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TikTok is making it easier for brands to work with its “megastar” creators with an update to its Creator Marketplace that now invites talent managers to oversee, execute and analyze the brand opportunities and campaigns being presented to their clients. This week, the video entertainment platform introduced a new Talent Manager Portal as a part

DirecTV plans to lay off approximately 10% of its management staff, a spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. The layoffs will be in effect next Friday, January 20. The staff reduction comes as DirecTV, among other pay-TV companies, grapple with the continuous loss of consumers moving away from linear television and shifting over to streaming. DirecTV no

This weekend, HBO and HBO Max will premiere the first episode of “The Last of Us,” a post-apocalyptic thriller based on the popular video game. On Sunday, January 15, it will debut on HBO at 9:00 p.m. ET and stream in 4K on HBO Max. The series will have nine episodes in total and follows

There’s still nothing quite like thumbing the pages of a real-life print magazine, but the latest evolution of E Ink’s color tech is creeping tantalizingly close — at least as far as my eyes are concerned. You’ve heard it all before: A lifetime of staring at screens has worn out my eyes, leading me down

Kakao Entertainment announced today it has raised $966 million (1.2 trillion won) in financing from sovereign wealth funds, such as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Singapore-based PWARP Investment. The entertainment subsidiary of South Korean internet giant Kakao operates storytelling platforms (web novels and webtoons), music streaming, K-pop artists management, and other media (movie

Xfinity announced today that customers using the Xfinity Stream app can now use Apple AirPlay to stream and share content directly to Apple TV 4K and other AirPlay-supported devices, such as Samsung smart TVs, LG, Sony, Vizio, and smart speakers like Bose and Sonos. AirPlay functionality is important for a pay TV streaming app, so

YouTube will begin sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators on February 1, the company revealed on Monday. To prepare for the upcoming change, YouTube is starting to roll out new terms for all creators in the YouTube Partner Program. Creators need to accept the new terms by July 10 to remain in the program. The

Major streaming services have upped their game in 2022 with the launch of ad-supported tiers, new live sports deals, hugely successful original series and more. As the streaming wars continue to heat up, media companies have no choice but to raise the stakes. From the HBO Max/Discovery+ merged streaming service to Netflix’s password-sharing offering, here’s what

Verizon last month introduced a new subscription service aggregator, +Play, into open beta, allowing its customers to purchase and manage subscriptions to over 20 services, including Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, ESPN+, discovery+, AMC+, NFL+, NBA League Pass and NBA TV. But while the initial version of the service is expected to launch in the

In November, Netflix unveiled its long-anticipated ad-supported tier which offers customers in select markets, including the U.S., the ability to offset the cost of a Netflix subscription by allowing their viewing to be interrupted with ad breaks. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Netflix President of Worldwide Advertising, Jeremi Gorman, offered some initial

The COVID-19 pandemic brought video production to its knees, but the show must go on, and necessity is the mother of invention. Studiobox leapt into the breech, creating an interview studio in a box. For the interviewee, a rugged case shows up, delivered by a friendly FedEx delivery person. They open it, plug it in,

Depending on whether you spend most of your time in hospitals, offices or in the great outdoors, when you hear “Canon,” your mind will likely go to medical scanning equipment, high-end printers or cameras. At CES this year, the 85-year-old company is leaning in a new direction, with an interesting focus on software applications. At

This summer, I went straight from VidCon — the largest creator conference — to a labor journalism seminar with the Sidney Hillman Foundation. One day, I was chatting with famous TikTokers about their financial anxieties (what if they accidentally get banned from TikTok tomorrow?), and the next, I was learning about the history of American

Social media platforms and creator-focused startups haven’t looked too hot this year, as companies like Snapchat, Patreon, Cameo and Meta all waged layoffs along with the rest of the tech industry. YouTube ad revenue is declining, and creator funds for platforms like Pinterest have dried up. It might seem like things are bad on the surface,

‘You’ll never be bored but you’ll also be glad when they leave.’ Theresa Loconsolo 3 days What. A. Year. Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. In honor of 2022 finally coming to a close, the Equity crew is getting

