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“Nobody does creature work the way Wētā does,” Craig Mazin, co-creator of HBO’s “The Last of Us,” said in the official podcast for the video game adaptation series. If you’d had a chance to watch the bloater scene from episode five, then you most likely agree with him. It makes sense that HBO approached Wētā

U.S. employees at Bandcamp, an online audio distributor, have announced their formation of a union. Last year, the platform was acquired by Epic Games, the multi-billion dollar company behind games like Fortnite and the Unreal gaming engine. According to the union, known as Bandcamp United, a super-majority of workers are in favor of forming a

T-Mobile is acquiring Mint Mobile, the budget-friendly wireless provider partially owned by Ryan Reynolds in a deal valued at up to $1.35 billion, the company announced on Wednesday. The move indicates that T-Mobile is looking to boost its prepaid offerings. In a blog post, T-Mobile said it reached a deal to acquire Ka’ena Corporation, the

Kakao Entertainment, owned by South Korean tech giant Kakao, will shut down the Korean branch of Tapas Entertainment, the U.S.-headquartered storytelling platform, next month.  Kakao Entertainment told TechCrunch that it plans to close the Korean office as part of a restructuring effort to zero in on the company’s North American and other global units. The

We hope you’ve filled out your brackets by now because the madness is officially here. Last night kicked off NCAA Selection Sunday, where the full March Madness schedules were finalized for the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Fans that want to watch all the men’s basketball games can subscribe to live TV streaming services

The fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is impacting a range of startups and larger firms including, as we know now from SEC filings, publicly traded companies like Roku, Roblox, Quotient, and others. Roku said in a filing that it had around $487 million held at SVB, representing around 26% of its cash

Roku and Best Buy announced today that as part of their new first-to-market partnership, Roku gets access to Best Buy’s advertising platform. Also, Best Buy customers have exclusive access to Roku-branded TVs. The relationship is a first for Best Buy since it’s never partnered with a TV streaming platform to provide its first-party sales data.

Social music streaming startup Stationhead announced today that it’s launching a new live commerce tool that allows select artists and hosts to sell digital tracks to fans during livestreaming parties on their stations. The startup says artists including BlackPink, Niall Horan, TXT and 5 Seconds of Summer have already used the feature during live release

Roku devices are getting an upgrade. The company announced today a series of updates coming to its media streamers and TVs with the new version of its software, Roku OS 12. The updates, which will focus on areas like live TV and sports, among other things, will also be accompanied by a revamp of the

Hotstar will lose HBO content at the end of this month in the latest setback for the Disney-owned on-demand video streaming giant that recently also lost rights for a popular cricket tournament in the country. HBO’s catalog — shows such as Succession, The Last of Us, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Game of Thrones, Industry, Watchmen, The

Amazon announced today the launch of a dedicated Oscars hub on Fire TV where movie buffs can get ready for the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony, including watching all the nominated movies and casting their votes for Oscar winners via the on-screen interactive voting experience, “Oscars predictions.” The new Oscars hub will live on the Fire

A new “Stranger Things” play is coming to the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End in late 2023, Netflix announced today. “Stranger Things: The First Shadow” is a prequel spinoff play set in Hawkins in 1959, less than 25 years before the Netflix series. It will feature younger versions of Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and

Audible today announced that it would launch its first-ever singing competition series as an exclusive podcast featuring artists Sara Bareilles and Kelly Rowland as judges. “Breakthrough” will premiere on the Amazon-owned audio service on June 1. On the podcast series, Bareilles and Rowland will mentor five artists over the course of nine episodes. The host

Movies Anywhere, a previously Disney-backed app that lets users access their digitally owned movie collection from across services, is shutting down two features, “Screen Pass” and “Watch Together.” Screen Pass, which launched in 2020, allows you to loan out three movies per month within the app, which recipients can then watch for up to 72

The official trailer for the final season of “Succession” premiered today, and it appears the series is ending with an epic mic drop. Season 4 makes its debut on March 26, giving fans 10 more episodes before we bid farewell to the Roy family. The new trailer gives viewers a closer look at the feud

