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Here's something that should scare cable TV: the steadily growing indifference of teens

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55% of US teens don't see the need for a cable or satellite TV subscription, and that number has been steadily rising since 2012, according to new research by Piper Jaffray.

On Monday, Piper Jaffray released the results of its semi-annual survey of teens, and both Netflix and YouTube came in ahead of cable TV in popularity. Piper Jaffray asked about 5,500 teens, "What percent of your time do you spend watching video across these platforms?" On average, the teens responded that they spent 38% of their time on Netflix, 26% on YouTube, and 23% on cable TV. Amazon and Hulu came in much lower at 3% and 4% respectively.

But the bad news for cable TV isn't just that Netflix and YouTube are more popular, but that in recent years, teens have begun to view cable as disposable. In 2012, only 32% of teens surveyed thought they could ditch cable and still get all the video they wanted online. In 2017, that number has reached 55%.

Here is a table that shows the progress:

Screen Shot 2017 04 10 at 8.36.54 AM

This table underscores a growing divide between older and younger generations on how they consume media.

A recent comScore report looked at the total amount of hours Americans spent with TV and digital media in 2016, and as you move down the age range, there is a stark shift away from live TV and toward digital. Much of that is thanks to smartphones, as desktop digital media usage actually decreases in the 18-34 age range (compared to 35-54).

Here is the chart from comScore:

screen shot 2017 03 22 at 93707 am

Services like YouTube and Netflix, which make it easy to consume on all platforms, seem to be benefitting from this shift.

In a recent survey of US college students, commissioned by LendEDU, only 8% of respondents said they didn't have a Netflix account. This doesn't mean young people actually pay for Netflix, with 54% saying they use a friend’s or family member’s account. But that is still an astonishing level of audience penetration.

And when taken together, these data points suggest that Netflix and YouTube are becoming must-have services for young Americans, at the same time that cable TV is becoming less so.

SEE ALSO: Only 8% of college students don't have Netflix, and that's a great sign for the company's future

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NOW WATCH: A viral video shows inside a 500-foot-high glass-bottom swimming pool that hangs over the street


18 TV shows you're watching that are probably going to be canceled

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new girl ratings season 6

It's about that time in the season when TV networks decide which shows have to go and which get another round. The pilot shows are being reviewed, and announcements will trickle in over the next few weeks.

The choices aren't always simple. With today's shrinking live viewership, more than just ratings factor into whether a TV show survives to see another season.

Among other things, networks are now looking at online, on-demand, and streaming viewership; awards appeal; social media audiences; and international sales.

Among the shows in danger of being canceled are last year's hits "Quantico" and "Blindspot," the long-running "New Girl," and a couple of spin-offs that didn't live up to the hype.

Here are Business Insider's predictions for the shows that will get the ax:

SEE ALSO: Every Marvel TV show ranked from worst to best, according to critics

DON'T MISS: The 18 worst new TV shows of the year so far, according to critics

"The Odd Couple" (CBS)

In December, CBS decided for the third season in a row not to order more than 13 episodes of the comedy, starring Matthew Perry. The show is CBS's lowest-rated comedy, so it's looking like a breakup is ahead for "The Odd Couple."

And if all that wasn't enough of a message from CBS to the show, there's this tweet from Perry:



"The Blacklist" (NBC)

"The Blacklist" may finally get the boot from NBC. For years, it was highly acclaimed by critics and creatives in Hollywood. James Spader was a real awards draw as well. But NBC is back on top of the all-important ratings, and "The Blacklist" is its lowest-rated returning show.

What's strange is that NBC produced a spin-off, "The Blacklist: Redemption." As you'll see in a bit, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.



"The Blacklist: Redemption" (NBC)

What's the sense in creating a spin-off of a show that has already overstayed its welcome? That's a question NBC executives should probably answer about "The Blacklist: Redemption." "The Blacklist" and its spin-off are both treading water. At the moment, "Redemption" is NBC's lowest-rated drama.



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Marvel’s next ‘Thor’ movie looks like an incredible intergalactic adventure

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Marvel just dropped the first trailer for "Thor: Ragnarok" and it looks incredible. Thor, Loki, and the other Asgardians are all back, and the trailer even shows off Gladiator Hulk and Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster! The movie is scheduled to hit theaters in the US on November 3rd, 2017.

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John Oliver made an ad for 'The O'Reilly Factor' to teach Trump about sexual harassment

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john oliver donald trump bill oreilly fox news last week tonight hbo

Though John Oliver was bothered by it, he wasn't shocked by Donald Trump's defense of Bill O'Reilly amid ongoing allegations of sexual harassment.

“Nobody gets to be surprised by that, because it is entirely plausible that the hill our president is willing to die on is the one formed by Bill O'Reilly’s workplace erection poking up against his old-man slacks,” Oliver said on Sunday's episode of HBO's "Last Week Tonight."

Last week, Trump made his comments about O'Reilly while there was an exodus of more than 20 advertisers from Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor." That gave Oliver an idea.

"Bill O'Reilly needs advertisers and Donald Trump needs to understand sexual harassment," Oliver said. "And here is where we come in."

Fans of the show will remember that Oliver previously hatched a unique plan to "educate" Trump in February. He bought advertising time to run commercials on several cable-news channels. Noting POTUS' apparent addiction to watching and commenting on cable-news stories, Oliver was sure Trump would see them. Well, the host is doing it again.

