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Tag: streaming

  • The New Google TV Streamer Is Faster and Better Looking Than Ever

    The New Google TV Streamer Is Faster and Better Looking Than Ever

    There are a few products in our lives we want to use all the time and never have to think about. Faucets come to mind—you want your faucet to turn on and off, not leak. That’s about it. Google’s new Google TV Streamer is an Android-powered TV faucet that never leaks. Once you log into your various accounts and start streaming, you hardly notice it’s there, but you’ll have easy access to all your favorite shows and movies. You can even use the remote to control connected devices in your home, like lights, speakers, and plugs.

    Casting from phones is simple and easy, and this new $100 streaming device lacks the sometimes jittery performance we saw on last-generation devices like the Google Chromecast and some current-gen TVs powered by Google’s TV operating system. If you dislike your current TV interface or want to make sure you’re streaming from well-maintained apps on a device that supports Dolby Vision and a wired internet connection, this is an excellent choice.

    Simple Setup

    The flat, cylindrical streaming device and its pill-shaped remote are about as plug-and-play as things can get, but it’s worth noting this design is a dramatic change from the Chromecasts of old. No longer does Google’s TV dongle dangle off the side of your TV. This Streamer is meant to be displayed loud and proud on a media console.

    Photograph: Parker Hall

    There is a single HDMI 2.1 port, a USB C port for power, and an Ethernet port for wired internet. On the back next to the ports, you’ll see a tiny little button that can make the remote beep and reveal its location; my forgetful brain thanks the engineers at Google for this. I wish the Streamer included an HDMI cable, as I had to fish one out of my closet. This wasn’t an issue with its predecessors, which had a built-in HDMI cable.

    The remote is large enough that you’ll want to find a cell-phone-sized flat spot to put it—not the most convenient thing ever but not the most annoying either. The buttons aren’t backlit, but they’re easy enough to see even in low light thanks to grey-black text on a white background. It’s a simple layout with volume buttons on the right side of the remote for easy access, and the home button in grey just above so you don’t accidentally press it in the middle of a movie.

    Once you turn on the Google TV Streamer, log in to your Google accounts (and whatever other streaming accounts you have these days) and you’re good to go. You can do all this via the Google Home app if you don’t want to use the onscreen TV keyboard to enter passwords. I was watching Netflix in under five minutes. (It also supports all the major apps, like Max, Paramount+, Amazon Prime, and Pluto TV).

    A Smart Home Controller

    The Google TV Streamer can act as a smart home display to easily control lighting, security cameras, thermostats, and more if you have that stuff connected via Google Home. It pulls up a screen on the right side of the TV screen, called the Home Panel, and it shows you what you have connected and allows you to control it. This experience is similar to the Home Panel on the lock screen of the Google Pixel Tablet or even on many Android phones.

    I’m not a smart-home guy; I use a few Alexa speakers to set alarms and play Spotify, but the rest of my house is woefully unconnected. I asked fellow WIRED reviewer and connected-home guru Nena Farrell to test the smart home features for me, and she reported that they work very well. Voice commands to Google Assistant are responsive, and she liked using her TV screen for smart home control. She successfully used the remote to turn off her lights even when the TV was off. It can also be used to monitor smart doorbells and cameras, something WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu says is very handy, as you can check for motion alerts without having to find your phone in the dark during movie night.

    Parker Hall

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  • This Digital Archivist Believes Hollywood’s ‘Competition Era’ Is Over

    This Digital Archivist Believes Hollywood’s ‘Competition Era’ Is Over

    On the subject of money and ownership. Earlier this year, following the cancellation of several Black TV shows, you wrote, “studios and streamers no longer care about loyalty or enduring legacy.” Why does Hollywood, in 2024, still have such a difficult time aligning its legacy with its business?

    Well, here’s the thing, the legacy business, they feel as if that work is behind them.

    But isn’t that what Hollywood is built on?

    Yes, but to create new legacy and new inroads, to them, that is less important than extracting every possible dollar from existing IP. It’s more expensive, quote-unquote, to create something than it is to rest on existing laurels. The beginning of the end of this, to me, was when Warner Brothers and UPN merged into The CW. Now, 20 years later, the CW is a shell of itself. In mergers, you’re no longer competing with someone to make the best content. With the merger of Warner Brothers and Discovery, they own, what, one fourth of TV? That competition era of television—it’s over.

    Which has a direct impact on the creative side.

    The legacy-driven model only happens now in vanity. So a lot of stars are using their own distribution or first-look deals to produce things. And these are the majority of people who are allowed to create. So what does Hollywood mean when the only people who are given freedom are people who have already done the taxing work—if they have at all—to become stars? Hollywood is not in the business of guarantee. Everything must be proven before it’s even created.

    And if that’s the case, so many people get left out.

    The fight for nostalgia as currency comes in a moment where some of the highest rated things are non-white. That’s not an accident. It’s as if television, media, and filmmaking are becoming manifest destiny in the wrong ways. And there’s nothing sadder.

    Perhaps we need better frameworks.

    People have upended industries to chase Netflix. And no one has caught up. Everything has fallen in this chase. What’s happening now is, people are only duplicating the best and the most watched. There is no diversity in how things are being delivered.

    You once described “post-2020 Black media as akin to a modern day blaxploitation boom.” It got me thinking about platforms like Tubi and AllBlk, which are sometimes mocked as being a kind of streaming ghetto, but those same streamers have also given opportunities to young creators.

    Blaxploitation, as I was saying, makes way for Spike Lee, it makes way for the ‘80s independent Black movement that, of course, shapes everything we know about modern Black film and modern Black media. At every valley, there is a peak. It’s the nature of life. So what do I think is a head? We should be thinking about independent models that have existed before our current era. There are many ways to make media. With pilot season essentially dying, as the studios have announced, what are some ways that Black creators can forge together to make what they desire?

    I mean, I don’t know if I have the answers, but I do have the curiosity. And oftentimes curiosity and care—and leading with them—can transform how we understand history and the future.

    Jason Parham

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  • Tell Me Lies Season 2 Is Here To Remind Me Why I Hate TV

    Tell Me Lies Season 2 Is Here To Remind Me Why I Hate TV

    I know I say this often, so you probably think I’m a miserable person…but I promise I’m actually quite happy most of the time. There are a few things that anger me to my core — most of them revolving around television series — and I must speak up when it’s right.

    So while I’ve harped on
    Emily in Paris and My Life With The Walter Boys, I actually have a Mortal Enemy #1: Tell Me Lies. And it’s not that the show’s writing is weak, per se. It’s a much bigger issue because there is not one likable character.

    But I’m getting ahead of myself here. No need to hate too early on, we have the entire article for that.
    Tell Me Lies Season 2 just released on September 4, and with a weekly rollout on Hulu, fans can anticipate regular episodes.

    The show is based on the novel by Carol Lovering, and to be fair, I have not read it. So I cannot attest to whether or not Lovering is behind the atrocities that occur in the show.

    In case you completely forgot what happened in
    Tell Me Lies Season 1, let’s recap why I’m angry and believe every character in the show should be imprisoned.

    Tell Me Lies Season 1 Recap

    I meditated before writing this article so I could level my emotions. It starts with Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White), who meet while at Baird College and embark on an eight-year-long, on-and-off, emotionally abusive, toxic relationship.

    Lucy is a freshman when she meets Stephen — a junior — who asks her on a date. But before that can happen, Lucy’s roommate Macy is killed in a car accident. I wish the story ended there, but sadly, I’m forced to continue.

    Turns out, Stephen and most of his friends are directly involved in the accident that killed Macy. Even worse? Lucy’s best friend, Pippa, knows about it. But this isn’t fully revealed until the end of season 1, so as you can imagine it only gets worse.

    As the season progresses, we’re caught up in a web of will-they-won’t-they with Lucy and Stephen…who truly traumatize everyone in their path.

    If you are entering your freshman year of college, heed my advice: do
    not put yourself through emotional hell for a junior boy with no aspirations and multiple potential felonies. It’s not worth it. It’s rare that the boy you meet freshman year is “The One.”

    But anyways, Lucy and Stephen can’t get it together over the course of season 1. Finally, Lucy finally discovers that Stephen was involved with Macy’s murder. Stephen was with Macy in the car and he got away with it by pushing her body into the driver’s seat and deleting all their messages. Here’s the freaking insane part: Lucy stays with him.

    They go on a weekend trip to Stephen’s roommate Evan’s lake house for his birthday…where just about everyone is disrespectful to Evan’s parent’s mansion. This aggravates me simply because (at this point in the narrative) Evan is relatively harmless, but even he ends up disappointing me.

    So Lucy writes an anonymous letter to Baird’s Dean of Students blaming Macy’s death on Drew. The school then launches an investigation and Lucy provides Stephen with an alibi.

    But how does Stephen repay Lucy for all this? By cheating on Lucy at a party with his ex so he can get an internship with her lawyer father. And how does Lucy react? By hooking up with Evan, who is dating
    her best friend, Bree.

    Tell Me Lies Season 2 So Far

    The show flashes forward 8 years later where a different picture is painted. Evan and Bree are getting married, so the gang is forced to reunite for the first time since college.

    It also looks like Stephen’s now engaged to Lucy’s best friend from home — Lydia — which feels like another manipulation tactic. Throughout the wedding rehearsal dinner and festivities, there’s clear tension between Lydia and Lucy.

    While the show flashes back and forth between college and the wedding, we discover that Lydia’s younger brother Chris went to college with Lucy. At a party, Diana finds Pippa unconscious in a room with Chris, who claims he was only using the bathroom.

    Pippa comes to and is confused and embarrassed while Diana and Lucy take care of her. Pippa admits she doesn’t remember anything beyond kissing Chris. This could be the start of the rift between Lydia and Lucy, but that’s all on the case for now.

    The entire show is dedicated to Stephen manipulating different people. For example, he knows that Wrigley hooked up with Stephen’s ex Diana when they were freshmen…but rather than telling Wrigley he’s upset, he enacts a plot of psychological revenge.

    Oh, Lucy. I
    want to feel bad for you, but I don’t. Because you committed multiple crimes for a boy who is an awful person. It’s one thing to be a doormat, but this just hurts to watch.

    Tell Me Lies continues to build the tension between every character. We watch Lucy continue to break under the pressure of her affair with Evan…who confessed to Bree that he cheated, but didn’t reveal who it was with.

    Bree then turns around and starts having an affair with Oliver, a professor at the college who is married. Again, we all know this is such a bad idea. At the end of the day, no one is a hero in this story.

    In the meantime, Stephen’s tormenting Lucy for having feelings for him in the first place. So, Lucy threatens to tell everyone the truth if he keeps harassing her. I’m sure this will go well.

    The episodes end in present time, when everyone goes home to their significant others. Pippa, now in a clandestine relationship, finally reveals her lover is none other than Stephen’s ex, Diana.

    Now that we’ve recapped the entirety of the show, can you understand why it’s so hateable?

    Jai Phillips

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  • Joel Kim Booster Hopes People Write Fan Fiction About His Naked ‘Industry’ Sauna Scene

    Joel Kim Booster Hopes People Write Fan Fiction About His Naked ‘Industry’ Sauna Scene

    Joel Kim Booster is well aware that showing skin is part of his personal brand. In his 2022 Netflix comedy special, Psychosexual, Booster jokes about having his nudes readily available on the internet, quipping that he still sends naked photos of himself out “with reckless abandon.” However, the Loot and Fire Island star didn’t expect that his reckless abandon would lead to a steamy guest-starring role on the third episode of the third season of HBO’s breakout series Industry, created by Konrad Kay and Mickey Down.

    “This never happens to me, but they came to me with this role,” Booster says. In episode three, “It,” Booster guest stars as Frank Wade, a Pierpoint employee in the equity research division who has to publish a buy-or-sell recommendation on Lumi, the green energy company run by Kit Harington’s Henry Muck, which recently IPO’d.

    A fan of Industry since it premiered in 2021, Booster tells me that he’s “never had an easier time” booking an acting role than on the series. “The boys are apparently fans,” Booster says, of Kay and Down. “They had this part written and they came to me and said, ‘There’s this creep in a steam room and we immediately thought of you.’ I guess the brand is strong.”

    The steam room wound up becoming a sauna, where Pierpoint banker Rob, played by Harry Lawtey, flirts with Frank in the hopes of influencing his buy-sell recommendation. Their cackling chemistry is reminiscent of the sauna scene in Challengers between Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor except for one major difference—Booster is completely naked. “They said very early on that this would be a requirement,” he says. “It was included with the offer, like, ‘Are you cool with that?’”

    He was so cool with it, in fact, that Booster says it wasn’t even the most nerve-wracking part about the shoot. “I was more nervous about stepping into a prestige HBO drama than I was about the nudity, because the nudity is pretty par for the course for me in my everyday life,” says Booster. “Professionally, this was a big deal for me to be taken seriously as an actor and have people believe that I can do a pretty grounded, dramatic, serious part that’s not comedy heavy. I’m really grateful for that opportunity.”

    Over the phone, Booster chats about the trickiness of looking hot while sitting, working with Lawtey, and what he believes really went down in the sauna.

    Vanity Fair: So, let’s talk about your big scene, which happens to take place in a sauna when you’re butt naked.

    Joel Kim Booster: You know what’s so funny to me? This is not the first interview I have done about my brief appearance on Industry, and you are the only person who’s asked about this scene in particular, explicitly. It’s like, ‘Guys, I’m a one-episode guest star. I have a one episode arc on this show where I’m in approximately three scenes and you are not going to ask me about the reason you really want to interview me about this episode?’ The reason it’s a big deal is because I’m doing full-frontal for the first time. Let’s be real.

    Did you have to think about whether to say yes at all?

