Streaming

The streaming music service has launched a new Parental Guide detailing its tools for managing your kids’ listening habits as well as its efforts to keep the platform safe.

Spotify’s actual parental controls are limited to filtering out explicit content and controlling the playback of certain artists. For a fully curated experience, you’ll need to spring for Spotify Kids, which is part of the Premium Family package.

As CEO David Zaslav looks for ways to improve WBD’s financial situation, sources tell the Financial Times that he’s considering separating WBD’s streaming and movie business from its ailing legacy TV networks — a move that would sequester the new company from a mountain of debt.

In Netflix’s earnings report today, the streamer says bundling with other services like Disney Plus and Max “limits the benefit” to Netflix:

We haven’t bundled Netflix solely with other streamers like Disney+ or Max because Netflix already operates as a go-to destination for entertainment... This has driven industry leading penetration, engagement and retention for us, which limits the benefit to Netflix of bundling directly with other streamers.

When asked about bundling with competitors on Decoder in June, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said “never say never.”

While Apple TV Plus has previously dabbled in the movie licensing game to supplement its lineup of original projects, Bloomberg reports that talks are underway with other studios that could lead to the streamer looking a little differ (and perhaps more like Netflix) in the near future.

Though it seemed like the Russo brothers were ready to put the Marvel Cinematic Universe behind them, the duo are in early talks to direct both Avengers: Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars according to The Hollywood Reporter.

There will be plenty of traditional television series like Shōgun and The Bear in the running at the 76th Emmys in September. But given how many Netflix, HBO, Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, and Amazon projects were just nominated for awards, this year’s competition seems like it could easily go to the streamers.

The Disney CEO, along with Willow Bay, has purchased a controlling stake in NWSL club Angel City FC at a value of $250 million, which the team says makes it “the most valuable women’s sports team in the world.” (The club is no stranger to celebrity owners, with founders like Alexis Ohanian and Natalie Portman.) Now we sit and wait for the inevitable docuseries on Disney Plus.

Netflix announced it’s adding a slew of AMC shows on August 19th. They include Preacher, The Terror, Into The Badlands, and the first season of the extremely good Interview With The Vampire. These shows used to be sequestered on AMC Plus, requiring yet another subscription fee to watch. But their Netflix arrival shows cross-platform cooperation ain’t just for Xbox and PlayStation anymore.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney is trying to make its streaming platforms work and feel more like Netflix. For example:

New features in the works at Disney include a more-personalized algorithm to power content recommendations, customized promotional art for new shows and movies based on subscriber’s tastes and usage history, and emails sent to viewers who stop watching in the middle of a series reminding them to finish, according to people familiar with the matter.

There’s lots more in the full story.

That’s a new limited series coming to Netflix from Haley Z. Boston and Upside Down Pictures (the production company launched by Stranger Things co-creators Matt and Ross Duffer).

“According to the logline, the series will follow a bride and groom in the week leading up to their ill-fated wedding,” says Netflix. “And obviously, it’s not a spoiler to share that not all goes right with the nuptials.”

Though it’s smaller than previous waves, Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. Discovery is laying off another round of employees across its “production, business affairs and finance” arms as it continues to find ways to cut its spending.

Though there isn’t all that much new to see in Deadpool & Wolverine’s latest trailer, it features our best look yet at the film’s live-action takes on what seems to be the Deadpool Kid (a cowboy variant) and Lady Deadpool (a woman named Wanda with a sick-ass ponytail.)

We all knew the Stranger Things kids would look a bit older for the show’s fifth and final season, but seeing them all back in Hawkins High in this new behind the scenes video really emphasizes how the show’s last chapter can’t get here fast enough.

As explained by Front Office Sports, the NBA is waiting to see if TNT parent Warner Bros. Discovery will try to match any part of the reported $76 billion in offers from NBC, ESPN, and Amazon.

WBD’s (not-HBO) Max could try to match Prime Video, but with a smaller audience than Amazon’s service, matching might not be enough.

If you’re a fan of Hallmark’s Christmas movies, that is: the company is launching a streaming service, Hallmark Plus, in mid-September, Deadline reports.

The service, which will cost $80 per year, will feature shows like Finding Mr. Christmas, a reality show where 10 men will compete to earn a role in a 2024 Hallmark holiday movie.

There was some hope that The Umbrella Academy might switch up its formula and give the Hargreeves siblings a new kind of adventure for the show’s fourth and final season (out August 8th.)

But Netflix’s new trailer kinda makes it seem like they’ll be doing what they always do — averting an apocalypse of their own making.

Thanks to Hulu’s Futurama renewal last year, we’ll be seeing more of Fry, Leela, and Bender until at least 2026. And for the show’s upcoming 12th season (due out July 29th), we’ll apparently see the Planet Express crew meet “A.I. friends (and enemies” as well as learn the “true 5 million-year-old story behind the consciousness-altering substance known as coffee.”

A “special committee” of Paramount’s board approved a rumored merger with Skydance Media, which will be announced Monday, according to Bloomberg. The news could signal the end of the dramatic Paramount merger saga that’s been going on for months.

Time to pop the champagne? Perhaps. At least put it on ice. Maybe hold the glasses for a bit, though. We’ve been here before.

Weeks after negotiations between Skydance and Paramount’s parent company, National Amusements, ended without a deal, the New York Times reports not only have they restarted, but “the two sides have reached a preliminary deal to create a new Hollywood giant.”

This follows a report from CNBC that Warner Bros. Discovery or Comcast could also be interested and Bloomberg saying Paramount might sell BET for $1.6 billion.

Updated: Added new reporting of a preliminary deal.