Google Is Shutting Down Stadia Games Service After It Failed to ‘Gain Traction’

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After two straight quarters of subscriber losses, Netflix returned to growth in the third quarter of 2022 — and told investors it’s expecting a strong Q4 to finish the year, even though it doesn’t expect big gains right away from the launch of its cheaper, ad-supported plans. The streaming giant reported 2.41 million net new paid subscribers in Q3, including a gain of 100,000 in the U.S./Canada region, to stand at 223.1 million worldwide as of the end of September. That handily topped Netflix’s previous forecast of a 1 million pickup for the period. For Q4, Netflix expects to gain 4.5 million new streaming customers, compared with 8.3 million in the year-earlier quarter. Netflix Basic With Ads is slated to launch in the U.S. on Nov. 3 and priced at $6.99 per month — three dollars less than the regular Basic plan. Similar ad tiers are also coming next month to 11 other countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Spain and the U.K.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In his first leading feature role, Drew Ray Tanner (“Riverdale”) will star in “Boot Camp,” a film adaptation of the hugely popular Wattpad story by Gina Musa of the same name. The romantic comedy tells the body-empowerment story of notoriously unathletic Whitney Carmichael, played by Rachel Boudwin, who begins to fall for her off-limits personal trainer, Axel (Tanner), after signing up for an intense summer boot camp to reinvent herself. A deepening connection inspires her to let go of the others’ expectations and, instead, find the strength to embrace her true self. Wattpad Webtoon Studios announced that production has wrapped on “Boot Camp” after filming began in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, earlier this month. The movie does not yet have distribution deals. “Boot Camp,” which currently has over 26 million reads on Wattpad, was developed with Great Pacific Media, December Films, Junction Hammer Productions and Channel Zero Studios.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor G4 is shutting down — again. Comcast Spectacor, the cable and entertainment giant’s sports and esports division, told G4 TV employees Sunday that the gaming network was shutting down effective immediately. The decision has resulted in 45 staff members of G4 TV losing their jobs. In a memo, obtained by Variety, Comcast Spectacor chairman and CEO Dave Scott cited low viewership and said the network had not achieved “sustainable financial results.” “Over the past several months, we worked hard to generate that interest in G4, but viewership is low and the network has not achieved sustainable financial results,” Scott wrote. “This is certainly not what we hoped for, and, as a result, we have made the very difficult decision to discontinue G4’s operations, effective immediately.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Right-wing conspiracy figure Alex Jones’ company has already filed for bankruptcy protection, and it’s not clear how much of the staggering $965 million verdict reached Tuesday he’ll actually wind up paying to the 15 plaintiffs in the defamation case about his lies about the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. Jones plans to appeal the massive monetary damages that a Connecticut jury ordered him to pay, which comes after a judgment against him in August awarding $49.3 million to the family of a Sandy Hook victim in a separate case in Texas. But legal experts say Jones, founder of Infowars — which has been banned by all major internet services — is almost certainly ruined financially.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix has taken peak TV to a new peak. In a data point sure to fuel more quantity-versus-quality debate, Netflix broke its own record for number of original episodes released in a single quarter — with 1,026 in the third quarter of 2022, according to a tally by Wall Street firm MoffettNathanson. That’s more than five times any other streaming rival: Amazon Prime Video and Hulu released 223 and 194 episodes, respectively, and Disney+ debuted 140 original episodes, per the report. HBO Max, now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, released 114 episodes in the third quarter — significantly fewer episodes than usual and comprising the lightest slate for the service since Q2 2020, the second quarter after launch. WBD has been paring back HBO Max’s content slate in recent months as it looks to cut costs.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix fans continue to flock to binge-watch “Dahmer,” the unsettling drama series starring Evan Peters as the infamous killer cannibal, in record numbers. Ryan Murphy’s “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” topped Netflix’s English TV Top 10 list for the third week in a row, with 205.33 million hours viewed for the week of Oct. 3-9. That means the limited series is now Netflix’s second most popular English-language series of all time in its initial release, with 701.37 million hours watched, behind only “Stranger Things 4,” which was watched 1.35 billion hours in its first 28 days. “Dahmer” has now garnered more watch-time than seasons 1 and 2 of Shonda Rhimes’ “Bridgerton” in their first four weeks on the service.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube’s popular “Tab Time” preschool series is coming back for Season 2, starring “America’s mom” Tabitha Brown — alongside celebrity guests including Liza Koshy, Terry Crews and Tamron Hall. The hybrid live-action/animated series, one of YouTube’s marquee kids originals, is hosted by Brown, an actor, vegan foodie, author and mother. Brown, or “Ms. Tab” as the kids call her, brings her skills as a cook, storyteller, mom, and motivational leader to teach children how to live their best life. YouTube’s renewal of the show for Season 2, from from Kids at Play and Scale Productions, was announced earlier this year. While YouTube has largely scrapped scripted original productions, it has maintained a slate of kids and family originals, select documentaries and programming through the YouTube Black Voices fund.