Gaming Giants Like Activision Blizzard, Riot Bet on Esports’ TV Prospects

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterReese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine has acquired lifestyle brand The Home Edit, the company announced on Wednesday.Founded by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, The Home Edit offers “full service organizing” in Washington, D.C., Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, NYC, Nashville, Orange County, Salt Lake City and San Francisco, as well as “travel and DIY services” globally. Shearer and Teplin are the authors of New York Times bestseller “The Home Edit Life” and the creators of multiple product lines, including a recently announced exclusive Walmart collection.Shearer and Teplin are also the stars of Netflix’s Emmy-nominated “Get Organized with the Home Edit,” which is produced by Hello Sunshine and will debut its second season this year.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterSPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “Red vs. Blue,” Monday’s episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star.”Lisa Edelstein is exiting “9-1-1: Lone Star” after playing Gwyneth Morgan, the wife of Rob Lowe’s Chief Owen Strand and the mother of Ronen Rubinstein’s T.K. Strand, for two seasons on the Fox drama, Variety has learned exclusively.Edelstein’s departure was hinted at in the final moments of Monday’s episode of “Lone Star,” when T.K.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard regarding the recent acquisition occurred days after the report on CEO Bobby Kotick.An SEC filing was published on Friday (February 18) stating that Kotick and Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer entered talks about the acquisition on November 19, just three days after a report alleged that Kotick had known about Activision Blizzard’s misconduct for years.In September of last year, it was announced that Activision Blizzard was cooperating with an SEC investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment at the company, which this filing refers to.Part of the SEC filing reads: “On November 19, 2021, in the course of a conversation on a different topic between Mr. Spencer and Mr.

Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, has donated over $600,000 (£450,000) to causes that promote the election of Republican candidates.A report conducted by CNBC has found two private companies with links to Kotick which have made a number of large donations to Republican causes, with the aim to elect those candidates into office. The first company is Norgate LLC which made donations of $500,000 (£370,000) to the Senate Leadership Fund in 2020. The fund was aimed at supporting Republican candidate Mitch McConnell.Norgate LLC is linked to Kotick by the addresses it is registered under in California.

The trailer for the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season 2 reunion is here!

Activision Blizzard, after the company tried to argue against it.On February 15, judge Timothy Patrick Dillon ruled that temporary workers could be included in the Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s lawsuit against Activision Blizzard.The company had previously tried to have the suit dismissed – or its scope narrowed down – by saying that California had wrongly included this group of employees.“The Court finds that [Department of Fair Employment and Housing] did not expand the scope of this lawsuit by amending the complaint to add the phrase “contingent and temporary workers,” reads a court document shared by reporter Stephen Totilo.Activision scandal news: Yesterday, in a tentative ruling, a judge in California overruled Activision's argument that the state wrongly added temp workers to its big discrimination suit against the company.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Euphoria” hit another series high on Sunday, drawing 5.1 million viewers across multiple platforms, a 20% increase from last week and up 45% from the season average. That number was reached despite the HBO drama airing opposite Super Bowl LVI on NBC.As Variety previously exclusively reported, “Euphoria’s” Season 2 per-episode-viewership average is up nearly 100% from its first season.“Euphoria” Season 2 takes place amidst the intertwining lives in the town of East Highland, where 17-year-old Rue (Zendaya) must find hope while balancing the pressures of love, loss, and addiction.The series stars Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Nika King, Eric Dane, Angus Cloud, Jacob Elordi, Algee Smith, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie, Barbie Ferreira, Maude Apatow, Javon Walton, Dominic Fike, Storm Reid and Austin Abrams.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Los Espookys” co-creator Julio Torres has signed a two-year first-look deal with HBO and HBO Max.Torres has two new projects already in development under the pact, “Little Films” (working title) and “Lucky,” the former of which he’s set to star in and is produced by Emma Stone.In “Little Films,” which has a production commitment at HBO, the former “Saturday Night Live” writer stars as himself. The potential show follows this version of Torres as he tells the tale of when he lost a golden oyster.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterFormer NBC drama development exec Lisa Roos has been named head of television at Keshet Studios, the U.S.-based production arm of Keshet International.In her new role, Roos will focus on developing original IP to bolster Keshet Studios’ ambitious lineup of limited and returning series. She will report to Keshet Studios president Peter Traugott.Roos comes to Keshet from NBC, where she was most recently senior vice president of drama development.

