Peacock to Hike Prices for First Time Since Streamer’s Launch

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A crowd of several thousand people — lured by the promise of free PlayStation 5s by a popular Twitch streamer — descended on Union Square in New York City on Friday afternoon, and became violent and uncontrollable, according to police. The Twitch influencer, Kai Cenat, along with a streamer known as Fanum had encouraged their followers to come to Union Square at 4 p.m. in a social media posts about giving away multiple Sony PlayStation 5 game consoles.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jeff Daniels’ musical, audio-only memoir “Alive and Well Enough” — blending spoken word, storytelling, original music and performance — is coming exclusively to Audible. All episodes of the 12-episode first season will drop Sept. 7, 2023, exclusively on Audible at this link.

Meghan Markle is set to break cover in a new appearance alongside Prince Harry at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf in September.

“near catastrophic car chase” in New York.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be out together next month to host the Invictus Games in Düsseldorf, Germany.The event will start on Sept. 8 — just a day after the first year anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death.The sports games will continue on Sept.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Have you paid Elon Musk for an $8-per-month subscription to Twitter Blue (now called X Blue, under Musk’s rebranding effort) but are embarrassed to advertise the fact? X now lets subscribers to the premium X Blue service hide the blue check mark on their account. Musk has promoted the perk as democratizing Twitter’s most recognizable status symbol.

Bronny James is making his first appearance since his medical emergency.

Tommy Fury has been spotted for the first time without his fiancée Molly-Mae by his side after his fairytale clifftop proposal. The professional boxer, 24 was instead out in Manchester supporting his brother Tyson Fury and sister-in-law Paris Fury at the launch of the new energy drink 'Furiocity by Tyson Fury'. Newly engaged Tommy, who had clearly caught a tan from his recent Ibiza getaway, rocked a casual look to the event in a white T-shirt, green chino trousers and a pair of white and green shoes.

Tamzin Outhwaite has been pictured for the first time since claiming that her ex-husband Tom Ellis was even more disloyal during their marriage than she was led to believe. Last week, the 52 year old former EastEnders actress sensationally accused the Lucifer actor, 44, of not coming forward with the full truth. In a tweet that was then deleted, she said: "Ten years since the father of my kids walked out on us for the final time.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify, the world’s biggest music and audio streaming service, delivered strong numbers for the second quarter of 2023 — beating forecast user growth on paid subscribers and total listeners, while Q2 revenue was in-line with expectations. But with newly announced price increases for Spotify Premium in dozens of markets including the U.S., the company is forecasting a smaller gain in paid subscribers for Q3. The company netted 10 million new Premium customers in the quarter (over its expectations of 7 million), to stand at 220 million. Overall, Spotify had 551 million monthly active users for the period, a pickup of 36 million sequentially — an all-time high for the company.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spotify is finally set to hike the price of its music streaming subscription in the U.S. to $10.99 per month for an individual plan — up one dollar — according to a Wall Street Journal report. It’s a move that would be a long time in coming and follow similar increases by competitors. When Spotify’s U.S. price increase would go into effect is unclear. The Journal story, citing anonymous sources, said the price hike for United States customers is expected to be announced next week, followed by similar increases in “dozens of markets globally in the coming months.” Spotify has not changed the $9.99-per-month price of the ad-free Premium plan in the U.S. since it launched in 2011.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Dave Coulier on Friday launched a new rewatch podcast for “Full House,” the beloved sitcom he appeared on opposite the late Bob Saget. In the premiere episode of “Full House Rewind,” Coulier speaks with series creator Jeff Franklin as they reminisce about working with Saget (who died last year) and talk about the pilot episode of the show that premiered in September 1987. They also discuss the fact that Saget wasn’t actually the first actor to play Danny Tanner (that was John Posey, but Posey appeared as the character only in an unaired pilot). But there’s been some question about whether such TV rewatch podcasts are allowed under the rules of SAG-AFTRA’s strike against studios and streaming providers.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Hey, if it ain’t broke — don’t fix it. Imax developed control software that emulates a two-decade-old PalmPilot PDA for the release of Christopher Nolan’s three-hour “Oppenheimer” epic. The 70mm Imax print of “Oppenheimer” comprises a whopping 11 miles of film stock weighing about 600 pounds, and required the company to build extensions to accommodate the larger size of the film platters. That’s because Imax’s existing platters could only hold enough film for a 150-minute runtime. Imax’s PalmPilot software runs the projection systems’ Quick Turn Reel Unit, which manages the operation and transition between multiple reels.

Follow OK! on Threads here: https://www.threads.net/@ok_mag Love Island star Lana Jenkins ran into her ex-boyfriend Ron Hall at the ITV summer party in London on Wednesday night. It was the first time the pair have been at the same public event since the former couple announced they had decided to part ways earlier this month. Lana, 25, looked stunning as she donned a show-stopping dress for the awkward moment with her ex.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix is “more than a year out” from any price increases in its major markets like the U.S. as it looks to spur revenue growth from its password-sharing crackdown, CFO Spence Neumann said. The streamer has “largely paused” price hikes after it began rolling out the paid-sharing program starting in May 2023, Neumann said on the Q2 earnings interview. “Most of our revenue growth this year is from growth in volume, through new paid memberships. And that’s largely driven by our paid-sharing rollout,” he said. “It is our primary revenue accelerator in the year.” Netflix most recently raised prices in the U.S. and other major markets in the first half of 2022, under which its Standard plan — its most popular tier, which provides two simultaneous HD streams — increased by $1.50, to $15.49 per month.

Peacock is phasing in the first price hike in its three-year history, which will increase the rate for the streaming service’s Premium tier by $1 a month and that of Premium Plus by $2 a month.

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 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 It’s game over for the New York Times’ sports department: The newspaper is shutting down its sports desk and instead will rely on daily sports coverage from the Athletic, the popular website the company acquired last year for $550 million. “We intend to utilize the Athletic — which has among the largest sports newsrooms in the world — to provide Times readers with a greater abundance of sports coverage than ever before,” New York Times Co. chairman A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien wrote in a memo Monday to employees about the change. “Under our plan, the digital homepage, newsletters, social feeds, the sports landing page and the print section will draw from even more of the approximately 150 stories the Athletic produces each day chronicling leagues, teams and players across the United States and around the globe.”

Madonna broke her silence Monday on Instagram after being hospitalized for a "serious bacterial infection." "Thank you for your positive energy, Prayers and words of healing and encouragement," she wrote in a statement while sharing a photo of herself. "I have felt your love.