Daily Crunch: Netflix has a rough quarter
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you… Read more »
Category: Media
Storytelling community Wattpad launches Paid Stories and its ad-free subscription globally
Online storytelling community Wattpad, also now a content feeder for streaming services and other media companies, is taking its two consumer-facing paid products global. Wattpad Premium, the ad-free subscription tier,… Read more »
Netflix will roll out a lower-priced subscription plan in India
Netflix said on Wednesday that it will roll out a cheaper subscription plan in India, one of the last great growth markets for global companies, as the streaming giant scrambles… Read more »
Apple reportedly planning to fund creation of exclusive original podcasts
Apple is said to be planning to bankroll the creation of original podcasts from third-parties that it will offer exclusively on its own streaming services, Bloomberg reports. The report says… Read more »
Patreon raises $60M Series D, targets international growth and more customization
Patreon, the San Francisco-based platform that helps over 100,000 online content creators manage paid membership communities for their most dedicated fans, has raised $60 million in Series D funding. Glade… Read more »
Snap turns to search giant Baidu to court Chinese advertisers
Two years have passed since Snap Inc first struck a deal with Baidu that authorized China’s largest search engine to be a reseller of Snapchat ads for companies in Greater… Read more »
Canal+ acquires Nollywood studio ROK from IROKOtv to grow African film
French television company Canal+ has acquired the ROK film studio from VOD company IROKOtv for an undisclosed amount. Founded by Jason Njoku in 2010—and backed by $45 million in VC—IROKOtv… Read more »
Original Content podcast: Netflix thriller ‘Point Blank’ underwhelms
“Point Blank,” a new Netflix original film, stars Frank Grillo and Anthony Mackie as a criminal and a nurse thrown together by circumstances — Abe (played by Grillo) is struck… Read more »
Suspected leaker of Kim Darroch cables identified – report
GCHQ called in to help counter-terrorism police examine email and phone records The suspect behind the leak of confidential memos from Britain’s Washington ambassador has been identified, the Sunday Times… Read more »
Twitch continues to dominate live streaming with its second-biggest quarter to date
Twitch continues to lead rivals including YouTube Live, Facebook Gaming, and Microsoft’s Mixer when it comes to live streaming video. Despite experiencing its first decline in hours watched in Q2… Read more »
Watch Katee Sackhoff deal with space bugs in the trailer for Netflix’s ‘Another Life’
Netflix has a new sci-fi series coming in hot on July 25, and it’s got Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff in the lead role, with Selma Blair and Justin Chatwin supporting…. Read more »
Digging into the Roblox growth strategy
Could Roblox create a new entertainment and communication category, something it calls “social co-experience”? When it was a small startup, few observers would have believed in that future. But after… Read more »
YouTube is giving creators more ways to make money
YouTube is rolling out more ways for its creators to engage fans and generate revenue, the company announced today at the VidCon event in Anaheim, Calif. Last year, YouTube used… Read more »
David Fincher will direct ‘Mank’ biopic for Netflix
David Fincher will be directing his first feature film since 2014, and he’s making it for Netflix . The director of “Seven” and “The Social Network” already helped kick off… Read more »
How Roblox avoided the gaming graveyard and grew into a $2.5B company
There are successful companies that grow fast and garner tons of press. Then there’s Roblox, a company which took at least a decade to hit its stride and has, relative… Read more »
Daily Crunch: HBO Max is coming in 2020
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you… Read more »
YouTube lands on Fire TV and Amazon Prime Video arrives on Chromecast, Android TV
It’s nice when people can come together and work through their differences to make it easier to watch stuff. That’s exactly what happened today, when the long-standing detente between Google… Read more »
Facebook will start taking a cut of fan subscriptions in 2020
Facebook will take a cut of up to 30% on fan subscriptions, beginning on January 1, 2020. The social network is revealing its plans as part of a broader slate… Read more »
Spotify Lite for Android gets an official launch in 36 countries
Spotify’s Lite app is now official. The app has been in beta since last year, and now Spotify is officially releasing it in 36 countries worldwide. The app is designed… Read more »
Original Content podcast: ‘Stranger Things 3’ has more monsters and more nostalgia
While “Stranger Things” is one of Netflix’s biggest hits, we’ve remained immune to some of its charms. On the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, we review the third… Read more »
‘Apollo: Missions to the Moon’ brings the history of space exploration to life
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, National Geographic has plans for an entire Space Week of programming, kicking off Sunday night with the premiere of a new… Read more »
Mozilla readies launch of news subscription service
Way back in February, Mozilla announced an upcoming collaboration with Scroll aimed at finding a way to help fund news outlets. The organization appears ready to finally launch to the… Read more »
UnitedMasters releases iPhone app for DIY cross-service music distribution
Alphabet-backed UnitedMasters, the music label distribution startup and record label alternative that offers artists 100 percent ownership of everything they create, launched its iPhone app today. The iPhone app works… Read more »
HQ Trivia lays off ~20% as it preps subscriptions
HQ Trivia is struggling after a mutiny failed to oust its CEO. Downloads per month are down 92% versus last June according to Sensor Tower. And now four sources confirm… Read more »
Stranger Things 3 is now available on Netflix
July 4 is American Independence Day, but it also marks the arrival of Stranger Things season three — a release that might just be the most-anticipated in the history of… Read more »
Earios is a new podcast network for women creators
It might seem like you’ve now got podcasts covering any and every conceivable topic, but comedy writer and actor Maria Blascucci argued that there’s still “this whole untapped market” —… Read more »
KKR has acquired Corel (including its recent acquisition Parallels), reportedly for $1B+
Only six months after snapping up virtualization specialist Parallels, Canadian software company Corel is itself getting acquired. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed with multiple sources that private equity giant KKR… Read more »
Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ comes to Roblox ahead of its July 4 premiere
Netflix is bringing its hit TV show Stranger Things to Roblox. On Monday, Roblox announced the launch of limited-time, Stanger Things-themed items that will be made available to its over… Read more »
Netflix is officially making a show based on Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’ comics
Netflix has placed an 11-episode series order for “The Sandman,” a show based on the critically-acclaimed comics by writer Neil Gaiman. While there have been Sandman comic-book characters since 1939,… Read more »
PlayStation Vue raises prices by $5 per month, following its recent content deals
Sony’s PlayStation Vue live TV streaming service is joining its rivals with the roll out another price increase. The company announced today it will be upping the price for all… Read more »