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Comcast has made its entry into the smart-TV sector official, announcing the launch of XClass TV, a Hisense-built set designed for streaming and offering access to Peacock Premium. The first XClass TVs from Hisense will be in select Walmart stores this week and in the coming weeks through Walmart.com, the company…

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the No. 2 owner of local TV stations in the U.S., says its operations were hit by a cyberattack. In an SEC filing, the company disclosed that it had identified a “potential security incident” over the weekend. The company discovered that “certain servers and workstations” in its environment…

The Television Academy on Thursday unveiled winners of the 73rd Engineering Emmy Awards, which honor the best in broadcast tech. Along with eight recipients of Emmy statues this year, the organization said Reed Hastings will receive the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award and Dolby Laboratories the Philo T…

A new venture by Snap Inc. will pay creators for coming up with popular responses to Spotlight Challenges, a new addition to the social network’s user-generated platform. Challenges will involve using specific lenses or sounds as well as addressing certain topics. “Whether it be your best trick shot or your funniest…

UPDATED with service mostly restored. Facebook has given an official all-clear, but service appears to be returning for most users of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp after a multi-hour outage. The social media platforms went dark in much of the U.S., the UK and parts of Europe this morning. The timing generated a a…

Ahead of its FanDome virtual event next month, DC has teamed with Palm NFT Studio to produce its first collection of non-fungible tokens. In announcing the move, the WarnerMedia division said the offerings “highlight the company's legendary history, breadth of characters and diversity of storytelling.” DC Publisher…

YouTube has removed the accounts of anti-vaccine activists Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Joseph Mercola and others as part of a crackdown on misinformation. Kennedy had already been booted off Instagram last February for continually spreading false information about Covid-19 vaccines. Before the pandemic, he had already been…

The Tribeca Festival is combining its games and immersive verticals and promoting Casey Baltes to oversee the merged entity. The upping of Baltes follows the departure of longtime Tribeca Immersive curator and VP Loren Hammonds. The two arenas, which have had a home at Tribeca over the past decade, are part of the…

As the effort to improve TV advertising measurement intensifies, ViacomCBS has partnered with software and data firm VideoAmp in a deal to provide alternative currency for ad transactions. Media companies have lately been at odds with Nielsen, the dominant measurement firm. The friction has increased since the company…

TikTok, the social video platform that has captivated young audiences and run afoul of the Trump Administration, has surpassed 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. The current user level represents a 45% leap from mid-2020. The company, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate ByteDance, announced the milestone in…

A new interactive experience based on the Men in Black films is the latest offering to be added by LA-based virtual reality firm Dreamscape. The company, whose CEO and co-founder is producer and former studio exec Walter Parkes, said Men in Black: First Assignment will debut October 1 at its flagship location at…

Quibi may be gone, but the legal battles over the doomed Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman run short-form subscription video service have continued – until now. A year and a half after Elliott Management-backed interactive-video company Eko accused the then soon-to-launch Quibi of stealing the technology behind the…