Warner Bros. has an infamous history of being bought by other companies and then quickly ending up back on the market after its new owners realize how difficult it is to capitalize on a legacy production studio’s assets. Those challenges are part of what doomed WB’s mergers with AOL and AT&T, who bought the studio […]
After a bidding war that reportedly also involved Paramount, Comcast, Amazon, and Apple, on December 5th, Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, buying the studio, HBO / HBO Max, Warner Games, and more, while leaving cable and sports assets, including CNN, TNT Sports, and the Discovery channels out. There are […]
Every week since Pluribus’ premiere, I’ve presented a handful of burning questions I have about what’s coming next. And most of the time I really want to know the answer. This is a show where mysteries are baked into the premise, with a slow-burn structure that can make it very satisfying when the answers start […]
Netflix is poised to purchase Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming business after being selected as the winner of the bidding war for the media giant. The two companies will now move forward into exclusive deal talks, TheWrap reports, likely including a $5 billion break-up fee in case regulators block the buyout. Netflix reportedly offered $30 […]
This is Lowpass by Janko Roettgers, a newsletter on the ever-evolving intersection of tech and entertainment, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. Get ready for a lot more video content on Spotify. Sometime later this month, the service will start incorporating music videos into its app, and give US-based subscribers the ability […]
After last year’s flop, Spotify Wrapped engagement is up 19% and shares were up 41%, the company says.
Spotify may have popularized the Wrapped user recap trend, but more companies are jumping on that bandwagon every year. From rival music streaming providers like Apple, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer, to completely unrelated services across tech, gaming, and other industries, a huge range of companies are using fun visuals, stats, and personalization features to show […]
Amazon says you can describe the scene to Alexa by mentioning details like the actor or character’s name, or a memorable quote.
Amazon has launched a new AI-powered feature for Fire TV that lets you jump to specific moments of a movie by describing the scene to Alexa Plus. The feature, which was previously announced during Amazon’s hardware event in September, works with Prime Video and builds on the X-Ray feature that provides information about the content […]
It’s time for year-end lists, annual roundups, and, of course, Spotify Wrapped. The usual suspects are here, like your most listened to song, your total time listened, and your favorite artist. You also get your 2025 Wrapped playlist, which now shows how many times you listened to each of your top 100 tracks this year. […]