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Four new 'Adventure Time' specials are heading to HBO Max
Just one week after it secured the rights to Studio Ghibli's back catalog, WarnerMedia's HBO Max has landed another much-loved animated franchise. Starting next year, the streaming service will be the exclusive home of four new Adventure Time specials, reports Variety.
HBO Max will stream 'Spirited Away' and other Studio Ghibli movies
HBO Max will be the streaming home for movies from the legendary Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli. Classics including Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle will be available to stream for the first time anywhere on the service.
How to get the most out of Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services
A Netflix or Hulu subscription alone won't cut it anymore. The streaming landscape is fracturing as bastions of old media rise up with their own services, offering a blend of originals and library material. Over the coming months, the streaming video options will multiply like Gremlins, as the likes of Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal and mobile platform Quibi hop into the game.
HBO Max will be the only place to stream ‘Big Bang Theory’
HBO Max is snatching up content ahead of its launch in the spring of 2020. After announcing that Friends -- one of Netflix's most-streamed shows -- would become an HBO Max exclusive, the Warner-owned service announced that it would be home to The Big Bang Theory as well. This is the first streaming contract for the show, and it'll last for five years.
WarnerMedia signs J.J. Abrams to a massive exclusive deal
WarnerMedia has emerged as the ultimate winner in a battle waged by several internet-focused companies to lock J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot into an overall content creation deal. The AT&T-owned media conglomerate has announced signing a wide-ranging agreement with Bad Robot chief J.J. Abrams and co-CEO Katie McGrath -- one that begins immediately and lasts until 2024. While neither side revealed the financial details behind the agreement, Variety says the deal is valued at a whopping $500 million. Sources told the publication that it could be worth even more if the projects that come out of it reach agreed-upon performance targets.
Second season of DC's 'Doom Patrol' will also stream on HBO Max
Those murmurs of WarnerMedia making DC Universe's shows more widely available? They're true. DC's Doom Patrol has been renewed for a second season, and it'll be available on both DC Universe and HBO Max when it resumes in 2020. The move will also bring the superhero series' first season to HBO Max. There's no word on other shows following suit, but this could be a test case. It wouldn't be surprising if other shows followed suit if viewership soared.
HBO Max will be the exclusive streaming home of 'Friends'
AT&T's WarnerMedia finally has a name for its streaming service -- and some unfortunate news for people hoping it would share some classic shows. The new platform will be named HBO Max, and will unsurprisingly use HBO's material as its base on top of originals and shows from other Warner networks. Most notably, that includes exclusive rights "at launch" to every episode of Friends -- true to its word, AT&T won't let Netflix and others share its classics. There are similar on-launch exclusives for Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Pretty Little Liars.
'Gremlins' is coming back as an animated series
Gremlins, the 1984 comedy horror film that famously spawned the PG-13 rating, is coming back. WarnerMedia has confirmed that it will produce an animated series called Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. Set in 1920s Shanghai, the 10-episode prequel, written by Tze Chun, will tell the story of the mysterious shop owner Mr. (Sam) Wing. The plot will follow 10-year-old Sam and street thief Elle, and detail how he met Gizmo, the adorable Mogwai who can morph into a not-so-adorable army of evil Gremlins.
Apple loses bidding war for J. J. Abrams' production studio
Don't look now, but a major Hollywood upset just happened... much to the chagrin of streaming outlets. Hollywood Reporter and Deadline sources say that AT&T-owned WarnerMedia is near closing a roughly $500 million deal with Bad Robot, the production studio from J. J. Abrams and his wife Katie McGrath. Bad Robot had reportedly entertained deals from internet-focused companies like Amazon, Apple and Netflix (plus conventional firms like Comcast and Sony), with tipsters claiming that Apple "came close" to landing the deal.
Streaming 'Dune' TV series will accompany the new movie
Dune fans have more to look forward to than a new movie and games. WarnerMedia has ordered a Dune: The Sisterhood series for its upcoming streaming service that will cover the mysterious Bene Gesserit order and its elaborate "superbeing" breeding program in the run-up to the events of the original Dune (and thus the movies). The show will have a clear spiritual connection to the 2020 film -- director Denis Villeneuve and writer Jon Spaihts will executive produce the show alongside Frank Herbert's family, with Villeneuve also heading up the pilot.
