201 stories by "Todd Spangler"
BuzzFeed is going public in a deal with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which will give the digital media company an implied valuation of $1.5 billion once the pact closes, the…
For Disney Plus, maybe getting the first 100 million subscribers was the easy part. Shares of Disney were down 2.6% in midday trading Friday, after the media company missed revenue estimates…
The jets kept firing for Disney Plus, which reached 103.6 million subscribers worldwide as of April 3, the company reported " although the growth was not as torrid as Wall Street hoped. The …
The latest gold rush in digital video? Short, shareable video clips " like those popularized by Vine half a decade ago, before Twitter shut down the Vine app. YouTube, the world's biggest vi…
Netflix has a new way to try to get customers binge-watching in a hurry: The company is launching "Play Something," which picks a TV show or movie based on what its algorithms think you will…
Netflix wants people to pay their fair share to access its streaming service. But Reed Hastings promises that any crackdown on illicit password-sharing that the company decides to launch acr…
Netflix's subscriber growth cooled in the first quarter of 2021 after record pandemic-fueled gains last year: The streamer added about 2 million fewer customers than it previously expected. …
In the wake of escalating violence against Asians in the U.S., crowdfunding site GoFundMe collaborated with independent film director Bao Nguyen to produce a short film that shines a light o…
Cameo, the startup that lets users buy video shout-outs from celebrities, has banked $100 million in Series C funding " which the company says gives it a "unicorn" valuation of just over $1 …
It's been a breathtaking week for ViacomCBS investors. Shares of the media conglomerate slipped another 6.7% in regular trading Monday " and the company's market value has now been chopped b…
ViacomCBS stock dropped nearly 9.1% Tuesday, as investors exited positions on news that the media conglomerate will sell up to $3.45 billion in stock as part of funding streaming content. Th…
ViacomCBS is readying itself to write some bigger checks for content flowing to Paramount Plus and its other streaming properties. The company, which bowed the Paramount Plus streaming servi…
Facebook says it wants to "empower" independent writers and journalists by letting them make money from their work. The social giant on Tuesday confirmed plans to launch a new platform for w…
Netflix's new test to verify subscription credentials of users " and convert password freeloaders into paying customers " could help the global streamer grow its subscriber count, according …
Netflix may be finally getting serious about cracking down on password sharing. The streaming giant in the past week launched a new test that displays a warning to some users that says, "If …
Roku will add a fat stack of ad tech to its streaming platform under a deal to buy Nielsen's Advanced Video Advertising business, putting Roku in position to offer a fully addressable advert…
Ahead of its analyst day presentation, Twitter outlined an ambitious plan to double annual revenue by 2023. Most of that will continue to come from advertising " but the social network also …
Audible is punching up its scripted comedy podcast lineup with two new shows from Broadway Video: "Hit Job," a high-concept workplace comedy starring Keke Palmer and "Saturday Night Live" ca…
Disney Plus had the wind at its back to close out 2020: The streaming service notched 94.9 million customers worldwide as of Jan. 2, 2021, the company announced. That's up more than 8 millio…
Podz, a startup whose app auto-generates highlight clips of podcasts to create what it touts as the industry's first "audio newsfeed," has enlisted a trio of female investors and advisers fo…
Tegna wants a bigger piece of the podcast action: The TV station group announced the acquisition of Locked On Podcast Network, which produces some 160 daily shows for teams across the U.S.'s…
President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris ostensibly were the main attractions on Inauguration Day. But Amanda Gorman stole the show with her reading of uplifting poem "The Hill We Climb," be…
Celebrity-driven online learning platform MasterClass hired Vanna Krantz, most recently chief financial officer of Disney Plus and ESPN Plus, as CFO. At Disney, Krantz built and led the fina…
Ticketmaster agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine to avoid prosecution over charges that it illegally accessed systems of a startup rival to steal proprietary info in an attempt to "cho…
TodayTix, a Broadway-born mobile ticketing start-up, is looking to expand into a bigger global media and transaction enterprise with a capital infusion of $73 million led by private-equity f…