Spider-Man – amongst other well-known titles – will be swinging onto Disney+ following a massive film deal between Sony and Disney.

Beginning with Sony’s 2022 releases and running all the way through to 2026, the deal will bring Sony’s films to not only Disney+, but also the many other streaming platforms the Mouse House owns, from FX and Freeform to ABC and Hulu.

The massive movie deal, finalized by Chuck Saftler, head of business operations for ABC, Freeform, FX Networks and Acquisitions for Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, and Keith LeGoy, president of worldwide distribution and networks for Sony Pictures Entertainment, is just one example of how the pandemic has changed the media viewing experience. In other words, television isn’t dying, contrary to popular belief – rather, the way people watch it is changing.

“This groundbreaking agreement reconfirms the unique and enduring value of our movies to film lovers and the platforms and networks that serve them,” Le Goy announced. “We are thrilled to team up with Disney on delivering our titles to their viewers and subscribers. This agreement cements a key piece of our film distribution strategy, which is to maximize the value of each of our films, by making them available to consumers across all windows with a wide range of key partners.”

While Disney+ spans 59 countries, the new deal will only cover the United States market, making an estimated $3 billion during its approximately five-year span. Once finalized, Sony’s “Spider-Man” films will be available on Disney’s platforms, as well as their other franchises including “Hotel Transylvania“, “Jumanji“, and “Stuart Little“.

As coronavirus vaccines roll out across the globe and filming slowly resumes, Netflix has revealed that it will spend $17 billion on content in 2021.

The plan was disclosed in the streaming company’s first-quarter financial report. Netflix reported a drop in new subscribers in the first few months of 2021 due to 20% less original content than in previous years. Fortunately, the company has announced plans for later this year that will bring subscriber rates back up.

“While the roll out of vaccines is very uneven across the world, we are back up and producing safely in every major market, with the exception of Brazil and India,” the company announced in their shareholder letter. “Assuming this continues, we’ll spend over $17B in cash on content this year and we’ll continue to deliver an amazing range of titles for our members with more originals this year than last.”

The amount Netflix spends on their content is forecasted by analysts to increase over the next several years, who predict the company could spend $26 billion in 2026. With some of the world’s biggest media companies like WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS, and Disney creating streaming services in recent years, the long-time king of the streaming industry has competition that’s catching up fairly quick.

Most of the content slated for release on Netflix is scheduled to arrive later in the year, when filming is likely to be less restricted. The company has confirmed that the tail end of 2021 will see “the return of new seasons of some of our biggest hits and an exciting film lineup” in addition to “a large number of returning franchises.” Notable mentions include the return of hit shows like “Sex Education,” “The Witcher,” and “You,” and new movies including the final installment of “The Kissing Booth”, “Red Notice”, and “Don’t Look Up.”

Paramount+ is preparing to expand its appeal beyond the United States.

The recently rebranded version of CBS All Access is making plans to become bigger than the latter ever was. Shortly after their competitors WarnerMedia, Disney, and Discovery have unveiled larger content slates than ever before, ViacomCBS’s market for Paramount+ has been expanding since last month, rolling out to Latin America and Canada, with Australia, Europe, and New Zealand soon to come.

An estimated 350 million customers are expected to sign up for subscription-based streaming in the United States by 2024, but what about the rest of the planet? Kelly Day, president of streaming and COO of ViacomCBS Networks International, sees this as potential for the company. “We just look at it like this: There are seven and a half billion people outside the U.S.,” Day explained in an interview with Deadline. “By going into these markets, we have all this incredible opportunity to reach so many more viewers in so many different places.”

Paramount+ overseas will have a different catalogue than in the United States, featuring original shows (such as Kamp Koral, a spin-off of SpongeBob SquarePants) as well as programming from Showtime and CBS. The platform will also host regionally exclusive content, including Ib the Dog for the Nordics, while customers in Latin America can enjoy Acapulco Shore, Are You the One Brazil, and new, original programs Cecilia and The Envoys.

While Disney+, HBO Max, and Paramount+ are flourishing, they still have a long way to go before they’re at the top. Netflix has been at the top of the streaming hierarchy for years, reaching over 200 million subscribers last year. They, too, have content unique to the more than 130 countries it services, spending a whopping $20 billion on content yearly. With this to consider, Netflix’s status as the king of streaming services is one that’s tough to overthrow.

