Disney Reorgs Streaming Business, Names Joe Earley President of Hulu

previously snagged the rights to the next film by Nikyata Jusu, the director of “Nanny” whose film won the Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance. “Honk for Jesus” is a comedy and satire filmed partially as a faux-documentary, and it follows Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Brown) and his wife, First Lady Trinitie Childs (Hall), as the heads of a Southern Baptist mega church as they try and bounce back from a scandal that’s forced them to shut their doors and led their congregation to leave in a mass exodus. The film picks up in the aftermath as the Childs, still insanely wealthy, try and host an Easter service and drum up attention for the community with a feeble attempt telling passers by on the highway to “Honk for Jesus.” The movie satirizes the culture of for-profit religion and the corruption, back biting and ego that goes on behind the scenes.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorAs Spotify awkwardly attempts to defend its stance on Joe Rogan — first over the Covid-19 misinformation on his show, and then over his frequent use of the N-word on that same show — the controversies have revived musicians’ longest-standing problem with the platform: The royalty rates it and other streaming platforms pay, which most musicians and many rights-holders feel are far too low.This is particularly true in publishing: In January of 2018 the Copyright Royalty Board ruled to increase songwriter rates for interactive streaming by nearly 50% over the following five years, to 15.1%. However, in March of 2019, Spotify, Google, Amazon and Pandora then appealed to keep the previous rate of 10.5% — and are gearing up to argue for that rate for the next five-year period (2023-2027) as well.

Daniel Ek said exclusive deals like one with Joe Rogan are critical to the company’s business, that he sometimes finds the podcast offensive, but that he doesn’t consider Spotify a “publisher” in terms of bearing responsibility for content it carries.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSpotify’s staff was up in arms about the company and co-founder/CEO Daniel Ek’s defense of Joe Rogan in a town hall meeting Wednesday that followed its middling quarterly report and subsequent stock drop, according to a report in the Verge that cites a leaked audio recording of the meeting.In Ek’s 15-minute speech, he positioned the company as both a platform and publisher, saying that “There are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive,” he said, but defended the company’s relationship with the controversial podcaster by stating, “If we want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with. Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad.” Reps for Spotify did not immediately respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.

Dolly Parton, Pat Benatar, Dionne Warwick, Judas Priest, Beck and Duran Duran are among this year’s nominees for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Clevaland-based Hall announced today.

Today marks the start of Black History Month, with the broadcast and cable networks and streamers planning a slew of TV series, movies, news programming, documentaries, specials and more to roll out over the course of February to celebrate, educate and entertain.

Fox Entertainment and Hulu have set a comprehensive output deal enabling the Disney-owned service to stream all out-of-season episodes of many Fox series, including all of the network’s unscripted fare.

Satellite ratio and podcasting streamer SiriusXM returned to profit in the fourth quarter, posting net income of 8 cents a share, compared with a loss of 16 cents in the year-earlier period.

Tuesday marks the start of Black History Month, with the broadcast and cable networks and streamers planning a slew of TV series, movies, news programming, documentaries, specials and more to roll out over the course of February to celebrate, educate and entertain.

Big Breakfast, the Propagate-owned production company behind series including truTV’s Adam Ruins Everything, has set a new top table.

IFC Films and Shudder have taken North American rights to Andrew Semans’ psychological thriller Resurrection starring Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, Grace Kaufman and Michael Esper.

NBC’s Celebrating Betty White: America’s Golden Girl will honor the life of the legendary actress with the help of President Joe Biden and other celebrity guests including Drew Barrymore, Cher, Anthony Mackie, and Tracy Morgan, among others. The special will air on Jan. 31 at 10 p.m.

EXCLUSIVE: Landmark Theatres owner/chairman Charles S. Cohen has tapped veteran film exhibition executive Kevin Holloway to be President of Landmark Theatres. Holloway, most recently an exec with Alamo Drafthouse, will be based in Landmark’s West Hollywood headquarters. He will be replacing Paul Serwitz, who is leaving the company. Hollaway starts Monday.

Black History Month is a time to celebrate important Black figures, moments that pushed the movement forward, and causes that support and amplify Black voices. And while there’s no shortage of movies or TV shows that depict the struggle — slavery, the Jim Crow South and other traumas the African American community has gone through — it's important to shine a light on the many stories of Black joy that celebrate family, friendships, love and the complexity of life.There's certainly a number of remarkable films, documentaries and series that explore all of that and more — so consider this a sampling of a few of the very best that are available and ready to stream now.From classic rom-coms like to beloved comedies like, dramedies like  (all hail queen Issa Rae) and cultural exploration shows like, ET is celebrating Black History Month with films and television shows that beautifully showcase Black life, love and greatness. Starring Will Smith in a critically acclaimed performance, follows the journey of an instrumental father as he raises and trains two of the world's gifted athletes: Venus and Serena Williams.This hilarious comedy follows four longtime best friends, aka the Flossy Posse, who take a trip to New Orleans for the Essence Music Festival.

Two people were left needing hospital treatment today after an incident occurred at Cheetham Hill in Manchester.

Even right down to the title this religious comedy debuting appropriately today on a Sunday  in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival can’t seem to decide what it wants to be. Is it Honk For Jesus.? Or is it Save Our Soul.? OR is it as the credits say both? It is a indication of the main problem with this self-styled satire on scandal-ridden Southern Baptist megachurches. Is it supposed to be a comedy? Or is it aiming to be something deeper and more dramatic?  Or is it both?  Even for the best of satirists trying to keep an even tone without watching the whole souffle fall is a slippery slope, one that writer/director Adamma Ebo hasn’t quite solved, but not for lack of trying. As many have discovered, drama is easy, comedy is hard.

Jessica Kiang There are very few actors with Rebecca Hall’s facility for making difficult, even contradictory characters seem plausible. So it’s quite something to say that even her knack for the dignified and intelligent portrayal of mental and behavioral instability meets its Waterloo with Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” a psychological thriller that starts off promisingly before swerving into serious (and sadly self-serious) derangement.

Manchester United loanee Di'Shon Bernard has had fans talking after his man of the match performance for Hull City against Blackburn Rovers.

Disney has unveiled Joe Earley as its President of Hulu and created an international content creation hub led by Chairman Rebecca Campbell, as it supports the ongoing expansion of its Walt Disney direct-to-consumer business globally.