What's news: Comcast creating a $500 million fund for employees impacted by the virus, AMC CEO hopeful theaters will open in June, Nielsen says streaming is skyrocketing, how ABC's David Muir is covering the pandemic, Steven Spielberg helps launch AFI Movie Club, how the 1918 flu pandemic halted Hollywood. Plus: Peacock and Nickelodeon will get NFL playoff games, and Christopher Meloni will star in a Law & Order: SVU spinoff. --Alex Weprin

 Comcast Coronavirus Fund

►Comcast sets $500 million employee relief fund as execs forgo salaries. Comcast will follow other large media conglomerates in creating a relief fund for employees and staff impacted by the novel coronavirus. Comcast's fund will be $500 million, and will be available to those across the company hit by the virus crisis, with theme parks and TV and film production shut down for now. In addition, all Comcast senior executives, including NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, will donate 100 percent of their salaries to coronavirus-related charities. The story.

+Previously: Bob Iger to forgo Disney salary, top execs to take pay cuts amid virus crisis... WarnerMedia to create $100 million relief fund for crews...

►Streaming gets big bump during coronavirus quarantines, Nielsen says. Use of Netflix, YouTube and other streaming platforms has mushroomed during the coronavirus pandemic, according to data from Nielsen. Time spent on streaming platforms grew by 34 percent over two weeks at the beginning of March, with collective usage going from 116.4 billion minutes the week of March 2 to 156.1 billion in the week of March 16. That outpaces the 25 percent gains in total TV usage during those weeks. The total for March 16-22 was more than double that of the same week in 2019. The story.

►AMC CEO hopes U.S. movie theaters can reopen by mid-June. "People just so want to get out of their houses," Adam Aron told CNBC as he looked beyond cinema closures amid the COVID-19 crisis to the local multiplex possibly reopening this summer. More.

►ABC's David Muir is trying to "remain calm and steady" during pandemic. World News Tonight has been the top-rated show in all of American television for three weeks this month, averaging nearly 11 million viewers per night. Jeremy Barr speaks to the anchor about covering the biggest news story in the world.

Quote: "I do think in our culture and in our society, there is such saturation, and there has been for quite some time now — so many outlets for people to find what they're looking for, that this is one of those rare moments, rare collective moments, where we are experiencing something together. And in that way, I think the responsibility is even greater. ... As long as we, every night, remember to thank those who are truly on the front lines, I think it helps to keep the story in proper perspective. It's an unprecedented moment." The interview.

+CNN's Chris Cuomo on his coronavirus diagnosis: "Who cares? This is so small." CNN's Chris Cuomo, who announced on Tuesday morning that he has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, told colleague Anderson Cooper on Tuesday night that he's unsure of what his prognosis is and how it will affect his ability to host his primetime show. Cuomo, the brother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has been hosting his show from his basement as he recovers from the virus. More.

►How I'm Living Now: Whitney Cummings, comedian. The writer and stand-up is working, reevaluating the role of comedy and — for reasons she can't explain — wearing a fanny pack at all times, she tells Michael O'Connell.

Quote: We’re all wondering, when this is over, if being in a space with a bunch of people breathing all over each other will ever be the same. As comedians, we ask people to come by the thousands into a venue and just basically exhale for two hours, shoulder-to-shoulder." The interview.

 How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Hit Hollywood

►Closed movie theaters and infected stars: How the 1918 flu halted Hollywood. A massive influenza outbreak 102 years before the current pandemic shut down production and felled actors, Hadley Meares writes: "Pessimists croaked that this was the beginning of the end."

Quote: "On Oct. 11, L.A. City Hall ordered all theaters, motion picture houses, theaters and places of amusement closed until further notice. In all, 83 movie theaters were closed, shutting out thousands of film fans every week. 'Did the young man pleasure-bent seek recreation at his favorite matinee or picture theater?' the Los Angeles Times asked. 'Lo, a sign greeted him ‘closed by order of the health commissioner.’” The story.

►American Film Institute, Steven Spielberg launch AFI Movie Club. In a video posted Tuesday, Spielberg, an AFI Trustee, introduced the inaugural film of the new movie club: The Wizard of Oz. "Now I know you think you've seen it but think again, because right now at this moment in history what better message is there then, 'there's no place like home,' the director said in an introductory message of the club's first film. The story.

+CAA backs new film market with San Sebastian, Zurich festivals. The September market will feature films from the cancelled SXSW and Tribeca Festivals as well as new sales projects. More.

►Discovery well-positioned to withstand TV ad downturn, ratings agency says. Fitch Ratings on Tuesday cited Discovery, which is led by CEO David Zaslav, as a market leader positioned well to take advantage of increased U.S. TV viewing by stay-at-home Americans during the COVID-19 crisis. The ratings agency also cited the media giant's "strong liquidity" for Discovery to withstand a coming advertising recession as brands cut their spending during the coronavirus outbreak. The story.

►Edinburgh Fringe Festival canceled. Organizers on Wednesday said the August tradition, which is considered the world's largest arts festival, was being called off along with Edinburgh's other August festivals, including its book fest, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. More.

►International Emmy Kids winners unveiled online amid MIPTV cancellation. Children's programming from seven countries nabbed awards announced on the International Emmys website and via social channels, rather than on stage at Cannes as in past years. The winners.

►Live Nation launches $10 million fund to support concert crews affected by coronavirus. The Crew Nation fund will provide monetary relief for concert crew members impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, which has widely canceled concerts, festivals and other live events since it began spreading across the U.S. and Europe earlier this month. More.



^How one Hollywood company pivoted from making a movie to making face masks. "What we are doing is not daunting," says Jeremy Garelick, whose production company American High has partnered with Budmen Industries, a 3-D printing manufacturer, to make protective face masks in New York. The story.

►CBS TV Studios walks back retroactive cuts to assistant pay. CBS Televisions Studios has walked back a prior claim that it is retroactively cutting assistant hours for the week of March 22-28 and cutting hours for March 29 to April 4 as media companies are looking to tighten their budgets amid the coronavirus economic fallout. More.

In other coronavirus-related news...

--Theatrical box office in the Asia-Pacific region fell 85 percent in the first two months of 2020, an unprecedented crash brought on by the emergence and explosive spread of the new coronavirus, says a new report from S&P Global Intelligence.

--J.K. Rowling on Tuesday morning launched the Harry Potter At Home hub offering fun and a number of resources to parents and children amid the coronavirus pandemic.

--In a PSA aimed toward California's coronavirus response, Larry David is urging people to stay home to curb the spread of the viral COVID-19 illness. Specifically, he's asking the community to take advantage of the "once in a lifetime" instruction to sit on the couch and watch television.

--Verizon is teaming with esports and media organization FaZe Clan to expand its weekly streaming series to support small business affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Pay It Forward Live, into gaming.

--The fallout of the comic book industry shutdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic continues with the news that Diamond Comics Distributors will be withholding payments this week in the light of cash flow problems.

--The Society actress Olivia Nikkanen on Tuesday shared a health update after she tested positive for the coronavirus.

--On Tuesday, the Fox News Media streaming service Fox Nation published a new episode of the weekly show Diamond and Silk, a day after the sister duo espoused numerous conspiracies about the novel coronavirus during a web video they broadcast.

 The NFL Heads To Nickelodeon

►Peacock, Nickelodeon nab NFL playoff games as league expands postseason. The NFL has approved expanding its playoffs from 12 to 14 teams, with two extra games taking place during the wild-card round. NBC and CBS will broadcast the additional games, and they'll also air in a couple of new places. 

--NBC's game will also stream on Peacock, the soon-to-launch SVOD platform from parent company Comcast (it will also be broadcast in Spanish on Telemundo). The CBS game will also stream on CBS All Access, and additionally, a separately produced broadcast tailored to a younger audience will simulcast on Nickelodeon. The Peacock game will be a first for the service, which is set to debut April 15 for existing Comcast XFinity customers and later in the year to the general public. The Nickelodeon telecast will also be a first for the NFL. The story.

►Christopher Meloni to reprise Law & Order: SVU character in NBC spinoff. Meloni will once again play Elliot Stabler in a new drama series from procedural king Dick Wolf. The untitled SVU offshoot has been picked up straight-to-series at NBC with a 13-episode order. The story.

+Shrill renewed for season three at Hulu. The series, produced by Warner Bros. Television, is inspired by Lindy West's book Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. Bryant typically films the Portland-based comedy when Saturday Night Live is on hiatus. It's unclear when production on a third season would begin given the near industry-wide production slowdown as the nation grapples with the coronavirus crisis. The story.

+Stephen Colbert's Tooning Out the News restarts with remote production. The series, executive produced by Colbert, had pushed its planned March 16 premiere date after the pandemic shut down hundreds of TV and movie productions. Production will resume on the show, with all staff working remotely, for an April 7 premiere on the streaming platform. The story.

+Need something calming to relax your nerves? BBC America is doubling the number of hours for its Wonderstruck nature programming, with programming now on Thursday and Saturday. More.

+Vivendi Closes $3.3 billion sale of 10 percent Universal Music stake to Tencent-led consortium. The company will now pursue the possible sale of additional minority stakes in the music major and plans an initial public offering for it by early 2023. More.

Speaking of Universal Music...

 Judge allows musicians to move forward in suit aimed at reclaiming rights. The putative class action was brought by John Waite and Joe Ely, musicians who alleged that Universal Music Group routinely and systematically refuses to honor termination notices. A judge is allowing a group of plaintiffs to move forward, but not without a pretty huge caveat. The story.

►Edgar Wright to tackle robot story Set My Heart to Five. According to the synopsis the story is "set in an all-too human 2054," and follows Jared, an android that works as a dentist, as he undergoes an emotional awakening that is sparked by an introduction to '80s and '90s movies. He then embarks on a quest to convince humans that he and his kind should be permitted to feel. More.

►Madison Square Garden Company set to spin off entertainment business. A week after reaching an agreement to sell the Forum in Inglewood to Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Balmer, The Madison Square Garden Company on Tuesday said that its board has approved spinning off its entertainment business from its sports businesses, effectively creating two distinct publicly traded companies when it closes this month. More.

►PETA urges no live animals for Tiger King-inspired series. The animal rights group in a letter asked Universal Content Productions to use "CGI or animatronics" in the upcoming limited series. More.

►Review: Tales From The Loop. Daniel Fienberg reviews Amazon's sci-fi series, writing that "on a spectrum of current sci-fi television tackling the nature of existence, the series is almost a polar opposite to the exposition-heavy, laid-bare mechanics of HBO's Westworld, with Devs (FX on Hulu) floating somewhere in the middle, spelled out yet blurry." The review.

►TV ratings: NBC's The Voice and ABC's The Good Doctor both grew their total audiences Monday, with the latter setting a 12-month high in total viewers for the second straight week. CBS got OK numbers for a primetime special from The Late Late Show's James Corden. The numbers.

►21 great action films to cure indoor blues. THR's chief film critic offers his picks for couch-bound viewers craving vicarious thrills — from a silent classic about a railroad pursuit to martial arts extravaganzas, franchise favorites, recent Bond films and beyond. The list.

In other news...

--Zach Braff and Donald Faison are going to relive their time on NBC sitcom Scrubs via a new podcast. In Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach + Donald, which is being produced with iHeartRadio, the Scrubs stars will look back at the nine years they spent making the show, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and reminiscing about their favorite moments from filming. They'll also interviews with other Scrubs cast members and super fans.

--Time's Up has officially appointed Ngoc Nguyen as head of entertainment, THR has exclusively learned.

--The Circle winner Joey Sasso has signed with A3 Artists Agency.

--SiriusXM and Howard Stern on Tuesday said North American listeners will get free access to The Howard Stern Show and other premium SiriusXM content through May 15.

Obituaries: Andrew Jack, a dialect coach who crafted the accents for recent Star Wars films and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, died Tuesday morning due to complications from COVID-19... Vincent Marzello, who portrayed the father of the young protagonist in The Witches, Nicolas Roeg's 1990 adaptation of a Roald Dahl book, died Tuesday, his wife, actress Lorelei King, announced. He was 68... Anton Coppola, a conductor for orchestras and operas and the uncle of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, has died. He was 102...

What else we're reading...

--"President Trump's prime-time pandemic" [NY Times]

--When TV anchors work from home, a lot can go wrong" [WSJ]

--"DAZN to withhold rights fees for canceled content" [Sports Business Daily]

--"It took a global pandemic, but Facebook Live is back in favor" [Digiday]

--"Amazon, Walmart suspend marketing deals with digital media firms" [The Information]

Today's birthdays: Susan Boyle, 59, Taran Killam, 38, Samuel Alito, 70, Vitor Belfort, 43, David Oyelowo, 44.