NBCUniversal to Launch Nearly 50 Free Streaming Channels for ‘SNL,’ ‘Real Housewives,’ ‘Kardashians’ and More

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor For the first time since Peacock debuted in 2020, NBCUniversal is hiking the monthly prices on the streaming service. Starting at midnight ET Monday evening, NBCU will notify existing Peacock customers that their rates will be increasing as of next month. Effective Aug. 17, for existing users on their next billing cycle and immediately for new customers, the price of Peacock Premium (with ads) will increase by $1, to $5.99 per month, and Peacock Premium Plus (which is mostly commercial-free) will rise $2, to $11.99 per month. In the three years since Peacock’s launch, the platform has added more than 80,000 hours of content, and will reach nearly 100,000 hours total over the coming year, according to NBCU. That includes exclusive pay-1 window movies from Universal Filmed Entertainment Group; NBC and Bravo episodes next-day; streaming channels from Hallmark and Reelz; and daily mornings news from CNBC and MSNBC.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Anjali Sud is taking over as CEO of Tubi, Fox Corp.’s free, ad-supported streaming TV service, after she stepped down as chief exec of video-hosting platform Vimeo. Sud will officially start as Tubi’s CEO on Sept. 1, 2023, succeeding founder Farhad Massoudi. Sud reports to Paul Cheesbrough, CEO of Tubi Media Group, which Fox formed this spring to house its digital businesses including Tubi (acquired in 2020) and Blockchain Creative Labs. Sud spent nine years at New York-based Vimeo, originally serving as VP of global marketing before assuming oversight of the creator business unit and getting promoted to CEO in 2017. Under Sud, Vimeo has undertaken employee layoffs and made other cost-cutting moves to improve its financial profile.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The FTC is looking into whether OpenAI, the developer of the artificial-intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, “engaged in unfair or deceptive privacy or data security practices or engaged in unfair or deceptive practices relating to risks of harm to consumers, including reputational harm,” according to a letter the regulatory body sent to the company. The agency’s probe into OpenAI was first reported by the Washington Post, which shared a redacted copy of the letter to the company (at this link). The time period for the FTC’s information requests to San Francisco-based OpenAI date from June 1, 2020, “until the date of full and complete compliance” with the investigation, which is technically called a “civil investigative demand” (CID).

Trying to keep up with this week’s new music? Every Friday, we collect new albums available on streaming services on one page.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk’s Twitter has been accused of failing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in severance to laid-off workers. Now, under a new ad-revenue sharing program, the company just doled out millions to high-profile Twitter users, including controversial right-wing figure Andrew Tate and left-leaning twin brothers Ed and Brian Krassenstein. Twitter announced the ad-revenue sharing program for creators, initially on an invitation-only basis, on Thursday. The company said eligible creators will be paid a share of ad revenue starting in the replies to their posts. “This is part of our effort to help people earn a living directly on Twitter,” the company said in a blog post about the program.

