YouTube’s message to Madison Avenue: The video giant isn’t like traditional TV — it’s bigger, with literally billions of viewers, and better at targeting relevant audiences. At its annual Brandcast event, held Wednesday during the TV biz’s upfronts week, YouTube drilled home massive scale. On average, viewers watch more than 1 billion hours of content […]

Disney CEO Bob Iger said that as the traditional pay-TV universe continues to shrink, the company is cutting its investment in content for linear entertainment TV networks while also amortizing that expenditure across streaming platforms. The strategy is “to reduce pretty dramatically our investment in content specifically aimed in those traditional networks,” Iger said Wednesday […]

Shares of Paramount Global slid Tuesday following a CNBC report that Sony was “rethinking” its bid to acquire Paramount in conjunction with private-equity firm Apollo Global Management. Earlier this month, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo sent a nonbinding offer to Paramount Global’s board offering to take Paramount private for $26 billion in cash, a price […]

CAA has turned to technology vendor Veritone to help build and operate the talent agency’s early-stage database housing replicas of its clients’ digital likenesses. In September 2023, CAA launched The CAA Vault, an in-house service based in Burbank, Calif., that can scan, capture and securely store clients’ digital likenesses (face and body) and voice. The point […]

Roku has landed exclusive multiyear rights for Major League Baseball’s Sunday Leadoff live games, a package previously with NBCUniversal’s Peacock. Starting May 19, Roku will stream Sunday MLB games for free on the Roku Channel. The company also will launch a new MLB Zone to help baseball fans find live and upcoming games, nightly recaps, […]

Marvel alleges an Instagram user illegally posted an image from the unreleased “Captain America: Brave New World” movie — and it has gone to court to try to make Instagram disclose the identity of the account’s operator. Marvel filed a subpoena request May 7 in U.S. District Court California Northern District in San Jose, asking […]

Carrie-Anne Moss is joining Arnold Schwarzenegger in action comedy series “Fubar” Season 2 as a former East German spy — who has a passionate history with Schwarzenegger’s CIA operative. Moss (“The Matrix” movies, Disney+’s “The Acolyte”) joins the returning cast of “Fubar,” which includes Schwarzenegger, Monica Barbaro, Fortune Feimster, Travis Van Winkle, Jay Baruchel, Aparna […]

Apple’s new iPad Pro ad — which went viral for not necessarily the right reasons — also caught the attention of the company that made one of the objects pulverized in a gigantic hydraulic press. The “Crush!” commercial features a cameo by one of Arcade1Up’s three-quarter-scale retro arcade game machines, albeit with a fictional game […]

Julie McNamara, one of Spotify’s top podcast content execs, is leaving the company, Variety has confirmed. McNamara, who joined the company in 2021, most recently served as VP and global head of podcast studios. She oversaw Spotify Studios, which consolidated the Parcast and Gimlet groups producing original podcasts, as well as licensed podcast deals with […]

In Netflix’s first move into big-league sports streaming, the company has won the rights to two NFL games on Christmas Day 2024. On Dec. 25, 2024, Netflix will be the global home of the NFL’s two Christmas Day games. In addition, the streamer will have at least one holiday game in 2025 and 2026 as part […]

They’re not dead yet: Most of Vice Media Group’s digital brands — including Vice.com — will be relaunched under a new joint venture formed by the struggling media company. But the future of Vice News remains uncertain. In February, Vice Media had announced that it would stop publishing content on consumer-facing digital outlets and the […]

More than three decades after they co-starred in hit sitcom “Cheers,” Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson are getting back together — going into the audio booth for a new podcast from SiriusXM. “Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (Sometimes)” is set to premiere June 12, with new episodes releasing weekly […]

Netflix used to say its goal was to become HBO faster than HBO could become Netflix. Well, Netflix succeeded on that front. Now Warner Bros. Discovery — in partnership with Disney and others — is looking to recomposite a cable TV-style streaming bundle to gain greater scale before Netflix gets even farther ahead of legacy […]

Podcast ad revenue in the U.S. — after seven years of double-digit growth — hit a slowdown in 2023, with overall spending increasing 5% to $1.93 billion, according to a new report. The tepid growth in podcast ad spending last year came amid a “challenging advertising climate” that disproportionately affected mid-tier companies, according to research […]

Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery — ordinarily rivals for consumers’ time and money — are teaming up for a triple-play bundle of Disney+, Hulu and Max. The companies announced a new streaming bundle that comprises Disney+, Hulu and Max will be available this summer in the U.S. There’s no pricing info or specific launch date […]

An Apple commercial for the new iPad Pro tablet showing an industrial press literally crushing a TV, musical instruments, books and more ignited an angry backlash among many in Hollywood and other creative industries. The ad, titled “Crush!”, shows an array of various objects — including a record player, a piano, a guitar, an old […]

Marvel fans will be invited to enter the MCU as the lead characters in a new mixed-reality app coming exclusively to Apple’s Vision Pro headset. Marvel Studios and ILM Immersive, Lucasfilm’s storytelling studio, announced “What If…? – An Immersive Story,” a one-hour AR and VR experience touted as the first interactive Disney+ original story created […]

NBCUniversal inked a deal with iHeartMedia making it the exclusive audio partner for the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Under the agreement, iHeart will provide 24-7 play-by-play audio channels for select NBCU linear coverage of the Olympic Games. In addition, iHeartMedia will create an original iHeartPodcast for the Olympics hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers […]

Disney’s adjusted earnings per share for the March quarter beat Wall Street forecasts — but the company’s stock price stumbled amid concerning signs for the Mouse House. Shares of Disney were down 10.4%, to $104.41 per share, as of noon ET on Tuesday. The pullback comes after the stock was up 29% year to date […]