentic voice and a never-before-seen side,” Studio71 teased. There’s no release date for the show, which is tentatively set to premiere in late 2021 or

A bevy of big media players are eager to win a growing battle to provide consumers with streaming news, but John Heilemann has a message for them: Don’t count out smaller competitors. Heilemann’s “The Recount,” a media outlet founded with entrepreneur John Battelle in 2019, is hiring its first chief content officer in a bid

UPDATED: Facebook and Instagram users reported widespread outages Monday, as the social media giant appeared to be again experiencing serious technical problems. The company’s WhatsApp and Messenger apps also were down, per user reports. The company, in the spotlight over accusations by a whistleblower that the company prioritized profits over safety, saw its flagship Facebook

Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has won the rights to the upcoming memoir by Nicole Walters, star of USA Networks’ family docu-comedy “She’s the Boss.” Leah Trouwborst, senior editor at Simon Element, acquired the entrepreneur and motivational lite guru’s memoir from CAA in a major deal. The yet-to-be-titled book is set to

The identity of an ex-Facebook employee who released tens of thousands of private internal documents was revealed during an interview on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old former product manager at Facebook, revealed herself to be the whistleblower who leaked information for the Wall Street Journal‘s bombshell investigation into Facebook and filed complaints

What to watch next? Netflix is now launching its “Play Something” instant-streaming shuffle feature on mobile — expanding the tool for customers paralyzed with indecision in the face of thousands of choices. This April, Netflix launched Play Something on connected TV platforms worldwide. Starting Monday (Oct. 4), Play Something will begin rolling out to all

The global success of Netflix’s Korean survival drama series “Squid Game” has given Korean internet service provider SK Broadband a new opportunity to press claims for network usage fees. On Friday, the ISP said that it had begun legal action against the streamer. Netflix, which has previously argued that SK already gets paid by corporate

The board of Ozy Media, the media and entertainment company accused of deceiving investors and advertisers, has had a change of heart and will not be shutting its doors, CEO Carlos Watson said Monday. “We are going to open for business,” Watson said in an appearance on NBC News’ “Today” show. “This is our Lazarus moment,

YouTube TV customers will continue to get NBCUniversal’s suite of cable channels and local NBC stations after the media conglom and Google reached a tentative agreement. According to a source familiar with the talks, Google and NBCU are finalizing their agreement and the NBCU-owned networks will not be going dark on YouTube TV. Their previous

What better way to promote a new TV show than to scare the living daylights out of unsuspecting passersby? In a marketing stunt for Korean thriller “Squid Game,” which has become a viral smash hit worldwide, Netflix installed a replica of the giant animatronic doll that appears in episode 1 at the Robinsons Galleria mall

Paris Hilton’s digital avatar will soon be sliving on Roblox. The TV personality-entrepreneur-influencer-podcaster is adding “gamer” to her CV with the launch of Paris World: an outpost on the Roblox gaming platform that will let fans explore a stylized milieu that revolves around the celebrity icon. Paris World, which officially goes live Oct. 6 on

NBCUniversal’s cable and broadcast networks are still live on YouTube TV, after the media company and Google reached a short-term extension to their previous distribution agreement just prior to the Sept. 30 midnight ET expiration. “NBCUniversal and YouTube TV have agreed to a short extension while parties continue talks,” an NBCU spokesman said in a

TikTok’s first officially minted in NFT collection, “TikTok Top Moments,” will roll out this fall — starting with digital collectibles from Lil Nas X next month. The collection will feature six TikTok videos as one-of-a-kind NFTs and a series of limited-edition NFTs inspired by cultural moments from the short-form video platform. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) provide