Todd Spangler Ny Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Just when last week’s ratings resurgence for the Golden Globes had us all feeling good, along comes the Emmy Awards — rescheduled from its usual September slot because of Hollywood strikes — to deliver an all-time audience low to shake our confidence in awards show all over again. Fox’s Monday, Jan.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, the former chief exec of Vimeo who started at the Fox Corp.-owned free TV streaming service last year, has tapped her former lieutenant at Vimeo, Courtney Sanchez. Sanchez, who has more than 20 years of experience in media and tech, joins Tubi as chief strategy officer and EVP of operations. She worked at Vimeo, the video-hosting platform, from 2014-22 and most recently served as COO, where she helped the company go public.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube is laying off about 100 employees and is restructuring some of its operations. The cuts at the internet video giant were announced in a memo to staffers Wednesday from Mary Ellen Coe, YouTube’s chief business officer. The roughly 100 jobs eliminated represent about 1.4% of YouTube’s nearly 7,200 headcount.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney CEO Bob Iger saw his compensation hit $31.6 million in 2023 — down from $45.9 million in 2021, his last prior full year of employment at the company. Iger’s 2023 pay package included $865,385 in base salary, plus 16.1 million in stock awards, $10 million in stock-option awards, $2.14 million cash bonus and $2.48 million in other compensation, according to the company’s proxy statement filed Tuesday with the SEC. His contract with Disney runs through the end of 2026.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After more than seven years at the helm of Barstool Sports — and in the wake of the company’s ill-fated sale in 2023 — Erika Ayers Badan announced Tuesday that she is stepping down as CEO. Last summer, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy bought the site back from casino and online gambling operator Penn Entertainment for $1. That came after Penn Entertainment paid a total of about $550 million to acquire 100% control of Barstool, a few months before deciding to part ways with Barstool.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Live from Las Vegas, Gwen Stefani will be the marquee performer for the Super Bowl LVIII TikTok Tailgate, the pregame party before the NFL’s championship game on Feb. 11, 2024. It’s the fourth year of the NFL’s partnership with TikTok for the tailgate show.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix is seeing strong growth of its advertising-based plan, having recently eclipsed 23 million global monthly active users, president of advertising Amy Reinhard said. Reinhard spoke Wednesday at the Variety Entertainment Summit at CES 2024 at Las Vegas’ Aria Resort and Casino.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Is that photo or article someone posted on the internet claiming it came from Fox News actually from Fox News — or is it bogus? Fox Corp. has created a technical protocol called Verify, designed with two objectives: to let media companies register content and grant usage rights to AI platforms; and to allow consumers to verify the content is authentic. The company is releasing Verify on an open-source basis, in the hopes that others sign on to the blockchain-based content verification system.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ready for it? ROXi, a music video streaming app for TVs whose backers include Simon Cowell and Kylie Minogue that was first launched in the U.K., is coming to the United States. The service promises American viewers access to some 100 million music videos — including the likes of Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé — plus hundreds of curated music video channels, karaoke and music games.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Audacy, the troubled radio and audio-streaming company, said Sunday it filed plans for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization to slash its debt. Audacy is the second-largest radio broadcaster in the U.S. (after iHeartMedia) with 235 owned radio stations across 48 markets.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Sarah Personette, who quit as Twitter’s head of ad sales after Elon Musk bought the social network in the fall of 2022, has landed a new gig as CEO of digital news startup Puck. Personette will start at New York-based Puck on Jan. 7, assuming the role at the company that has been vacant since the exit of Puck co-founder Joe Purzycki in May 2023.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A huge virtual world based on “Ready Player One,” a story set in a future where people enter into a virtual-reality simulation to escape the real world, is coming soon to a real (but, you know, virtual) platform near you. Futureverse, an AI and metaverse technology and content company, announced the formation of Readyverse Studios, a studio co-founded with Ernest Cline, the novelist and creator of “Ready Player One,” and Dan Farah, producer of the 2018 Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor ESPN and the NCAA reached a new, eight-year sports rights agreement worth about $920 million over the term of the deal — more than four times the previous pact with the Disney-owned sports giant. The new media-rights deal commences Sept.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney+ is now included as part of the pay-TV bundle on Charter’s Spectrum TV Select tier. Charter Communications and the Walt Disney Co. announced that the ad-supported version of Disney+ (called Disney+ Basic, priced normally at $7.99/month) is now available in all Spectrum TV Select packages nationwide at no additional cost.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The red carpet is rolling up for “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” the casual mobile game that let players create their own aspiring virtual celebrity. The game, after launching nearly a decade ago, was a smash hit — and pulled in millions of dollars in revenue over its run.