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YouTube will remove ads and downgrade discoverability of channels posting offensive videos
After barring Logan Paul earlier today from serving ads on his video channel, YouTube has now announced a more formal and wider set of sanctions it’s prepared to level on any creator that starts to post videos that are harmful to viewers, others in the YouTube community, or advertisers. As it has done with Paul (on two occasions now), the site said it will remove monetization options on… Read More
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NBC exec Jennifer Salke named head of Amazon Studios
Amazon Studios has finally found a replacement for Roy Price after the executive stepped down in mid-October over sexual harassment claims. Jennifer Salke will be filling in the top spot at the online studio after serving for six years as NBC’s Entertainment President. “We are thrilled to announce that Jennifer Salke will be joining us as the Head of Amazon… Read More
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Original Content podcast: ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ is eating us alive
The Cloverfield Paradox is the kind of movie where a character will straight-facedly declare: “This dimension is eating us alive!” The first trailer for the film hit during the Super Bowl, and Netflix released the movie itself as soon as the game was over. Paradox takes the vaguely-connected Cloverfield franchise into space, where an international team of scientists (including… Read More
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YouTube suspends ads on Logan Paul’s channels after “recent pattern” of behavior in videos
More problems and controversy for Logan Paul, the YouTube star who caused a strong public backlash when he posted a video of a suicide victim in Japan. Google’s video platform today announced that it would be pulling advertising temporarily from his video channel in response to a “recent pattern of behavior” from him. This is in addition to Paul’s suspensions from… Read More
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Apple adds live news channels to TV app for iOS and Apple TV
After teasing the feature back in September, Apple is adding support for live news in the TV app on the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV — 9to5mac first spotted the new section. For now, it’s quite limited as it only supports a handful of channels for American users. If you’re running the most recent versions of iOS and tvOS, the feature should now be live. I’m running iOS… Read More
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Scribd’s new unlimited plan for audiobooks and e-books might be an avid reader’s dream
Avid audiobook nerds tired of dealing with Audible’s nonsense or long library queues now have a new way to get a steady stream of the good stuff. Scribd just announced it will be reinstating an unlimited plan offering relatively unfettered access to e-books, audiobooks, news, magazines, documents and sheet music. Read More
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The first teaser trailer for ‘Venom’ has plenty of Tom Hardy, not much Venom
If you’ve been waiting to see what the new movie version of Venom will look like — well, keep waiting. Venom stars Tom Hardy (!) as Eddie Brock/Venom, and the film’s first teaser trailer has plenty of Hardy as Brock, plus glimpses of fellow cast members Michelle Williams (!!) and Riz Ahmed. Sadly, though, it lacks any footage of Venom in-costume. For those of you who… Read More
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Viacom acquires VidCon, a gathering of YouTube stars and fans
Viacom has acquired VidCon, a move that seems designed to help the media giant connect with younger audiences. Viacom’s blog post describes VidCon as “the premier event for the worldwide online video community,” drawing more than 30,000 attendees to its flagship conference in Anaheim, Calif. (It’s also held smaller events in Amsterdam and Melbourne.) The company was… Read More
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PS4 update lets parents control how long their kid can play
Folks worried that their kids are spending a little too much time gaming should be pleased to hear about Sony’s latest PS4 update. System software update 5.50 includes a new feature called Play Time Management, as well as changes to the Library interface, the ability to add custom wallpapers, and a supersampling mode that makes 4K games look better on 1080p TVs. Play Time Management… Read More
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ESPN’s streaming service will cost $4.99 and launch this spring
In the fall we wrote that ESPN’s new streaming service ESPN Plus would launch in Spring 2018. However details were vague, with pricing unknown and no specific list of what programming would be available. But yesterday on Disney’s earnings call CEO Bob Iger unveiled some more details, including pricing. ESPN Plus will cost $4.99 per month, and be available “this spring”. Read More
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The showrunners behind ‘Game of Thrones’ have signed on to write some ‘Star Wars’ movies
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the writers who turned George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novels into a television phenomenon, will be writing and producing a new series of Star Wars films. Read More
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Cloverfield Paradox review: Netflix combines every space scream
Where did Cloverfield’s don’t-call-it-Godzilla come from? This Gravity meets Event Horizon flick mashes up the scariest things outside our planet to provide an answer. A new Netflix original film, “The Cloverfield Paradox,” is now available after a surprise announcement during the Super Bowl. Producer J.J. Abrams is back for a third-installment that’s tense… Read More
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Original Content podcast: ‘Altered Carbon’ is a murder mystery in a body-swapping future
Altered Carbon, released today by Netflix, is adapted from a science fiction novel by Richard K. Morgan. It tells the story of Takeshi Kovacs, a one-time rebel who’s forced to take on the role of detective and track down a rich man’s murderer. In this week’s episode of TechCrunch’s Original Content podcast, Jordan Crook, Darrell Etherington and Anthony Ha offer… Read More
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YouTube’s CEO promises stronger enforcement in the wake of controversies
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki took to the service’s Creator Blog last night to issue some broad goals for the year forward. The plans largely revolve around increased transparency on the company’s part and tightening enforcement — a pretty clearly reaction to multiple creator controversies over the past year and change, including, most recently, the suicide video posted by… Read More
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Watch the first trailer for ‘Mute’, a futuristic thriller from Duncan Jones
After a bit of a misstep with Warcraft, director Duncan Jones has a new movie that he’s describing as a successor to his debut Moon. To be clear, I kind of liked Warcraft, and it made a lot of money in China. Still, most critics hated it, and the film bombed in the U.S. And whether you appreciated Warcraft or not, Mute looks like Jones’ return to a more cerebral and personal… Read More
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Mammoth Media, the startup behind chat fiction app Yarn, raises $13M
Mammoth Media has raised a $13 million Series A funding to create what it calls “entertainment experiences for the mobile-first generation.” Mammoth is not the first startup to pitch itself as reinventing entertainment for smartphones, but for the most part, that message has come from gaming companies. Co-founder and CEO Benoit Vatere said he wanted to take the mobile-centric… Read More
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Here’s how to live stream the Grammys tonight
Don’t have a TV or just want to watch Kesha, Cardi B and Lady Gaga walk the red carpet from the comfort of your laptop? Thanks to modern tech, that’s possible tonight. James Corden kicks off the 60th annual Grammy awards this evening, Sunday, January 28, at 7:30 pm EST/4:30 pm PST, which is set to run for three and a half hours (though, fair warning, these types of awards shows… Read More
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How visual effects studio Mr. X helped create ‘The Shape of Water’ and its lovable merman
At first, I wasn’t impressed by The Shape of Water‘s visual effects. That might seem like a strange thing to say about a movie whose effects have been nominated for multiple awards (though not an Oscar, despite the film’s 13 nominations). What I mean is this: When I was watching, I never wondered about the technology behind the merman — the sometimes-monstrous… Read More
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Original Content podcast: We revisit the crime scene of Netflix’s ‘Ozark’
Ozark launched on Netflix back in July — before we’d even started Original Content, our podcast covering the latest streaming news, shows and movies. However, TechCrunch’s Jordan Crook was a big fan, so at her urging, we all checked out the series, which stars Jason Bateman as a financial advisor who moves to the Ozarks with his family (including his wife, played by Laura… Read More
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