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[ad_1] Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan. Vivian Zink | SYFY | NBCUniversal Spotify has signed a new blockbuster deal with polarizing podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan, but this time, his show won't be exclusive to Spotify, the company announced Friday in a news release. The multiyear deal with Rogan, the founder of "The Joe Rogan Experience," is said to be worth about $250 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the deal. The show was the No. 1 podcast in the U.S. for the third quarter of last year, according to Edison Research . Spotify also said it's expanding the partnership to allow the show to be available on other platforms. Shares of the audio streaming giant rose roughly 1.5% Friday. Spotify first brought "The Joe Rogan Experience" to its platform exclusively in 2020 in a deal that was reportedly worth more than $100 million. The talk-show style podcast is known — and often criticized for — its edgy approach and g

[ad_1] NYT Columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and C.E.O. of The Walt Disney Company Bob Iger speak during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023 in New York City.  Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's the third annual anonymous media and entertainment executive predictions list! In honor of the 12 days of Christmas, I asked 12 past and current executives at the world's biggest media and entertainment companies for one industry-shaking prediction for 2024. And then I asked one more because this is the holiday season, and I was feeling generous. A baker's dozen! Actually, I asked a few more, but some overlapped. Quite a few of last year's predictions were accurate . Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger did extend his contract . Christine McCarthy stepped down as Disney's chief financial officer. Paramount Global hasn't sold, but controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is now in talks to sell Natio

[ad_1] WWE SmackDown World Tour Joern Pollex | Bongarts | Getty Images World Wrestling Entertainment and Endeavor-owned UFC are set to merge this year in a deal that will create a sports entertainment behemoth valued at more than $21 billion. After the deal was announced in early April, WWE shares soared to their highest point in nearly four years. The stock is up more than 50% so far this year. For wrestling fans, though, the story's not about those numbers. Rather, the merger's success hinges on what's actually happening in the ring — and whether it's worth their time and money.  In a landscape where consumers have broad economic and political sway , the merger will serve as a test of just how potent fans' collective power can be in the face of corporate behemoths. And wrestling fans aren't afraid to share their opinions. Some are worried that a return to a pay-per-view model for WWE's flagship event, WrestleMania, is on the horizon. Last month, i

[ad_1] Members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild walk the picket line outside of Disney Studios in Burbank, California, on July 18, 2023.  Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images Disney posted mixed results for its fiscal third quarter despite ongoing streaming woes and massive restructuring costs resulting from pulling content from its platforms. Subscriber losses continued over the last three months, with the company reporting 146.1 million Disney+ subscribers during the most recent quarter, a 7.4% decline from the previous quarter and a larger loss than Wall Street expected. The majority of subscriber losses came from Disney+ Hotstar, where the company saw a 24% drop in users after it lost out on the rights to Indian Premier League cricket matches. Facing dwindling users and falling revenue in its media and entertainment distribution segment, Disney announced Wednesday it would raise the price on its ad-free streaming tier in October and that it would crack

[ad_1] GameStop on Tuesday posted a quarterly profit for the first time in two years, finishing out its fiscal year on a high note in the holiday quarter after grappling with sales declines, inventory woes and cash flow pressure. Shares of the company soared more than 45% during after-hours trading. For the quarter ended Jan. 28 , net sales dropped slightly to $2.23 billion from $2.25 billion in last year's fourth quarter. The video game retailer also posted a profit of $48.2 million, or 16 cents a share, compared to a loss of $147.5 million, or 49 cents, a year ago. GameStop did not provide financial guidance and has not done so since the early days of the pandemic. Its results can't be compared with Wall Street estimates because too few analysts cover the company. The retailer had been working to steer itself back to profitability, and got there in part by cutting costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $453.4 million for the quarter, or 20.4% o

[ad_1] Kevin Mazur | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images Warner Bros. Discovery reported second-quarter results Thursday that fell below Wall Street expectations across the board and revealed subscriber totals that were down from the previous quarter. Global direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers at the end of the period were 95.8 million, below the 96.7 million subscribers analysts were expecting according to StreetAccount, and a decrease of nearly 2 million from the end of the first quarter. related investing news The company launched its combined Max streaming service during the second quarter, merging HBO content with unscripted hits from the Discovery networks into one platform. Customers dropping their Discovery+ subscriptions for Max were likely to blame for the decline in subscribers. Data provider Antenna estimated that Discovery+ cancellations were up about 68% compared with June 2022 due to the switchover to Max. Still, the company said it had repaid $1.6 bil