    I didn’t think about it at all when I initially said yes. It was an exciting opportunity to do something really different. And as I famously said in my Netflix special, my nudes are out there. If you want to see me naked, it’s readily available if you know the correct search terms and dark web websites to visit. And I continue to this day to send out my naked pictures of myself to random strangers frequently. So it didn’t seem like that big a deal at first to do it, at first I would say.

    Take me to the actual moment where you’re on set, and it’s time, and the camera’s about to roll. How did that feel?

    It is crazy because it didn’t really dawn on me until right before we shot. All of my nudes that have leaked online previously, it is my hard penis, okay? With a flaccid penis, there’s a lot of variables at play. It can look a lot of different ways. Stress is a big factor in that. I woke up and I was like, ‘I cannot think about this because the more I think about this, the more I will spiral.’ And then you lose control of what’s going on down there. I will say Harry Lawtey, who plays Robert on the show, is who I filmed the bulk of my scenes with. [He was] so nice, so welcoming, made me feel truly a part of the team at Industry. He has also been in my position doing full-frontal, and I couldn’t have had a better scene partner who put me at ease and just really made me able to focus on actually doing that scene and not be thinking about what’s going on downstairs.

    Chris Murphy

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  • ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Devs Told Streamers to Avoid Politics in Their Playthroughs. It Backfired

    ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Devs Told Streamers to Avoid Politics in Their Playthroughs. It Backfired

    Amid a long list of Twitch streams for Black Myth: Wukong, Game Science’s new action role-playing game released this week, one stood out: “COVID-19 ISOLATION TAIWAN (IS A REAL COUNTRY) FEMINISM PROPAGANDA.” The stream, run by a creator called Moonmoon, did not include anything out of the ordinary for a video game playthrough—just that one cheeky nod to a few topics the Chinese studio Game Science, which developed the game, would rather ignore.

    On platforms like Twitch and YouTube, streamers are flipping a metaphorical middle finger to a handful of restrictions given to some creators that were invited to review the game, which takes place in Ming-era China and is based on Chinese mythology. Just days after its launch, it’s already a massively successful game that’s drawn in more than 2.2 million concurrent players. According to market research firm Niko Partners, Black Myth: Wukong’s success “signals that Chinese studios are ready to compete directly with established Western and Japanese developers in the premium AAA space.”

    Shortly before Black Myth: Wukong’s launch, some streamers were given early codes to create content with the game–along with a few caveats. According to screenshots posted online, streamers who received these instructions were told not to “include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse” in their content, nor “use trigger words such as ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘COVID-19′.” Furthermore, streamers were asked not to discuss anything about China’s game industry policies, opinions, or news.

    These guidelines were not cited as a condition to everyone who was invited to play the game early; outlets like Polygon and Kotaku were given standard review embargoes without strict rules on what content they could not talk about, aside from spoilers. According to a report from Aftermath, while some streamers do often receive requests to avoid topics like politics, those asks are typically tied to sponsorships or paid contracts. Yet those restrictions—which appear to have come from the game’s publisher, Hero Games—are now backfiring, as even players who were not given any notes thumb their noses at guidelines they find ridiculous.

    Rui Zhong, a writer and researcher, streamed herself playing the game while discussing Journey to the West, the novel Black Myth is adapted from, as well as feminism in China and the country’s one-child policy. (Zhong has previously written about Chinese censorship for WIRED.)

    “What bothered me was that a lot of the streams pushing back against the game’s guidelines were very low effort and played into stereotypical, surface level impressions of Chinese politics and society,” Zhong tells WIRED. Misogyny in development, game spaces, and elsewhere are “not a uniquely Chinese problem. It’s not the only place where feminists are framed as man haters, as the devs have said.”

    An IGN report published last year uncovered a history of sexist and inappropriate comments made by Game Science’s employees and stakeholders. Cofounder Yang Qi has spoken about “how games made for women and men are completely different, due to their biological differences,” IGN reported; other examples include a technical artist discussing the possibility of masturbating to the game’s female snake spirit. Zhong, who was quoted in the IGN piece, told the publication that feminist organization in China was “very uphill,” with “crackdowns after labor organizing efforts, there’s been crackdowns over discussing marital problems, there’s been definitely crackdowns after people have accused prominent Chinese men of harassment, assault or sexual misconduct, and the deck has been generally very stacked against them.”

    Megan Farokhmanesh

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  • What to stream: ‘Serengeti III,’ ‘Room,’ and ‘Untold: The Murder of Air McNair’

    What to stream: ‘Serengeti III,’ ‘Room,’ and ‘Untold: The Murder of Air McNair’

    The end of summer can be a barren landscape for TV, whether it’s because vacationing cuts into couch time or networks and streamers tend to stash their best new releases for the fall. 

    But late August is as good a time as any to try out some shows and movies that might have been overlooked during other parts of the calendar.

    MORE: Temporary repair planned for damaged bridge between Wildwood Crest and Cape May

    Here are a few streaming options to check out:

    Serengeti III

    Now in its third season, BBC’s wildlife documentary narrated by actress Lupita Nyong’o weaves dramatic storytelling into the time-honored natural history format. For viewers grounded in hard science and people who will only take their animal lessons from David Attenborough, “Serengeti” requires a bit of a leap of the imagination. Filmed on a private reserve in Tanzania, one of East Africa’s most biodiverse savanna regions, the show captures stunning footage of numerous species. Its real selling point is the innovative use of drones and other camera techniques to get rare glimpses of animal behavior. The stories can get a bit heavy-handed to drum up emotional reactions, but the drama is meant to foster empathy with the trials of life and survival the animals face.

    The third season of the series hits Max on Aug. 25.

    Room

    It’s a bit unfortunate that 2015’s “Room” is so near in name to “The Room,” Tommy’s Wiseau’s cult classic melodrama that’s known for being endearingly horrible. In 2017, “The Room” went mainstream with a film adaptation of the book “The Disaster Artist,” making it easy to get it jumbled with “Room.” 

    In this gripping drama starring Brie Larson, viewers must imagine how motherly love and hope could persist amid the claustrophobia and trauma of captivity. Larson plays a woman who’s been held in a filthy shed for seven years, including five she spent raising a son she had as a result of being raped by her captor. Based on a novel by Emma Donoghue, “Room” paints a believable picture of how a mother and growing child would find ways to cope in this situation — and how they eventually might plot an escape.

    “Room” is now streaming on Netflix.

    Untold: The Murder of Air McNair

    In 2000, Steve McNair and the Tennessee Titans came within a yard of winning Super Bowl XXXIV in a game remembered for one of the most thrilling championship finishes in NFL history. McNair was a perennial star who was named co-MVP with Peyton Manning in 2003. His life was tragically cut short in a shooting that was ruled a murder-suicide on the Fourth of July in 2009.

    Fifteen years later, the investigation into McNair’s death is examined in a new volume of Netflix’s “Untold” documentary series. McNair was 36 when he was killed by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Jenni Kazemi, who had purchased a gun the night before the shooting at a condo in downtown Nashville. The documentary looks at various circumstances surrounding the shooting and pays tribute to McNair through interviews with those close to him, including former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher.

