All stories by Todd Spangler on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Disney’s Maker Studios New Comedy, Gaming Original Series Will Get First Window on Sling TV by Todd Spangler

Maker Studios has unveiled a slate of 15 original series rolling out this fall and winter on its game channel Polaris and newly relaunched comedy channel The Station. And the Disney-owned mu…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:23PM
Friday, October 7, 2016

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Blasts Theater Owners as ‘Strangling’ Movie Business by Todd Spangler

Reed Hastings fired back at cinema chains Friday, with the Netflix chief accusing theater owners of “strangling the movie business” by refusing to budge on windows to allow strea…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:52PM
Thursday, October 6, 2016

Twitter Sale: Disney, Google Are Out of the Running (Reports) by Todd Spangler

Disney and Google have decided to not move forward with bids for Twitter, which is hoping to secure a deal to sell itself by the end of the month, according to reports. Both Disney and Googl…

SOURCE: Variety at 06:30AM
Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Netflix Inks Deal With 15-Theater Chain iPic Entertainment for Original Movies, Angling for Oscar by Todd Spangler

Netflix has inched its foot further through the movie-biz door: The streaming giant has reached a deal with iPic Entertainment, a luxury-theater chain with 15 U.S. locations, to screen 1…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:30AM
Friday, September 30, 2016

Musical.ly’s Live.ly Is Now Bigger Than Twitter’s Periscope (Study) by Todd Spangler

Three months after its launch, Live.ly, the live-streaming video app from Musical.ly, has captured nearly 4.6 million monthly active users on Apple’s iOS platform in the U.S. — maki…

SOURCE: Variety at 05:20PM
Monday, September 12, 2016

Apple iTunes Offers 10-Movie Bundles for $10, With Disney and 20th Century Fox Sitting Out Promo by Todd Spangler

Apple has teamed with five Hollywood studios for six different ten-movie bundles — priced at $9.99, or a buck per movie — in a one-day promotion celebrating the 10th anniversary …

SOURCE: Variety at 02:59PM
Sunday, July 10, 2016

Musical.ly’s Live.ly Tops 2 Million iOS Downloads, Promises Android Version Soon by Todd Spangler

Live.ly, the live-streaming video app from Musical.ly that burst onto the scene last month, has now been downloaded more than 2 million times — helped by early adopters like singer Jas…

SOURCE: Variety at 07:08PM
Thursday, June 30, 2016

Disney to Acquire 33% Stake in MLB Advanced Media for $3.5 Billion (Report) by Todd Spangler

Disney has struck a deal with Major League Baseball to acquire a one-third stake in the league’s MLB Advanced Media technology arm for about $3.5 billion, Bloomberg reported. Under the…

SOURCE: Variety at 07:31PM

Disney Bows Social-Like App to Feed Kids Bite-Size, Nontoxic Content by Todd Spangler

Disney has created a secure sandbox for preteens to get a taste of social media — without the risk that they’ll run into something age-inappropriate, scary or offensive. More importa…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:34PM
Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Musical.ly’s Live.ly App Nears 500,000 Downloads, Already Has First Live-Streamed Hit Show by Todd Spangler

Live.ly, the live-streaming app from Musical.ly that officially launched four days ago, has zoomed to the top of Apple’s free apps chart — with almost 500,000 downloads so far — a…

SOURCE: Variety at 05:54AM
Friday, June 24, 2016

Scott Rudin Joins Board of Barry Diller’s Expedia by Todd Spangler

Producer Scott Rudin has been elected to the board of Expedia, the online travel-booking company headed by chairman Barry Diller. Expedia disclosed Rudin’s appointment to the board eff…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:46PM
Thursday, June 23, 2016

Time Warner Cable, Charter Routinely Overcharged Customers and Failed to Issue Refunds, Senate Report Finds by Todd Spangler

A U.S. Senate investigation into pay-TV billing practices found that Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications — which completed their $67 billion merger in May — have regularly overb…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:13PM

Aaron Sorkin to Teach Online Course on Screenwriting by Todd Spangler

For $90, Aaron Sorkin will share his tricks of the screenwriting trade. Sorkin, scribe of such films such as “A Few Good Men,” “Steve Jobs” and “The Social Netw…

SOURCE: Variety at 08:43AM
Tuesday, May 10, 2016

DanceOn Changes Name to ‘Izo’ to Expand Music Scope by Todd Spangler

DanceOn, the YouTube network focused on dance culture, has adopted a new name — Izo — as the company looks to stretch its legs more broadly into music content. “We really needed to cre…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:38AM
Tuesday, May 3, 2016

TheAudience Taps Mike Dodge as CEO, Debbie Menin as EVP Partnerships by Todd Spangler

TheAudience, a social-media and digital content marketing agency focused on connecting brands with cultural influencers, has hired Mike Dodge as CEO and Debbie Menin as executive VP of strat…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:07PM
Friday, April 29, 2016