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor T-Mobile is sweetening the deal for its most expensive wireless plan with another free streamer: The carrier is making Disney’s Hulu available for no extra charge later this month. Starting Jan.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The new owners of Cheddar News, once touted as a kind of next-generation financial news network ala CNBC, have furloughed staff members because of “unforeseen” circumstances, the New York Times reported. Cheddar, founded in early 2016, was acquired by cable operator Altice USA in 2019 for $200 million. Last Thursday (Dec.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Canceling a SiriusXM subscription isn’t just annoying — it’s illegal, according to a lawsuit filed by New York’s attorney general. New York Attorney General Letitia James this week filed a lawsuit against SiriusXM, accusing the satellite radio and streaming audio company of “trapping consumers” in subscriptions and “maintaining deliberately long and burdensome cancellation processes.” An investigation by James’ office found that SiriusXM “forces its subscribers to call or chat online with an agent to cancel a subscription, then deliberately draws out those interactions as part of its strategy to prevent subscribers from canceling.” The lawsuit alleges that SiriusXM violated state and federal laws concerning subscriptions that renew automatically by failing to provide subscribers with a cancelation mechanism that is “simple, timely and easy to use.” In addition, the suit alleges that SiriusXM engaged in fraud and deception by misleading subscribers seeking to cancel their accounts.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Joe Rogan claimed many Americans who voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 are regretting that decision because of the 46th president’s alleged declining acuity — but to try to prove his point, the popular podcast host incorrectly attributed to Biden something Donald Trump had in fact said. On the Dec. 21 episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is the No.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Aylo, parent company of Pornhub and other sex sites, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors to settle a charge it profited from deals with porn producers who were involved in sex trafficking. Under the settlement announced Thursday, Canada-based Aylo agreed to pay a criminal fine and forfeiture totaling $1.845 million to the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Lawyers for Ozy Media, the defunct media and entertainment company founded by Carlos Watson, allege in a new lawsuit that Ben Smith, BuzzFeed and Semafor (the media startup co-founded by Smith in 2022) misappropriated Ozy’s trade secrets “for their own benefit.” The suit additionally alleges that BuzzFeed breached a nondisclosure agreement it entered into with Ozy in 2019 as part of its efforts to buy the company. Lawyers representing Ozy Media allege that Smith, former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief and New York Times media columnist who is currently editor-in-chief of Semafor, wrote “a series of hit pieces” about Ozy Media but that he did not disclose “his central role in BuzzFeed’s efforts to buy Ozy two years earlier” while he was at BuzzFeed.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Would the combination of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global — two companies heavily tied to the declining legacy TV biz — make financial sense? Investors reacted to news of early talks between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount about a potential merger, which broke just prior to market close Wednesday.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Google agreed to pay $700 million and will make certain changes to the Google Play app store for Android devices under the terms of a settlement with all 50 U.S. states, which had alleged in a lawsuit the app store operated as an illegal monopoly. As part of the settlement, Google will allow app and game developers to implement an alternative billing option alongside Google Play’s billing system for U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., said personal data for approximately 35.9 million customers of its Xfinity services may have been illegally accessed by hackers in a security breach that occurred in October. On Monday, Comcast began notifying customers of the hack.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Adobe called off plans to buy Figma, a web-based collaborative design platform, citing regulatory opposition to the proposed $20 billion deal. Adobe and Figma on Monday said they mutually agreed to terminate their merger agreement, originally announced Sept. 15, 2022.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Activision Blizzard will pay $54.9 million to settle a lawsuit by California’s Civil Rights Department alleging a pattern of pay and promotion practices that discriminated against women. The settlement, announced Friday, comes after Microsoft closed its $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard in October following concessions Microsoft made to clear regulatory objections in the U.K. Activision Blizzard’s franchises include Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero and Diablo.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Hinge, the dating app owned by Match Group, has recruited Tamika Young as VP of global communications. Young most recently worked in PR for Netflix and prior to that spent more than five years at Spotify. She will lead global communications strategies across corporate, brand, consumer, trust and safety as Hinge continues to focus on reaching Gen Z and LGBTQIA+ communities around the world.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor There was a time when streamers — led by Netflix, burning a hole in its balance sheet with annual negative cash flow in the billions — were banking on double-digit subscriber growth. And they were spending on content like there was no tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The Game Awards 2023, the video game industry’s year-end celebration, was bigger than ever this year, according to the kudosfest’s producers. The 10th annual awards show, held Dec. 7, 2023, generated an estimated 118 million global livestreams, up 15% over 2022’s showcase, according to The Game Awards.