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.
Netflix announced an animated Ghostbusters series several years ago, and it’s finally showing signs of life. The streamer just released the first image for Ghostbusters: Night Shift, which is set in 1994, stars a new group of busters, and is set to premiere some time in 2027.
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In addition to the anime series that’s been running for 25 years and its own live-action adaptation, Netflix will premiere its The One Piece anime series in February 2027. While showing off the first trailer (and a trailer for Cyberpunk Edgerunners S2 that will apparently debut on the 29th), Netflix said global anime fandom on the service grew to 1.5 billion views in 2025.
(Update: Added date for Edgerunners S2 trailer.)
The Hill family continue to get into all kinds of modern-day shenanigans in the new trailer for King of the Hill’s 15th season. That includes Bobby and Connie becoming official through a Facebook update, and Hank feeling uncomfortable around an electric truck. Maybe he’d prefer a Slate.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, Courthouse News Service reports. Meta, Snap, and ByteDance are still set to be defendants in the trial, which is being brought by a 15-year old plaintiff known as “R.K.C.” and is scheduled to start on July 27th.
In the first bellwether case, Meta and YouTube were found negligent.
[Courthouse News Service]
The experimental composer has a new album, a new plugin, and strong feelings about mattresses.
With tickets going on sale today ahead of Spider-Man’s premiere on July 31st, Sony Pictures released a new nearly three-minute trailer to follow the March teaser that quickly racked up a billion views.
This new one still features a world that’s forgotten Peter Parker, and also highlights the movie’s villain, an invisible entity that seemingly takes over even Bruce Banner / Hulk.
Disney and Pixar’s latest feature gets at the heart of how we let tech hurt us.
The Roku Netflix Player was originally a streaming box that then-Netflix CEO Reed Hastings decided not to build.
Now Semafor reports Netflix was interested in acquiring the company before Fox closed its $22 billion deal, losing out once again after Paramount swooped in with a deal to buy Warner Bros. while enjoying a cozier relationship with this administration’s regulators.
The R&D team at Walt Disney Imagineering has embraced Adobe’s Firefly Foundry platform to “accelerate the design and pre-production visualization pipeline” for Disney Parks and Experiences. The partnership will use AI models trained on Disney assets to turn sketches into fully rendered concept art, 2D images into 3D prototypes, and more.
Under Lachlan Murdoch’s leadership, Roku will become a doorway to all things Fox.
Like buying Roku, for example.
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The masculine urge to fold companies into progressively dumber conglomerates
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The two projects highlight how it takes more than nostalgia to reinvigorate a franchise.
Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson said that today during a special event livestream for his YouTube channel becoming the first one to hit 500 million subscribers.
Who agrees with him?
That’s Katie Dippold, creator and showrunner of the horror / comedy hybrid Widow’s Bay, which Apple just confirmed has been renewed. The news comes just ahead of the season 1 finale, which streams on June 17th.
After launching the abilty to create and share lists of movies and TV shows, Plex is now rolling out a “discussions” feature that will allow you to chat about content in its app. Other social features, like emoji reactions, are set to arrive throughout the year.
Movies directed by YouTubers are suddenly blowing up at the box office. Backrooms and Obsession are both smash hits, and The Amazing Digital Circus had a big debut last week. Is this the moment YouTube truly takes over Hollywood? Julia Alexander, media correspondent at Puck, walks us through the much longer history of YouTube on the big screen, and helps us figure out where this all goes next. Is the future just really, really big YouTube videos?
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Following a monthslong carriage dispute, Fubo has announced that it reached a deal with NBCUniversal, restoring access to NBC, Bravo, Telemundo, Universo, NBCSN, and local NBC Sports channels.
Telemundo and Universo have the Spanish-language rights to the World Cup, which kicks off on Thursday.
[Businesswire]
Internal documents, which were disclosed as part of a wave of child safety lawsuits filed by school districts across the US, showed:
Snapchat sent phone alerts to adolescents during school hours, urging them to share what was going on in their classrooms.
Meta paid “teen ambassadors” to promote Instagram and hand out swag to their friends at school.
TikTok gave the National PTA millions of dollars, in part to throw school events about online safety and provide favorable comments to journalists.
The streaming service’s new multiplayer FIFA title — part of its burgeoning library of TV games — launches on June 11th, coincidentally the same day the World Cup kicks off. Netflix also has the US rights for the next two women’s World Cups starting in 2027.
Netflix’s next animated series, Dealies, sounds like a weirdo version of Superstore. But it’s especially interesting as its co-creator Joe Bennett was behind both Scavengers Reign and Common Side Effects. No word on when it’ll start streaming.
According to Variety, “Amazon execs were concerned that [Martin] Gero’s take on the series would not have broad appeal beyond the franchise’s already dedicated fanbase.” Gero formerly wrote, produced, and directed episodes of all three of the original Stargate series and was set to lead Amazon’s reboot as writer and showrunner.
That’s true for folks living underground in Silo, Apple TV’s sci-fi series, as you can see in the new trailer. But it’s also true for the show’s creators, who only have two more seasons to wrap-up the sprawling post-apocalyptic story. Season 3 starts streaming on July 3rd.
Following online backlash, Jorge Gutierrez announced that he will no longer be making the AI series Punky Duck:
My intent was to showcase artists, both new and seasoned, both inside and outside the studios, driving this new tech. My sincerest apology to those I upset. I promise to do better moving forward. Thank you for your patience with me. I will try harder.
Punky Duck was one of three animated AI series set to appear on Prime Video as part of Amazon’s GenAI Creators’ Fund.