"We have produced an ad to educate Donald Trump, to air during 'The O’Reilly Factor' in New York and D.C.," Oliver said. "We submitted it to stations on Friday. But weirdly, we haven't heard back from them since, which is a little surprising because we are one of the only advertisers willing to buy time on his show at the moment."

Fearing that the stations will reject the commercial, Oliver gave his viewers a sneak peek at the ad. Like before, it features the "Catheter Cowboy," who starts speaking about catheter tips before slipping in an educational message for the president.

This time, the cowboy tells the president he's doing damage to victims of sexual harassment when he defends someone who's being accused of offenses toward women, such as O'Reilly.

Watch the commercial below:

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert calls out Trump strategist Steve Bannon for his 'total cuck move'

DON'T MISS: Samantha Bee: Why Ivanka Trump is not 'your secret progressive buddy'

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NOW WATCH: 'Just a loose hunch': Watch Alec Baldwin impersonate Trump and Bill O'Reilly on 'SNL'

The New York townhouse where Taylor Swift once lived for $40,000 a month is now up for grabs for $24.5 million

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tswift cornelia street

Back in June 2016, Taylor Swift rented out a charming New York townhouse while her Tribeca loft was undergoing renovations. The West Village carriage house came with a high price tag: $39,500 in rent a month.

But now that Swift has apparently vacated the home, the owner, investor David Aldea, has listed it for sale for $24.5 million, according to Curbed.

It has five bedrooms, two living rooms, a private garage, and a swimming pool.

Corcoran now has the listing.

Matthew Nitch Smith contributed reporting to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: San Francisco's new most expensive home is this $40 million spec house on Billionaire's Row

The property has many bedrooms. This one has floor-to-ceiling windows that give a glorious view of Manhattan's West Village.

Source: Corcoran



This bedroom is a bit more baroque, with lounge lighting and a fancy chandelier.

Source: Corcoran



This guest bedroom would count as a decent-sized master bedroom by most New York standards.

Source: Corcoran



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Disney rules the list of movies teens are excited for in the next year (DIS)

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Disney's live-action reboot of "Beauty and the Beast" is poised to cross $1 billion at the global box office, and its studio is set to have a monster year, according to Piper Jaffray.

On Monday, Piper Jaffray released its semi-annual survey of US teens, and Disney ruled the list of most anticipated films in that key demographic.

"Our survey points to another solid 12 months for the Disney studio," Piper Jaffray wrote. "Disney films dominated the most anticipated list with 'Beauty and the Beast,' 'Star Wars,' 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' grabbing the #2, #3 and #4 spots."

Here is the full graphic:

Screen Shot 2017 04 10 at 10.37.46 AM

Disney's blockbuster deal with Netflix also continues to align it with the minds of teens.

"From September onwards, Netflix will become the exclusive US pay TV home of the latest films from Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar," Netflix announced last yearIn the Piper Jaffray survey, Netflix came out as the top video platform, ahead of both YouTube and cable TV.

And the success of "Beauty and the Beast" bodes well for Disney's overall strategy. Disney has a whopping 22 live-action movies of its animated classics planned.

SEE ALSO: Netflix is 12 times as popular as its streaming competitors among younger viewers

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The new documentary 'Risk' goes deep inside the world of Julian Assange — here's the trailer

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Risk trailer Neon final

Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras is following up her Oscar-winning look at NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, "Citizenfour," with a movie about another globally controversial figure: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

Made over six years, including through the 2016 presidential election, Poitras' movie "Risk" examines Assange with up-close access and the headline-grabbing leaks his site is responsible for. But it's also being touted as a "geopolitical thriller," as the documentary touches on Poitras' own experiences with government surveillance (Poitras has been monitored by the US government since making her 2006 movie "My Country, My Country"). 

WikiLeaks was constantly in the news through the presidential election, as the site leaked emails from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign. It's still unclear what (if any) relationship the site and Assange's leaks had with Russia, which the US intelligence community says was behind hacking in the election.

"Risk" first premiered at 2016's Cannes Film Festival in May, but with WikiLeaks' involvement in the election and some other new developments, Poitras updated the film to spotlight the latest developments. 

Watch the trailer below. The movie opens in theaters through Neon and will then air on Showtime this summer.

 

SEE ALSO: The 15 worst Netflix original shows, ranked

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NOW WATCH: Sony and Marvel just dropped another 'Spider-Man' trailer — and it looks amazing

Daniel Craig is reportedly open to doing 'one more Bond movie'

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daniel craig james bond spectre

The saga of "will he or won't he?" that has centered on Daniel Craig's possible return as James Bond may be finally coming to a close. 

Sources tell Page Six that Bond producer Barbara Broccoli has "just about persuaded" Craig to come on board for one more movie. 

What seems to have gotten Craig to warm up to the idea is the success of his recent Off-Broadway production of "Othello," which Broccoli produced. 

“Daniel was very pleased with how ‘Othello’ went and the great reviews," a source told Page Six. "Now Daniel’s talks with Barbara are going in the right direction. They have a script — screenwriting duo Neal Purvis and Robert Wade [who’ve penned several Bond movies] are writing and they’ll go into production as soon as Daniel is ready to commit.”

The scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours tactic is a favorite in Hollywood and this seems to be what might bring Craig back to play 007 for a fifth time, following the massive success of the two most recent entries in the franchise, "Skyfall" and "Spectre."

After "Spectre," Bond told a reporter that he would "rather break this glass and slash my wrists" than play Bond again.

