Established streaming industry leaders like Netflix and Amazon are facing more competition than ever. Now legacy entertainment giants are in the game with their own subscription services, like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle, while Apple TV Plus attacks around the edges. Meanwhile, the rise of ad-supported free platforms like Roku Channel and Pluto TV has attracted enough attention that Plex, YouTube, and Amazon’s Freevee are trying to get a chunk of the action too.
Last week, we talked about how Warner Bros. — quite reasonably! — had some agita about David Ellison’s bid for the company. Well, what do you know, David’s daddy is going to personally guarantee the offer. Also, since the last time we talked, Jared Kushner backed out of the nepo baby bid.
On Thursday night, the White House Live News section featured YouTuber @RealMattMoney, for reasons that remain unclear. According to Bloomberg, “The White House is aware of the incident and looking into the matter, a White House official said on the condition of anonymity.”
Not nearly enough people are talking about Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s masterpiece of a film, Bugonia. But that should change once the movie makes its Peacock streaming debut on December 26th.
The Screen Culture and KH Studio YouTube pages have suddenly disappeared, taking their fake clips with them, reports Deadline. An earlier Deadline investigation showed how they operated, mixing official movie footage with AI-generated images, which some movie studios were profiting from by claiming the ad revenue they brought in.
YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon provided this statement to The Verge:
After their initial suspension, these channels made the necessary corrections in order to be readmitted into the YouTube Partner Program. However, once monetizing again, they reverted to clear violations of our spam and misleading metadata policies, and as a result, they have been terminated from the platform.
Ads are everywhere, and only spreading, with Apple adding more to App Store searches and Peacock fitting them into its profile page. Fortunately, the Verge comments will always stay a safe space.
WesSouza:
This is ridiculous.
This comment is sponsored by PCBWay, your one-stop shop for high-quality PCB fabrication and assembly. Fast turnaround, excellent quality, and reliable service trusted by makers and engineers worldwide. Thank you PCBWay for sponsoring this comment.
Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.
Apple just announced that, in addition to the upcoming second season, a spinoff of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is also on the way that will star young Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell). Here’s the logline:
The spinoff series will follow the story of Colonel Lee Shaw, an American operative who in 1984 went on a secret mission behind enemy lines in an attempt to stop the Soviets from unleashing a horrific new Titan big enough to destroy the U.S. and turn the tide of the Cold War.
Boy, the creative choices here for the Melania doc... They feel familiar somehow. Even, and maybe especially, the music.
Netflix’s co-CEOs, in a letter to WBD stockholders:
There’s been a lot of talk about theatrical distribution, so we want to set the record straight: we are 100% committed to releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters with industry-standard windows. While this hasn’t been part of our business model until now, we are looking forward to bringing this expertise from Warner Bros. to Netflix.
WBD is urging shareholders to reject Paramount’s latest offer.
He’s withdrawn financial backing from the bid, which may leave it floundering, and the Warner Bros. board has recommended shareholders reject the hostile offer. It looks like everyone involved is beginning to realize what The Verge’s own Liz Lopatto pointed out yesterday: “What Paramount is doing doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
Update: The Warner Bros. board has recommended rejecting the Paramount bid.
Its historic satellite imagery just happened to catch the set of Apple TV’s Pluribus during filming, revealing a big moment from the show’s seventh episode, which aired last week. Here’s a shot of the cul de sac set caught by Google during construction, but click through for a later photo that spoils the show.
Meta had already announced the streaming service was coming to its headsets, but now it’s here.
As hokey as the first few episodes of Stranger Things’ final season felt, the new trailer for the next batch dropping on December 25th makes it seem like the series is stepping its game up as it races towards the finish line.
The company didn’t share specific numbers, but it still seems like a meaningful milestone. Guess I should watch it.
Free, ad-supported streamer Tubi is now compatible with Matter Casting, making it the first app other than Prime Video to adopt the standard, which is currently only available on Amazon Fire TV devices.
Will you use it? Maybe not, but at least it’s an option, unlike Netflix.
[TubiTV Corporate]
New seasons of Hijack, The Last Thing He Told Me, Shrinking, and Monarch are all on the docket as well as the debut of the film Eternity. Personally, I’m anticipating Hijack the most; the first season was so dumb but also was way more gripping than I expected.
The third movie in the whodunit series is now streaming on Netflix. You can also check out my review of Wake Up Dead Man (it’s good!) and an interview with director Rian Johnson about why he doesn’t plan in advance and why the movies are always rooted in the present.
We don’t even know who will own HBO Max this time next year, but the streamer is putting on a good face with this sizzle reel of new footage from upcoming seasons of House of the Dragon, Euphoria, Dune: Prophecy and Lanterns — all of which are coming in 2026.
Disney Plus is about to become filled with uninspired garbage.
