Entertainment

An Interview With Chad Silverstein8 min readOct 8, 2026--Press enter or click to view image in full sizeBuilding Pocket FM taught me to separate conviction in the mission from attachment to the approach, because you can believe deeply in where you want to go while being completely willing to change the route you take to get there. In the ever-evolving and never-ending landscape of business, staying ahead of the curve is a prerequisite for success. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from being a futuristic concept to a daily business tool that executives can’t ignore. In this interview series, we would like to talk with business leaders who’ve successfully integrated A. I. into their operations, transforming their companies in the process. I had the pleasure of interviewing Rohan Nayak. Rohan Nayak is Co-Founder and CEO of Pocket Entertainment, parent company of Pocket FM, the leading AI audio drama platform he built into a $500M+ ARR business spanning 20+ countries and 250M+ listeners. A Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 honoree, he speaks on how AI is rewriting the economics of storytelling and creative work. Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series!

Fox Entertainment Global is rolling into Mipcom with a uniquely diverse slate of shows to shop at the annual Cannes programming bazaar. Creators, Christie Brinkley and microdramas are a big part of the portfolio that Prentiss Fraser, president of Fox Entertainment Global, and her team will represent on the Croisette. The international distribution group’s activities at the Oct. 12-15 market reflect initiatives for Fox Entertainment back home around creators, microdramas and setting third-party distribution deals for TV shows and movies made by outside producers. “The schedule for this Mipcom just looks inherently different than it would have 15 years ago,” Fraser tells Variety. “We’ve got a creator cocktail event happening on our stand. We’ve got talent that we’re partnering with and bringing to the market with huge partners like NBC, Lionsgate, Fremantle. A lot of these partnerships that we’ve talked about are actually coming to life at the market. It feels really exciting.”Fox Entertainment has set out on a quest to bring scale to the production and monetization of creator-made content — working with digital natives in their natural realms of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram et al.

Xbox is launching a new division that will house its film and television, consumer products, strategic partnerships and live experiences businesses. Named XP (a play on “experience points” in gamer lingo), the entertainment division will be led by Kayleen Walters, the current president of Xbox’s “Minecraft” studio Mojang and executive producer of “A Minecraft Movie,” who will now shift into the role of president of XP.

Building more ways to experience the worlds we love. Our ambition at XBOX is to be the number one entertainment company in the world. This means growing our games into enduring franchises that entertain, inspire and connect people across every generation and across the globe.

Riversyde 83 volunteers Johanna Cousineau, left, and Adele Haverkamp at the 2026 Norfolk Applefest on Argyle Street. Chris AbbottEditorThe third annual Norfolk Applefest on Sept. 26 was well-attended from start to finish this year. “Right at 11 a.m. we were very busy, right from the start,” said Downtown Simcoe BIA coordinator Les Anderson, pleased with the festival turnout on Argyle Street from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26. “It’s still going well. “People seem to be quite happy. Can’t go wrong with Andy the Balloon Guy,” Anderson added with a laugh. Along with the family entertainment, including facepainting, there were apple-theme treats. Many of the vendors highlighted apples – from apple slushies at the ABEL Enterprises food truck to apple crisp and apple tarts from Riversyde 83, to baskets of free apples – along with some usual festival food/beverage selections, including an ice cream truck. “We partnered with the Norfolk County Fair & Horse Show for this event as well,” said Anderson, noting the fair provided prizes for the Applefest storefront decorating contest, which had 19 entries this year.

What’s new on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, and more? We've got you covered. Sam Haysom is the General Assignment Editor, UK, for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.

Firefox is teaming up with AEG and taking to the main stage at Berlin’s biggest and best indoor arenas. Starting this October, as the indoor music scene heats up and the basketball and ice hockey seasons are in full swing, fans flocking to the Uber Arena, Uber Eats Music Hall, and Uber Platz will see Firefox highly visible around the venue. They may even bump into our very own mascot, Kit, who will be on hand to help them skip the main queues courtesy of Firefox. We know that the experiences people care about often begin online. The internet is the gateway to how they discover, plan, and navigate their way to concerts, sports events, and nights out before they happen in real life.