Page Six also noted that Broccoli did entertain the idea of hiring "The Night Manager" star Tom Hiddleston as a new Bond, but according to a source, she didn't like him because "he’s a bit too smug and not tough enough to play James Bond."

MGM declined to comment for this story.

SEE ALSO: Ranked: The 28 best car crashes in movie history

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NOW WATCH: Warner Bros. might have to pay $900 million if it can't prove ghosts are real


How Eddie Murphy became an overnight star when he made his first movie in 1982

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48 hrs paramount

Three years after director Walter Hill made the cult classic “The Warriors” he popularized the buddy-cop movie with the hugely successful “48 Hrs” (1982), which is responsible for exploding the genre to this day.

The movie stars Nick Nolte as a hard-nosed cop who has to team with a convict, played by Eddie Murphy, to solve a case. The movie is fueled by the love-hate relationship between Nolte and Murphy’s characters.

Thinking back on the movie, Hill says the thing that stands out most was watching the evolution of Murphy from popular “Saturday Night Live” cast member to movie star, more or less overnight.

"I thought he was sensational and I thought it might work," Hill recently told Business Insider, while promoting his new movie “The Assignment” (in theaters).

Hill had watched footage of Murphy on "SNL" while thinking over casting for "48 Hrs."

"I sent it up to the powers that be at the studio saying I would go with Eddie if they would go," he said.

At first, Hill admits, he had a different actor in mind.

A few years before Paramount pulled the trigger on the movie, Hill wrote a draft of the script and suggested that the studio should hire Richard Pryor to play the wise-cracking convict. Hill said that by the time he was hired to direct the movie, Pryor had become too big of a star for the role.

Walter Hill photo credit by Nicolas AprouxBy the end of shooting “48 Hrs.,” Hill said he knew that Murphy would be as big of a star as Pryor. But leading up to production, he only saw Murphy as a gifted comic who had never acted in a movie before, and that led to him giving his more polished actor Nolte a harsh direction.

"I came back from New York, I had met Eddie, he couldn't come to LA because he was so busy on the show, and I said to Nick, 'Look, he's a great talent but he's not a trained actor so Nick buddy this is the way it's going to be, it's going to be like working with a little kid or a dog — the one take that's good we're going to have to print it. So that means you have to be good every take,'" Hill told us with a laugh.

"Oh, that's not fair, Walt, goddammit," Nolte responded, according to Hill.

"And I said, 'I know you shouldn't have to but that's the way it's going to be,'" Hill said.

"He and Eddie got along great," the director added. "They loved each other. In fact, they would attack me on set every day complaining about the script, but it was fun."

It turned out to work well for everyone. The movie was one of the biggest box-office earners of 1982, it made A-list names out of both Murphy and Nolte, and it spawned a sequel in 1990.

SEE ALSO: The director of classics "The Warriors" and "48 Hrs." looks back on his legendary career

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Britney Spears is ending her massively successful Las Vegas show

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britney spears las vegas showgirls

Britney Spears announced that she will be ending her Las Vegas show, "Piece of Me," at the end of this year.

"The last #PieceOfMe dates... ever," Spears wrote on Instagram Monday alongside the remaining dates of the residency. "Saying goodbye to this show is going to be SO hard."

Spears elaborated on departing from the residency, which allows her to avoid the grueling travel of international touring.

"As I prepare to say goodbye to 'Piece of Me,' I had no idea how magical this experience would be," the 35-year-old singer told E! News in a statement. "Having my fans from around the world come see my show has been amazing. I love Las Vegas and will miss performing this show."

The final performances will run from September 3 to December 31. Tickets go on sale Friday.

The last #PieceOfMe dates... ever. Saying goodbye to this show is going to be SO hard 💜 Tix on sale 4/14 at 10am PT

A post shared by Britney Spears (@britneyspears) on Apr 10, 2017 at 7:05am PDT on

Spears has performed the show at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino since December 2013 and has made more than $100 million in ticket sales, according to Billboard.

The decision to leave the show at the end of her contract with Caesars Entertainment, which owns Planet Hollywood, doesn't necessarily mean Spears won't continue to perform in Las Vegas.

"We are done with this show, and our next move is undecided," Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, told The Las Vegas Review-Journal. "We are still talking with Caesars Entertainment and other interested parties in Las Vegas."

Rudolph also said Spears is considering other options.

"She might tour, she might work on a new album. It's too early to talk specifics about anything," he said.

SEE ALSO: Barry Manilow comes out after a 40-year secret gay relationship

DON'T MISS: Why 'missing' Richard Simmons really disappeared, according to his brother

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NOW WATCH: Britney Spears Is Back And Just Launched Her Own Lingerie Line At Fashion Week

The reviews of 'The Fate of the Furious' are here, and critics are calling it 'so awesome'

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the rock f8 fate of the furious

Can you believe the "Fast and Furious" franchise has been around for 16 years?

It's still going as fast and as furious as ever. "The Fate of the Furious" (opening Friday) is fun, according to the early reviews from critics trickling out, but with Dom (Vin Diesel) turning on the family he's so obsessed with talking about all the time, the new movie takes a darker turn than any of the other seven films in the franchise.

It also takes things to the next level. The eighth installment is getting generally positive though somewhat mixed reviews (it has a 75% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing). But while it may not be the best of the franchise, fans will delight in plonking down money to see a scene in which Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson catches a torpedo with his bare hands (yes, really). Oh, and there's a submarine chase in the Arctic. Because after seven "Fast and Furious" movies, cars and tanks are not enough. 

