What's news: Big tech's kid content obsession, the Recording Academy is investigating Deborah Dugan's sexual harassment claim, Billie Eilish drops her No Time To Die title track, Astros cheating scandal getting the podcast/TV treatment, Hope Hicks leaves Fox to return to the White House. Plus: The latest from the European Film Market, Harvey Weinstein's defense makes its closing arguments, and has "Peak TV" reached its summit? --Alex Weprin

 Big Tech's Kid Content Obsession

►Once a "blind spot," kid-safe content becomes big tech obsession. Video sites for children are booming as YouTube and others invest heavily in family fare, Natalie Jarvey reports: "You're going to see a huge wave of development."

+YouTube's $100 million investment: Google's video platform has restricted advertising and comments on many kid-targeting videos following a settlement with the FTC, but now it is trying to "counterbalance the negative impact on some creators' businesses by investing $100 million into original children's programming for the YouTube Kids apps," Jarvey writes. "In a brief sent to partners, which a source shared with THR, YouTube said the funding will roll out over the next three years and will be given to 'differentiated, high-quality kids programming that aims to enrich and delight our young audience' between the ages of 3 and 8." The story.

►Has "Peak TV" reached its summit? THR surveyed nearly three dozen top stars, producers and executives about their own TV viewing habits and whether they thought the Peak TV era has, well, peaked. The short answer: maybe.

Quote: "We're making so many shows and we're making such great TV, but what is the fraction of great TV that we're watching versus shows that are being made? I guess it's a chicken or the egg kind of situation. Are we getting the great TV because we're making so much content or would those shows have existed if we were making less?" said Schitt's Creek creator/star Dan Levy. The story.

►The Recording Academy is investigating CEO Deborah Dugan's harassment claim against Joel Katz. The claim is “being independently investigated by a law firm with no previous ties to the Academy,” according to missives sent to the organization’s elected leaders by Academy interim CEO Harvey Mason Jr. Thursday. Mason, who is the chairman of the board of trustees, did not name Katz by name, but added that “we take that allegation very seriously.” The story.

►Billie Eilish unveils No Time to Die Bond title track. Billie Eilish has shared her piece of Bond history, with the Grammy winner's track "No Time to Die" debuting online Thursday. At 18, Eilish is the youngest artist to write and record a 007 theme. Her brother Finneas produced the song, with Stephen Lipson. It features orchestral arrangements by No Time to Die composer Hans Zimmer and Matt Dunkley, as well as guitar from Johnny Marr. Listen to it here.

►All Quiet on the Western Front, the classic 1929 WWI novel by Erich Maria Remarque that was famously adapted into 1930's best picture Oscar winner by Lewis Milestone, is set for a fresh cinematic take, this time in its original German language, Alex Ritman reports. Rocket Science and Amusement Park have acquired the rights, with Amusement Park set to produce the new version, to be director by BAFTA winner and Emmy nominee Edward Berger. More.

+European Film Market roundup: Booksmart director Olivia Wilde is heading to Berlin with a new film. Perfect will tell the true story of gymnast Kerri Strug’s triumph against all odds to win Team USA’s first gold medal at the 1996 Olympics... Mike Leigh is prepping his next film following 2018's Amazon-backed Peterloo. The project – currently known as Untitled 2020 and with plot details being kept under wraps – will shoot in the U.K. this summer... Honeydew, the New England-set horror starring Steven Spielberg's son Sawyer Spielberg in his introductory role, is heading to Berlin, with New York/L.A.-based arthouse genre sales company Yellow Veil Pictures having acquired world sales rights...

Elsewhere in film...

--After making history as the first non-English-language movie to win best picture at the Academy Awards, Bong Joon Ho's Parasite will now be joining the Criterion Collection.

--The board of directors of France's Film Academy has announced their collective resignation, responding to weeks of criticism centered on Roman Polanski.

--LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions have picked up North American rights to the splashy Gloria Steinem movie The Glorias... Also:  Bleecker Street has acquired the worldwide rights to science fiction comedy Save Yourselves!

--Zoe Saldana is set to enter the highly competitive world of fencing with Fencer, from writer-director Jasmine McGlade... 