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tito Puente, the influential Nuyroican musician and entertainer, is being honored in a new animated Google Doodle. The animated doodle highlighting Puente’s musical career, illustrated by New York-based Puerto Rican artist Carlos Aponte, will be visible on the main page of the search engine throughout Tuesday (Oct. 11). The doodle coincides with U.S. Hispanic Heritage Month and also comes on the one-year anniversary of the unveiling of the Tito Puente Monument in New York City’s East Harlem. Puente was a percussionist, composer, songwriter, recording artist and bandleader whose career spanned five decades. Puente has been called “El Rey de los Timbales” and “The King of Latin music,” having recorded some 118 albums and being credited on dozens more — more than any other timbales bandleader to date.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify has appointed new managing directors for its Gimlet and Parcast podcast studios — Nicole Beemsterboer and Liliana Kim, respectively — coming amid the company’s cancellation of 11 original podcasts from the two divisions. Spotify elevated Beemsterboer (above left), a former longtime NPR exec who joined Spotify this year, to the role of Gimlet’s managing director. She takes over for Lydia Polgreen, who left Spotify this spring to rejoin the New York Times as an opinion columnist. Prior to joining as Gimlet’s head of news and knowledge in March, Beemsterboer spent more than 15 years at NPR as a producer where she led the creation and reorganization of the public media org’s first longform podcast unit, the Enterprise Storytelling Unit. At NPR, Beemsterboer worked on shows including “Embedded,” “Invisibilia” and “White Lies.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor UDPATED: A Delaware judge granted mega-billionaire Elon Musk’s motion to halt Twitter’s upcoming trial — seeking to compel him to pay what he promised for the company — until Oct. 28 in order to allow the parties to close on the $44 billion deal. Musk, after trying for three months to exit his deal to buy Twitter, in the last few days has grown frustrated that Twitter wasn’t calling off its lawsuit. Lawyers representing Musk, in a filing Thursday with the Delaware Court of Chancery, requested that the trial, slated to commence Oct. 17, be suspended while he works out a deal to finalize the required debt financing to swing the acquisition. Musk expects that to happen by Oct. 28, per the court filing.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Google is showering Velma with confetti and gay-pride flags after the longtime member of the “Scooby-Doo” crew has officially been confirmed as a lesbian. In a new Easter egg that appeared Wednesday, Google Search queries for “Velma,” “Velma Scooby-Doo” “Velma Dinkley” (the character’s full name) and even “Dinkley” yield a regular search-results page — along with a cascade of multicolored confetti and various LGBTQ flags. The Google Search page then pops up two buttons at the bottom of the page: one to replay the animation, and another to share the search result via Facebook, Twitter or email (along with a trio of gay pride flag icons).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor J Eatedali has exited Twitch to join UTA as an executive in the company’s gaming and esports department. Prior to joining UTA, Eatedali served as the co-head of creator acquisitions, retention and programs at Amazon-owned Twitch (alongside Toby Berlin), where he and the team were responsible for contract negotiations for the livestreaming platform’s top creators. Eatedali will be based in UTA’s Los Angeles headquarters and will report to Damon Lau, head of gaming and esports at the global talent, entertainment and sports company. In the position, Eatedali will lead the team’s gaming advisory business by helping existing UTA brand clients including Apple’s Beats by Dre and L’Oreal “navigate the rapidly evolving gaming landscape,” according to the company. He also will be tasked with bringing on new clients, including gaming and non-gaming-endemic brands.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor More than two years after Kim Kardashian inked an exclusive deal with Spotify for a podcast series focused on criminal-justice reform, the series is finally out. On Monday, Spotify released the first two episodes of original podcast “Kim Kardashian’s The System: The Case of Kevin Keith,” available worldwide. Following the series premiere, new episodes will be released each Monday thereafter. The eight-episode podcast is narrated by Kardashian alongside veteran true-crime producer Lori Rothschild Ansaldi, produced by Spotify and Tenderfoot TV. It follows the story of Keith, an Ohio man convicted of triple homicide who — for nearly three decades — has been working alongside his family to prove he was wrongly accused.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ari Emanuel, the legendary Hollywood agent who is CEO of Endeavor, reportedly got involved in the dispute between Twitter and Elon Musk over Musk’s attempt to nix his takeover of the company — but it’s not exactly clear why. Within the “past few weeks,” Emanuel had reached out to Twitter board member Egon Durban to suggest the social network work with Musk to “find a solution” to their legal fight ahead of a trial scheduled to commence Oct. 17 in Delaware Chancery Court, according to a report by Bloomberg Law citing anonymous sources. Emanuel has ties to both Durban and Musk. Durban, co-CEO of tech investment firm Silver Lake, currently sits on Endeavor’s board. Musk had been on Endeavor’s board of directors before resigning in March 2022.