    The documentary is now available to stream on Netflix. 

    Michael Tanenbaum

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  • The Venu Sports Streaming Bundle Will Be Benched for a Bit

    The Venu Sports Streaming Bundle Will Be Benched for a Bit

    Is this how ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery feel?
    Photo: GeorgePeters/Getty Images

    Huddle up, y’all. There’s been a hiccup in the launch of Venu, the planned sports streaming bundle from three heavy hitters in the media landscape. Per CNN, a judge has delayed Venu’s launch by granting FuboTV’s request for a preliminary injunction against the joint venture by Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, and the Walt Disney Company (you might see some reports swap ESPN into that last slot; ESPN is majority-owned by Disney). Fubo filed a lawsuit two weeks after Venu was announced back in February, arguing that the bundle would violate antitrust laws and cause consumers to “face irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction.” On Friday, a New York district judge ruled that Fubo would likely succeed in proving those claims in trial. Unsurprisingly, Fox, Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery said they plan to appeal, claiming that “Venu Sports is a pro-competitive option that aims to enhance consumer choice by reaching a segment of viewers who currently are not served by existing subscription options.” As we previously reported, Venu promised to offer its subscribers a dizzying amount of sports coverage through access to all ESPN channels, ESPN+, ABC, FOX, TNT, TBS, and TruTV … plus programs like 30 for 30 via the ESPN library. Venu was originally set to debut this fall with a locked-in “launch price” of $42.99 per month for one year, but the Associated Press now reports that the launch will likely be pushed until at least 2025.

    According to Courthouse News, Fubo said in its filing that it has long wanted to launch a sports-only streaming service, but that it faced difficulties because networks allegedly charged unfairly high licensing costs and forced bundles with entertainment channels that sports fans don’t want. “Today’s ruling is a victory not only for Fubo but also for consumers,” David Gandler, Fubo co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement. “This decision will help ensure that consumers have access to a more competitive marketplace with multiple sports streaming options.” Keep in mind, though, that a preliminary injunction is basically just a timeout. In other words, Friday’s decision is a temporary delay, not a permanent block. A trial date for the antitrust lawsuit has yet to be set. So you’ve got some time to decide, sports fans — are you Team Fubo or not?

    Jennifer Zhan

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  • Fubo wins injunction to delay Disney-Fox-Warner’s live sports streamer Venu

    Fubo wins injunction to delay Disney-Fox-Warner’s live sports streamer Venu

    The sports streaming service Fubo has temporarily fended off a huge financial threat from Disney-Fox-Warner’s potential competitor Venu Sports and its collection of sports broadcasting licenses thanks to a recent court ruling. A federal judge in the Southern District of New York granted Fubo’s request for an injunction in its antitrust case against the joint sports streaming venture and its parent companies.

    US District Judge Margaret Garnett wrote in an opinion issued earlier today such a concentrated collection of media power would eliminate consumers’ choices. The launch of Venu would also “hike prices on both consumers and other distributors” and create a “multi-year monopolistic runway” in the sports streaming sector for Disney, Fox and Warner.

    “Even if the [joint venture] defendants swear that such price-hiking and competition excluding will not actually occur (though…there is good reason to believe that it will),” the opinion reads, “one purpose of antitrust injunctions is to prevent anticompetitive incentives from forming in the first place so that American consumers do not have to simply take their word for it and hope for the best.”

    Garnett also wrote the injunction is needed because of “quintessential harms that money cannot adequately repair” if Fox-Disney-Warner’s Venu Sports moves forward.

    Fox-Disney-Warner first announced its plans to launch a live sports streaming channel in February and later revealed the name and price for its Venu Sports streaming service. The joint sports streaming venture will cost viewers $42.99 a month with a seven-day free trial and promises 14 channels of live sporting events with access to ESPN+ and four of its spinoff channels, the Fox network and both of its Fox Sports channels and a handful of Warner Bros. owned cable networks such as TNT and TruTV, according to a press release.

    Fubo filed its lawsuit a couple of weeks after Fox-Disney-Warner’s initial announcement. Fubo’s antitrust lawsuit accused the trio of media giants of staging “a years-long campaign” to weaken its sports streaming service. The suit also claimed the joint venture would concentrate too many entities in one service and would hinder competitiveness and jack up prices for viewers and distributors.

    The injunction puts a temporary hold on Fox-Disney-Warner’s plans for Venu Sports. Its fate will ultimately be determined by the antitrust case in federal court.

    Danny Gallagher

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  • He Made a Movie About Humans Rising Up Against AI. Now He’s Doing the Real Thing

    He Made a Movie About Humans Rising Up Against AI. Now He’s Doing the Real Thing

    When I interviewed writers and actors at the picket lines of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year, there was a mix of sentiment around AI, which, while largely negative, encompassed anxiety, uncertainty, equivocation, and anger.

    The crowd in Burbank was the most uniformly and passionately anti-AI I’ve ever witnessed. Asked for his thoughts on how AI was impacting his industry, one animator said, “AI can fuck right off.” I asked the storyboard artists Lindsey Castro and Brittany McCarthy for their thoughts on AI, and both simply booed.

    A year after the WGA strikes, AI was not, to the animation workers I spoke with, something to be questioned or experimented with—it was something to be opposed. An animation worker walked by with a sign referencing the master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s comment that using AI in the arts is “an insult to life itself.”

    It was sweltering, even at 5 pm, as Rianda took the stage to emcee. He introduced a series of writers, directors, and animation legends like Rebecca Sugar, Genndy Tartakovsky, and James Baxter, as well as union leadership, politicians, and rank-and-file workers. “We’re not going to let your job be taken away by some computer, some soulless program,” said California assemblymember Laura Friedman. The mayor of Burbank, the president of IATSE, and the actor and podcaster Adam Conover took turns at the mic.

    Organizers and speakers remarked on the size—“I’ve never seen so many animation people in one place before; we like to stay in our dark caves,” one remarked—and halfway through Rianda declared it the largest rally in the history of the animation industry. Rianda kept the energy level high throughout the afternoon, belting out jokes and chants, his pale skin turning pink under the sun and the strain.

    Hundreds of animators cheered along; it was easy to see these “indoor kids,” as a number of different animation workers there referred to themselves, as the lovable underdogs, up against bosses who wanted to use a cutting-edge technology to erase them. They really were, in a comparison Rianda encouraged at the rally, not unlike his Mitchells, who were at first caught unawares by the cartoonish robot apocalypse, but were then able to stop it.

    “I’m trying to do this stuff because I’m so concerned that if people aren’t educated about what could happen, just the worst thing is going to happen,” Rianda told me. “I see it starting and it’ll be really soft at first like it is with kiosks at supermarkets. All of a sudden everyone in town can’t work. They’re like, ‘What the fuck is going on? Why can’t I get a job?’ I literally do think thousands of jobs will be lost.”

