Bee gees number ones

Warner Bros Discovery has ditched plans for a 100% merger of streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+ and will continue offering the latter as a stand-alone product. Insiders confirmed the strategic shift with Deadline after it was initially reported by The Wall Street Journal . The WSJ cited unidentified people familiar with the decision, saying they felt Discovery+ subscribers could balk at paying a higher price for a combined service. HBO Max costs $16 a month, or $10 with ads, compared with $7 and $5 for the respective equivalents of Discovery+. Over the past several months, WBD execs have talked of combining the two into a single offering. HBO Max has already been featuring Discovery titles more prominently of late, even though the ultimate fit between prestige HBO fare and Discovery mainstays like 90-Day Fiancé has been questioned both inside and outside of the company. The plan now is to continue to have Discovery+ in the market even as a newly … [Read more...] about Warner Bros Discovery Abandons Plan To Shut Down Discovery+ As Stand-Alone Service As It Moves Ahead With HBO Max Merger

UPDATED with closing stock price: Disney stock closed at $86.75 a share, down more than 13% as investors punished the company for its disappointing quarterly earnings report and weak earnings forecast. The single-day plunge was the biggest for Disney shares since the onset of Covid in the U.S. in March 2020, when it also fell 13%. The shares have fallen more than 43% in 2022 to date, compared with a drop of less than 10% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. PREVIOUS: Disney stock has fallen more than 11% today on double its normal trading volume, as investors recalibrate their expectations in light of a shaky quarterly earnings report. At $88.53, Disney shares were at their lowest point since they dipped into the $80s for a couple of trading days during Covid lockdowns in March 2020. Prior to that, the last time the stock closed at or below $86.75 was in 2015. Bears seized on the company’s much-lower-than-expected profit forecast as well as a significant … [Read more...] about Disney Stock Plunges 13% To New Multi-Year Low On Earnings Miss, Weak Profit Outlook – Update

EXCLUSIVE : Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi has traditionally been shy about revealing performance numbers for its movies, but today we can reveal that BAFTA and Oscar hopeful Aftersun has become the company’s most streamed release globally. We’re told the Paul Mescal -starrer has now far surpassed Mubi’s previous best-performers including Portrait Of A Lady On Fire , The Worst Person In The World , Drive My Car , Decision To Leave , Shiva Baby and Titane , some of which were released during the pandemic, a boom time for streamer engagement. The film started streaming in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Latin America and a handful of other markets on January 6, 2023, and has also become the top-viewed film all time in these individual territories. It will join the platform in Germany, Austria and Spain in March, and later in France. Writer-director Charlotte Wells’ acclaimed debut has also blazed a trail for Mubi at the theatrical box office, becoming … [Read more...] about ‘Aftersun’ Becomes Mubi’s Most Streamed Movie Ever & Crosses Box Office Milestones

Netflix is rolling out paid password sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain as the company looks to reap revenue from a practice it long encouraged customers to engage in at no charge. A blog post confirmed the rollout and said it would expand in the coming months. The announcement followed some online unrest earlier in the week when a company web page pertaining to tests of the password plan in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru went live in other countries. (A trial of the new setup launched in those countries last year.) The bulletin ricocheted around online, causing anxiety over its apparent requirement for users to specify a “primary location” for a given household’s accounts. Backlash centered on the notion of having to verify WiFi information on a regular basis. “We know there’s been a lot of confusion about sharing Netflix,” the company acknowledged in a tweet. “A Netflix account is intended for one household,” it continued, adding that the aim is to “give you … [Read more...] about Netflix Expands Paid Password Sharing To Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain

Microsoft ’s proposed $69B acquisition of Activision could bring harm to the UK’s 45M-strong gaming community, the nation’s competition body has ruled. In a provisional finding delivered in the past hour, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that Microsoft “buying one of the world’s most important game publishers would reinforce [its] strong position and substantially reduce the competition that Microsoft would otherwise face in the cloud gaming market in the UK.” Both companies can respond to the ruling, which will conclude in April. Microsoft already accounts for an estimated 60% to 70% of global cloud gaming services, said the ruling, and corners the market in other ways via its ownership of Xbox, Windows and Azure. A small number of Activision’s flagship games such as Call of Duty play an important role in driving competition between consoles, added the CMA, which said Xbox and Playstation’s competition would “weaken competition” and “in turn … [Read more...] about Microsoft Activision Deal Could Bring Harm To UK Gaming Community, Rules Regulator