Tech

Attention, Critters: The Critical Role crew will soon swing into their third role-playing adventure campaign — and you might be able to see the first episode at your local cinema. The Campaign 3 world premiere of the group’s flagship Dungeons & Dragons-inspired show is set for Thursday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. PT. In addition

Variety is the first entertainment industry publication to dive into NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, which provide a way to verify ownership of digital content. The publication’s NFTs will debut at Thursday’s Variety Power of Women: Los Angeles event in partnership with Sweet.io, which specializes in creating and hosting eco-friendly NFT digital collectibles for entertainment and

Billionaire Len Blavatnik’s live sports streaming service DAZN, which recently secured TV rights to all Serie A live soccer matches in Italy for the next three seasons, has come under fire across the country after a string of technical outages. These have now prompted DAZN to offer a one-month refund to subscribers who request it.

Splice, the platform for rights-cleared sounds and beats, has established its first Global Music Council, a strategic advisory board of artist entrepreneurs, activists and experts in major music territories. According to the announcement, the advisors were hand-picked to provide diverse perspectives, and an artist’s lens, on expanding access to Splice’s music creation platform around the world.

Happy International Podcast Day! In today’s podcast news roundup, Apple releases the top 10 most-subscribed podcasts and free channels, Spotify adds Q&A and polling features for podcast creators, and more. RANKINGS Apple for the first time has shared the top paid podcast subscriptions and free channels worldwide, from June 15 through September 15, providing a

ViacomCBS-owned Pluto TV will pay $3.5 million to settle an FCC investigation that found the free, ad-supported video streaming service violated the commission’s accessibility rules. According to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, in addition to paying the civil penalty, Pluto TV agreed to enter into a compliance plan to ensure that non-exempt video programming that Pluto

Facebook is doing more imitation in what’s sincerest form of flattery to the massively popular TikTok app, which now has 1 billion monthly users. A little more than a year after the launch of Instagram Reels — a short-form video feature very much like TikTok — Facebook is bringing Reels to its core app in

YouTube said it broadened its medical misinformation policies to prohibit content that includes false claims and conspiracy theories about all approved vaccines, not just those for COVID-19. In addition, the video giant said it kicked high-profile anti-vaxxers off YouTube, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and osteopathic physician Joseph Mercola. Specifically, under the expanded policy, YouTube

Going into 2021, the world had high hopes: vaccines were becoming available, the U.S. elected a new president and it seemed as if life would return to pre-pandemic normal. Of course, life didn’t return to that level of normal, and the women on this list fought for ways to keep the entertainment business thriving, through

Podcast and media studio QCode teamed with Vertigo Entertainment, the production company behind the “It” movies, for horror podcast series “The Burned Photo.” The thriller, created by author Nicole Exposito and based on the Reddit /nosleep subreddit, stars Charmaine Bingwa (“The Good Fight”) and Katherine McNamara (“The Flash”). It will premiere Sept. 30 on all

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), essentially digital versions of physical collectibles like baseball cards, are the swag du jour for Hollywood franchises looking to gin up fan excitement. WarnerMedia’s DC announced that will give away — for free — NFTs of comic-book covers (in three different levels of rarity) for superheroes including Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder

Spotify’s psychological thriller podcast “Caso 63,” originally produced out of Chile, has been a breakout hit, the company says — with adaptations in Brazil and India to be followed by a U.S. version coming later in 2021. On the heels of its success in Spanish-speaking Latin America regions, “Caso 63” has been locally adapted in

Precise TV, which touts itself as providing a kid-safe contextual video advertising platform, has hired Denis Crushell as chief commercial officer. Crushell is responsible for leading the London-based company’s sales and partnerships at it expands beyond YouTube to to connected TV and other digital platforms. He hails from digital video measurement firm Tubular Labs, where

Netflix, still in the early innings of its video-game strategy, announced that it has acquired Night School Studio, a game developer best known for its critically acclaimed debut game, the supernatural mystery adventure title “Oxenfree.” It’s the first games-related acquisition for Netflix. Founded by Sean Krankel and Adam Hines in 2014, Night School Studio titles

Ryan Seacrest will remain on iHeartMedia’s airwaves — and continue to host several of the radio and audio giant’s tentpole events — under a three-year contract renewal. The deal will keep Seacrest, 46, in the iHeartMedia family through Dec. 31, 2025. Under the agreement, the TV-radio personality and entertainment entrepreneur will continue hosting and producing