    Like so many of his fellow artists and creative workers, Rianda has come to see artificial intelligence as a technology that’s not intrinsically without merit—but is being used for the wrong reasons, by the wrong people. That, ultimately, is why he fights, he says. To try to ensure that AI stays in the right hands.

    “The concept of AI is great: Use it to solve climate change and fix cancer, and fucking do a bunch of other weird shit,” he says. “But in the hands of a corporation it is like a buzzsaw that will destroy us all.”

    Brian Merchant

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  • How to Watch Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg at the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony

    How to Watch Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg at the Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony

    The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be remembered for a lot of things: drag performances, shameful allegations against some female athletes, swimming in the Seine, and, of course, incredible sporting achievements. On Sunday, the Games will add another memory to that list when Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform at the event’s Closing Ceremony in Los Angeles, officially handing off the Olympics from Paris to the 2028 host city.

    The 2024 Summer Olympics Closing Ceremony is scheduled to begin Sunday, August 11, at 3 pm EDT. It will begin at Stade de France, north of Paris, run for just over two hours, and feature live and pretaped performances. For fans in the US, the events will be viewable on NBC (the Games’ sole distributor in the States) and Peacock, which have really been nailing this whole Olympics-watching thing this year. You can also stream the event on NBCOlympics.com.

    The Closing Ceremony festivities will take place despite a state of alert around live music events following a foiled terrorist attack targeting the Vienna leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour this week. According to a report in Variety, crowd control and security were a concern for local officials even before news of the planned attack in Austria broke. Variety withheld the location of the performances because of those fears.

    In addition to Southern California heroes Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Snoop (also an internet hero during the Paris Games), there are rumors that Tom Cruise will perform a stunt to transition the Olympics from their 2024 home to LA.

    The 2028 Summer Olympics will take place from July 14 to July 30 in Los Angeles.

    Lorenza Negri

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  • How Amazon Prime Video Beat Disney+, Hulu, Netflix in Ads | Entrepreneur

    How Amazon Prime Video Beat Disney+, Hulu, Netflix in Ads | Entrepreneur

    Amazon Prime Video is more than a side benefit of a Prime membership — Amazon is building out the streaming service to stand on its own.

    Jeff Bezos saw Prime Video “as an opportunity to build a media company,” not just as an offshoot of Prime, Prime Video head Mike Hopkins told Reuters on Wednesday.

    Amazon has worked towards that vision for four years. Prime Video became the largest ad-supported streaming service in the U.S. in January after it started peppering movies and shows with ads by default for its 115 million U.S. subscribers. Prime Video comes with Amazon’s $14.99 per month Prime membership; as of January, opting for no ads costs $2.99 extra per month.

    Related: Sales Could Top $14 Billion on Amazon Prime Day, Hitting an All-Time High — Here’s Why

    Most subscribers chose not to pay more per month for ad-free viewing — only 15% opted to pay extra. The switch to ads had no impact on Amazon’s overall subscriber count, according to a Hub survey, and could bring in $1.3 billion in ad revenue this year and $2.3 billion next year, according to Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson.

    “Virtually overnight, Amazon Prime Video dramatically transformed the video advertising ecosystem,” said Mark Loughney, a Hub senior consultant. Jeff Bezos. (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

    Amazon framed the shift to ads as a way to keep investing in Prime Video. Amazon MGM Studios had its biggest year in 2023 with 68 Emmy nominations for original content like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

    Nielsen’s June TV and streaming report found that though Prime Video was not as popular as Netflix and YouTube, it came out ahead of Hulu, Disney+, and Peacock. The Prime Video original series The Boys drew 4 billion viewing minutes in June.

    Related: Prime Day Is Reportedly a ‘Major’ Source of Injury for Amazon Warehouse Workers

    Sherin Shibu

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  • A Disney+ Password-Sharing Crackdown Is Coming

    A Disney+ Password-Sharing Crackdown Is Coming

    The House of Mouse is getting a renovation. In an earnings call on Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that the company will begin a new password-sharing crackdown “in earnest” starting in September. Iger didn’t divulge how the company plans to limit password-sharing, but presumably this will mean the company will be on the lookout for logins outside of the subscriber’s home and prompt those suspected of sharing their accounts to pay a fee to do so. The announcement comes months before the company intends to increase monthly prices on Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+—and their respective bundles—in October.

    What this means for most folks is higher bills and tougher decisions. As more and more streaming services enter the fray—and as many of those services also raise prices and/or introduce ad-supported tiers—people who love to watch things are increasingly left to figure out which two or three services they’re willing to pay 10 to 20 bucks a month for. Considering Disney has a pretty strong back catalog (Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars), as well as Hulu shows like The Bear and tons of sports on ESPN+, it’s likely many subscribers will shell out to keep the service—and cough up more to share their passwords.

    “The password-sharing crackdown has worked favorably for other streamers,” says Sarah Henschel, a principal analyst at Omdia who watches the streaming market closely. “It is a strategy that works well to grow revenue. However, it drives a lot of consumer frustration with streaming.” Put another way, subscribers are likely to stick around and perhaps even pay the extra fees to share their accounts, but it may mean they ultimately don’t keep every service.

    And hell, it worked for Netflix. Late last year, after a few shaky quarters and amid the streaming giant’s rollout of both ad-supported tiers and a paid sharing program, Netflix added 9 million new subscribers worldwide. It hasn’t really seen any major dents in subscriber numbers since. So far, it’s the only test case—Max seems poised to roll out its crackdown later this year or early next, and others have yet to test the waters—but it does indicate that paying to share a streaming account doesn’t always send people running for the hills. Or, at least, it hasn’t yet.

    “The password crackdown for Netflix—combined with its ad tier—has been a massive boon to subscriber growth,” says Wade Payson-Denney, an analyst at streaming industry tracker Parrot Analytics. In the year before the streamer started cracking down, Netflix’s global subscriber base grew by 11.8 million; in the four quarters after, that base grew by 39.3 million, according to Parrot. It could lead to similar growth for Disney.

    All Things Must Pass

    This isn’t the first time Disney has warned of such a crackdown. Last year, Iger hinted that the company was looking into limiting the practice; in February, the company said it planned to begin a paid sharing program, but then launched it in only a few markets, in June.

    Disney has been hustling to build up its subscriber base and turn a profit from streaming since it launched Disney+ in 2019. During the past three months, Disney+ netted only about 200,000 new subscribers, for a total of 153.8 million—small potatoes compared to the more than 270 million subscribers Netflix claims, but not bad, and a marked increase over last year. Meanwhile, Max is still looking to break 100 million.

    As part of Wednesday’s earnings announcements, Disney revealed its combined streaming offerings made money for the first time ever during the last quarter, bringing in an operating profit of $47 million. This is a sharp upturn; Disney’s streaming business lost $512 million in the third quarter last year. The recent profits largely came thanks to ESPN+.

