Prince’s estate has fired back at claims that it’s trying to steal the identity of Purple Rain co-star Apollonia, calling the singer’s lawsuit “frivolous” and saying it never tried to stop her from using the stage name.  

A Thursday (Aug. 21) post by the official Prince Instagram account is the estate’s first public comment since Apollonia (Patty Kotero) brought a federal lawsuit earlier this week. Apollonia, who’s best known for playing a character of the same name in Prince’s 1984 film Purple Rain, alleges the estate is unlawfully trying stop her from using the moniker via trademark cancellation proceedings.

Prince’s estate writes in the Instagram post that contrary to Apollonia’s allegations, it “never instructed her to cease using her adopted professional name.” The estate says it merely wants to “preserve Prince’s assets and legacy,” since the pop icon came up with the name “Apollonia” for the Purple Rain movie.

“Ms. Kotero’s unwarranted lawsuit comes at the tail end of years-long disputes before the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board concerning trademark registrations, in which rulings are imminent and with respect to which we have sought a settlement numerous times despite her highly unreasonable demands,” writes Prince’s estate. “Unsurprisingly, her suit fails to acknowledge the cancellation of her ‘Apollonia’ registration by the United States Patent & Trademark Office.”

“We look forward to the rulings in the pending trademark proceedings and a dismissal of Ms. Kotero’s recent federal action,” adds the estate.

Apollonia’s lawyers did not return a request for comment on the estate’s Instagram post on Friday (Aug. 22).

The Instagram statement echoes arguments that Prince’s estate has previously made to regulators at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). In legal filings submitted for those proceedings, the estate says it’s fine with Apollonia using this moniker as a stage name but that the trademark itself belongs to Prince’s heirs.

The estate points out in TTAB filings that the “Apollonia” trademark is primarily tied to the girl group Apollonia 6 featured in Purple Rain, whose song from the movie, “Sex Shooter,” became a Billboard Hot 100 hit and spent six weeks on the chart.

“’Apollonia 6’ remains part of American culture through the continued, uninterrupted exploitation of the film Purple Rain and public performances of the Apollonia 6 sound recordings and videos,” the estate says in a TTAB filing from this past May. “The goodwill developed by [Prince] endures, and the ‘Apollonia 6’ mark continues to be recognized as a source identifier for the man who created and produced the group, Prince.”

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If Sundays are for the NFL, Saturdays are for NCAA College Football. The top ranked teams throughout the country compete for glory to the win the College Football Playoff Championship at the end of the season.

Want to watch 2025-26 NCAA Football regular season games online? Here’s what you need to know about how to livestream college football games online.

When Does NCAA Football Season Start?

The 2025-26 NCAA Football season starts on Saturday, Aug. 23 with Iowa State Cyclones taking on Kansas State Wildcats at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland, with a start time of 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT. Check out a complete NCAA Football schedule here.

What TV Networks Feature College Football?

NCAA college football games broadcast across multiple networks, such as ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, The CW, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox, Fox Sports, NBC, SEC Network and truTV.

Where to Watch NCAA Football for Free

For cord-cutters, there are a few ways to watch NCAA Football, if you don’t have cable, especially if you want to watch for free. DirecTV has a five-day free trial, while other streaming services, such as Fubo, also offer free trials, so you can watch games for free.

Keep reading for more details on how to watch NCAA Football with DirecTV and Fubo.

How to Watch NCAA Football with DirecTV

A subscription to DirecTV — which comes with ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, The CW, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox, Fox Sports, NBC, SEC Network and truTV — gets you access to live TV, local and cable channels, starting at $49.99 for the first month $84.99 per month afterwards. The service even offers a five-day free trial to watch for free, if you sign up now.

You can watch local networks such as PBS, while you can also watch many cable networks, including Lifetime, FX, AMC, A&E, Bravo, BET, MTV, Paramount Network, Cartoon Network, VH1, Fuse, CNN, Food Network, CNBC and many others.

How to Watch NCAA Football with Fubo

To watch NCAA Football, Fubo starts at $54.99 for the first month of service $84.99 per month afterwards with nearly 235 channels — including local and cable — that are streamable on smart TVs, smartphones, tablets and on web browsers. And with a seven-day free trial, you can watch for free, if you act fast and sign up now.

The service even gets you live access to local broadcast networks including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, while it also has dozens of cable networks, such as ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS Sports Network, The CW, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox Sports, SEC Network and truTV and much more.

Meanwhile, college football games and events are known for celebrity sightings. Famous recording artists have been known to appear at games, including Snoop Dogg, Kenny Chesney, Gucci Mane, Tobey Keith, Adam Duritz, Katy Perry, Darius Rucker and others.

Starting on Saturday, Aug. 23, NCAA Football games broadcast across ABC, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, CBS, CBS Sports Network, The CW, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox, Fox Sports, NBC, SEC Network and truTV. The best way to watch is with DirecTV.

Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.

Surprise: Luke Hemmings is a dad! On Friday (Aug. 22), the 5 Seconds of Summer frontman revealed that he and his wife, musician Sierra Deaton, recently welcomed a baby girl without the world knowing.

Sharing a hazy photo of his newborn daughter’s tiny hands, as well as an older snap of a then-pregnant Deaton posing with Hemmings cradling her baby bump, the rocker wrote on Instagram, “Our best kept secret … Written and Produced by Sierra and Luke Hemmings.”

In the comments, Hemmings opened up about his choice to share the news with fans now after previously keeping his child’s birth under wraps. “In our perfect world, we’d keep our daughter a secret forever … for similar reasons we chose to never share our wedding photos from years ago,” he wrote. “However, going into this next album cycle, I’m very aware that her existence would inevitably leak.”