Amazon Prime’s superhero series “The Boys” is launching a podcast about the show’s creation and development.

With the release of season 2 last fall, fans of the show are anxiously awaiting season 3, which is confirmed to be in production. Launching this Thursday, The Boys: The Official Podcast will supplement the show, giving viewers something to hold them over until the third season is released. It will feature members of the cast and crew, from executive producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Erick Kripke to actors such as Antony Starr and Karl Urban, and even those who are more behind the scenes, like costume designer Laura Jean Shannon.

On the podcast, discussion topics will include favorite moments on set, challenges while working on the show, and how they brought some the show’s most well-known assets to life, such as The Boys’ super suits.

The Boys: The Official Podcast can be streamed on Amazon, Apple Music, and Spotify. Following its two-episode debut on April 15, one episode will premiere each week until May 27, making a total of eight episodes. Seasons 1 and 2 of “The Boys” are available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Discovery’s newest streaming service, Discovery Plus, has arrived on Comcast’s Xfinity Flex platform, and is now available for broadband-only customers.

The recently launched streaming service, which began on January 4, will also be rolled out to Comcast’s Xfinity X1 platform for pay-TV customers in a few weeks. It currently has an estimated 11 million subscribers across the United States, and can be accessed in the “Apps” section or by saying “Discovery Plus” into the Xfinity Voice Distant.

“We’re thrilled to develop our relationship with our valued accomplice Comcast to present their prospects with direct and easy accessibility to Discovery Plus and different functions throughout their industry-leading leisure platforms – Xfinity Flex, and shortly X1,” Gabriel Sauerhoff, SVP of digital distribution and industrial partnerships at Discovery, announced in a statement.

Discovery Plus runs for $4.99/month with ads, or ad-free for $6.99/month, and boasts a diverse catalogue featuring thousands of episodes of shows from Discovery’s networks that will appeal to a wide variety of audiences. Properties offered on the service include HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.

Less than a week into its release, “Godzilla vs. Kong” is shattering box office records for the ongoing pandemic.

This weekend, the movie raked in a monstrous $32 million. That’s nearly twice as much money as Wonder Woman 1984, which previously held the title for the biggest opening weekend during a pandemic, made during Christmas ($16.7 million). After only five days of release, the long-awaited monster brawl has grossed $48.5 million total. Even across the planet, “Godzilla vs. Kong” is excelling in the box office, bringing in $44 million from China over the weekend. In total, the film has grossed $285 million worldwide since its debut.

What do these numbers mean? Media professionals see them as promising, and evidence of recovery from a year of lockdown and dark, deserted movie theaters. Jeff Bock, a media analyst at Exhibitor Relations, explains, “This is a great sign that the release calendar will stabilize and audiences everywhere will have a bonafide summer of blockbusters. With vaccinations being dished out at a record pace and social distancing protocols still in place, we should see a nice ramp up into summer cinema.” Although we still have a ways to go before the pandemic ends and the world goes “back to normal,” we’re already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after a long year of capacity restrictions and shut-down theaters.

The fourth MonsterVerse film’s successful premiere suggests that the films slated to debut this summer will perform well at the box office, including “Cruella” (May 28), “Fast and Furious 9” (June 25), and “Top Gun: Maverick” (July 2). In other words, it is highly likely that summer 2021 will be financially successful for Hollywood.

The release date for “Mortal Kombat,” the cinematic adaptation of the video game of the same name, has been pushed back one week.

After originally being scheduled to premiere on HBO Max and in theaters on April 16, Warner Bros. has now shifted the premiere date for this martial arts fantasy film to April 23.

The reason for the delay? Fans speculate it’s to eliminate competing ticket sales with “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which just released today on theaters and HBO Max. The crossover creature feature is already a smash hit around the world, so it’s understandable that the studio would want to space out the two films more, in case they both end up excelling at the box office.

“Mortal Kombat” is directed by Simon McQuoid as he makes his directorial debut. Based on the fighting video game series created by Midway Games, it will follow a washed-up MMA fighter (played by Lewis Tan) who seeks out a team of fighters led by Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) when he starts being hunted by assassin Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim).