    Angela Watercutter

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  • NBC’s Olympics Broadcast Isn’t Just Addictive. It’s a New Era of Streaming

    NBC’s Olympics Broadcast Isn’t Just Addictive. It’s a New Era of Streaming

    Peacock’s editorial team has adjusted and reorganized video content on the fly. Viewers and reviewers have been buzzing about Snoop Dogg’s segments, so the team set up a scrollable playlist of Snoop clips. Users have been looking for videos of the medal ceremonies, so now there’s a collection of those too.

    Some of the new formats are fundamentally different ways to “watch TV.” With Multiview, for instance, the Olympics wash over you—less like a show, more like a state of being. Campbell says about half of Multiview users click into a specific sport, so they’re using the split screen as a “discovery tool,” while the other half stay in the control-room-style experience.

    Control is the operative word; we’re all growing increasingly comfortable with multiple screens and data sources in our faces at all times. YouTube TV, which has been offering a make-your-own multiview function since last year, has been promoting preset Olympics versions this summer. DirecTV has its own version. People are growing more accustomed to “using more than one screen at one time,” Campbell says.

    NBC has around 20 actual control rooms operating at any given time between Paris, New York, and NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. For Gold Zone, a feast for the eyes, producers in Stamford pick 16 live feeds to monitor at a time, then the directors whip around from event to event, hoping to catch every medal contest.

    Gold Zone usage more than doubled in the first few days of the games, Campbell says. Multiview has also been used by millions of subscribers. Of course, fans always want more: On Sunday a woman tweeted to @Peacock, asking about the LA Olympics in 2028: “Can we make a custom multiview where you can choose the four things you watch?” (NBC won’t commit to that, but I bet it is in the works already.)

    As I spoke with Solomon, I realized that I had not watched a single minute of NBC’s traditional prime time TV coverage. And she’s OK with that! I asked her to define success in 2024 from NBC’s perspective: “Success is the audience engaging with the Olympics on social, on television platforms, streaming on Peacock,” she said. “And that’s why we’ve given them all different flavors of the Olympics. Find what satisfies you, and as long as you’re with us in some form on some platform, it’s a success.”

    Because NBC has your attention and thus so do the company’s advertisers. The medium previously known as television is becoming more and more like a never-ending Instagram scroll. But some moments (like Team USA’s dominance in Paris) are still big enough to capture almost everyone’s fragmented attention. “In the end,” Solomon says, “we’re all watching the same team.”

    Brian Stelter

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  • Industry Season 3 Is Dark, Addictive, and Filled With “Beautiful Fuckups”

    Industry Season 3 Is Dark, Addictive, and Filled With “Beautiful Fuckups”

    Last season, you introduced Jesse Bloom as an outside provocateur. This season, it’s Sir Henry Muck. What was the inspiration, and did you have Kit Harrington in mind from the start?

    Down: We wanted to show how a bank like this would operate within a real world context, with a company that people can understand. And we wanted to do it through a more cynical lens, like a green energy startup run by this paragon of privilege. We’ve seen the Adam Neumann/Elizabeth Holmes version of a startup CEO, and we tried to think of the British real equivalent of that. They’re always insanely privileged, and then when it gets fucked up, the government’s there to bail them out. But the groundwork’s been laid for success for him, so that when he doesn’t get it I think he feels like an even bigger failure. I think he really has insecurity about his privilege.

    Kit plays Muck with such a great mixture of narcissism and vulnerability.

    Down: Kit found the vulnerability in someone who is, on paper, really without empathy. A right wing billionaire scion of a family that is probably to blame for many of the bad things that have happened in the last 30 years. And for some reason, I think we empathize with him, because he has obviously had all this trauma. There’s this young, vulnerable child wanting to be loved.

    Kay: I think Kit recognized a few things about ambition, but also about the sorts of people that he might have grown up around, and also the sort of people he met post-Thrones. We only spent about 20 minutes in each other’s company before we hired him. He said that in 10 years of Game of Thrones, he never once got to make a joke. He would beg David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] to write him a joke, and they would kind of tease him about the fact that he was so self-serious and honorable. And he’s so funny in this part! The show’s not a comedy, obviously. We were just trying to make sure season three is denser, but also more light on its feet.

    We find out that Henry Muck is notorious for his sexual quirks. I couldn’t help wondering if Henry would get along with Kendall Roy, who probably also has a penchant for being peed on.

    Down: There’s no doubt, if we expand the universe of these business adjacent shows on HBO, that they would be friends.

    Kay: In the real world, 100%.

    If you ever feel like doing a crossover Succession/Industry episode at some point, I give you my blessing.

    Down: I think Jesse Armstrong might have something to say about that. [Both laugh.] There’s slightly more upside for us.

    Yasmin’s journey this season from debauched socialite to embezzler heiress is extremely dark. Can you talk a little bit about shooting the yacht scenes that open the first episode and run through the season?

    Joy Press

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  • Google’s Iconic Chromecast and Nest Learning Thermostat Are Getting Long-Awaited Upgrades

    Google’s Iconic Chromecast and Nest Learning Thermostat Are Getting Long-Awaited Upgrades

    (left) Smart Schedule on Pixel-8 (center) Smart Ventilation on Pixel 8 Pro (right) System Health Monitor Pixel 8

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    Finally, the Nest Learning Thermostat has a new System Health Monitor to flag potential maintenance needs by tracking your HVAC system’s behavior, such as when your air conditioner suddenly isn’t cooling rooms as efficiently as it used to. In addition, a new Smart Ventilation feature checks outdoor air quality before pulling air into your home, especially helpful if the air quality in your area is poor.

    The new Nest Learning Thermostat (plus the included sensor) is available for preorder and costs $280. It goes on sale August 20.

    The Future of Google Assistant

    Google has been integrating its Gemini chatbot and large language models into its products and services over the past year, but what does that mean for Google Assistant? The Alexa and Siri competitor has been a mainstay for years but wasn’t mentioned once during Google’s developer conference in May. You’d think this spelled the end of Google Assistant, and that it’d eventually end up in the Google Graveyard, right? Think again.

    Kattukaran says Gemini’s large language models will power Google Assistant, allowing it to “redefine the next era of the smart home.” The most immediate change? Google Assistant’s voice will sound much more natural and human-like, with improved pacing and rhythm. It’ll offer a more conversational experience and can maintain the context of your conversation as you string together multiple commands and queries.

    This Gemini-powered experience will also improve existing features. For example, motion alerts from your security cameras will be much more detailed, allowing you to know exactly what’s transpiring without opening the camera feed. You can even ask the Assistant for information from your camera feeds, like if a FedEx delivery person showed up. Google wants people to ask Assistant to set up home automation too without getting bogged down in menus in the app.

    None of this helps Gemini’s branding problem—there are so many variations with different capabilities, like Gemini Nano, Gemini Ultra, Gemini Flash, and more recently, Gemini Live. Google Assistant, on the other hand, was one neat AI umbrella that handled everything. But now with Assistant getting an assist from Gemini, the company is not yet ready to replace it anytime soon, meaning we have to live with two assistants even longer.

