EXCLUSIVE: Disney has raised serious concerns about new UK laws that will require it to send contract renewal notices to Disney+ users and allow customers to “game” the streaming service without paying.
01.06.2023 - 16:21 / variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor For the first time, rival streaming services Netflix and Paramount+ are coming together in a price-discounted bundle, exclusively for Verizon wireless customers in the U.S. The limited-time deal, through Verizon’s +play subscription-aggregation hub, offers the carrier’s mobile customers a price point of $25.99/month for Netflix Premium and Paramount+ With Showtime — a 19% discount ($5.99 off) the regular monthly price of the two services sold separately. (You’ll still need two separate apps to watch each of the streamers.) Netflix Premium, the streamer’s priciest plan that includes up to four simultaneous streams and content in up to 4K Ultra HD, is regularly $19.99/month. Paramount+ With Showtime will cost $11.99/month when it officially becomes Paramount Global’s top-tier, ad-free streaming plan later in June.
It’s the latest bid by Verizon to serve as the Switzerland to the players doing battle in the streaming wars. The telco’s +play portal includes more than 30 services, across entertainment, sports, education, lifestyle and fitness categories. Current offers include a free one-year Netflix Premium subscription with the purchase of another service on +play. “With partners like Netflix and Paramount+ With Showtime on +play, we’re leading the industry in offering customers the content they want in completely new formats, with never-before-seen bundles they can’t get anywhere else,” Erin McPherson, Verizon Consumer Group’s chief content officer, said in announcing the deal. Jeff Shultz, Paramount Streaming’s chief strategy officer and chief business development officer, added: “This new and distinctive streaming bundle on Verizon’s +play is yet another example of our commitment to
EXCLUSIVE: Disney has raised serious concerns about new UK laws that will require it to send contract renewal notices to Disney+ users and allow customers to “game” the streaming service without paying.
Zoey Brooks is back and apparently, still trying to figure out life and love.
Premier League clubs have voted in favour of reforming the Under-21s league with the introduction of an expanded one-tier format without any promotion or relegation.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, the arthouse darling known for works including Venice Golden Lion winner “Vive L’Amour” and “The River,” which scored the Berlin Silver Bear, will be celebrated by the Locarno Film Festival with its Honorary Leopard achievement award. The iconoclastic auteur, who is a key figure in Taiwan’s so-called Second New Wave, will receive the prize from the Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema during an Aug. 6 ceremony held on its 8,000-seat outdoor Piazza Grande venue. The tribute to Tsai Ming-liang will also involve an onstage conversation with the director on the future of cinema and a screening of the helmer’s 2020 film “Days” (Rizi), as well as an art gallery exhibition of his experimental works.
Robbie Williams was forced to pause a gig over the weekend as he told fans he was suffering from the effects of long Covid.The singer, 49, was performing at Pinkpop festival in the Netherlands on Saturday June 17th when he temporarily paused his performance, telling the crowd: "No, stop stop. I'm f**ked. I'm f**ked." The former Take That star - who recently sold a property portfolio worth $44million - paused things just before he was set to launch into his fourth song ‘Monsoon’, before he signalled for his band to stop playing and was seen bending over to catch his breath.
Who doesn’t know the story of Heidi? Johanna Spyri’s 19th-century children’s novel tells the tale of the little orphan girl sent to live with her grumpy grandfather on the top of a Swiss mountain. Heidi’s cheerfulness and good nature ignite joy in all who encounter her.The same can be said of the holiday region of Heidiland in Eastern Switzerland, an hour from Zurich, too. With impressive mountains, pure air and crystal clear lakes it’s one of the most beautiful regions of the country.
Essex car dealer Carl Woods appeared to take a swipe at his recent ex Katie Price as he posed for a picture with three girls in purple bikinis and captioned the snap: “Girl’s night out achieved”. Fans think this is a clear swipe at Katie as, just a few hours prior, she posted a picture with two of her friends with the caption: “Girl’s night out needed”. One fan commented on Carl’s post and wrote: “Well if that isn’t a dig at Katie’s last post I don’t know what is”, while another said: “Katie clearly still 'gets to you then'....if you feel the need to react to something she does or posts”.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut “Goodbye Julia,” a timely morality tale that takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan and won the Un Certain Regard section’s Prix de Liberté (Freedom Prize) at Cannes, has scored a raft of sales following its launch. The first Sudanese film ever to screen in Cannes official selection, “Goodbye Julia” is the story of two women — one from the North, the other from the South — who are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities in the currently war-ravaged country.
