YouTube launched paid “Super Stickers” in 60 countries Tuesday as a new way for fans to send money into the hands of creators they want to support. It’s the latest in a lineup of features broadening the ways creators can make money on YouTube other than just ads.  YouTube is initially launching eight sticker packs, five …

Apple’s normal resting state is to be superlative. It’s the planet’s most valuable company. It created history’s most successful product, some argue. CEO Tim Cook said Apple TV Plus would be “unlike anything that’s been done before.” And maybe he’s right — but not in the way he meant.  As Apple takes the stage as a streaming-video company today, it’s inhabiting a …

HBO Max, the new HBO-anchored streaming service coming from AT&T’s WarnerMedia, will cost $15 a month and launch in May in the US. It will have 10,000 hours of programming: everything on HBO, plus exclusive originals and a deeper catalog of licensed shows and movies. Existing members of HBO Now — also $15 a month — can switch over to HBO Max …

Disney Plus is designed to be the one-stop streaming shop for all things Disney, but Disney Plus will have some holes: Some popular titles, including a large number of Marvel movies, won’t be available at launch, and others will have to leave the service for periods of time.  Speaking Tuesday at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, Disney CEO Bob Iger suggested …

Netflix is about to face some of its toughest direct competition yet, as behemoths like Disney and AT&T’s WarnerMedia plan to launch their own streaming services. What “completely” surprised Netflix’s top content executive is why “everyone took so long.”  “When they were selling us their content, years ago, I was kind of surprised every time,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, …

If all Facebook cared about was the money it makes from political advertising, the company wouldn’t be doing it, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Tuesday. The social networking giant continues to answer questions about its decision to run political ads, including those with misleading information, without fact checking them. Instead, Facebook believes political ads are an important part of discourse.  “It’s not …

Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things helped exorcise some demons plaguing the streaming giant: The retro sci-fi series helped push Netflix’s global subscribers to 158.33 million, just shy of the company’s guidance but still solid enough to ease fears the streaming giant’s growth had peaked.  About 64 million accounts watched Stranger Things in the first four weeks of release, Netflix said Wednesday in …

Mozilla is publishing anecdotes of YouTube viewing gone awry — anonymous stories from people who say they innocently searched for one thing but eventually ended up in a dark rabbit hole of videos. It’s a campaign aimed at pressuring Google’s massive video site to make itself more accessible to independent researchers trying to study its algorithms.  “The big problem is we have …

Hulu, after promising downloads more than a year ago, is finally joining the ranks of streaming video services that let you cache shows and movies to watch offline when you’re on a plane or anywhere else your mobile device can’t get a connection. But not everybody is getting the feature right away: Starting Monday, downloads will be available to people …

As Apple prepares to launch its $5-a-month Apple TV Plus rival to Netflix next month, the gadget giant has kicked off early talks with record labels about bundling the streaming-TV service with Apple Music, its streaming-music service — and at least one big label is wary, according to a report.  Some labels are open to the idea that Apple would bundle Apple …