Tubi has bought the rights to add the 90’s hit children’s show “Barney and Friends” to their free, ad-supported streaming lineup.

After making a deal with 9 Story Distribution, Tubi has the rights to the first six seasons of the show, and it will become the exclusive home to seasons 7 through 9. Seasons 10 through 12 will be available non-exclusively.

“Everyone’s favorite purple dinosaur is a wonderful addition to our happy family of iconic characters in Tubi Kids,” Adam Lewinson, Tubi’s chief content officer, announced in a statement. “We’re pleased to super serve our audience with six seasons of ‘Barney & Friends’ to delight a new generation of children.”

“Barney & Friends” ran from 1992 to 2009 on PBS Kids. Targeted at preschoolers, the show incorporated musical numbers to teach kids the lifelong skills of friendship and sharing, in addition to various subjects such as colors, shapes, safety, and animals.

Barney will be joining cherished children’s franchises on the platform that features VeggieTales, Transformers, The Wiggles, and Scooby-Doo. Children’s content helps in attracting more users to the free platform that boasts nearly 2,000 children’s series, such as “G.I. Joe,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” and “Naruto.”

Tubi is accessible online, on Android and iOS devices, OTT platforms such as Amazon Fire or Apple TV, or any smart TV. It hosts more than free 30,000 shows and movies.

Beginning on Friday, March 26th, Disney+ will be raising their prices for the first time since the platform’s launch.

The mass media conglomerate’s streaming service – which celebrated reaching 100 million subscribers earlier this month – will be raising its monthly rate from $6.99 to $7.99 (for a full year, the price will increase from $69.99 to $79.99). The bundle containing Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Plus will also be increasing in price by a dollar, with a new price tag of $13.99 a month.

Why the price increase? Disney has unveiled a variety of new content for the platform, from original series including WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to films that can be watched at home as opposed to in theaters, such as Cruella, Black Widow, and more recently, Raya and the Last Dragon. In December is when the company unveiled their biggest content slate yet; they confirmed at their live-streamed Investor Day their plans to release 10 Marvel series, more than 10 Marvel films, 10 Star Wars series, and 15 other original series, all to be released over the next few years. More money will allow them to fulfill these goals, producing more content for their rapidly growing platform.

In only a year, Disney+ reached 73.7 million subscribers worldwide. That’s nearly twice the amount that Hulu has. The company predicts that by the end of 2024, the platform will have 260 million subscribers. The reason for its successful launch? Even after the price increase, it’s still much cheaper than its competitors – HBOMax goes for $14.99/month, while the monthly rate for Netflix’s standard plan is $13.99.

The price change is taking effect in other countries as well – in Canada this took place last month, as the price changed from $8.99 CAD to $11.99 CAD. Meanwhile in Europe, the service’s monthly rate will be increasing from £5.99 to £7.99.

Ed Brubaker, one of the co-creators of Winter Soldier, has shared in a newsletter that he has “mixed feelings” about the new Disney Plus series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” The writer explains that he is unsure how to feel about Bucky Barnes becoming such a big part of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, because he doesn’t feel like he received adequate recognition for creating him.

“Everyone at Marvel Studios that I’ve ever met (all the way up to Kevin Feige) have been nothing but kind to me,” Brubaker explains. “But at the same time, for the most part all Steve Epting and I have gotten for creating the Winter Soldier and his storyline is a ‘thanks’ here or there, and over the years that’s become harder and harder to live with.”

Brubaker began working for Marvel Comics in 2004, with the first comic he worked on for them being volume five of “Captain America #1,” which he worked on with Steve Epting. This is the volume that resurrected Bucky Barnes after nearly 40 years, turning him into the Winter Soldier, a Soviet assassin with a bionic arm. He worked on the series until 2012.

“I have a great life as a writer and much of it is because of Cap and the Winter Soldier bringing so many readers to my other work,” Brubaker continues. “But I also can’t deny feeling a bit sick to my stomach sometimes when my inbox fills up with people wanting comments on the show.”

After laying down the foundation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Brubaker has received some recognition for his work, receiving a cameo in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and receiving “special thanks” in the credits of “Avengers: Endgame,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Captain America: Civil War,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger.” Even still, it’s not the same as getting paid for his major contributions.