Here's what the critics are saying about "The Fate of the Furious":

SEE ALSO: All the 'Game of Thrones' deaths, ranked from least tragic to most tragic

It's exactly what fans of the franchise love and expect.

"A soap opera that just happens to cost millions of dollars and feature souped-up sports cars jumping over submarines." —Time Out

"The Fate of the Furious provides plenty of the high-octane escapism and ridiculously elaborate vehicular mayhem fans of the series expect." —IGN

"A dazzling action spectacle that proves this franchise is far from out of gas." —Variety



Some agree that after eight films, the franchise is getting a little tired.

"The plot twists suggest the kind of games that 11-year-old boys put together on the playground during recess, with women in peril and so many different parts for everyone to play that you begin to lose track of who everybody is." —The Wrap

"If you've spent the last sixteen years investing in the family and their ragtag tapestry, you might find yourself a little disappointed." —Collider



Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson, both newer additions to the franchise, keep it interesting.

"Thankfully, it's frequently also much funnier and lighter on its feet than previous outings, and a lot of that credit goes to Statham and Johnson, whose love-hate bromance feels like the real core of the movie." —Entertainment Weekly



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PewDiePie has a new show — but it's not on YouTube (GOOG, AMZN)

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The biggest star on YouTube — by a long shot— is Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg.

PewDiePie

He's a handsome Swedish guy who's best known for producing, editing, and starring in videos that focus on video games.

He's got over 50 million subscribers and his videos routinely enjoy millions (if not tens of millions) of views.

PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg) on YouTube

Sometimes he rants about stuff he's passionate about — whether that's YouTube culture or the media's representation of him or something else — but he's notorious for creating "Let's Play" videos of various video games.

He's also notorious for poking the hornet's nest every now and again. And that final quality has led to some problems for Kjellberg's lucrative career in video production.

For instance: After a recent spat with The Wall Street Journal in whichKjellberg was accused of creating racist content, YouTube-owned Maker Studios got cold feet about its relationship with him and cut ties.

Kjellberg's show "Scare PewDiePie" for YouTube Red, the company's premium streaming service, was canceled.

YouTube also broke ties with Kjellberg financially, cutting him out of the crucial "preferred advertising program" (which affords higher revenue shares to YouTube's biggest video producers).

pewdiepie flip

Much of his provocation stems from the open nature of YouTube.

Unlike television, YouTube is an open service where you can post (pretty much) whatever you want. This open culture, combined with Kjellberg's outsized comparative audience, puts him in a unique position: He's got a massive, loyal following that YouTube can't ignore.

So when YouTube advertisers pulled their ad dollars from the service recently — once again, after a Wall Street Journal report, where it was revealed that YouTube was serving ads on overtly racist and offensive content (not anything from Kjellberg) — Kjellberg took to his studio and addressed the problem:

"The reason why people love YouTube is because it's free, and it's open, and you can say whatever you want. It's not like television, where everything is behind executive producers and people saying, 'No you can't say that! Because then we'll do this!' It seems like YouTube is forced to turn into television at this point. That's gonna be bad for everyone. You want YouTube to continue being a free platform. I want YouTube to continue being a free platform. I understand that advertisers need to feel like they're spending money and it doesn't show up on racist videos. I understand that 100%. That's a terrible thing. But the whole thing is just so massively overblown."

To be clear, Kjellberg isn't excusing the racist content; he's pointing out the strong reaction advertisers are having to a handful of racist videos among the billions of YouTube videos online.

Because those advertisers pulled out of YouTube entirely, anyone making a living off ads on YouTube is no longer making money. More specifically — because YouTube does a poor job of policing offensive content — anyone making videos that aren't so nakedly offensive (like Kjellberg) is losing out on money from advertisers pulling their ads from the whole service.

And because of that — combined with some other recent changes YouTube made to its ad policy — Kjellberg says YouTube is "over." He's serious enough about it that his new show, called "Best Club," is being streamed on Twitch.

Best Club (Felix

Kjellberg isn't shutting down his "PewDiePie" YouTube channel.

He points out in his latest video (titled "YOUTUBEISOVERPARTY") that he was planning on streaming more stuff regardless. Then again, YouTube has its own live video-streaming service.

That Kjellberg chose Twitch, an Amazon-owned competitor to YouTube, says a lot by itself.

Is YouTube — the outrageously popular online video service — "over"? Probably not.

Even without Kjellberg, hundreds of millions of people use YouTube to watch videos of all types. But it may be "over" in a cultural sense, as the service attempts a pivot toward paid TV offerings. As that shift continues, expect to see more of YouTube's homemade personalities either move to other services or adapt toward more produced, advertiser-friendly content.

SEE ALSO: YouTube's biggest star is in hot water over anti-Semitic 'jokes' — here's what's going on

DON'T MISS: PewDiePie taught YouTube a valuable lesson

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NOW WATCH: Why 32 Million People Are Obsessed With 'PewDiePie' — The Biggest Star On YouTube

How 'Star Wars' is going to deal with Carrie Fisher's death in the new trilogy's last movie

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All systems are go on Princess Leia appearing in at least two more "Star Wars" movie following Carrie Fisher's untimely death, which came after her filming for "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."

Carrie Fisher's brother, Todd, told The New York Daily News that he and Carrie's daughter, Billie Lourd, have granted Disney the right to use footage of the actress for "Star Wars: Episode IX," the film in the saga following the upcoming "Last Jedi." "Episode IX" is the last in the new Disney-era "Star Wars" trilogy.

