Entertainment

The Walt Disney Company, the American multinational entertainment and mass media conglomerate, has reportedly announced that its over-the-top (OTT) services have surpassed that of long-time rival, Netflix.

According to the company’s earnings announcement made on Wednesday, Disney Plus supposedly added 14.4 million subscribers in the third quarter of the current fiscal year to reach a total of 152.1 million subscribers.

For the record, this figure is far beyond the industry consensus of 147.7 million.

All in all, considering the two other video streaming services of Disney, namely Hulu and

Netflix, the American streaming service giant, reportedly lost about 1 million subscribers this spring due to rising competition and soaring levels of inflation that is pressuring household budgets. This has further elevated the urgency with which the video streaming giant is putting efforts to introduce a low-cost alternative option that contains commercial breaks.

As per reports, the shedding of 970,000 accounts, disclosed on Tuesday as part of Netflix's second-quarter financial report, is by far the firm's worst quarterly subscriber loss in its 25-year history. However, it could have been worse given that Netflix management had issued an estimate in April wher

Fierce competition among over-the-top (OTT) platforms in South Korea has reportedly led domestic streaming firms to band together in an attempt to challenge the market leader, Netflix.

With domestic firms increasing their user base through mergers, the dominance of the streaming market in Korea will now boil down to a competition over who can provide better and more original content, according to industry analysts and officials on Monday.

On July 14, the telecommunications operator KT stated that it had reached an agreement with CJ ENM to merge Seezn, its streaming service platform, with CJ ENM's Tving platform.

TikTok is reportedly testing games in its video-sharing app in Vietnam, which is part of the company's push into the gaming arena. One of the most popular platforms for video-sharing is aiming to make gaming a part of its platform to boost its advertising revenue and provide more screen time for its users.

Sources claimed that investors got attracted to Vietnam as it has over 70% tech-savvy population under the age group of 35, making the country a desirable market for several social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Even parent company ByteDance has plans to expand its gaming offerings in Southeast Asia, which could happen as early as the third

Netflix has reportedly announced that it has laid-off over 150 employees, mainly U.S. staffers, to alleviate the increasing strain of costs in face of a slowing growth in revenues.

A spokesperson of Netflix, in an email, stated that as the company experiences a reduction in earnings, it needs to subsequently reduce the amount of cost required for its growth. The company expressed deep sorrow over its decision to let go of approximately 150 of its employees, primarily from the U.S. pool.

The spokesperson added that such difficult decisions are taken in terms of the business needs and not individual performance. The company will suppo

South Korean Internet giant, Kakao Corporation, has reportedly signed an agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to construct the country’s first and largest concert arena dedicated to K-pop performances.

The construction of the multicultural complex, named Seoul Arena, will start in June and is expected to finish by October 2025.

Seoul Arena will be located in the capital city’s northern Dobong-gu district and will have the capacity to accommodate over 20,000 attendees for each event.

As per Kakao, the arena will be comprised of venues specialized for music concerts and have aro

The antitrust regulator of the European Union has reportedly approved American giant Amazon’s proposed takeover of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for $8.5 billion. Due in part because MGM's content cannot be classified as ‘must-have’.

According to reports, the acquisition is currently still awaiting approval from the United States FTC.

The European Commission approved the agreement proposed in May 2021 earlier this week. The commission stated that the deal will pose no concerns of competition in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The European Commission concluded that the deal would n

Art auctions reportedly witnessed a record year in 2021 as sales reached $17.1 billion with the market growing rapidly in Asia while recovering from the pandemic slump, according to experts at Artprice, a French online art price database.

As per Artprice’s annual report, the numbers were up by more than 60% from the year prior, when sales were affected due to the initial disruptions caused by the coronavirus, and a 28% rise from 2019.

The boost in sales can also be credited to several big-name auctions held, such as the sale of $45 million of Botticelli’s artwork and the sale of $34.9 million of Frida Kahlo’s artwork i

Online retail supermajor, Amazon, has reportedly suspended its Prime Video service for Russia-based customers amid Ukraine’s invasion by the country.

In its announcement via a blog post, the company also stated that shipments of retail products to Russia and Belarus-based customers has been suspended and that it will not accept new Amazon Web Services customers as well as Amazon third-party sellers based in the two countries.

Amazon will also not be accepting orders for the only video game it directly sold in Russia, New World.

The e-commerce company said that it has taken additional actions in