EXCLUSIVE: Nina Hoss (Tár) and Nicholas Pinnock (For Life) have closed deals to join the new film Hedda from MGM’s Orion Pictures. While details as to their roles haven’t been disclosed, they join an ensemble that also includes Tessa Thompson, Callum Turner and Eve Hewson, as previously announced.
Australia’s Network Ten has given a private apology to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price after the indigenous senator was heard being mocked by TV host Lisa Wilkinson in leaked audio.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Roman Polanski’s “The Palace” has been set for release in Italian theatres in September, prompting speculation that the controversial director’s black comedy set in a posh hotel in the Swiss Alps resort of Gstaad on the eve of the new millennium could be launching from the Venice Film Festival. Italy’s RAI Cinema, which is a main backer of Polanski’s new film, has slated a September 28 local release date via its 01 Distribuzione unit for “The Palace” which has an ensemble cast including Mickey Rourke, John Cleese and Fanny Ardant. Other key cast members include German actor Oliver Masucci (“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”); Portugal’s Joaquin De Almeida; the U.K.’s Bronwyn James (“The Dig”) and Italy’s Fortunato Cerlino (”Gomorrah”).
The stars of our favourite soaps are set to be celebrated as the British Soap Awards returns to screens. The casts of Hollyoaks, Doctors, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders dressed up to the nines and headed to The Lowry theatre at Salford Quays on Saturday night for the glitzy awards bash.
The newest addition to the royal family is here! Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank welcomed their second child on Tuesday, May 30.
following the 83-year-old icon’s death on May 24.Erwin Bach made his first appearance on Wednesday in front of their villa, Château Algonquin, in Küsnacht, placing flowers in front of a memorial for his late wife, whose decadeslong career brought in tributes from fans, her friends and peers in entertainment, politicians and even royalty.The 67-year-old German music executive was dressed in all black and wore sunglasses as he tidied up the many gifts fans left in front of their longtime residence.Swiss German-language newspaper Blick reported that Bach was silent but “drawn by grief” as he “looked calmly and visibly moved at the gifts from the fans.”“He read cards with interest and carefully picked up bouquets of flowers to place them with other bouquets,” the site wrote in German.Turner died from natural causes at home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland.A private funeral is planned for family and friends, according to a representative. The “Proud Mary” singer started dating music producer Bach in 1986, eight years after she ended her toxic marriage with Ike Turner.Turner knew it was “love at first sight” when she initially met Bach, she told longtime friend Oprah Winfrey in a 2013 interview.Bach proposed to the Grammy-winning “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” twice before she agreed to tie the knot.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian producer, director, and film and TV industry pioneer Renzo Rossellini is being honored with the Locarno Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award. The Swiss fest dedicated to indie cinema will pay tribute to the consummate filmmaker and renaissance man – who as a producer shepherded works by master directors such as Federico Fellini, Lina Wertmüller, Werner Herzog and Francis Ford Coppola – with a screening of Fellini’s 1980 work “City of Women” on its 8,000 seat open-air Piazza Grande venue on Aug. 10, followed by an onstage conversation the next day. Rossellini who also worked as assistant director for his father Roberto and, among others, François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol – and is a director in his own right – “Has never ceased his quest to pass on his knowledge of the cinema, teaching generations of students and cineastes with passion and commitment,” the fest said in a statement.
Tina Turner’s funeral will be a “small, private affair” with few family members, her former aide has said.
Cher is opening up about her longtime friendship with Tina Turner and some of their final conversations together.
Through the rollercoaster years when Tina Turner broke free from her abusive marriage and went solo to conquer the world, she could always rely on her personal assistant Eddy Hampton Armani.
Turner's rep confirmed that she died peacefully at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, at the age of 83.In 1981, at the height of her comeback to music, following a years-long hiatus, and transition to rock n' roll, the «Proud Mary» singer spoke to ET while on the road with Rod Stewart.«I've been doing it too long to be nervous,» she quipped while speaking about possible nerves ahead of taking the stage. "… If my dress wasn't right or my shoes were wrong… everything is fine and I know the words, so I'm going to be fine.«For Turner, nothing beat the experience of live music. And if she had the chance, she would take in her own show — that's how good she was.»You can't replace what's live," she told ET.
Tina Turner, who was “having a good time in spite of the fact that she was really sick”. After a career spanning more than six decades, the American-Swiss singer who had hits including Proud Mary and Simply The Best, died “peacefully” on Wednesday age 83 in her home in Switzerland following a long illness. Speaking to MSNBC’s The Beat With Ari Melber, Cher said: “I started going to visit her…so that she knows we haven’t forgotten her.