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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.

June the 4th be with you.

Live-action Star Wars show The Acolyte will bring the High Republic era of the franchise to TV for the first time on June 4th.

StarWars.com announced the show’s premiere date with this less-than-subtle bloody lightsaber poster, reading “In an age of light a darkness rises.” Spoooooooky. Also, the site says to expect the series’ official teaser trailer tomorrow.


A picture of a concrete floor with a lightsaber laying on it, a streak of what looks like blood rising from it.
Seems... dark.
Image: Disney
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You can watch March Madness games for free in the Vision Pro.

The NCAA’s March Madness Live app is also getting a new, swipeable vertical video highlights feed.

The “Vision Pro compatibility” means the iPad app, so you won’t get any “spatial” features, but at least it’s there (unlike, say, YouTube). What, did the Samsung Gear VR app not do well or something?

The NCAA also says it’s offering “expanded live game radio” for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.


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Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver’s first trailer is even busier than its title.

If it’s been a while since you thought about Sofia Boutella in Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire as Imperium soldier Kora, there’s a solid chance Rebel Moon — Part Two The Scargiver’s new trailer will leave you more than a bit confused about what’s going on.

The movie hits Netflix on April 19th.


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All of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man movies are swinging back into theaters.

You can easily watch most of Sony’s live-action Spider-Man movies on Disney Plus if the mood strikes you. But if you’ve been yearning to see Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland’s Peters Parker back on the big screen, you’ll have a shot at catching all eight of the past Spidey films in select theaters beginning April 15th.


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If “Hulu for Sports” works, this guy could be the next Disney CEO.

There’s a lot in this Wall Street Journal profile of ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro. The switch to streaming; the Hulu for Sports plan; the battle over ever-more-expensive sports rights. But the undercurrent here is pretty clear: if ESPN can make all that work over the next couple of years, Pitaro might get Bob Iger’s office. (But that’s a really, really big if.)


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DirecTV will let you cut out local channels to save money.

The satellite company announced today that subscribers choosing its new “No Locals” package will save $12 a month.

The company helpfully suggests viewers drop local channels in the summer months to try it out and add them back in the fall. As Variety notes, that just so happens to be when the NFL, which is increasingly streaming in more places, picks up again.


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Prepare your final popcorn bowls for the last Twitch Prime Video Watch Party.

A Twitch help page says it’s ending the feature that lets people watch Amazon Prime Video and chat together on April 2nd, as its usage has “declined over the years” since its 2020 rollout.

The feature lives on for Prime Video subscribers. But if you and your friends want to watch Ricky Stanicky or whatever, the host will need to have an ad-free subscription.


Watch Parties

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This voice cast is looking sus.

We still don’t know much about the Among Us animated series, but the show has its crew, with a voice cast including Randall Park, Ashley Johnson, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Elijah Wood. Sounds like a group that would really love a pizza party.


A promotional photo of Ashley Johnson in the Among Us animated series.

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Image: CBS
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The sports streaming mega-service now has a CEO.

Pete Distad has been named CEO of the upcoming sports streaming service from ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Distad has had lengthy stints at both Apple — where he had a big hand in getting Apple TV Plus off the ground — and Hulu. He left Apple back in May.

The as-yet-unnamed service will launch this fall and is expected to cost around $50. “Pricing is going to be in the higher ranges of what people have talked about,” Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in early March.


Are we really going to ban TikTok?

On The Vergecast: what we do and don’t know about TikTok, why all the other apps are trying to be TikTok, and the photo scandal rocking the royals.

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Finally, a good use of AI.

Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry’s production companies are behind a documentary film for Prime Video about the only AI you can trust to be The Answer, Allen Iverson.

Now, through unprecedented access and personal stories, along with intimate interviews with family, friends, and fellow NBA players and coaches, Iverson shares a more reflective side of his present-day self, as he takes us on a journey through his storied history into the present day where he realizes his cultural impact long after his playing days have come to an end.


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Open wide for some soccer.

Apple is hoping to lure some new users to its MLS Season Pass service this weekend with a free trial. That means you can check out 14 games on March 16th and 17th without a subscription — the full schedule is here — and, yes, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are playing on Saturday.


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The cast of X-Men ‘97 want you to feel the hype.

It’s kind of telling how X-Men ‘97’s creator / showrunner Beau DeMayo isn’t featured in this new sizzle reel hyping up the show before its March 20th premiere, but the cast seems pretty excited to be back voicing their iconic roles.


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Owen Wilson will star in a new show on Apple TV Plus.

