A slew of CNN Originals, including shows hosted by Anthony Bourdain, W. Kamau Bell, Lisa Ling and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, will be available for free to consumers starting today. CNN has launched a new free, ad-supported streaming channel (the industry abbreviation is a FAST channel) today that will specifically be dedicated to CNN Original programming. The channel, CNN Originals, will...

The Walt Disney Co. turned a profit in its streaming business a quarter earlier than anticipated, and beat Wall Street expectations as its entertainment business soared in the companys fiscal Q3. Disney reported revenue of $23.2 billion, income of $3.1 billion, and earnings per share of $1.43, all beating Wall Street estimates. That was led by the entertainment division, which...

Escalating hostility with major advertisers, X has sued a coalition representing big-money brands for allegedly coordinating a boycott of the platform in violation of antitrust laws. The proposed class action, filed in federal court in Texas on Tuesday, accuses the World Federation of Advertisers of conspiring with companies to withhold advertising on X due to relaxed safety standards since Elon...

IATSE appears to have succeeded in unionizing another group of visual effects workers. Twelve workers on several Apple Studios shows voted unanimously to join the union in a National Labor Relations Board ballot count that took place on Tuesday afternoon, an NLRB spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter and IATSE confirmed. IATSE and Apple now have five business days to raise...

Veteran marketing executive Michael Engleman is leaving Paramount. Engleman is currently chief marketing officer for Paramount+ in the United States and Paramount+ With Showtime. He told staff in a memo Tuesday (read it below) that hell leave his post later this month. In notes like this, often we describe our time together as an honor and privilege, Engleman wrote.And in...

Mattel didnt steal the idea for reality competition show The Toy Box from a producer, who accused the company of ripping off his concept for an identical series that he pitched, a jury has found. The decision comes after a 10-week trial in Santa Monica that touched on standards for protectable ideas and when a company can be on the...

The Outsiders musical continued its post-Tony run, breaking the box office record at theBernard B. Jacobs Theatre for the seventh week in a row. The show, which won the Tony Award for best musical, grossed $1.49 million last week. Thats about $27,000 more than prior week, even though only one more person attended. The average ticket price rose to $177...

The arrival of artificial intelligence hit Hollywood like an earthquake. It was 2022. Layoffs, cost-cutting and what appeared to be an inevitable strike from writers was looming and the industry was in flux. That fall, OpenAI released an early demo of ChatGPT in what became the first momentous moment of the tech entering the public consciousness. Everything changed, starting with...

Big changes are coming to Disney+ later this year, with the company planning price hikes and the addition of what it is calling continuous playlists and live news to the platform. On the pricing front, Disney+ will see the monthly cost of its ad-supported tier rise by $2 to $9.99, while its ad-free tier will rise by $2 to $15.99....

Charles Barkley wont be retiring after all. The TNT Sports personality and Inside the NBA co-host will be staying with Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT Sports even after the next NBA season. TNT Sports said Tuesday that Barkley has reaffirmed his commitment to the company, which will see him exclusively contribute to TNT Sports for many years to come. The...

SP Global has raised its credit rating for AMC Entertainment Holdings, but the mega-exhibitor remains far from taming its overall debt load, even after a recent new debt issue. AMC saw its ratings bumped up to CCC+, from SD (selective default), but has a negative outlook after the cinema chain issued a new $2 billion term loan, due 2029, and...

This years media meltdown chaos is picking up again. Six month after layoffs, labor unrest and contracts began rocking the media sector, the business continues to face dramatic challenges. Tuesday saw a number of examples. In a major deal, Ziff Davis cut a deal to acquire CNet from Red Ventures for about $100 million. CNet which CBS acquired for $1.8...

Fox Corp.s fiscal Q4 delivered a mixed bag for the company, with advertising essentially flat from the same quarter last year, overall revenues up slightly, and profits down slightly. Overall revenue in the quarter were $3.09 billion, up 2 percent from last year, and driven by affiliate fee increases at the Fox Broadcast Network and in the cable division, led...