“Both of us were like, ‘Yes, how do you take her out of it?’ And the answer is you don't,” Todd Fisher said.

Carrie Fisher died on December 27 last year following a heart attack, but by then she had completed shooting all her scenes for "Last Jedi" (opening in theaters December 15). Questions have since swirled about whether her likeness will be used digitally in future "Star Wars" movies to keep the Leia storyline going. 

A younger version of Leia was featured in "Rogue One," along with a CGI version of Grand Moff Tarkin. (The actor who played Tarkin in "Star Wars: A New Hope," Peter Cushing, died in 1994.)

But Disney head Bob Iger has confirmed that the franchise will not create a CGI Leia going forward. 

Todd Fisher did not say if the Leia character will definitely be featured in "Episode IX," though it seems very likely since Disney got the approval. The movie is currently in preproduction with a release planned for 2019. 

SEE ALSO: How religious movies are thriving more than ever before under Trump

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A former WWE writer reveals how Vince McMahon is different from every other CEO

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Over the last four decades, WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon conquered the world of sports entertainment. His company fought off nearly every competitor that attempted to unseat it, and WWE's victory can all be traced back to one man: McMahon. Not only does McMahon oversee the business and marketing affairs of the publicly-traded company, he also gives the final sign-off when it comes to the product's creative direction.

We talked to Jeff Ashworth, editor of
"The WWE Official Book of Rules," which was written by Jeremy Brown, Trevor Courneen, and Carlos Mejia and illustrated by Nick Harran. Ashworth worked as a digital writer for WWE from 2009 to 2012, and he offers unique insight into how hands-on McMahon is in what seems to be every aspect of WWE as a company.

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Magic Leap purchased a startup founded by former Apple employees, and looked into buying an Oscar-winning animation studio

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Rony Abovitz, CEO of augmented reality startup Magic Leap, waves during the first day of the annual Allen and Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho July 8, 2015.  REUTERS/Mike Blake

Magic Leap is beefing up its ranks with artists and animators from an Oscar-winning studio and veteran game designer, in a sign that the $4.5 billion company believes content could play a critical role in the success of its highly-anticipated "mixed reality" product.

Magic Leap's special glasses, which overlay detailed digital imagery on top of the real world, have wowed the tech industry's leading personalities and attracted healthy investments from Google and Qualcomm, among others. 

Magic Leap is expected to ship as some form of its headset later this year, at a price between $1,000 - $2,000.

But even as Magic Leap continues to work on perfecting its hardware, the startup has concluded that it will need plenty of breathtaking content for consumers to experience once they put on its glasses. 

That's one of the reasons why Magic Leap purchased FuzzyCube Software, Business Insider has learned, and looked into buying an Oscar and Emmy winning animation company called Moonbot Studios in the fall. The acquisition talks with Moonbot didn't lead to a sale, but Magic Leap did end up hiring around a dozen of its artists and animators, who now work out of Magic Leap's Florida headquarters.

FuzzyCube Software, the smaller of the two studios, is based out of Dallas, Texas, and was founded by former Apple employees, including Jeff Ruediger. A creator of casual iPhone and iPad games including "BoomTown!!" and "Chemo Calc," the founders have also worked in the games industry on projects like "Halo Wars" and "Age of Empires 3."

The FuzzyCube team was first connected to Magic Leap through Magic Leap's chief creative officer, Graeme Devine, who left Apple in 2010. The team knew Devine from their time at Apple. After Magic Leap purchased the startup in the spring of last year, the developers joined Magic Leap's larger content group, which employs hundreds of animators, artists, and developers. The price of the acquisition could not be learned, but was probably relatively modest given that the company's team was less than ten employees. The FuzzCube team continues to work out of Dallas.

Fantastic flying books and complex talks

Magic Leap also explored a larger acquisition with Moonbot Studios, a highly esteemed animation company that employed around 50 artists and animators when the talks with Magic Leap began. The animation studio's "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2012, and the studio made the Oscar short list again in 2014 for its short film "The Numberlys." That same year, Moonbot Studios won two Emmy Awards for a commercial it made for Chipotle called 'The Scarecrow."

Brandon Oldenburg Flight School Moonbot Studios William Bill Joyce

But with its funding from private investors — including the oil company Anderson Oil — used up, Moonbot and Magic Leap discussed a potential acquisition in late 2016, multiple sources at the company and those familiar with the talks told Business Insider. Magic Leap's CEO and founder Rony Abovitz is a fan of the studio and its work, according to sources at Magic Leap.

A sources familiar with the talks cited "complex" issues with Moonbot's intellectual property as a potential reason the talks didn't solidify into a sale. Magic Leap and Moonbot both declined to comment.

Cheaper by the dozen

Instead of an acquisition, Magic Leap hired about a dozen Moonbot artists and animators — none of which included Moonbot's three cofounders — and Moonbot Studios went through a round of layoffs, leaving its cofounders with a small crew.

Since the Magic Leap deal talks, Moonbot has been quietly building up a new studio called Flight School, which will launch soon. Moonbot Studios has been "dissolved," according to multiple sources, and Flight School will be led by Moonbot cofounders Brandon Oldenburg and Lampton Enochs. Moonbot's third cofounder, William Joyce, still owns some of Moonbot's IP, and will not be a part of Flight School.

"Honestly, I believe Bill Joyce will revive Moonbot," a Moonbot source told Business Insider. The source also said that Moonbot handled everything "honorably."

