Verizon Communications Inc. is eliminating traditional cable bundles and the handcuffs that often came with them, making it easier for households to switch video packages in the hopes they won’t cut the cord entirely.

The telecommunications company will allow Fios customers to select their home internet speeds and television packages separately,...

Apple Inc. has been exploring opportunities to strengthen its upstart TV service, including deals for James Bond franchise-owner MGM Holdings, Inc. and college sports rights, according to people familiar with the matter.

Executives at Apple met with representatives of MGM and the Pac-12 Conference this year as the tech giant considers ways to broaden the appeal of its Apple TV app and TV+, a $4.99 monthly service that launched last month with nine original programs. The service anchors an updated TV app that offers subscriptions...

Complaints began to pour in to the Hallmark Channel early last week about ads from wedding-planning firm Zola Inc. featuring a same-sex marriage.

Network executives thought the controversy would blow over. But it kept building. At one point, supporters of a conservative group contacted family members of Bill Abbott, chief executive of Hallmark Channel’s parent company, to ratchet up the pressure, a person familiar with the situation said.

MIDLAND, Texas—America’s hottest oil-drilling regions—such as this one at the heart of the Permian Basin—are seeing their economies soften as shale producers slash spending, leading to emptier hotels, choosier employers and less overtime for workers.

Early this year, demand for the tubing, bolts and valves used in fracking was so high that Homer Daniels’s oil-field equipment company, RK Supply, in the Midland area was on track to easily beat its annual revenue forecast. But by August, Mr. Daniels had to impose a hiring freeze...

Before the chief executive of the industrial conglomerate Siemens AG spoke out on the rise of a nationalist anti-immigration party in Germany, he reached out to employees on the company’s internal social network.

“What do you think?” the CEO, Joe Kaeser, asked workers. “Should I get engaged in social matters?”

The response was clear: Nearly...

Netflix Inc. ’s expensive mob drama “The Irishman” attracted 13.2 million viewers in the U.S. during its first five days of availability, according to TV-ratings firm Nielsen, well short of the streaming service’s best-performing movie title, “Bird Box,” which cost far less to make.

“The Irishman,” a critically acclaimed film by a top-flight director, may add to Netflix’s prestige. But its relatively weak viewership raises the question of whether it makes sense for the streaming giant to spend lavishly on properties that most subscribers will view only once if at all, as opposed to series that inspire binge watching and repeated visits to the service.

The sports-streaming service DAZN has a contrarian approach to attracting new subscribers: Create original content and put it on other platforms free of charge.

With a modest budget to make programming that complements its live sports coverage—which in the U.S. is primarily boxing—DAZN has decided that content will be of better use to the platform as a marketing tool, rather than something to be kept behind its paywall.

Professor Anita Elberse built an academic career—and a massive Instagram following—studying the conditions that create the greatest success stories in sports and entertainment.

At 38, she became one of the youngest women to earn tenure at Harvard Business School. Now 46, she leads an executive course where Grammy winners and MVPs learn to leverage their talents and compete in the business world.

Sony Music Entertainment has signed an agreement to be the exclusive North American purveyor of Beatles T-shirts and other memorabilia, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest sign of the increasing importance of such sales for musicians and record companies.

The deal—terms of which weren’t disclosed—comes as the Sony Corp. unit is working to expand its presence in the growing music merchandising market with its Thread Shop division. Merchandise has recently represented an expanding share of artists’ business and music companies are increasingly taking part in what used to be regarded as a relatively minor part of the industry.

Beyond Meat Inc. and Impossible Foods Inc. are considering China as their next big market for plant-based meat products, but local startups aim to leverage their own knowledge of Chinese tastes to gain an edge over the U.S. companies.

China is emerging as an attractive market for alternative-meat makers because purchasing power and meat consumption have grown at a rapid clip in the world’s most populous country. In addition, Chinese officials have encouraged meat alternatives amid a deadly swine epidemic that has wiped out as much as half of China’s pig population and pushed up prices of pork, beef and poultry.

Mr. Musk’s gamble on the lucrative truck market could help him expand further from a niche player into a mainstream all-electric manufacturer. Yet as Tesla tries to vie with U.S. auto makers that rely on pickups to fuel their profit engines, it must contend with a history of struggling to bring out new products.

The billionaire entrepreneur plans to reveal the newest vehicle in the Silicon Valley auto maker’s lineup—a pickup the chief executive has dubbed “Cybertruck”—on Thursday night outside Los Angeles.

In recent months he has teased details suggesting the truck will have capabilities similar to those of Ford Motor Co. ’s popular F-150 and a design inspired by the science fiction movie “Blade Runner.”

“It’s closer to an armored personnel carrier from the future,” Mr. Musk said Oct. 13 on Twitter.

A splashy event filled with customers and fans is part of the playbook long adopted by Tesla to generate interest in vehicles that are often months, if...

Grubhub Inc. Chief Executive Matt Maloney says his food-delivery rivals need to charge more sales taxes on their delivery fees. They disagree.

Delivery fees administered by companies like Uber Technologies Inc. ’s Uber Eats division, Postmates Inc., DoorDash Inc. and Grubhub are receiving increasing attention from local officials who have watched the industry grow quickly in the past several years. Food-delivery companies were projected to charge $10.4 billion in delivery fees in the U.S. by 2023, compared with $4.4 billion in 2017, according to analysts at Cowen & Co.