In a holiday week shocker, Skydance Media and Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. have quietly renewed acquisition talks and have reached a tentative agreement to acquire Paramount Global. That deal will now be reviewed by Paramount…
Candle Media, the fledging media company backed by private equity player Blackstone, is undergoing a restructure in order to cut costs. Founded in 2021 by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, the venture made several…
Paramount Global’s trio of co-CEOs have publicly said they’ve hired bankers to evaluate the sale of certain assets. Industry speculation has focused on BET, which has been the target of acquisition offers in the past. Now Paramount Global…
It’s that time of the year again! Barnes & Noble has teamed up with the Criterion Collection for a month-long 50% off summer sale — with all DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD discs marked down, sitewide. We rounded up the best deals on…
MTV News lives! Well, sort of. In the days after Paramount Global disabled mtvnews.com and mtv.com/news — removing a trove of hundreds of thousands of articles about music and pop culture from the internet — the not-for-profit Internet…
Hipgnosis Song Management announced Tuesday that Merck Mercuriadis, chairman of the music rights company that at one point held the rights to catalogs by Neil Young and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is exiting from his post. His departure…
AI audio firm ElevenLabs has set agreements with the estates of Judy Garland, James Dean and other legends to use their voices to read books, articles, PDFs and other text material to mobile users of its new Reader App. ElevenLabs…
CNBC is tweaking its game. The NBCUniversal-backed business-news outlet said on Tuesday it intends to grow its coverage of the sports industry with the launch of a new vertical called “CNBC Sport.” The company has hired Michael Ozanian, a…
Podcaster Dan Carlin sat down for Variety’s “Know Their Lines” to guess the emperors, military giants and political leaders behind some of the quotes he’s used throughout the 20-year-run of “Hardcore History.” And even though he may have…
Mercury Filmworks (“The Bob’s Burgers Movie,” “Hilda”) and Blue Spirit (“Blue Eye Samurai,” “What If…?”) have launched Seraphim, a bespoke animation pipeline developed to produce high-end 2D and CG animation. According to the companies,…
Nine Entertainment, Australia’s largest media conglomerate last week announced plans to cut 200 jobs. It blamed a weak advertising market and the non-renewal of a news content deal with Meta, the U.S. giant that operates Facebook and…
Disney CEO Bob Iger has been honored with the company’s 50-year Service Award. The award features bronze statuettes of Snow White and the seven dwarfs — Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy and Dopey — from the 1937 Disney animated…
Barry Diller may be looking to charge back into Hollywood — or, at least, he wants to be seen as a wheeler-dealer who’s in the hunt for struggling media company Paramount Global. IAC, the internet media and publishing conglomerate led by…
Imagine Entertainment is in the market for suitors again now that leaders Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have tapped J.P. Morgan to field incoming inquiries for the production company behind such distinctive hits as “A Beautiful Mind,”…
Illinois is hoping to lure more talk show and game show productions to the state now that Gov. JB Pritzker has signed a bill that removes some restrictions that kept unscripted shows from participating in the state’s production tax credit…
Sesame Workshop has named Sherrie Westin its new chief executive officer, shifting from the interim position she was named to by the nonprofit’s board of trustees earlier this year. Previously, Westin served as the president of the…
Fremantle and Italian crime/action genre specialist Stefano Sollima’s newly launched company AlterEgo have signed a first-look deal that will see them work in tandem developing a slate of original films and dramas for the international…
The European Commission has raised concerns over Meta’s “pay or consent” advertising model for Facebook and Instagram users in the EU. In preliminary findings released on Monday, regulators suggest the social media giant’s approach may not…
Netflix and Amazon returned to dominance in commissioning of original content worldwide in the first quarter of this year, according to research and consultancy firm Ampere Analysis. The pair had been challenged in recent years by the…
Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has revealed an increased investment in Eleventh Hour Films (EHF), taking a majority stake in the U.K.-based production company. This move makes EHF the fourth majority-owned, U.K.-based scripted drama…
It’s a do-or-die matchup today at the 2024 Copa América soccer tournament, as Mexico face off against Ecuador with a place in the knockout stage on the line. The Mexico vs. Ecuador Copa América match takes place today, Sunday, June 30 at 8…
Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, has acquired North American theatrical, VOD, and DVD rights to the Midwest dramedy “All Happy Families.” The media company is planning a…
If anyone is equipped to analyze the turmoil in the presidential race that was catalyzed by Thursday’s debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, it’s CBS News anchor John Dickerson. Dickerson is network’s chief political analyst and…
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, the entertainment company that operates Redbox, Crackle and other businesses, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — after failing to pay employees and vendors for at least the past four weeks…
“Trans Memoria” director Victoria Verseau is ready for “Trans Love.” The second part of the planned trilogy about her transition, it will be a fictionalized take on the life-changing trip she took in her twenties. “I decided to go on a…
After a previous trial over stolen manuscripts came to an abrupt halt in March, Don Henley has filed a lawsuit to recover those personal Eagles sheets, which contain the lyrics to “Hotel California” and other hits. In his new suit, the…
It was meant to be a night to assuage Hollywood’s donor class’ concerns about President Joe Biden’s fitness. But it quickly turned into a nightmare for some of the industry’s biggest Democratic backers. Top donors from the media and…
National Streaming Day is over but Peacock is continuing to churn out deals. The streamer is currently offering a limited-time promo that gets you a full year of Peacock for only $59.99. The monthly plan is normally $5.99/year so by…
President Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Friday, as he sought to reassure supporters after a lackluster debate performance raised fresh questions about his age and ability to stay in the race. Speaking to supporters in Raleigh…
UPDATE, 1:35 p.m. PT: Nielsen has released an update on Thursday’s Biden-Trump presidential debate, and the average audience has climbed to 51.3 million viewers, across 17 networks. Networks include CNN, which originated the debate, as…