Moonbot's new endeavor, Flight School, will be a unique entity and has partnered with Reel FX, an animation studio cofounded by one of Moonbot's three cofounders, Brandon Oldenburg. The new studio will create both virtual and augmented reality games and experiences, and "ultimately mixed reality."

SEE ALSO: This is what secretive billion-dollar startup Magic Leap has been working o

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Bill O'Reilly laughs at 'bizarre' United Airlines incident in which a passenger was dragged off a flight

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Bill o'reilly united airline

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly used his show Monday night to weigh in on an incident involving a passenger that has rocked United Airlines.

After playing the clip of a male passenger being forcibly removed by aviation police officers from United flight 3411 on Sunday, O'Reilly chuckled as he told Fox News correspondent Rob Schmitt, "I shouldn't be laughing, but it's just so bizarre.

"They had to get some United Airlines personnel from Chicago to Louisville ... they had to get them there, and so they asked for volunteers, and obviously, this guy didn't volunteer," O'Reilly continued as he laughed.

Toward the end of the segment, O'Reilly seemed to take a more serious tone. "Can't have this kind of stuff — it looks like a police state," he said.

The "O'Reilly Factor" host has recently seen his ratings soar even after The New York Times reported on April 1 that he had paid $13 million to settle sexual-harassment claims over more than a decade. Though about 60 companies have reportedly pulled their commercials from O'Reilly's time slot, O'Reilly managed to attract more viewers to his show, according to data from Nielsen Media Research cited by Variety last week. The show drew more than 3.76 million viewers on its April 4 show — a 20% increase from the previous week.

The diminution of financial supporters for O'Reilly's show does, however, seem to be having an impact on the format of the program. Fewer commercials have aired during "O'Reilly Factor," according to TVNewser. About 13 minutes, 35 seconds of commercials had aired on last Wednesday's program — about five minutes less than the prior Monday's show.

SEE ALSO: Fox is opening an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment against Bill O'Reilly

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NOW WATCH: How often airlines involuntarily bump passengers (United isn't the worst)

How Einstein became a suspected spy in a clip from the new TV show 'Genius'

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genius sneak peek national geographic channel

National Geographic Channel's first scripted series, "Genius," explores the larger-than-life Albert Einstein.

Premiering Tuesday, April 23, at 9 p.m.,"Genius" stars Geoffrey Rush ("The King's Speech," "Shine") as Einstein, arguably the greatest scientific mind in history.

Executive produced by Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind" producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard (who also directed the premiere episode), the 10-episode series charts the scientist from childhood and features his tumultuous romances, controversial politics, immigration to the US, and ongoing war with the first director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover.

An outspoken critic of Germany in the years leading up to World War II, Einstein found sanctuary from the country's growing anti-Semitism in the US. But he wasn't free and clear. Hoover was certain Einstein was a German spy and spent years surveilling him in order to prove it. And he made sure the famed scientist knew of his suspicions.

But how did it all start? In a preview from "Genius," Einstein and his wife, Elsa (Emily Watson), must get through a tense interview with consulate official Raymond Geist ("Mad Men's" Vincent Kartheiser). It's here that Einstein finds out that Hoover is watching.

Watch the preview below:

SEE ALSO: 18 TV shows you're watching that are probably going to be canceled

DON'T MISS: RANKED: The 20 best new TV shows right now, according to critics

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NOW WATCH: Albert Einstein’s surprising shortcoming kills this popular stereotype about smart people

Media startup Mitú is wildly popular on Facebook, but Snapchat helped it in a much different way (SNAP)

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mike suLatino-focused media startup Mitú, which mixes fun and seriousness in a BuzzFeed-like manner, reaches about 120 million to 150 million people a month on Facebook.

But if you don’t have many Latino friends, because of the way the Facebook algorithm works, it might never show up in your feed.

That’s why being a Snapchat Discover partner since December has been so important to Mitú’s business, its product chief Mike Su told Business Insider in a recent interview.

“We grew quickly on Facebook reaching other Latinos, but not as many Latinos are in the exec suites on Madison Avenue,” he said. When BuzzFeed first blew up, ad execs could see BuzzFeed posts all over their kids’ Facebook. But for Mitú, it was harder to break out of the audience bubble on Facebook. Mitú's audience was highly engaged, but was less visible to the people controlling the ad money, even though it had big-time backers like Verizon and WPP Digital.

Being on Snapchat Discover helped a lot with that, Su said. The Discover section is a “limited set of publishers going out in front of everybody.” Brands were watching, and it allowed Mitú to get into the “right rooms” for partnerships going forward.

An underserved audience

But this isn't just about Facebook and Snapchat. The difference between the two platforms illustrates a broader point about the media marketplace: It hasn't historically been optimized to serve the English-speaking Latino audience Mitú has cultivated.

76% of media targeted to Latinos in the US is Spanish-language TV, Su said, citing Google and Ipsos. (Others peg it even higher.) But the largest segment in the US is actually US-born and English-dominant, he continued. “There’s a huge inefficiency there,” according to Su.

Last year, Hulu VP of content acquisitions Lisa Holme told Business Insider that one particular group tends to be underserved by current TV offerings: young bilingual Latino audiences who primarily like to watch shows in English.

So why hasn’t there been more English-language Latino media?

One reason Su cited was the way advertising budgets are set up — the “advertising-industrial complex,” he joked. He said if you are looking to reach Latinos, but you move from Spanish to English, it might structurally take you out of your own budget. Many companies have “drawn a line around language as the identifier” for ad budgets, Su said.