    The new Google Assistant experience is available for select Nest Aware subscribers as a part of a public preview and is expected to roll out in 2025.

    Nena Farrell , Julian Chokkattu

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  • People Are Big Mad About the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale

    People Are Big Mad About the ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale

    YouTuber Preston Jacobs wasted no time when he started his House of the Dragon after-party livestream: “I’m going to say right up [top], I think at this point this is my jump-the-shark moment. I don’t think that this show is salvageable anymore.” Sunday’s season finale, he says, “really ruins everything.” Plotlines contradicted each other, some story arcs went nowhere, he said. It was a mess. And while Preston has had divisive Game of Thrones opinions in the past, on this point, lots of fans agreed with him—both in his livestream’s comments and across the internet.

    This is not the place for House of the Dragon Season 2 finale spoilers—you’ll have to watch for yourself for that—but the long and short of it is that the episode abruptly ended just when it was starting to get good. After weeks of promoting a major battle between the Greens and the Blacks of the Targaryen family tree, no such battle materialized. As The Hollywood Reporter put it, “HBO cutting to black hasn’t annoyed this many TV fans since The Sopranos ended.”

    The Sopranos comparison is both hyperbolic and little apropos. House of the Dragon is far from the beloved critical darling that Sopranos was, but it does now get the kind of scrutiny that its prestige predecessor once did. Following Game of Thrones’ womp-womp 2019 series finale some fans have hoped House could regain some of its predecessor’s former glory, while others worried it would make the same mistakes. Sunday’s episode seemed to indicate to many it might be all dragons, no fire.

    “Y’all basically made this season a build up now we gotta wait a whole fkn 2 years” for the next season, wrote @Tata_Onika on X, referring to rumors that the next season won’t come until at least 2026. “Really pissed me off,” wrote another X user. “Did I just watch a 70-minute trailer for Season 3?” asked another—a sentiment that others echoed. Over on Reddit, fans were “mildly butthurt” and lamenting, “I didn’t see a CRUMB of consequential action.”

    Another personal fave: “We had to deal with Freud dreams for this?!!”

    Season 2’s finale may also be a sign of the times. HBO, Max, and all of its affiliated properties have been going through a lot of upheaval since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery. While big shows like Dragon and The Last of Us haven’t been hit as hard as other properties, this season was only eight episodes, whereas last season was 10, and this one was shot during the Hollywood strikes, thanks in part to many of its cast being in a different union that wasn’t striking. Deadline also reported last year that a “major battle” was moved from Season 2 to Season 3, and in so doing the show may have been left with a humdrum finale.

    Will House of the Dragon recover? Eh, probably. Season 2 already didn’t quite hit the viewership heights the show’s first season hit. But as the streaming wars continue and people drop services or contemplate, in the case of Max, switching to ad-based tiers that are also going up in price, comparing one season’s numbers to another’s feels like a fool’s errand. HBO greenlit a third season—cocreator Ryan Condal revealed Monday it’ll end with the fourth season—which could very well open with the confrontation fans had hoped for. Until then, everyone is just going to have to wait while this drags on.

    Angela Watercutter

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  • New on Peacock: August 2024

    New on Peacock: August 2024

    The Fall Guy.
    Photo: Universal Studios

    Don’t have Peacock yet?

    The Fall Guy didn’t have the time to get audiences to completely fall in love with it in theaters, but nowadays, it’s extremely likely for people to give it a new life on streaming. Coming to Peacock, along with an extended cut, I have a feeling this stunt spectacular film will be a perfect candidate for movie nights to come. Ryan Gosling stars as a semi-retired stuntman pulled back into the fold to work on his ex-girlfriend’s (Emily Blunt) first big director gig without her knowledge, and there’s also a mystery plot bubbling under the surface. With romance, action, and laughs, it’s quite a crowdpleaser. (Streaming August 30.)

    Noteworthy selections in bold.

    50 First Dates
    American Girl
    The Back-up Plan
    Battleship
    Bee Movie
    Beethoven (1992)
    Beethoven’s 2nd
    The Best Man
    The Best Man Holiday
    Blair Witch
    The Blair Witch Project
    Blue Valentine
    The Book of Eli
    Book of Shadows: The Blair Witch 2
    The Boss
    Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    Bulletproof
    The Cases of Mystery Lane
    Casino
    Clueless
    Couples Retreat
    Dear Evan Hansen
    Do the Right Thing
    Doom
    Exodus: Gods and Kings
    F9: The Fast Saga
    Faster
    Field of Dreams
    The Fighter
    For the Colored Girls
    For the Love of the Game
    The Great Outdoors
    The Heat
    The Help
    Hesher
    The Hulk
    Hustle & Flow
    Johnson Family Vacation
    Just Go With It
    K-9
    Karen Kingsbury’s the Bridge
    Karen Kingsbury’s the Bridge Part 2
    Kindergarten Cop
    King Richard
    Knocked Up
    Little Fockers
    Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade
    Lucy
    Madea’s Big Happy Family
    Madea’s Witness Protection
    Major Payne
    Man Up
    MatchMaker Mysteries: A Fatal Romance
    MatchMaker Mysteries: A Killer Engagement
    MatchMaker Mysteries: The Art of the Kill
    Mean Girls
    Meet the Fockers
    Meet the Parents
    A Midnight Kiss
    Moneyball (2011)
    Moonrise Kingdom
    My Best Friend’s Girl
    Napa Ever After
    Old
    The Other Guys
    Over the Hedge
    The Proposal (2009)
    Push
    Puss in Boots
    R.I.P.D.
    Rally Road Racers
    Ride Along
    Royal New Year’s Eve
    Safe
    Self/Less
    Sense and Sensibility
    Shazam!
    Shrek
    Space Jam
    Then Came You
    Think Like a Man
    Think Like a Man Too
    This is 40
    To Her, With Love
    Unthinkably Good Things
    Waterworld
    The Wedding Veil
    The Wedding Veil Expectations
    The Wedding Veil Inspiration
    The Wedding Veil Journey
    The Wedding Veil Legacy
    The Wedding Veil Unveiled
    Wild Oats
    Zodiac

    Jazz Ramsey: A K-9 Mystery

    Junebug

    Deadly Waters With Captain Lee, season 1 — all episodes

    Mr. Throwback, season 1 — all episodes (Peacock Original)

    The Bikeriders (Peacock Exclusive)
    Renfield

    Marry Me
    My Dreams of You

    2 Fast 2 Furious
    Fast & Furious
    Fast & Furious 6
    The Fast and The Furious
    The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift
    Fast Five
    The Fast of the Furious
    Furious 7

    Abused by Mom: The Ruby Franke Scandal

    Bel-Air, season 3 premiere (Peacock Original)

    Polite Society

    A Costa Rican Wedding

    Love Island USA, season 6 reunion (Peacock Original)
    Homicide: Life on the Street, 7 seasons
    Homicide: The Movie

    Face to Face with Scott Peterson, premiere — all episodes (Peacock Original)

    The 365

    The Killer (Peacock Original)

    Engaged to be Murdered

    The Magic of Lemon Drops

    The Anonymous, season 1 premiere
    Days of Our Lives, season 60 premiere

    Girl on the Milk Carton, premiere

    Opening Ceremony for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

    Toby Keith: American Icon
    Here Comes The Irish (Peacock Original)
    Gary (Peacock Original)

    Book Club: Next Chapter
    The Fall Guy (Peacock Exclusive)
    The Fall Guy: The Extended Cut (Peacock Exclusive)

    All recommendations are made independently by our editors. If you subscribe to a service through our links, Vulture may earn an affiliate commission.