Roku struck a deal with creator company Jellysmack to launch new content featuring 17 popular YouTube and TikTok creators like Brad Mondo, Lauren Riihimaki (LaurDIY), Emmy Cho (Emmymade), Karina Garcia and more. The company announced yesterday that it’s launching two free, ad-supported TV (FAST) channels, “Hello Inspo” and “Mysteria,” to The Roku Channel’s Live TV

YouTube’s new head Neal Mohan penned his first letter today to creators emphasizing that the company aims to continue supporting the community by giving them more tools to make money. He also mentioned that YouTube is looking to experiment with generative AI and multiple formats like Shorts and podcasts. Last month, YouTube’s long-time CEO Susan

The European Commission (EC) has confirmed a previously-issued preliminary view that Apple’s so-called “anti-steering” practices, which prevent developers from informing users about alternative payment options, constitutes unfair trading practices. However, in a refined Statement of Objections sent to Apple and published for the public today, the EC also said that it’s dropping an additional anti-trust charge

Google TV today announced the launch of four new content pages in the U.S. — the Family page, the Movie page, the Shows page and the Español page — which gives users quicker access to family-friendly titles, movies, TV shows and Spanish-language entertainment. Instead of navigating from app to app, users can now select from

Shelley McKinley Contributor Shelley McKinley is chief legal officer at GitHub, home to more than 100 million software developers. Last week marked the first time the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. In oral arguments in the Gonzalez v. Google case, important questions were raised about platform responsibility

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) reported underwhelming Q4 results yesterday, revealing a net loss of another $2.1 billion, including $217 million from its streaming division. This is despite the company touting the success of its new original series “The Last of Us,” which averaged over 15 million viewers, and the recently launched video game Hogwarts Legacy,

Google has launched tests that block access to news content for some users in Canada in response to the Canadian government’s online news bill. Bill C-18, or the Online News Act, would require platforms like Facebook and Google to negotiate deals that would pay news publishers for their content. The bill is currently before the

Netflix today announced its first deal with the NFL—and no, it’s not live sports. The streamer is getting an exclusive, new docuseries called “Quarterback,” in which fans will get to see behind-the-scenes action from NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota. “Quarterback” will debut on Netflix this summer. It will show not only

Amazon teamed up with hearing implant company Cochlear to launch Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) support to compatible Cochlear devices, the company announced today. Now, select Fire TV devices –such as Fire TV Omni Series, Fire TV Omni QLED Series, Fire TV 4-Series, Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) and Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen)

Janky and Guggimon, “synthetic” celebrities conceived in a studio and big on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where they exist as influencers with millions of followers, hyping up other brands, music acts and themselves, are soon coming to a streaming screen, and maybe a Whole Foods, near you. Superplastic, the startup that created and

Following the major integration of Showtime into Paramount+ two weeks ago, Paramount reported its quarterly earnings this morning, announcing that Paramount+ gained 9.9 million subscribers in Q4 to bring the total to 56 million subs, up from 46 million in the previous quarter. This means Paramount+ has more customers than Hulu, which recently reported 48

Hey, TechCrunch besties. After a week in Korea and the Philippines, it’s great to be back in the States — and slightly more tan (i.e., burnt) than before. Massive thanks to Henry, who was forced to step in over the past two weeks thanks to my failing to realize that Korean Air does not offer

Susan Wojcicki is stepping down as YouTube CEO after nine years at the helm. In a letter to employees (first published by Recode), Wojcicki says that she’s leaving in order to “start a new chapter focused on my family, health and personal projects I’m passionate about.” “Today, after nearly 25 years here, I’ve decided to

Apple TV+ released the first trailer for its — shall we say, block-busting — movie “Tetris,” based on the origin story of the popular puzzle video game. The movie will first premiere at South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in March. Apple will then release it worldwide on the streaming service on March 31. Starring

Over a month after Roku announced its first Roku-branded TVs, which will launch in the U.S. in spring 2023, the hardware company reported its quarterly earnings this afternoon, which showed Roku beat its own revenue expectations, reporting a total net revenue of $867.1 million for Q4. The company previously cautioned investors of a shaky fourth