Smosh Signs With A3 Artists Agency After Co-Founders Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox Buy Back Comedy Brand

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk set off a firestorm Friday by announcing that Twitter, now called X, would “delete” the service’s longstanding user-blocking feature — raising the prospect that, as a result, the app could be booted from Apple and Google’s app stores. “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” Musk wrote.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor “The Flash,” the DC pic starring Ezra Miller as the supersonic superhero, is launching on Max next week. The movie makes its streaming debut on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max next Friday, Aug.

Vanderpump Rules star Rachel Leviss' interview on Bethenny Frankel's podcast,, is out and the 28-year-old reality star is not holding back. In early March, Ariana Madix and Tom Sandoval announced the end of their relationship after being together since 2013 when she first joined Vanderpump Rules.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In this week’s podcast news roundup, Hallmark sets its first-ever scripted podcast, a “romance mystery” starring Malinda Williams, Amanda Seales and Keith D. Robinson; Ron Howard executive produces an improv workplace comedy with iHeart; Audible and the Obamas’ Higher Ground launch “Your Mama’s Kitchen,” in which guests tell host Michele Norris about… their mama’s kitchen; ex-UTA agent Jed Baker launched kids and family podcast network Starglow Media; and more.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix is offering hardcore fans of its DVD-by-mail service one last disc-bingeing session before it folds the iconic red envelopes for good. In April, the company announced the shutdown of its dwindling DVD-by-mail business after 25 years. In an email this week to the remaining last-gaspers on the DVD plans, Netflix extended a new “finale surprise” offer: Those who opt in could receive up to 10 extra discs, selected from their DVD queue, that will be shipped on Sept.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Google’s YouTube is tweaking features of NFL Sunday Ticket — less than a month before the football season kicks off — in the hopes of luring more paying customers to the pricey sports package. On YouTube and YouTube TV, Sunday Ticket includes all out-of-market Sunday regular-season NFL games that are broadcast on Fox and CBS, letting fans (or sports bettors) catch the action of every team live. This year, the Sunday Ticket rotation starts on Sept.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Comedian Chris Gethard, after more than seven years and almost 400 episodes of his “Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People,” has taken the podcast independent. Previously, Gethard’s weekly podcast — also known as “Beautiful/Anonymous” — had been produced with and distributed by SiriusXM’s Earwolf comedy podcast network ever since he launched it in 2016.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix, two years after initially launching a selection of games on mobile devices, is kicking the tires on letting customers play titles on computers and internet TVs. The company announced that is is rolling out a limited beta test to a “small number” of members in Canada and the U.K. on select TVs starting Monday (Aug.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Italian officials are open to the the country hosting a charity cage match between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — seemingly moving closer to reality the is-it-a-joke-or-isn’t-it fight that would pit the tech world’s billionaire tech barons against each other. However, contrary to Musk’s latest claim that the cage match will be set in “ancient Rome,” Italy’s minister of culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said such an event will not be held in Rome. “I had a long and friendly conversation with Elon Musk,” Sangiuliano said in a statement Friday (per Google’s translation).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Zoom changed its terms of service to say that it won’t use any customer content — at all — in training generative artificial intelligence models. The update, which the videoconference company announced Friday, comes after observers raised the alarm about a recent change in Zoom’s TOS that appeared to grant the company royalty-free rights in perpetuity for customer video calls and presentations for the purposes of training AI models.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Katie Drummond, formerly head of Vice Media’s global news and entertainment operations, is the new editorial director of Condé Nast’s Wired tech and culture publication. Drummond earlier this month left Vice after more than four years, along with other top editorial staffers, after the company exited bankruptcy and was sold to a consortium of its prior lenders. Drummond — the first woman to hold the top editorial post at Wired since it was launched in 1993 — replaces Gideon Lichfield, who announced his exit from the mag this May.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney, trying to swing its streaming business into the black, has set substantial price hikes for Disney+ and Hulu standalone premium plans in the U.S. — while also rolling out a heavily discounted Disney+/Hulu ad-free combo bundle. As of Oct.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Dave Portnoy had said he had bought Barstool Sports, the brash sports and pop-culture media company, for “pennies on the dollar” from Penn Entertainment. In fact, Portnoy paid 100 pennies for Barstool.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Dave Portnoy, now 100% owner of Barstool Sports after former parent Penn Entertainment sold it back to him — concurrent with Penn’s major 10-year sports-betting deal with ESPN — has admitted that Barstool isn’t a good fit in the gambling industry. “[W]e underestimated just how tough it is for myself and Barstool to operate in a regulated world, where gambling regulators, the New York Times [and] Business Insider hit pieces, fucking with the stock price every time did something,” Portnoy said in an “emergency press conference” video posted on X (aka Twitter) Tuesday.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kai Cenat, the Twitch and YouTube streamer, issued a statement Saturday through his group AMP (Any Means Possible) apologizing after a violent mob took over New York’s Union Square Park a day earlier when he urged fans to come to the park, where he said he was planning to give away free PlayStation 5s and gift cards. Thousands of people flocked to Union Square Park after Cenat’s social media posts went viral Friday, and the flash mob became violent and began attacking police and other people in the area with bottles, rocks, other debris and fireworks.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon CEO Andy Jassy enthused about the potential of generative AI technology to cut costs and create brand-new user experiences — saying every team in the company is working on multiple projects in the area, including in its entertainment business. On the tech giant’s second-quarter earnings call Thursday, Jassy said, “Inside Amazon, every one of our teams is working on building generative AI applications that reinvent and enhance their customers’ experience.” That includes multiple projects in its entertainment business, AWS, its advertising business and in Amazon’s devices business: “You can just imagine what we’re working on with respect to Alexa there.” Generative AI refers to a type of artificial-intelligence technology that can create new text, images, videos or synthetic data based on massive data sets.

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.

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.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor CAA has signed Meredith Duxbury, a leading beauty and fashion content creator who’s been dubbed “the complexion queen of TikTok,” for representation. Duxbury has a global audience of more than 20 million followers across social media, including 18.5 million on the TikTok short-form video platform. Her videos feature makeup tutorials, product reviews, and “get ready with me” content that includes fashion and her personal style.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Speidi is still a thing, according to Spotify. Spotify’s Ringer Podcast Network announced “Speidi’s 16th Minute,” a video podcast hosted by Heidi and Spencer Pratt, the reality TV couple from MTV’s “The Hills,” which originally aired from 2006-2010.