    Savannah Salazar

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  • Spotify Countdown Pages are here! What every artist needs to know – ReverbNation Blog

    Spotify Countdown Pages are here! What every artist needs to know – ReverbNation Blog

    Spotify has added something pretty huge to your music promo toolkit.

    They’re going big with Countdown Pages, which Spotify describes as “your ultimate pre-release destination.”

    Here are the most important things you should know:

    To help you build hype for an upcoming release, Spotify has combined the following features on one page:

    • Pre-saves
    • A preview of the tracklist
    • A timer counting down to launch
    • Clips to give fans a closer look
    • Merch offers
    • Fan notifications when your music goes live

    In Spotify’s words, this tool will “close the gap between where music is teased and where it’s actually streamed.”

    Simplifying the waterfall release

    One of the most interesting aspects of Countdown Pages is… they’re dynamic.

    So Countdown Pages streamline the distribution mechanics of a waterfall release, which is where you once had to “grow” an album over time by first releasing a single, then a new single bundled with the older song, then a third single along with the previous two tracks, and so forth.

    It’s not rocket science, but managing waterfall releases in that manner was one extra stress during a season where you really should save your mental space and time for effective music promotion. Not busy-work.

    Now you can drop new singles, merch items, and Clips over a longer duration and use the same destination — the Countdown Page — to boost engagement and pre-saves.

    No more 3rd-party pre-saves?

    Countdown Pages bring together many elements of Spotify’s on-platform promo in a more coordinated way. But they also could eliminate the need for artists to use 3rd-party pre-save tools and smartlinks?

    I say “could” because you may have a large segment of fans who prefer different music platforms to Spotify, and you don’t want to ostracize them from your release promo just because Spotify made your life simpler on their platform.

    But as much as I warn musicians that “your fans aren’t ALL on Spotify,” let’s be realistic: I know a huge percentage of you are STILL only gonna post links to Spotify.

    So fine. If you’re that kinda artist, by all means, just use Spotify’s Countdown Page and forget about smartlinks and pre-saves.

    Except if you have a small fanbase. Or when you’re launching a single. Or when doing a “split right” collaborative release.

    Because…

    Who is eligible to use Countdown Pages?

    Countdown Pages are only available for albums released under one artist name. Spotify said they’d like to expand beyond that in the future. But currently you can only use Countdown Pages if you have:

    Here’s how to check if you’re eligible:
    1. Log into Spotify for Artists
    2. Go to Audience then Segments
    3. Click Active audience to see how many active listeners you have

    What kind of artists should use Spotify’s Countdown Pages?

    The case to use Countdown Pages is pretty strong.

    Spotify claims that on average, nearly 70% of listeners who used the on-platform pre-save option went on to stream the album in its first week.

    And early testimonials show how effective Countdown Pages can be:

    Countdown Pages generated 6X more pre-saves than our off-platform buy link for several artists on our roster. The tool has been instrumental in helping to reach our chart goals.

    —Emily Puterbaugh

    GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF STREAMING & DIGITAL SALES, SECRETLY GROUP

    Keep in mind though, these stats often apply to spotlight artists and prestige labels who get to test-drive the tools before a massive rollout. But it’s also true that platforms often reward creators who adopt new features. Because increasing your visibility builds awareness for their tools too.

    So my simple recommendation is:

    If you meet the minimum listener criteria, use Countdown Pages!

    Even if you’re a debut artist. If nothing else, it’ll help you organize your promo materials, motivate you to create vertical video content that supports the release, and keep you on schedule.

    And if you do already have 5k+ monthly listeners, a Countdown Page might be just the thing to reach them again where they already are (on Spotify!), get them excited, and create an easy pathway for them to return to your album once it’s live.

    How to make the most of your Spotify launch with Countdown Pages

    First, obviously, you’ll need to create a Countdown Page.

    Then there are some additional steps you should take to get the most from your Spotify Countdown Page prior to your release date.

    These include:

    For more info and inspiration, check out these Countdown Pages examples!

    Chris Robley

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  • How to Watch Gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Olympics to See Simone Biles, Suni Lee & More Compete

    How to Watch Gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Olympics to See Simone Biles, Suni Lee & More Compete



    How to Watch 2024 Paris Olympics Gymnastics Online For Free

























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    Maya Gandara

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  • NBA TV rights go to ESPN, NBC and Amazon as TNT is rejected

    NBA TV rights go to ESPN, NBC and Amazon as TNT is rejected

    The NBA and WNBA have inked deals for where games will be aired and streamed for the next eleven years. The NBA deals run from the 2025-2026 season through the 2035-2036 season. For the WNBA, the agreement covers the 2026 through 2036 seasons.

    Pro basketball has been an ESPN mainstay for years and that will continue, with the Disney-owned network remaining the primary media rights owner for both leagues. ESPN will be the exclusive home for the NBA finals for all eleven years of the new deal, as well as five out of the eleven years of the WNBA finals. The games covered by ESPN’s deal will be part of the sports network’s direct-to-consumer platform and a package of NBA and WNBA games will also be made available to stream on Disney+ in select international markets.

    While the bulk of the games will go to ESPN, basketball is going to have more of a streaming presence thanks to two new partnerships. NBC and Peacock will have access to 100 NBA national games during each regular season. About 50 games will be exclusive to the Peacock streaming platform, including national Monday night games and doubleheaders. The rest of the games go to Amazon. Prime Video will be the home for 66 regular-season NBA games and 30 regular-season WNBA games each year of the deal.

    Regular basketball viewers may notice that TNT Sports is not part of this lineup. The NBA’s deal with that network does not appear to be getting an extension after next year, with those games mostly going to Amazon. But the situation may yet go into overtime. TNT Sports that it matched Amazon’s offer for the games and seems to be challenging whether the NBA can switch partners. NBA’s statement that the offer from parent company Warner Bros. Discovery did not match Amazon’s, leaving them free to shop elsewhere.

    The long-awaited agreements for both basketball leagues aren’t a complete slam dunk for fans. On the positive side, the next decade marks a notable shift toward streaming. After so long with the sport closely tied to broadcast shows, having access as part of your existing streaming plans is great. But on the negative side, multiple media partners mean that you’ll have to double- and triple-check where to watch each game. Major League Baseball, for instance, has games scattered across ESPN, Fox, Apple TV+, TNT Sports, and MLB Network on any given night.

    Anna Washenko

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