Universal Music Group has inked a first time licensing deal with Meta to allow music from the major labels artists to be uploaded to WhatsApp and shared without violating copyright ownership. The move is part of an expanded global licensing agreement, first signed in 2017, to have UMG artists and songwriters continue placing copyrighted music across Metas platforms like Facebook,...

Animation workers and supporters argued that recent technological and business shifts have left their craft hanging in the balance during a packed union rally in Burbank on Saturday, with one speaker positing that the American animation industry is at stake. The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) organized the event before it heads into bargaining over a new three-year contract with...

Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube and one of the first employees at Google after it was founded in 1998, has died. She was 56. Her husband, Dennis Troper, announced on Facebook Friday night that Wojcicki died after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer. It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki...

Michael Jacksons nephew, Jaafar Jackson, who will portray the pop star in the upcoming biopic about the singers life, has signed with CAA for representation. Jackson is the son of Jermaine Jackson and the nephew of Michael Jackson and will make his acting debut in the role of his late uncle in Michael. Antoine Fuqua will direct and Graham King,...

After a rocky final stretch of negotiations, the union representing staff members at Crooked Media and the progressive media company behind Pod Save America have reached a tentative contract agreement. The labor group and management jointly announced their provisional deal, which is still subject to ratification, on Friday. Were delighted to have agreed on a contract that we all feel...

Cartoon Networks website is no more. As of Friday, the landing page of CartoonNetwork.com features a popup directing users to sign up for Max, Warner Bros. Discoverys flagship streaming service. Looking for episodes of your favorite Cartoon Network shows? Check out whats available to stream on Max (subscription required), the message reads in part. It also notes that cable subscribers...

Canadian exhibition giant Cineplex underlined the impact of its Hollywood movie supply upended by the 2023 actors and writers strikes as it released its second quarter financial results on Friday. Cineplex saw box office revenue drop 30 percent to $114.5 million, and theater attendance, especially in April and May, was off by nearly 32 percent to 8.7 million moviegoers for...

The Paris Olympics have put NBC and its employees in a mighty good mood. Walking through NBC Sports headquarters midway through the games, one could almost feel the energy and good vibes. And not just because of the live music and smore-making in fire pits by the Eiffel Tower. No, not that Eiffel Tower. In a courtyard outside its Stamford,...

It was early February 2004 and barely a week into my tenure as editor in chief of Broadcasting Cable when I first got to see the power of the venerable trade publication in action. Word had surfaced that Comcast was making a hostile $51 billion bid to acquire Disney, and only minutes later, it was BCs star reporter John Higgins...

News Corp. is weighing a sale of Australian pay TV and streaming operator Foxtel, the Murdoch family-controlled company said Thursday in its full-year earnings release. News Corp chief executive, Robert Thomson, said that potential buyers had emerged forFoxtelduring a review of the companys assets. That review has coincided recently with third-party interest in a potential transaction involving the Foxtel Group,...

As it looks to shed assets in order to achieve $500 million in cost savings, Paramount Global has sold two entertainment news websites in its portfolio to the digital media executive who once ran the sites. ComicBook and PopCulture have been sold to Savage Ventures, a digital media operator run by Sam Savage. The two websites had been in the...

Lionsgate and Lionsgate Studios have released first quarter financial results after the spinoff of the media giants studio business into a separately traded stock. The Hollywood studio, led by CEO Jon Feltheimer, posted a first quarter net loss attributable to shareholders at $59.4 million, compared to a year-earlier $70.7 million loss, on overall revenue falling to $834.7 million, against a...

Paramount continued to push forward on its $500 million cost-savings plan and goal of reaching sustained profitability in streaming by 2025, in the companys first earnings report since the Skydance deal was announced. In the companys second quarter earnings report, Paramount reported direct-to-consumer revenue up 13 percent year-over-year to reach $1.8 billion and an adjusted profit figure of $26 million,...