Your Netflix homepage is set to resemble YouTube much more.

      The streaming service has entered into agreements with Condé Nast, Hearst, Penske Media, and others to incorporate publisher content onto its platform.

      Netflix has been working for years to expand beyond just a place for movies and TV shows. After trying out various features such as interactive games and live sports, it is now taking inspiration from YouTube to encourage viewers to remain on the platform longer.

      Vogue, Variety, and BuzzFeed are coming to Netflix

      As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming service has made licensing deals with multiple prominent publishers to showcase their video content on its homepage starting August 3. This includes Penske Media brands like The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Billboard, and Rolling Stone, as well as Condé Nast titles such as Vogue and Vanity Fair, along with Cosmopolitan and Elle from Hearst Magazines, plus BuzzFeed, People Inc., and Tastemade.

      The videos from these publishers will vary in length from three to twenty minutes, with viewers in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand getting the first access. Some content will consist of archival footage from their existing collections, while additional series will be continuously produced specifically for Netflix. Examples include Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector, Architectural Digest’s Walking Tour, and People’s My Life in Pictures.

      A homepage designed to engage viewers

      Netflix executive John Derderian stated that the aim is to aid members in "continuing to explore the stories and personalities they enjoy" after finishing a show or movie. This aligns with other changes currently being implemented at Netflix, such as the introduction of a vertical video feed to make the homepage resemble a scrollable social media application rather than a conventional streaming menu.

      With this initiative, Netflix is providing publishers with a new distribution method targeting a vast built-in audience, while also gaining a steady influx of fresh content without the need to create or license it. Netflix has indicated that this is the "first wave" of this new feature and intends to include more publishers in the future.

      In related news,

      OnlyFans creators are working against scams by having hacked government websites removed. Adult creators are often confronted by scammers and pirates stealing their images, videos, and sometimes their identities. This ongoing cleanup effort is unexpectedly resulting in the removal of compromised government websites. Scammers have infiltrated reputable .gov and .edu domains, populating them with pages that falsely advertise purportedly leaked OnlyFans content. These hacks have led to affected government and university sites disappearing from Google Search. The pages often contain no stolen material; rather, they exploit popular creators’ names to attract users towards dating scams or other dubious advertisements and harmful downloads.

      In another article,

      I discovered a free universal TV remote app for iOS and Android that doesn’t bombard users with ads. AnyRemote allows your phone to function as a remote control for your TV or streaming device without requiring a login or charging for essential features. In my quest for a universal TV remote app that is user-friendly and free from annoyances, I trialed numerous options that had various limitations. Some required account creation before connecting to a TV, while others played unskippable ads before executing basic actions. A few restricted basic controls such as volume behind a paywall, and several simply did not work as promised. However, I recently found AnyRemote, which is available on both iOS and Android.

      In another development,

      Spotify’s issue with streaming fraud is so pervasive that traders on Kalshi are benefiting from manipulated charts. The platform has eliminated over 500,000 streams from Malcolm Todd’s song “Earrings” following suspected bot activity, as reported by the Financial Times. The song quickly ascended to number one on Spotify’s daily U.S. chart after a significant surge in streams. Concurrently, traders on the prediction market Kalshi had been wagering on whether Todd would achieve a number one hit on Spotify USA by the end of June. There’s no indication that Todd or his team were involved in any efforts to inflate the song’s streaming numbers; Kalshi has stated it is looking into the situation.