After a three-year struggle, Google has decided to wind down the operations of Stadia, its video game streaming service.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The three remaining members of the Try Guys need time to process the events that led the popular YouTube comedy troupe to kick out their friend and co-founder Ned Fulmer, after he confessed to having a workplace extramarital affair. The Try Guys trio — former BuzzFeed staffers Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld and Eugene Lee Yang — said they will take a one-week break from their regular podcast release to “formulate our thoughts” given the announcement Tuesday that Fulmer is no longer part of the group. The next episode of the TryPod is slated for next Thursday, Oct. 6. “The TryPod will be taking a week off, and returning next week on Oct 6. We wanted to take some time to formulate our thoughts before recording the episode,” the group tweeted late Wednesday. “Thanks for being patient.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Pornhub, the embattled adult-content site, lashed out at the decision by Instagram to permanently ban its account on the social network, citing Instagram’s practice of allowing celebrities like Kim Kardashian to post photos with nudity as an example of a double standard. In a letter addressed to senior execs at Meta, Instagram’s parent company, Pornhub — along with adult-industry trade group Free Speech Coalition, the Adult Performance Artists Guild and more than 60 adult performers — implored Instagram to “end all discrimination toward those involved in the adult industry” and to “immediately reinstate all accounts, including Pornhub, that have not violated any of Instagram’s Terms of Services.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Lionsgate is now looking at spinning off its studio business — rather than kicking out the Starz premium network and streaming business. The company, in an SEC filing Wednesday, said that “Despite the volatile market environment” Lionsgate remains “on a path to separating our Starz and studio businesses.” However, Lionsgate is increasingly focused on divesting the studio side of the house. “As negotiations progress, we have increased our focus on the possibility of spinning our studio business, creating a number of financial and strategic benefits,” the company said in an SEC filing Wednesday. “In that regard, we are continuing productive negotiations with prospective strategic and financial partners on both sides of our business.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s not a dream: The third installment of Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman” audio drama on Audible is now available. All 19 episodes of “The Sandman: Act III,” with James McAvoy again lending his voice to the title role, are now available exclusively on Audible. It’s a surprise release for the third seasons of the popular series that brings to aural life the world of Gaiman’s best-selling fantasy graphic novels published by DC. The third installment is again adapted and directed by co-executive producer Dirk Maggs and narrated by Gaiman, who also returns as creative director and co-executive producer. “The Sandman: Act III” also features an original score from BAFTA-winning composer James Hannigan.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor OnlyFans has become synonymous with sexually explicit content and providing a way for adult creators to earn money online. Now the social-media platform wants to tickle some funny bones, as well. OnlyFans announced the launch of its Creative Fund: Comedy Edition, which will let creators in the U.K. and Ireland compete for the chance to win a total of £100,000 — more than $100,000 at current exchange rates — and appear in a reality-competition series on OFTV, its non-pornographic streaming service. While continuing to support adult performers, London-based OnlyFans stepped up efforts to recruit mainstream celebrities to its platform and expand into non-sexual genres. It recently ordered a reality show, slated to stream on OFTV, from British reality TV stars Chloe, Demi and Frankie Sims after their exit from “The Only Way Is Essex.”