Reaching a young, bilingual Latino audience was the initial purpose of Fusion, a high-profile joint project between Univision and Disney’s ABC, started in 2013. But a few months before launch, Univision execs pivoted to brand Fusion as a destination for all ethnicities, and not focus on Latinos. This irked Disney, which eventually sold its 50% stake to Univision last year, according to the LA Times.

mitu abuela

100% Latino, 100% American

This desire to draw a language line around Spanish and English doesn't encompass the complicated identities of US Latinos, Su said. Mitú likes to say it is 200%: 100% Latino and 100% American.

“Our most successful stuff is taking mainstream culture [and] looking at it from a Latino point of view,” Su said. “Most of the time people think about, [when they] want to reach Latinos: tacos, mariachi bands,” and so on. But Latinos are “watching ‘Get Out,’ or the NBA finals, or Justin Bieber,” he said.

You can’t just go for stereotypes, or broad ideas of what the audience finds important. But even Mitú doesn’t always nail it the first time.

For instance, when people think about US Latinos, many people think about “family values,” Su said. “It took awhile to crack that,” he explained. “At first it wasn't landing much. I often compare it to religion. You might be religious, but you aren't going to Facebook to read about it. Important to real life, not as important in terms of social media content. But we started looking at the tone.”

The Mitú team discovered that content which just pumped up the idea of “family” with a simplistic and entirely positive tone wasn’t resonating with its audience. What worked? Stuff that was self-deprecating, and embraced the awkwardness of families.

Here’s an example from a recent Snapchat story ,"The struggles of growing up as an introverted Latino":

mitu snapchat

Away from MCN-land

Like finding the right way to reach its audience, Mitú’s business model has also changed over time. The company started its life as a multi-channel network (MCN), which tied together social media stars. “That was mostly built on elbow grease and hustle, getting influencers,” Su said. But as the industry gradually realized there wasn’t a hugely profitable future there, Mitú, like many companies, began to pivot away from that in mid-2015. The MCN is still a piece of Mitú's business, but the company mostly produces its own content now, which is a mix of news and entertainment. Mitú has raised $43 million in total funding, and employs around 120 people in its HQ in Santa Monica, Calif., and offices in New York City, Chicago, and Bogotá.

Because Mitú's content is primarily spread on social media that means, in some important ways, Mitú is reliant on giants like Facebook and Snapchat. Does that worry Su? The short answer: yes.

“I recognize my place in the world,” he laughed. That’s why he said it’s so important for Mitú to create a strong perspective and resonant characters (like “Cholos” or “Abuela”).

“People fall in love with characters and brand,” he said. He can’t control how people’s consumption patterns change between social media sources. But he can control the brand. “A company like Disney, their brand stands for something. I do know what a Disney movie looks like.”

Su hopes that his audience will feel the same about Mitú.

SEE ALSO: This $650 million media startup is on 31 platforms, but its CMO says Snapchat is the most innovative

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NOW WATCH: 'This is your day': Watch Neil Gorsuch swear in as a Supreme Court justice

YouTube’s new $35-a-month live TV service feels like a missed opportunity for Google (GOOG)

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Youtube TV 5

Here’s the thing about YouTube: It's not television. It’s faster, larger in scope, and far less constrained. Sometimes that is very much not a virtue, but at its best it makes the site feel intimate and raw in a way that mass TV programming is not.

Even in its dumbest moments, YouTube leaves you in control. (It’s in the name, after all.) It lets you find almost anything: people teaching you how to do things, people telling stories, people playing games, people reviewing products, people falling down. Then there are the best-of clips of “actual” TV shows, the memes, and the billion other wormholes lurking below the surface.

To be clear, I fall within YouTube’s target audience. I’m a mid-20s guy who hasn’t subscribed to cable in four years, and uses the internet, apps, and video games to entertain me where TV entertained my parents. And on a pure percentage basis, most of YouTube’s videos are awful. But because it’s such a free-for-all, it’s usually home to the most interesting thing I watch on a given day.

youtube tv 2Given that people watch YouTube for a billion hours a day— according to the company — I’m probably not alone. For context: A February report from The Wall Street Journal said Americans now watch 1.25 billion hours of television a day. YouTube’s figure is worldwide, and clearly the service is easier to access, but its number is growing, while TV’s is steadily going down.

All this time, though, there’s been a wall between YouTube’s user-generated content, and the live TV programming held by networks and cable operators. (Bootlegged and quickly-flagged copies of that programming aside.)

This is unique for a major streaming platform: For as much as they’ve pressured cable, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu still rely on the shows and movies you’d otherwise watch on “regular” TV. They all produce their own stuff now, yes, but they’re harder sells without that licensed backlog there to help. Take away the option to rent movies from YouTube, meanwhile, and little is likely to change.

youtube tv screenshotSo when YouTube announced it was creating a live-TV streaming service called YouTube TV, I got excited. The consumer dream for all video streaming services is to unbundle the cable package down to a show level, and let you watch those programs whenever and wherever you want. The idea, in effect, is to do for television what Spotify has done for music.

YouTube TV wasn’t pitched to go that far, but it is a chance to (mostly) fill the one big gap — fully licensed TV shows and movies, as they air — in a service that has almost everything else.

