Redbox just ran into a big problem. In October, the company – best known for its DVD kiosks – launched its “digital codes” offering. The service enables consumers to purchase codes from the company’s kiosks; those codes offer information on how to stream Disney movies. But Disney wasn’t too pleased about the program, and now […]
Vice Media fires three employees over inappropriate behavior
Vice Media confirmed that it has fired three employees for violating workplace policies – most notably, sexual and verbal harassment. The terminations were first reported by CNN. Vice hasn’t named the three employees. The past few weeks haven’t been kind to Vice. Its latest actions came weeks after a damning Daily Beast report, in which […]
Vine co-founder teases follow-up app
Vine may be gone, but CEO and cofounder Dom Hofmann says he’s working on something new. Hoffman wrote of a Vine “follow-up” in a series of tweets. He says he’ll personally fund the development of the app. Not too many other details are known just yet. Twitter purchased Vine, an app that shared six-second videos, […]
CBS considers 24-hour “Entertainment Tonight” streaming service
CBS is thinking about creating a VOD offering based on Entertainment Tonight. The revelation came from CBS CEO Les Moonves, who spoke at Variety’s Innovate Summit. The product would be a 24-hour entertainment news service, Moonves said. CBS now has a growing arsenal of VOD services, including CBS All Access, the CBSN news network, Showtime’s […]
Snapchat previews major makeover
After Snap Inc.’s disastrous Q3 earnings report, CEO Evan Spiegel promised a redesigned Snapchat app that would be more accessible to users. Now the company has previewed the changes, which will roll out to a limited number of users over the course of this week. According to the company, the new version of the app […]
Facing underwhelming revenue, BuzFeed fires 100s staffers
All’s not well in the land of BuzzFeed. The digital media company just fired about 100 staffers – roughly 7% of its workforce. The company is also planning some big changes to its monetization efforts, according to an announcement from CEO Jonah Peretti. (Indeed, most of the new layoffs hit BuzzFeed’s ad sales and business […]
Google gets its burger right
Google’s cheeseburger emoji last month might have been a recipe for disaster – what with the cheese slice on bottom of the burger, not the top – but the situation was rectified with the release of Android 8.1 Developer Beta 2. Social media erupted over the flawed patty last month, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai […]
Cyber Monday sales break records
Cyber Monday sales on phones hit a single-day record of $1.59 billion, up 39% from last year, according to Adobe Analytics. Overall, sales on Monday reached a record $6.59 billion, up 16.8%. While Cyber Monday shopping during the day used to mean scouring for deals on your work computer, that behavior “is almost completely reversed,” […]
Ed Asner plays StoryBots Santa
The colorful characters from the Emmy Award-winning Ask the StoryBots are returning to Netflix on Dec. 1 with an all-new holiday special. Based on the hit digital children’s educational brand from JibJab Bros. Studios, A StoryBots Christmas stars Judy Greer as the voice of Beep and includes a special appearance by the legendary Ed Asner […]
Disney Germany in streaming deal with Pantaflix
Under a new content distribution deal with German SVOD Pantaflix, Disney Germany will make the studio’s films available to streaming customers in Germany and Austria. The arrangement covers Disney films from Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, including availability of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on the video-on-demand platform at the same time as the DVD […]
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