--Trailers: Dev Patel sets out on a journey to confront the eponymous green-skinned stranger in the trailer for A24's The Green Knight... Dev Patel also recounts his exciting life in an attempt to become a successful writer in the latest trailer for Searchlight Pictures' The Personal History of David Copperfield...

 Astros Cheating Scandal Podcast, TV Show Coming

►Slow Burn creators to produce Houston Astros cheating scandal podcast, TV series. Major League Baseball fined the Astros in January after a report uncovered that players stole signs from opposing teams. To tell the Astros' story, podcast firm Cadence13 has teamed with Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter, who will write and host the show, and Slow Burn co-creators Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons, who will produce via Neyfakh's Prologue Projects shingle. The story.

►Universal Music Group plans IPO by 2023. The Universal Music Group's revenues passed $7.7 billion (7.16 billion euros) in 2019, up 14 percent at constant currency thanks to another strong surge in streaming revenue, which was up 21.5 percent year over year. The Universal IPO plans come just a week after Warner Music began the process of launching an IPO of its own. The story.

In other business news...

+Roku added nearly 10 million new active accounts during 2019 as it prepares to enter for what CEO Anthony Wood is calling "the streaming decade." The company, which makes and sells connected TV devices, now has 36.9 million active accounts on its video streaming platform that during the final three months of 2019 streamed 11.7 billion hours of programming. More.

+Liberty Global loses 25,500 subscribers in fourth quarter. John Malone's international cable operator Liberty Global Group on Thursday reported mostly lower financials for the fourth quarter, but said it lost slightly fewer subscribers than in the year-ago period. More.

►Kobe Bryant, Gayle King and why black words matter. Threatening and demeaning King for examining the late basketball player's complicated legacy, writes THR columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, fosters a "climate of disrespect" that Bryant himself would have never wanted.

Quote: "While it’s clear that 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg were reacting from a place of deep grief, their personal emotion doesn’t justify such a public and misguided attack. When a man calls a woman a bitch because she does something he doesn’t like, he is nourishing the already rampant misogyny in society. But when a black man does it, he is perpetuating negative stereotypes about how black men perceive and treat women." The column.



^Hope Hicks leaves Fox Corp. to rejoin the White House. Hicks will be a senior counselor to the president, working with adviser Jared Kushner. She had previously served as White House Communications Director. It was not immediately clear who would succeed her at Fox Corp, but a statement from a Fox spokesperson said that the company would name a new chief communications officer "in the near future." The story.

+Revolving door: Chance the Rapper has been tapped to host the 2020 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, where Avengers: Endgame leads the nominations with a total of 11... The Walt Disney Co. Europe/Middle East/Africa on Friday said that Liam Keelan will join its television and direct-to-consumer unit as vp original productions, television for Europe & Africa...

 The first glimpse at Robert Pattinson as The Dark Knight has arrived, with filmmaker Matt Reeves sharing a camera test of Pattinson in costume for The Batman on Thursday afternoon. (Watch here or at the bottom of the post.) The test was filmed by The Batman cinematographer Greig Fraser and features music from the film's composer, Michael Giacchino. Take a look.

+Speaking of Batman: More than 20 years after it went off the air, the Gotham City of the beloved 1990s Batman: The Animated Series — and its follow-up, The New Batman Adventures — is set to return in a new comic book series, written by two of the men who ushered the animated show into existence in the first place. More.

►Liev Schreiber hints at Ray Donovan rescue: "There will be more." In an Instagram post late Wednesday, Liev Schreiber wrote, "Too early to say where or when, but with a little luck and your ongoing support, there will be more Ray Donovan" So far, Showtime and studio Entertainment One are declining comment. More.

Elsewhere in TV...

--Daniel Fienberg reviews Hulu's Utopia Falls... And in a critic's notebook, Robyn Bahr explores how "TV is reinvigorating the female sports drama."

--HBO has renewed Avenue 5, the sci-fi comedy from Veep creator Armando Iannucci for a second season... Amazon has handed out an early seventh — and final — season renewal for Titus Welliver-led drama Bosch...

--David Harbour will return as Hopper in the new season of Stranger Things.

--Following the record sale of feature Palm Springs at Sundance, the film's writer, Andy Siara, is teaming with Sam Esmail for an anthology project at Universal Content Productions, called The Resort.