As streaming services continue to hike their prices, cord-cutters have found it harder to manage their growing subscription bills. Hulu was the most recent to announce a price increase, along with Disney+. Netflix has always charged more than its competitors — January 2022 was the most recent time it raised its prices. However, now that

Generative AI is coming for videos. A new website, QuickVid, combines several generative AI systems into a single tool for automatically creating short-form YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat videos. Given as little as a single word, QuickVid chooses a background video from a library, writes a script and keywords, overlays images generated by DALL-E 2 and adds

Spotify has launched a New Year’s Hub to help its users ring in 2023, the streaming service announced on Thursday. The company says the one-stop destination gives users access to classic party playlists and special takeovers from artists like Charli XCX, Rita Ora, N-Dubz and Céline Dion. “We’ve got plenty of music to kickstart your celebration, and it’s

Amazon is developing a standalone app for watching sports, according to a new report from The Information. The move signals Amazon’s continued push toward investing in Prime Video and live sports content. If released, the standalone app would better highlight Amazon’s sports content, which is currently included in the company’s main Prime Video platform. The

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park and various other media over the years, have raised $20 million to continue work on their professional deepfake studio for creators, Deep Voodoo. The company got its start during the media shutdown of 2020, when the pandemic prevented most travel and on-set productions. Parker and Stone

Text-to-image AI exploded this year as technical advances greatly enhanced the fidelity of art that AI systems could create. Controversial as systems like Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 are, platforms including DeviantArt and Canva have adopted them to power creative tools, personalize branding and even ideate new products. But the tech at the heart

YouTube and the National Football League announced on Thursday that the two have reached a deal for the NFL Sunday Ticket. Starting next season, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available on two of YouTube’s subscription businesses as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone à la carte on YouTube Primetime Channels. The NFL Sunday

If you’re a parent with young children, then you’ll probably hear this a lot on Christmas Eve: “Where’s Santa right now?” With tracking tools like the NORAD Santa Tracker and Google’s Santa Tracker, everyone can know when Father Christmas will arrive. Here’s how to follow Santa’s journey this Christmas Eve. Track Santa Claus with NORAD

We made it! Another year (nearly!) complete. Go team! The end of the year means many things — holidays, food, family, reflection, etc. Around these parts, it also means it’s time for the TechCrunch Favorite Things list. Each year Team TechCrunch puts together a big list of the things that, when we look back over the

Visual effects artists, especially the ones that work on Marvel films, are in more demand than ever — and rarely get enough credit. Nearly a dozen VFX houses contribute to one Marvel project. Perception, the Emmy-nominated design and VFX lab that has worked on 33 Marvel films and series, was assigned the challenging task of

Netflix is officially branching out into fitness content, as the company announced today that it’s going to start streaming Nike Training Club classes next week. The streaming service will release a total of 30 hours of exercise sessions in two separate batches. The programs, which include workouts for all fitness levels, will be available in

Amazon has announced that Fire TV users in the U.S. can now watch tens of thousands of music videos from major and independent labels for free. No downloads, fees or subscriptions are required to watch the music videos. The ad-supported music videos will be available from artists on the Billboard Hot 100, including Taylor Swift,

According to a survey sent to creators in the Spotify for Podcasters program, the streaming giant might be doing away with the Anchor brand. Anchor, which Spotify acquired for $340 million in a deal that included the studio Gimlet, is a free podcast hosting service. In 2020, Anchor said that its service was used to

“Black Adam” is now streaming on HBO Max, giving more fans a chance to watch the DC antihero movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. “Black Adam” premiered in theaters on October 21. It centers around Teth-Adam (Johnson), a superhuman from ancient Kahndaq who used his godly powers for vengeance and was then quickly imprisoned. After

The latest hit Netflix series “Wednesday,” the “Addams Family” spin-off directed by Tim Burton, has reached a milestone that only “Stranger Things” Season 4 and “Squid Game” managed to accomplish. “Wednesday” surpassed 1.02 billion total hours viewed in just three weeks since its debut, the company announced, with over 150 million households streaming the show.