With Loki season two wrapped up, an unnamed 10-episode comedy written by Jason Keller (Ford v Ferrari) sounds like it could be worth a watch.

Starring Wilson in the lead role, the comedy follows Pryce Cahill, an over-the-hill, ex-pro golfer whose career was derailed prematurely 20 years ago. After he gets fired from his job at an Indiana sporting goods store and his wife walks out on him, Pryce hedges his bets entirely on a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom.

I’m hoping it’s the spiritual Happy Gilmore successor I’ve futilely prayed for over the years.


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The Boy and the Heron will soon stream on Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s longstanding partnership with GKids has given it the exclusive streaming rights to Studio Ghibli films since 2020, and now that the companies have renewed their deal, we can expect to see The Boy and the Heron hitting Max in the next few months.


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Paramount might have another potential suitor.

Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm that owns the majority of Yahoo, is discussing a takeover or asset purchase with Paramount, according to a report from Axios.

Rumors about a potential Paramount merger or sale have been swirling for months. Skydance Media is also reportedly in the running to purchase Paramount’s parent company, while Warner Bros. Discovery’s rumored deal is on pause. Meanwhile, reports suggest Comcast is looking into offering a Peacock streaming bundle with Paramount Plus as well.


The 2024 Vergecast streaming draft

What are the good streaming services? Why does Alex Cranz think Netflix is going to go away? What is Mubi, anyway? All the big questions on this episode of The Vergecast.

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Apple just hired away another advertising exec.

Joseph Cady, who previously served as NBCUniversal’s EVP of advanced advertising and partnerships, has joined Apple, according to a report from Business Insider.

The company also hired a few other people who worked with video ads at NBCU, Peacock, and FanDuel, Business Insider reports. Apple has been gradually building up its advertising team since last year, suggesting the company could be planning an ad-supported tier for Apple TV Plus.


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ESPN is putting Meta’s Quest Pro headsets to work with today’s animated NHL broadcast.

An alternate game feed on ESPN Plus, Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney Plus will present today’s Bruins vs. Penguins matchup as the NHL Big City Greens Classic 2. It goes beyond Nickelodeon’s slime-filled Super Bowl feed by using NHL EDGE positional data and Hawk-Eye optical tracking to turn real action into an animated version.

Sportico explains that to control their animated avatars, commentators have replaced the motion-capture suits they wore for the first game with Meta Quest Pro headsets.


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Some Spectrum customers now get ESPN Plus for free.

Charter’s Spectrum TV Plus customers can now access ESPN Plus (which usually costs $10.99 / month) with their cable subscription. It’s all part of the bundle Charter announced with Disney last year, which also brought Disney Plus to Spectrum customers in January.


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The latest Eli Roth joint is a six-episode VR series premiering on Meta’s Horizon Worlds.

The premiere episode of “Faceless Lady” will debut on April 4th at 5 pm PT on Meta’s social VR platform, with the remaining five episodes dropping every Thursday, Variety reports. This is the third scripted VR original that Roth and Crypt TV have made for Meta, following 2022’s “Haunted House: Trick-VR-Treat” and “Be Mine.”

Those without a Meta Quest headset can catch the first two episodes on Crypt TV’s Facebook page.


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Inside Out 2 is about to teach an entire generation of kids what ennui is.

Pixar’s first Inside Out film led with a cast of emotions most young viewers could probably identify as things they’d experienced themselves. But Inside Out 2’s introduction of feelings like Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), seems primed to leave teens with a new way of articulating that dreadful, existential je ne sais quoi they’re always feeling.

The film hits theaters on June 14th.


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3 Body Problem’s final trailer is a prelude to war.

The latest (and seemingly final) trailer for Netflix’s upcoming 3 Body Problem adaptation doesn’t quite spell out exactly what kind of mysterious threat plunges humanity as a whole into a panic. But it’s pretty clear that the Earth’s most brilliant minds are gearing up for a war they might not be able to win when 3 Body Problem debuts on March 21st.


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“If you build it great, they will come.”

At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco, Disney CEO Bob Iger summarized his gameplan for Marvel and Disney movies to get more butts into theater seats, as reported by Deadline:

“A lot of people think it’s audience [superhero] fatigue. It’s not audience fatigue. They want great films. And if you build it great, they will come,” he said. He noted that has made nearly $30 billion from 33 films. “We got to return to something akin to that. And I actually am confident that we will.”

A string of bad superhero movies certainly isn’t helping, though, even if they aren’t all from Disney.


The best entertainment of 2024

Our guide to the most interesting games, movies, and TV shows of the year.