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The Real Housewives is a cultural phenomenon.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku is getting its first voice-activated game: a version of enduring TV hit “Jeopardy!” The game was developed by Volley, a creator of voice-enabled AI games, for the Roku platform. To play the “Jeopardy!” game on Roku, players respond to clues with their voice — just like the actual contestants on the game show. It’s available in single-player mode in which you compete against answers submitted by other real players that have been prerecorded. A leaderboard at the end of each session shows how you stack up against other players. “Jeopardy!” is available now on all Roku devices; a version of the game also is available for Amazon Alexa. Users will be able to play for one week for free; after that, they must buy a $9.99/month subscription to the Volley app on Roku. Initially, “Jeopardy!” is the only game in the Volley app on Roku; the company says it has several additional titles in development but declined to name them.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The majority of Americans — about 59% — say TikTok a threat to the national security of the United States, according to a recent survey of U.S. adults. The findings from Pew Research Center’s survey of U.S. adults come as TikTok, the popular short-form video app owned by Chinese internet conglomerate ByteDance, continues to be targeted by American lawmakers wary over its ties to China and how TikTok handles user data. Just 17% of Americans say the platform is not a threat to national security, while 23% say they are unsure, per the Pew survey. Opinions about the national security threat posed by TikTok differ by political affiliation and age. Roughly 70% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say TikTok is either a minor or major threat to national security in the U.S., compared with 53% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. The perception of TikTok as a threat also varies by age: Just 13% of adults 18-29 say TikTok is a “major” threat; that rises to 24% among those 30-49, 35% among those 50-64; and 46% among Americans 65 and older.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Not a joke: Comedian and author Sarah Silverman is one of the lead plaintiffs in a pair of lawsuits against Meta and OpenAI accusing the tech companies of illegally using copyrighted works to train their artificial-intelligence systems. The books cited in the lawsuits include Silverman’s 2010 best­selling memoir “The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee.” The federal lawsuits, filed Friday, July 7, allege that OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s LLaMA both ingested text from “The Bedwetter” and other works to train their large language models (LLMs) — without the consent of (or compensation to) authors such as Silverman.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kevin Hart and his entertainment company Hartbeat are bringing back BET’s “Comic View” stand-up comedy franchise after a nine-year hiatus as part of a four-day weekend event in Las Vegas celebrating his 44th birthday. The actor, comedian, producer and entrepreneur’s Hartbeat is teaming with Paramount Global’s BET to relaunch “Comic View” for Hartbeat Weekend, taking place in Las Vegas from July 6-9 and timed for Hart’s birthday (July 6). Hosted by Mike Epps, the all-new episodes of “Comic View” will be recorded on location in front of a live audience throughout the four-day event with performances by Tommy Davidson, Tacarra Williams, Tony T. Roberts, Bresha Webb, D.C. Young Fly and rapper Tip “T.I.” Harris (in what will mark his televised stand-up comedy debut).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The battle between Elon Musk’s Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta over the launch of Instagram’s Twitter rival Threads has taken a legal turn. On Wednesday, Meta’s Instagram debuted Threads, a text-focused social app designed to piggyback off Instagram’s infrastructure and user base. The app had more than 30 million sign-ups as of Thursday morning, according to Zuckerberg. In a July 5 cease-and-desist letter addressed to Meta CEO Zuckerberg, a lawyer representing Twitter said that Musk’s company had “serious concerns” that Meta “has engaged in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.” The letter said that “Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Internet pay-TV provider Fubo named Dan Sormaz, a 10-year Spotify veteran, to lead its product design operations as senior VP. Sormaz joins Fubo this week, based out of the company’s New York headquarters, reporting to chief product officer Mike Berkley (who is also a Spotify alum). Sormaz brings to Fubo 20 years of experience as a user-experience design exec at companies including Spotify, Sorare, Boxee (acquired by Samsung), News Corp and AOL. At Fubo, he’s tasked with leading the design organization, which is responsible for how customers interact with and experience its live TV streaming products.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Should you ditch Twitter in favor of Instagram’s Threads — which looks quite a lot like a clone of Twitter? Meta launched Threads, a “conversational” text-centric app tied to Instagram, on Wednesday, a day earlier than expected. The internet giant sees an opportunity to take on Twitter, controlled by tech mogul Elon Musk, which has been beset by various technical and business issues since he acquired the company. “I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Threads post. “Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn’t nailed it. Hopefully we will.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTuber and performer Colleen Ballinger, best known as the creator of Miranda Sings, is facing new criticism over a years-old video in which she sings Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” while apparently in blackface. It’s not clear when the video was shot, but it was shared February 2018 on her Miranda Sings YouTube channel (where it remains viewable but is unlisted). In the video, Ballinger — as her Miranda Sings persona — seems to have black greasepaint smeared on her face as she performs the Beyoncé hit. A clip from the video was shared Wednesday by social media influencer Paige Christie on Twitter, who wrote, “I’m gonna need someone to explain the black on her face…” Christie said it appeared that Ballinger performed the Beyoncé song at a show in London’s West End around the summer of 2010.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify hasn’t let new Premium subscribers pay for service using in-app purchases via Apple’s App Store since May 2016 — objecting to the tech giant’s “tax” on purchases made through the App Store. There was only about a two-year window (from June 2014 to May 2016) during which Spotify Premium subs could opt to sign up and pay through the Apple App Store. Now, Spotify is no longer letting those customers continue paying through Apple’s in-app purchases. In recent emails to those subscribers, Spotify said, “We’re contacting you because when you joined Spotify Premium you used Apple’s billing service to subscribe. Unfortunately, we no longer accept that billing method as a form of payment.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor One clear advantage of MLB’s virtual ballpark: no lines for the bathroom or beer. In a first for a pro sports league, Major League Baseball unveiled a new virtual ballpark designed to give baseball fans a simulated experience of what it’s like visit an MLB stadium — all without spending hundreds of dollars on tickets. MLB’s virtual ballpark will open to fans on Saturday, July 8, with a special online watch party for the MLB All-Star Celebrity Softball Game presented on the virtual ballpark’s videoboard. The lineup of participating celebrities includes social media star JoJo Siwa, actors Adam Devine and Skylar Astin, Olympic athlete Chloe Kim, and more — and will include exclusive celebrity interviews available only in the virtual ballpark. According to the league, the digital viewing party is the first of multiple events planned for the virtual ballpark in 2023.

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Zack Sharf Digital News Director With “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” now playing in theaters and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the way, July is shaping up to the biggest month yet for movie theaters this year. Things are a bit quieter on streaming, with no major studio tentpoles making their way to platforms. That’s all the more reason to get out of the house and buy a ticket at the local multiplex.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube removed a video comedy podcast in which Roseanne Barr — attempting to make a sarcastic point about internet platforms enforcing disinformation policies — made extremely offensive comments about the Holocaust. YouTube determined that the video violated its policies prohibiting hate speech. On the June 14 episode of comedian Theo Von’s “This Weekend” show, Barr discussed how online platforms like YouTube have “de-platformed” people who spread lies. As an example, Barr said, “the real truth” was that President Biden won the 2020 election and said she was glad such policies were in place to remove content posted by election deniers. (Actually, YouTube earlier this month reversed its policy prohibiting misinformation about the 2020 election.)