Microsoft purchase of Activision Blizzard is causing concern for smaller game developersLast month it was announced that Microsoft was acquiring Activision Blizzard for around £50billion, followed by news at the end of January that Sony would buy Bungie for £2.6billion.Now multiple indie developers have spoken to the BBC about their concerns with the Microsoft acquisition, and what it could mean for them.Director at Kitfox Games Tanya Short – the developer of Boyfriend Dungeon – said: “This Activision acquisition strikes fear in us because it makes it so much more obvious – maybe they could dominate the rest of the year and then what do we do?”“Conceivably, indie games outside of these services might lose engagement as subscribers focus most of their attention on games they can access for free within the service,” adds Yura Zhdanovich, founder and director at Sad Cat Studios.The Federal Trade Commission is set to investigate the deal and whether or not it would harm the competition. FTC Chair Lina Khan is an advocate for a more assertive approach when handling deals.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC says it has “resolved” a “third-party error” that was inhibiting Leslie Jones’ social media commentary on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.“This was the result of a third-party error, and the situation has been resolved,” an NBC spokesperson told Variety on Tuesday. “She is free to do her social media posts as she has done in the past. She is a super fan of the Olympics, and we are super fans of her.”Some of the comedian’s posts were blocked because of restrictions on sharing recorded video on social media, with NBC’s rights to the Olympics — which cost them $7.75 billion through 2032 — being very strictly observed.Jones, an Olympics live-tweeter since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and a guest of NBC’s in Rio and at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, said in a statement tweeted Monday that she is “starting to feel like this should be my last Olympics I live-tweet.” “I know I know, another celebrity bitching.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBC Sports says 16 million viewers tuned in to watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, an all-time low for Olympic ceremonies on linear television.That’s around 43% down compared to the 28.3 million viewers that watched the PyeongChang Winter Olympics opening ceremony in February 2018.Friday’s torch-lighting in Beijing aired live on NBC and the streaming service Peacock beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET yesterday morning and was replayed again in primetime.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that he doesn’t believe its acquisition of Activision Blizzard should be blocked by the US Federal Trade Commission.The deal, worth around £50billion, was announced on January 18 but earlier this week it was announced that the US Federal Trade Commission would be conducting an antitrust investigation after fears the acquisition would harm competition.Talking to the Financial Times, Nadella said that the deal would only place Microsoft as the third largest player in the video games industry behind Sony and Tencent. He also believes the fragmentation of the market would prevent it from ever gaining a monopoly.“At the end of the day, all the analysis here has to be done through a lens of what’s the category we’re talking about, and what about the market structure?” said Nadella.“Even post-this acquisition, we will be number three with a low teens (market) share, where even the highest player is also in the teens (for market) share.

Microsoft is to be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over their proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.News broke last month that Call of Duty and Overwatch developers Activision Blizzard were being acquired by Microsoft. But the deal isn’t actually set in stone yet, and now according to Bloomberg, the deal will see the FTC conduct an antitrust investigation over the Activision Blizzard acquisition.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterThe Nasdaq Composite ended the trading day Monday down 9.49% from where it started at the beginning of January, marking its worst month since March 2020 — the start of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.The Nasdaq opened Jan. 3, the first trading day of 2022, at 15,732.50.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterNBCUniversal is about to begin broadcasting the second half of a rare Olympics doubleheader — and fatigue has set in.The Winter Games in Beijing begin Feb. 4, just six months after the close of the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games that were postponed from 2020 because of the pandemic.