--Ratings: Survivor opened its 40th season with fairly steady ratings, with its two-hour premiere pulling in similar numbers to the fall cycle's debut. The Masked Singer remained No. 1 among adults 18-49, and NBC swept all three hours of primetime in total viewers.

--Why Star Trek star Jeri Ryan had a tough time returning for Picard.

 Weinstein Defense Closing Arguments

 On the 27th day of Harvey Weinstein's New York criminal trial, his top attorney used her closing argument to implore the jury to "use [their] New York City common sense," "throw that gut feeling out the window" and decide her client's fate based on the hard evidence in the case.

"You don't have to like Mr. Weinstein," Donna Rotunno told the jury. "This is not a popularity contest. The unpopular person needs you most." As Weinstein's lawyers have done throughout the trial, Rotunno referenced the extensive media attention the case has drawn. "You are the last line of defense in this country from the overzealous media, from the overzealous prosecutors," she told the jury.

Asked on Thursday afternoon how he felt about Rotunno's closing argument, Weinstein told reporters, "I loved it," and likened it to "The Queen's Speech," a riff on the 2010 film The King's Speech. The story.

 Hollywood critics' groups squabble over who is a Hollywood critic. The Critics' Choice Association — the folks who run that selfie festival known as the Critics' Choice Awards — are trying to clamp down on another critics' group in L.A that changed its name to the Hollywood Critics Association, Chris Gardner reports.

►Endeavor launches fellowship for 42 positions companywide. The Endeavor Impact Fellowship offers internships and entry-level jobs for socially conscious individuals interested in working at the company. More.



^The return of L.A.'s Frieze Art Fair to the Paramount lot: "It's like being in Miami." With Frieze Los Angeles (plus two other art fairs) descending on Hollywood from Feb. 13-16, the industry's art collector crowd will be out in force, Degen Pener and Jordan Riefe report. More.

+Jill Soloway, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lopez were among the attendees at the Frieze Art Fair's VIP preview event. More.

+Up-and-coming filmmaker Silvia Lara was named the recipient of the inaugural Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award at the opening of Frieze LA on Thursday, beating out nine other finalists for the $10,000 prize. More.

Casting roundup: Emilio Estevez has officially closed a deal to return to The Mighty Ducks, the newly announced 10-episode scripted comedy series coming later this year to Disney+... Thomas Dekker, Finn Jones and Donald Sutherland will star in Quibi's Swimming With Sharks... Rufus Sewell is set to play Vernon Presley, the father of Elvis Presley, in Baz Luhrmann's as-yet untitled biopic about the king of rock 'n' roll... Jake Johnson and Omar Sy have signed on to reprise their roles from 2015's Jurassic World for the latest installment...

►2020 DICE Awards: Untitled Goose Game takes top honor. The 23rd annual DICE Awards, presented by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, were handed out at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Thursday night. Australian developer House House took home the night's top prize, game of the year, with Untitled Goose Game. The winners.

►Justin Bieber has released his new album. Changes, which follows 2015's Purpose, quite literally represents the "changes" in Bieber's life over the past five years. He's married now (very fitting with the V-Day release date), and his new album features a slew of bouncy love songs dedicated to his wife, Hailey Bieber, including "Intentions," "Habitual," "That's What Love Is" and more. More.

►TV's Top 5 podcast: During this week's podcast, hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg are joined by Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill and discuss pilot season and how networks and streamers are prepping for a possible Writers Guild strike. Listen.

What else we're reading...

--"Never felt super welcome": Hope Hicks didn't like being a Trumper in Hollywood" [Vanity Fair]

--"Instagram targets more funding, ad revenue sharing, for video hub" [WSJ]

--"Disney's Mulan was supposed to be a big hit in China. The coronavirus could threaten that" [CNN Business]

--"NBC streamed Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist everywhere for a month to reach young viewers" [Ad Week]

--"Why are we polarized? Don't blame social media, says Ezra Klein" [Wired]

Today's birthdays: Michael Bloomberg, 78, Tati Westbrook, 38, Danai Gurira, 42, Simon Pegg, 50, Jim Kelly, 60.