What’s happening YouTube says its TikTok-rival Shorts are being viewed by more than 1.5 billion logged-in accounts monthly. Why it matters Plenty of legacy social media sites have been chasing the virality of TikTok; now YouTube can claim its Shorts have more users than the last number TikTok announced. YouTube said Wednesday that Shorts — …

Spotify said Monday it has created a new Safety Advisory Council of experts and organizations focused on online safety. The council’s mission “is to help Spotify evolve its policies and products in a safe way” while still respecting creator expression. It’s a move to help Spotify navigate problems where freedom of expression is at odds with effectively policing the most objectionable …

Spotify said Wednesday it wants to expand aggressively into audiobooks, broadening beyond music and podcasts into another form of audio, and it plans to introduce a store where you’d pay Spotify for individual titles.  “We believe that audiobooks in their many different forms will be a massive opportunity,” CEO Daniel Ek said Wednesday, speaking at an investor presentation. “Just as we’ve …

What’s happening The Roku Channel is adding a centralized hub for all kinds of Spanish-language programming to stream. Why it matters Spanish speakers will have a simpler time finding streaming content for them. Roku on Monday launched a Spanish-language section in The Roku Channel, its free ad-supported hub for streaming video. Calling the new offering Espacio Latino, Roku said the section is …

Disney said Friday it’s hired Mark Bozon, an Apple veteran of 12 years focused on gaming, to lead the creative vision for the Disney metaverse.  Bozon, who most recently was Apple Arcade’s creative director for games, is joining Disney’s team focused on what the company calls Next Generation Storytelling, a new group aiming to help Disney’s entertainment bridge physical and virtual …

What’s happening Netflix ranks the popularity of its originals with all-time Most Popular charts, but last month it quietly changed the way it measures the watch time for some shows. The stats for those shows inflated dramatically. Why it matters For Netflix to launch a cheaper tier with ads, it must win over advertisers, and its measurement takes on new …

When Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore hit theaters in April, fans already started eyeing HBO Maxto stream it.  The COVID-19 pandemic upended how new movies are released, triggering an unprecedented wave of theatrical films being released on streaming services at the same time they hit cinemas. HBO Max streamed every Warner Bros. movie last year the same day it hit theaters, becoming synonymous …

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 hit theaters — and only theaters — on April 8. It began streaming on Paramount Plus on Monday night, just under seven weeks later. The pandemic upended how new movies got released in 2020 and 2021, triggering an unprecedented wave of theatrical films hitting cinemas and streaming services at the same time. This year, however, streaming …

Downton Abbey: A New Era, the latest feature-length film drawn from the popular period drama series, hit US theaters Friday. But fans who want to take it in from the comfort of home will need to wait a while before it’s available on a streaming service.  Last year, an unprecedented number of new theatrical movies streamed online the same day …

YouTube revealed some updates to its video player Wednesday, including a graph of the most replayed parts of the video you’re watching that’ll help viewers jump to moments that get the most replays. This was an experiment on youtube.com/new for YouTube’s paying Premium subscribers, and the company is making it available to all viewers watching on desktop or in its mobile apps.  YouTube’s …