In most stories about prejudice, it tends to be the conservative forces who rally against some progressive threat. Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” operates with a striking, deep sense of balance in asking us to consider discrimination on a wider plain. Any group can find itself falling into an extremist view, ready to reject “the other.” Mungiu sets the story in Norway with a conservative Christian family who become the persecuted. Like Mungiu’s previous work, it is an intelligent, elegantly constructed drama. You could even say it is a psychological thriller in the purest sense of the term. Its tension comes from the clash of worldviews, and how mere perceptions can set off a firestorm. Renate Reinsve, one of the best international actors now working, and Sebastian Stan disappear in their roles as Lisbet and Mihai, who have recently moved to a rural town in Norway from Romania. Lisbet is Norwegian while Mihai is Romanian, which already raises some eyebrows subtly, since in this corner of Europe the east is still seen as backwards. They have five children, including teenagers Ella (Vanessa Ceban) and Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu) and an infant.

Shares of PENN Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the twenty ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $23.94. RSI Stock Soars 22% On Q2 Blowout—Will PENN Match the Momentum? A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on PENN Entertainment from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of PENN Entertainment from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $23.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of PENN Entertainment in a research note on Friday, June 26th. They set a "buy" rating and a $26.00 price target on the stock.

Jimmy Kimmel offered Fox News a backhanded congratulations on its 30th anniversary on Wednesday. “What do you get for the network that ruined everything?” he snarked, calling it a “BET for angry white grandpas.” The late-night host then provided a damning summary of the network’s birth and history. “Three decades ago, a visionary named Rupert Murdoch asked a simple question. He asked, ‘What if the news was whatever I want it to be?’” Kimmel said. “And with nothing more than millions of dollars and a complete disregard for the America in which he wasn’t born, he turned that idea into what has become the number one reason you can’t talk to your dad anymore.” He also blasted Fox News for “making sure our old people get mad and stay mad,” then showed a series of clips featuring some of the right-wing network’s lowlights. Check it out below:

Nobody wants to spend Saturday night admiring a payment screen. The interesting bit starts when money stops holding up the fun. Faster digital payments are cutting the wait around online entertainment, and that changes what gamers expect when they hit buy, cash out or want to get back to playing. Buying a game at midnight and playing it five minutes later still feels a little bit like cheating the system. The same goes for grabbing DLC without leaving the sofa or renewing PS Plus before your mates start without you. Digital entertainment has trained us to expect things immediately, and payments are catching up. Money can now move faster at checkout and, increasingly, in the other direction when an online service owes it back. Waiting for the Bank Is Becoming the Odd PartDigital entertainment runs at a pace that makes a long payment delay stand out. A game can download in the background, a subscription can activate straight away, and an online purchase can be ready to use before you have put your card back in your wallet. The scale of digital payments in the US helps explain that expectation.

Kido Group, Vietnam's leading food company, is expanding into media, entertainment and commerce through its AIRO ecosystem and A&M joint venture with YeaH1, as the group gradually exits its ice cream business, which has been a significant contributor to its profit from joint ventures and associates. Leaders of Kido and YeaH1 perform a launch ceremony for the A&M joint venture. Photo by The Investor/Ngoc Diem. Kido teams up with YeaH1 to enter entertainment sector Kido Group (HoSE: KDC) officially launched the AIRO ecosystem in late September, a media, entertainment and commerce platform using artificial intelligence. A week later, on October 6, Kido announced the establishment of A&M, a joint venture with YeaH1 (HoSE: YEG), to launch the television program "Xin Chao Thu Bay", the official Vietnamese version of the "Hello Saturday" format. YeaH1 is a leading corporation in Vietnam operating in the fields of media, entertainment, and technology.