Hulu Orders ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Series Starring Elisabeth Moss from MGM TV by Todd Spangler

Hulu announced a straight-to-series order for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a drama from from MGM Television starring Elisabeth Moss. The series, based on the novel of the same na…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:53PM
Wednesday, September 9, 2015

YouTube, Awesomeness Films Announce First Movie: ‘Dance Camp’ by Todd Spangler

YouTube and Awesomeness Films have announced “Dance Camp,” a music-and-dance teen drama, as the first feature-length film under their co-production deal. The movie, produced by J…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:35PM
Thursday, May 21, 2015

ESPN Plugs Content Into StubHub Ticketing Apps by Todd Spangler

ESPN cut a content-distribution deal with event-ticketing site StubHub, part of a bigger initiative by the eBay-owned subsidiary to turn itself into a bigger destination for sports fans. Th…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:24PM
Thursday, March 26, 2015

Twitter Launches Periscope Live-Streaming Video App by Todd Spangler

Twitter has launched live-streaming video app Periscope, developed by the startup it bought earlier in 2015 for a reported $100 million, upping the battle with overnight mobile-app streami…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:59AM
Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Is Pre-Release Piracy a Threat to ‘Annie’s’ Box Office? by Todd Spangler

The cyber-attackers who broke down Sony Pictures’ digital doors stole five movies and uploaded them to piracy sites — a move that could cost the studio millions of dollars in lost box of…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:00PM
Friday, December 5, 2014

NBC’s ‘Peter Pan Live’ Flies High on Social Media: 106.9 Million Twitter Views by Todd Spangler

NBC’s broadcast of “Peter Pan Live” Thursday drew a huge social-media following — well above the Peacock’s “Sound of Music” broadcast last year and …

SOURCE: Variety at 03:19PM
Monday, October 6, 2014

Kids Love Apple’s iPad More Than Disney, Nickelodeon, YouTube: Survey by Todd Spangler

Move over, Elsa. Apple’s iPad is the No. 1 brand among children 6-12, beating out Disney, Nickelodeon, YouTube, Netflix, Toys ‘R’ Us, McDonald’s, and multiple snack-f…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:33PM
Monday, September 1, 2014

Discovery Digital Networks Head Jim Louderback Resigns by Todd Spangler

Jim Louderback, g.m. of Discovery Digital Networks, is leaving the company two years after the cable programmer bought web-video startup Revision3, where he had been CEO. Louderback announc…

SOURCE: Variety at 05:13PM
Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Time Warner Cable Suffers Nationwide Internet, Video-on-Demand Outage by Todd Spangler

Time Warner Cable’s broadband and video-on-demand services were knocked offline for more than two hours Wednesday, with the cable company saying most services were restored by 6 a.m. E…

SOURCE: Variety at 08:52AM
Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Twitch Shuts Down Justin.tv Live-Streaming Video Site by Todd Spangler

Twitch, the videogame-streaming service that Google is in the process of acquiring for $1 billion, has pulled the plug on Justin.tv. Justin.tv, a website designed for users to “lifecast�…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:31PM
Monday, June 30, 2014

Netflix Drops All ‘Rocky’ Movies from Streaming on July 1 by Todd Spangler

Yo, Adrian! The entire “Rocky” film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa is scheduled to expire from Netflix’s streaming service as of July 1, 2014, accord…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:18PM
Tuesday, June 17, 2014

YouTube to Block Music Videos from Labels That Don’t Sign On for Subscription Service by Todd Spangler

YouTube is playing hardball with music companies: The Internet video service this week will begin removing videos from indie labels that have refused to agree to the terms for its music-subs…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:22AM
Thursday, May 8, 2014

Endemol Beyond USA Hires Ex-Disney Exec David B. Williams as Content and Tech Strategist (Exclusive) by Todd Spangler

Endemol Beyond USA, the digital multichannel network unit of global TV production firm Endemol, hired former Disney executive and entrepreneur David B. Williams as chief content and tech…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:58PM
Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Broadway’s ‘If/Then’ Starring Idina Menzel Inks Social-Promo Pact with Mashable by Todd Spangler

Producers of Tony-nominated musical “If/Then” starring Idina Menzel are working with Mashable on a digital-marketing campaign, which the parties tout as the first such collaborat…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:19PM
Friday, April 25, 2014

‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ Was Most-Aired Movie on Basic Cable in 2013 by Todd Spangler

Cable TV loves Robin Williams in old-lady drag. 20th Century Fox’s “Mrs. Doubtfire” was the most-aired pic on basic cable in 2013. The 1993 comedy was played 66 times across five netwo…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:54AM
Friday, March 28, 2014

Last Call: Moviefone’s Phone Numbers Go Dead March 31 by Todd Spangler

Mr. Moviefone is about to get disconnected. AOL’s Moviefone dial-in lines will no longer be available after next Monday, March 31, according to a recording on the service. The phone nu…

SOURCE: Variety at 05:27PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards