Roku Laying Off 10% of Employees, Will Take up to $65 Million Charge to Remove Streaming Content

Coronation Street fans say they have figured out killer Stephen Reid's next victim - and what could trigger it. The revelation comes as Stephen was being watched by Tim Metcalfe in Wednesday night's episode.

Making good on years of promises by the corporate overseers of Turner Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery is adding a live sports tier to Max.

Ariana Grande has officially filed for divorce from her husband of 2 years, Dalton Gomez. The singer’s lawyer, Laura Wasser, filed first on Monday, citing the celebrity favorite “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for divorce, per TMZ.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk may flip the switch to make X — the social network formerly known as Twitter — an entirely subscription-based platform. Musk brought up the idea of charging all users of X/Twitter during a wide-ranging conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. “[We’re] moving to a small monthly payment for use of the X system,” Musk told Netanyahu, claiming that it is the only way to eliminate the problem of bots, as reported by Bloomberg’s Dave Lee.

While all eyes were on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at the Invictus Games last week, their estranged sister-in-law the Princess of Wales fought back by showing off a glamorous new look - all the while keeping a dignified silence about their well-publicised visit to Germany. “Kate’s not stupid. She wants any engagements that she’s involved in to get their rightful attention and coverage, and making sure she looks her best and behaves her best is part of that,” royal expert Duncan Larcombe tells new.

Jordan Moreau Kenneth Branagh is suiting up as Detective Hercule Poirot once again, with the actor-director’s latest movie, “A Haunting in Venice,” opening in theaters this weekend. The 20th Century Studios movie made $1.2 million in Thursday previews at the box office. The supernatural whodunnit is expected to open between $13 million and $15 million, which would land it between the franchise’s previous two entries, “Murder on the Orient Express” from 2017 and last year’s “Death on the Nile.” All three movies are based on Agatha Christie’s murder mystery novels, with the first “Murder on the Orient Express” standing as the most successful with a $28.6 million opening.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ari Emanuel reportedly made an offer that Elon Musk could refuse. Last year, Emanuel, chief executive officer of media and talent-representation conglomerate Endeavor, texted his friend Musk with an offer to take on the job of managing Twitter, according to “Elon Musk,” Walter Isaacson’s sprawling new biography of the techno-titan. Emanuel, in a three-paragraph text sent on the Signal encrypted messaging app, proposed that he and Endeavor would run Twitter (which is now called X) on Musk’s behalf, per Isaacson’s book.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok has been fined €345 million — about $367 million — by an Irish regulatory agency, which ruled the app violated the EU’s data-privacy laws with respect to processing information on children users. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), in addition to the fine, ordered TikTok “to bring its processing into compliance” with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within three months.

The CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences said hopes are high that the new Epic Universe theme park in Orlando set to open next year will extend visitor stays from three or four days to a full week as a new destination for families with kids age eight and above – Universal’s target demo.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The two Hollywood strikes that have ground TV and film productions to a standstill are bad for business — and Warner Bros. Discovery is working diligently to resolve them as quickly as possible, according to CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. “It’s an unfortunate situation… We have to get back to work,” Wiedenfels said, speaking Thursday at the Bank of America Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The SEC charged a company called Stoner Cats 2 LLC — which produced an animated web series “Stoner Cats” funded by sales of NFTs that were priced at $800 each — with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities. The NFT sale of the Stoner Cats in July 2021 raised approximately $8 million to finance “Stoner Cats.” The voice cast of the “Stoner Cats” series included Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Chris Rock, Dax Shepard, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jane Fonda, Michael Bublé, Seth MacFarlane and Vitalik Buterin.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jennette McCurdy will dig into emotions she’s been struggling with in a new weekly podcast, “Hard Feelings,” launching this fall. The author and former actor will employ “her characteristic candor and dark humor” in the podcast, according to Lemonada Media, the independent podcast network that is producing “Hard Feelings.” McCurdy, author of bestselling memoir “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” was in the original run of “iCarly” on Nickelodeon before starring in her own spinoff series, “Sam & Cat,” alongside Ariana Grande. “I’m thrilled and utterly terrified to launch my new podcast, which will be an intimate look at my experience processing hard feelings,” McCurdy said in a statement.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku has removed at least a dozen original shows from the Roku Channel, as part of its announced effort to cut costs. Those include episodes of the “Reno 911!” the revival of the Comedy Central series; oddball sex-doll comedy “Dummy” starring Anna Kendrick; thriller “Survive” starring Sophie Turner and Corey Hawkins; and dystopian thriller “Most Dangerous Game,” starring Christopher Waltz.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku, looking to rein in spending, is making its third round of layoffs within a year — pink-slipping more than 300 staffers — and will pull “select” content from its TV streaming platform. According to Roku’s 8-K filing, it will take a charge estimated to be $55 million-$65 million related to “removing select existing licensed and produced content from company-operated services on its TV streaming platform.” Roku said it does not expect any “material cash expenditures” in connection with the content-impairment charge. What content is getting the axe? A Roku rep tells Variety the company is not disclosing which titles will be removed from the Roku Channel at this time and declined to comment beyond the details in its Sept.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Russian tennis pro Daniil Medvedev is as frustrated as Charter Communications’ millions of cable TV customers that he can’t watch ESPN’s U.S. Open coverage because of the operator’s carriage fight with Disney. Medvedev, one of the sport’s top-ranked players, revealed that he had resorted to piracy to watch the U.S.

Roku is laying off around 10% of staff as it “performs a strategic review of [its] content portfolio.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix just kicked off its big crackdown on illicit password-sharing users this spring — but co-CEO Greg Peters says there’s still a long road ahead of the company on this front. “We’ll be in the password-sharing business for some time,” Peters said, speaking Tuesday at the 2023 Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference. According to Peters, Netflix “built an elegant solution” to address the issue of informing users who were piggybacking on someone else’s account that they would need to pay for their own plan (or get added as an “extra member” for an additional fee).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Tyler “Ninja” Blevins is stepping away from the gaming keyboard — and getting into your earbuds with his first-ever podcast. The top gaming influencer will host twice-weekly podcast “AFK w/ Ninja,” set to premiere Sept. 12 across all major platforms.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery expects the ongoing Hollywood strikes to have a $300 million-$500 million negative impact on the company’s 2023 earnings.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor and rapper KaMillion has signed with Anonymous Content for representation in all areas.