Hollywood has long-term Netflix deals it can't shake
If you listened to traditional media giants like Disney and AT&T's WarnerMedia, you'd think Netflix was about to become a ghost town as well-known movies and TV shows vanish forever. However, that's not entirely true. Bloomberg has learned that Netflix has far-reaching deals that could not only keep movies and shows on the service for a while, but restore some of them later on. Disney, for instance, reportedly brings its 2016-2018 movies (including Black Panther) back to Netflix starting in 2026 -- a very long wait, but it's not the permanent cutoff implied in the past.
AT&T will pull shows like 'Friends' from streaming rivals
Don't expect Warner-made shows like Friends to persist on existing streaming services once AT&T's WarnerMedia launches its offering. AT&T chief Randall Stephenson said at a JPMorgan conference that the company "will be bringing" many of its media rights back in-house to put those shows on its own as yet unnamed service. The platform will be a "significant driver" for the company over the next few years with "tens of millions" of customers, Stephenson said, and it reportedly needs exclusives to make that happen.
WarnerMedia may stream show debuts before they reach TV
AT&T's WarnerMedia may debut new episodes of popular shows on its upcoming streaming service, right before they hit cable. Sources told The Information that WarnerMedia wants to prioritize its streaming service going forward. Given the shift in media consumption towards streaming platforms, it's likely a strategic move on Warner's part. WarnerMedia did not respond to Engadget's request for confirmation of the news.
DC Universe scales back 'Swamp Thing' over 'creative differences'
Not all is well in DC Universe's rapidly growing... well, universe. Hollywood Reporter sources say Warner Bros. Television (part of the service's parent WarnerMedia) has cut its initial order for Swamp Thing from 13 episodes to 10 after running into "creative differences" with DC. It would still debut on May 31st -- DC has provided a teaser, shown below -- but the season wouldn't be as sprawling as originally planned. Both DC Universe and Warner Bros. have declined to comment on the apparent leak.
Hulu buys AT&T's stake, leaving Comcast and Disney as owners
Those rumors of AT&T ditching its stake in Hulu have proven true, although it didn't necessarily play out as expected. The telecom has reached a deal to sell its 9.5 percent stake in Hulu (worth about $1.43 billion) back to the joint venture. It's not certain exactly how this will shift the balance of power or affect content, but Hulu chief Randy Freer said AT&T's WarnerMedia would stay a "valued partner" for "years to come."
HBO CEO steps down in the wake of AT&T acquisition
Richard Plepler, the CEO of HBO, stepped down from his post on Thursday, according to the New York Times. Shortly after his departure was made public, Variety reported Turner television executive David Levy will also be leaving his company. The moves appear to mark a significant shakeup within Time Warner, the parent company of HBO. The changes come just months after AT&T acquired the media company for $85.4 billion.
AT&T's streaming service won't have original shows until 2020
AT&T is continuing the trickle of information about its upcoming WarnerMedia streaming service, and this time it's more specific about the kind of content you'll get. TBS and TNT President Kevin Reilly told guests at a Television Critics Association event that the beta version of the service launching in 2019 won't have originals -- you'll have to wait until 2020 for that. It would, however, offer some of its most coveted shows. Reilly said you could expect the company to ultimately host its "crown jewels," and might even yank must-have shows like Friends away from Netflix -- it's "not a good model" to share productions like that, he said.
Criterion's classic film streaming service arrives April 8th
Criterion's curated selection of films will be available for you to stream again in a few short months. The standalone Criterion Channel service will arrive on April 8th in the US and Canada, and you'll be able to stream the movies on desktop, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku, iOS and Android.
AT&T’s forthcoming streaming service so far sounds a lot like Hulu
We're learning more about how AT&T's WarnerMedia streaming service will pan out as it inches closer to launch. The platform -- which will play host to Warner Bros. TV shows and movies along with licensed content from others -- will use a "two-sided model" that includes subscriptions and ad-supported elements, according to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson (via Deadline). That sounds an awful lot like the options offered by Hulu, which recently announced that it's slashing the price of its basic tier (the one with ads) from $8 to $6 per month -- a move that was viewed as an overt jab at Netflix's price hike.
AT&T's WarnerMedia streaming service will include three plans
When AT&T's WarnerMedia-themed streaming service arrives in late 2019, you may have to think about how much you want -- not just whether or not you want it in the first place. In a presentation discussing its 2019 strategy, the company noted that there would be three plans offering varying levels of content. The "entry" tier would be focused on movies, while the "premium" tier would offer more of what you're actually looking for, including "premium & popular" original shows as well as "blockbuster" flicks. And if you're determined to go all-out, a "bundle" tier would throw in classics, kids' programming, niche material and other extras.