It wouldn’t be the One True Service that everyone outside of the cable industry wants — there are too many holes in YouTube TV’s channel lineup for that to happen today — but it could go further than any service before it in blending live-TV and on-demand content together.

youtube tv screenshotNow that YouTube TV is available, though, it’s clear that the service isn’t really interested in making that happen. To be fair, there are some bridges between the two:

  • A “Trending on YouTube” section on YouTube TV’s home tab shows you popular videos on YouTube proper.
  • The kid-focused original shows from the YouTube Red subscription service are included.
  • Certain channels that serialize their videos using YouTube’s “Series Editor” tool are put in a “Shows on YouTube” tab.
  • If you search for a certain program, you can check out a curated selection of YouTube videos related to that program on a nifty show page. For instance, if you click the “Related on YouTube” tab on the show page for “The Bachelor,” you’ll see interview and talk show clips from YouTube that are related to the most recent season.

But YouTube TV's site and app live separately from YouTube proper, and the former often keeps the latter’s videos in their own silo. That “Trending on YouTube” section sits at the very bottom of the home tab. Many popular YouTube channels do not use the Series Editor. Searching for those channels through YouTube TV usually brings you nothing. And, outside the stuff mentioned above, most links to YouTube videos on YouTube TV will just prompt you to open the main YouTube app.

youtube tv screenshotIf you subscribe to YouTube TV and go to the main YouTube site, meanwhile, the only tie-in you see is an option on the side panel to “Get YouTube TV.”

What you’re left with is another iteration on the formula already set by Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, and DirecTV Now. YouTube TV is a very good-looking iteration of that formula, it's generous with DVR space, and, crucially, it’s the first to stream shows without technically falling apart out of the gate.

But it only feels like YouTube in name and aesthetics. Otherwise, it’s just a smaller, cheaper version of cable, with all the caveats and annoyances that implies. (Plus a few more easily preventable shortcomings.) And that’s what it wants to be — even the serialized YouTube and YouTube Red videos here are made to feel more like TV shows.

youtube tv screenshotThere are sound reasons for YouTube to keep its two services distant. The company will likely tell you that YouTube and YouTube TV are different business models; the former needs ad revenue (YouTube Red aside), while the latter needs subscriptions. Keeping the live TV stuff at arm’s length from the user-generated stuff makes it easier to see why it specifically may be worth $35 a month — and thus why people who are more interested in live TV may want to use YouTube more often.

Maybe YouTube (the company) just needs the money. Maybe it just wants to drive eyeballs to YouTube Red shows in an environment where they may feel more natural. Maybe the networks wanted to keep their stuff from getting buried. Maybe there isn’t a way to merge live-TV content into a site like YouTube without creating an interface nightmare.

That's all fair enough. What I object to is the idea that YouTube TV should be a separate experience because regular YouTube viewers aren’t as interested in live TV. That may be true in some cases, but most people cut the cord because because the stuff they like is saddled with the stuff they’ll never care about, not because every show is bad.

youtube tv 1YouTube is successful because it actively avoids that trap, while still providing fast entertainment. (It’s also free.) If it gave you a way to easily jump from a fail video, to a live Premier League game, to a Let's Play, to a DVR recording of "Parks and Recreation" (or whatever you like), all within the same app, that’d be powerful and convenient in a way AT&T, Sony, and Dish cannot recreate.

YouTube TV already knows how to mark favorites and personalize the shows you’re more likely to watch, so it wouldn’t seem too hard to work that into the suggestions you're given on YouTube proper.

For now, though, that holy grail remains distant. Maybe Hulu can get closer.

SEE ALSO: Here's how the services that let you stream live TV over the internet compare

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Jimmy Kimmel made a violent safety video for United: 'We'll drag your a-- off the plane'

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jimmy kimmel united

On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel had some fun at the expense of United Airlines over the viral video that has shocked many of a passenger being dragged off a United flight after it was overbooked.

The late-night host first broke down the incident, which occurred Sunday. United employees chose four passengers to remove from the flight because it was overbooked and United was giving seats to its employees. One man refused to leave, saying he was a doctor and needed to get back to his patients. He was then forcibly removed by the police. The entire incident, in which the man was dragged on the floor and bleeding, was captured on multiple cellphone videos by passengers on the plane.

Kimmel hit United hard for the basic move of throwing off paying customers. He likened it to being asked to leave an Applebee's before you meal arrives because other guests need your table.

And then he went off on the CEO of United, Oscar Munoz, for his response to the incident. Specifically the word "reaccommodate" when referring to the customers thrown off the flight.

"It's like when we reaccommodated El Chapo out of Mexico," Kimmel joked.

"That is such sanitized, say-nothing, take-no-responsibility, corporate-B.S. speak," Kimmel added. "I don't know how the guy who sent that tweet didn't vomit when he typed it up."

To end his take on the incident, Kimmel presented a new safety video he suggested the airline should start using.

It features a flight attendant, speaking in a calming voice, explaining the best way to enjoy a flight:

"We're United Airlines. You do what we say, when we say, and there won't be a problem, capiche? If we say you fly, you fly. If not, tough s---. Give us a problem and we'll drag your a-- off the plane, and if you resist, we'll beat you so badly you'll be using your own face as a flotation device."

The flight attendant finishes her speech with her fists brandishing brass knuckles, and the fake ad comes with a new slogan: "United. F--- you."

Watch the entire video below:

SEE ALSO: Here are all of the new characters that will be in the next "Thor" movie

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NOW WATCH: People are outraged by this shocking video showing a passenger forcibly dragged off a United Airlines plane

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