[ad_1] A Science employee at work in the lab. Courtesy: Science Corporation Biotechnology startup and Neuralink competitor Science on Monday launched a new platform that aims to make it easier for other companies to quickly develop and produce medical devices.  The platform, called Science Foundry, allows companies to utilize and build upon Science's internal infrastructure by offering access to more than 80 of its tools and services, like the company's thin-film electrode technologies. The cost of the technology required to develop medical devices is often "prohibitive" for early-stage startups, Science Co-Founder and CEO Max Hodak told CNBC in an interview. Individual tools can cost anywhere from $200,000 to $2 million, and Hodak said companies could easily spend hundreds of millions building a manufacturing line.  For many startups, that cost is too much to bear, but Hodak is hoping Science Foundry can help. "Hopefully, we bring down the barriers to innov

[ad_1] James Trusty, attorney for Donald Trump, appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., April 9, 2023. NBCUniversal | Getty Images An attorney who quit the team defending Donald Trump in the criminal classified documents case said Friday he would no longer represent the former president in a separate defamation lawsuit against CNN. The lawyer, Jim Trusty, said in a court filing that his request to withdraw from the $475 million civil suit "is based upon irreconcilable differences" with Trump. "Counsel can no longer effectively and properly represent Plaintiff," Trusty wrote in the filing in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Neither Trusty nor lawyers for CNN immediately responded to requests for comment on Trusty's move to withdraw as Trump's counsel. Lindsey Halligan, Trump's remaining attorney in the defamation case, referred CNBC to the former president's spokesman Steven Cheung, who said the defamation su

[ad_1] People walk by the News Corporation headquarters, home to Fox News, on April 18, 2023 in New York City. Spencer Platt | Getty Images Fox Corp. Chief Legal and Policy Officer Viet Dinh will step down from his post, months after the company agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems. The departure comes after Dinh advised the company through the lawsuit with the voting machines company, which was halted just short of a trial with the April settlement. The company has continued to feel the fallout since. Dominion hit Fox with a defamation lawsuit arguing its networks "intentionally and falsely" blamed the company for the 2020 election loss of former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden by airing unsubstantiated claims that Dominion's machines rigged the election. While Fox agreed to the settlement, its hosts weren't required to talk about the lawsuit or make any public apology for on-air statements. Days after the settlem

[ad_1] Rupert Murdoch arrives at the Sun Valley Resort of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 10, 2018. Drew Angerer | Getty Images Rupert Murdoch is being deposed Tuesday as part of the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox Corp. by the voting technology company Smartmatic , a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. Murdoch is expected to sit for questioning in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the source. It is the second time this year that Murdoch, 92, has been deposed in a high-stakes defamation lawsuit accusing Fox News of airing damaging lies about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Under questioning in January as part of a similar defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, Murdoch admitted that some Fox News hosts and personalities "endorsed" the false narrative that the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump . Fox paid $787.5 million to settle Dominion&#

[ad_1] The social media app will be developed by Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG). Rafael Henrique | LightRocket | Getty Images Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. — the shell company seeking to take former President Donald Trump 's social media platform public — soared more than 50% on Friday following the company's announcement that it had settled fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $18 million . This surge brought DWAC's stock to $20.08, still a far cry from its highs above $95 in March of last year. DWAC is a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that announced plans to merge with Truth Social parent company Trump Media & Technology Group in  October 2021 . The merger has since faced numerous delays. DWAC's SEC settlement dictates that the company must pay an $18 million civil penalty fee if it merges with TMTG and takes the company public. But if the merger does not occur before the Jan. 1, 2025, deadline, a

[ad_1] LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 12: CEO of Netflix Ted Sarandos attends Netflix's FYSEE event for "Squid Game" at Raleigh Studios Hollywood on June 12, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix) Charley Gallay | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images The main takeaway from Netflix 's second quarter earnings is business is ... good. That's right. A large media and entertainment company's fundamental business is just fine. Netflix added 5.9 million subscribers in the quarter, a sign that its two primary 2023 initiatives — cracking down on password sharing and launching a cheaper $6.99 per month advertising tier — are bringing in new subscribers. Netflix added 1.2 million subscribers in the United States and Canada in the quarter — its largest regional quarterly gain since 2021. This is not the story for the rest of the media industry. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have spent the year slashing content f

[ad_1] Last Updated: July 18, 2023, 22:08 IST The growth is despite a 5% YoY decline in news industry inventory consumption. File image India’s largest TV news network registered a revenue of Rs 337 crore in the first quarter of current financial year, as compared to Rs 266 crore for the same period last fiscal Network18’s TV news business has registered a solid 26% revenue growth in the first quarter of the current financial year, despite continued weakness in the overall advertising environment. Beating the industry trends, India’s largest TV news network registered a revenue of Rs 337 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal, as compared to Rs 266 crore for the same period last fiscal. The growth is despite a 5% YoY decline in news industry inventory consumption. News18 was able to drive growth powered by the increase in viewership shares and a strong focus on IP-events-led advertising revenue. Viewership gains in key markets over the last few quarters have enabled the