Shondaland Audio, the podcast arm of Shonda Rhimes’ production company, announced casting for its first scripted podcast, “#Matter,” expected to be released early 2022 in partnership with iHeartMedia. “#Matter” is written, produced and directed by Dylan Brown (pictured above), writer and producer on “Power” prequel “Raising Kanan.” The eight-episode scripted series is a retrospective look

In today’s podcast news roundup, Wondery launches a subscription service for kids; Alice Cooper and Eddie Vedder are joining Audible’s “Words + Music” series; OWN launches “The SonRise Project” podcast for Black parents and families with children struggling with depression; and more. LAUNCHES Amazon’s Wondery launched Wondery Plus Kids on Apple Podcasts, a premium, ad-free

Opinionated academic and tech entrepreneur Scott Galloway is joining CNN Plus, the news cabler’s forthcoming streaming subscription service, to host a show covering the intersection of business and technology. Galloway’s show will be part of the launch lineup for CNN Plus, scheduled to debut in the first quarter of 2022 with up to 12 hours

Live, from your smartphone! It’s you and your friends in a personalized sketch-comedy show, brought to you by Snapchat. The new 10-episode Snap original series “The Me and You Show” taps into Snapchat’s Cameos — a feature that uses a kind of deepfake technology to insert someone’s face into a scene. Using Cameos, the show

Mystery-themed content is a key strand of the E-IP market set to take place next month alongside the Busan International Film Festival. The pitching and intellectual property trading event (Oct. 11-14, 2021) is the only component of Busan’s Asian Content and Film Market this year that will be operated as a hybrid combining both online

Justin Timberlake has joined his longtime collaborator Timbaland at Beatclub, an online global marketplace for music makers offering exclusive beats, loops and sounds. Beatclub, founded by Timbaland and his longtime manager and business partner Gary Marella, has already signed up such A-listers as J. Cole, Mike Will Made It, Mike Dean, Scott Storch, Larance Dopson,

Ticketing platform Dice has raised up to to $122 million in Series C funding in a round was led by new investor, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, with follow on investments from Tony Fadell’s Future Shape, Blisce, French entrepreneur Xavier Niel, Mirabaud Private Equity, Cassius and Evolution. “We believe DICE’s technology has the capacity to transform

Roblox and the National Music Publishers’ Association today announced an agreement that “settles any previous claims against Roblox and sets the foundation for future partnerships with global publishers that will unlock new creative and commercial opportunities on its platform,” according to the announcement. In June, a group of music publishers sued Roblox through the NMPA

TikTok says it has crossed a major milestone: The social video app claims it now counts more than 1 billion monthly active users. TikTok is the successor to Musical.ly, the short-form video app that was acquired by Chinese internet giant ByteDance in 2017, which then migrated those users over to the TikTok platform in 2018.

Facebook is tabling “Instagram Kids” for now — but at the same time, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, says that launching an app for kids under 13 is still “the right thing to do.” News of the Instagram Kids project came earlier this year, and it was swiftly bashed from several quarters. Critics included more

Another carriage fight has burst into public view: NBCUniversal on Sunday said it was notifying customers with YouTube TV that more than 14 of its networks, including local NBC channels, could go dark on the streaming service in a matter of days. NBCU’s deal with YouTube TV is set to expire shortly, and Google is

Apple told the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — which is on the cusp of a member vote to authorize a strike — that Apple TV Plus had fewer than 20 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada as of July 2021, according to the union. By claiming it had under the 20 million-subscriber

Bada bing! HBO Max is letting anyone in the U.S. watch Season 1 of groundbreaking Jersey crime drama “The Sopranos” — for free in the app — for a limited time. The promo is timed for the release of film prequel “The Many Saints of Newark” on Oct. 1 simultaneously in theaters and on HBO

Most podcasts are available to listen for free. Comedian Ricky Gervais expects fans to pay $15 to hear his latest musings with neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris on life as we know it. All 10 episodes of “Absolutely Mental” Season 2 are now available at absolutelymental.com. The full season costs $14.99; the site also offers

IAC, the digital media holding company headed by Barry Diller, is the leading bidder for Meredith’s magazine and digital businesses, in a potential deal valued at more than $2.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday. Meredith’s lifestyle brands, focused on women-skewing audiences, include People, EW, InStyle, Shape, Food & Wine, Better Homes &