“To avoid any speculation, we’re posting this now and humbly asking for everyone to respect her privacy,” he continued. “If you see us in public, please avoid taking or sharing photos of her as we don’t plan on publicizing her name, birthdate, or face any time in the near future. Thank you for understanding and for the support. All our love, The Hemmings.”

The couple’s new addition comes four years after Hemmings and Deaton got engaged after first beginning their romance in 2018. “With shaking hands but a full heart I proposed to my best friend earlier this year,” the 5SOS star wrote on Instagram at the time. “I love you Thao and I can’t imagine my life without you @sierradeaton.”

As Hemmings hinted in his comment, his band now appears to be gearing up to release new music. Following his 2024 seven-track LP, Boy — which reached No. 99 on the Billboard 200 — the singer joined bandmates Michael Clifford, Calum Hood and Ashton Irwin for a Nashville studio session in November, as captured in photos on 5SOS’ Instagram account.

Hood also shared an update on the band’s next era in June. The Aussie quartet hasn’t dropped a full-length since 2022’s 5SOS5, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200.

“We’re always planning,” the bassist teased to Rolling Stone at the time. “There’s always conversations going. There’s always people dreaming up things. ‘What if we do this, what if we do that?’ So fear not, because there’s always something going on.”

What do music companies in different industries with revenue ranging from $3.9 billion to $23.1 billion have in common? Their CEOs are paid comparably.  

On Tuesday (Aug. 19), Billboard published a recap of the top 20 music executives’ earnings in 2024. Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Spotify, SiriusXM, iHeartMedia, Live Nation, MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Co. are all represented. Each company’s CEO is on the list except for Spotify’s Daniel Ek, who doesn’t earn an annual salary or bonus (he made ends meet by selling approximately $375 million in stock last year).  

In 2024, the compensation given to most music company CEOs was nearly even when taking into account the amount of their company’s earnings. As a percentage of the company’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), or similar measure of profitability, most CEOs’ annual pay fit within a narrow band of 1.30% (for Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl) to 1.83% (iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman).  

Universal Music Group and Live Nation have little in common other than making money primarily from music. They are different types of companies — the former focuses on recorded music and publishing, the latter is involved mainly in live music and ticketing — with different cost structures. In 2024, Live Nation’s $23.1 billion of revenue was nearly double UMG’s $12.8 billion, and UMG’s 15% operating margin was nearly four times Live Nation’s 4%.  

But UMG and Live Nation CEOs’ pay was remarkably similar relative to the companies’ earnings. In 2024, UMG had $2.88 billion of adjusted EBITDA to Live Nation’s $2.15 billion of adjusted operating income (AOI). (Live Nation prefers adjusted AOI over adjusted EBITDA — more on that later.) And as a percentage of EBITDA or AOI, UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge’s and Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino’s 2024 compensation were fairly close — 1.37% for Grainge and 1.53% for Rapino.  

SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz’s pay-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio was 1.36% after her compensation ballooned due to stock awards and options related to a new, three-year employment contract. The satellite radio broadcaster has lost subscribers and seen its revenue shrink. But what the company lacks in growth it makes up for in earnings: SiriusXM had adjusted EBITDA of $2.73 billion in 2024 — more than UMG despite having approximately two-thirds of UMG’s revenue.  

Comparing executive compensation to a company’s earnings gets into some technical accounting issues. For starters, EBITDA is not the same as operating income, so comparing companies by different metrics is imperfect. What’s more, the metrics are adjusted to remove one-time items such as impairment charges and restructuring expenses following layoffs. But there are no set rules for how a company must calculate adjusted AOI, adjusted EBITDA, or WMG’s preferred metric, adjusted operating income before interest, depreciation and amortization (OIBDA), because they are not defined by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.  

Whether a CEO’s pay is partially based on adjusted EBITDA, adjusted OIBDA or adjusted AOI, the executives ended up getting paid a comparable percentage of the company’s preferred profitability metric — except for James Dolan, CEO of MSG Entertainment and Sphere Entertainment Co. Dolan’s pay-to-adjusted AOI ratio was 12% — about seven to eight times higher than his peers on Billboard’s list. Sphere Entertainment, which had AOI of just $22.7 million in the company’s transitional six-month period (shortened because it changed its fiscal year to the calendar year), skews the number. The Sphere venue is young and unique, and the company’s compensation committee pays executives with growth, not profit, in mind. Focusing only on the more mature MSG Entertainment, Dolan’s pay-to-AOI ratio was a still-high 4.8%.  

In absolute dollars, though, music executives lagged well behind many Hollywood CEOs. Last year, then-Paramount CEO Bob Bakish grossed $87 million (including a $69 million severance package) while Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters earned $61.9 million and $60.3 million, respectively. David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery’s president and CEO, took home $51.9 million.  

But music CEOs’ pay was still comparable to some of their Hollywood peers. Netflix had EBITDA of $26.3 billion in 2024, giving Sarandos and Peters pay-to-EBITDA ratios of 0.24% and 0.23%, respectively — not much higher than most music CEOs. Warner Bros. Discovery’s Zaslav fared better, though. With adjusted EBITDA of $9 billion, Zaslav’s pay-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio was 0.58%. 

It makes sense that music CEOs’ pay is comparable. Companies’ compensation committees, which set the terms by which named executive officers are paid, use peer groups to help determine that their executives’ pay is in line with the top management at similar companies. Included in iHeartMedia’s peer group were Warner Music Group, SiriusXM, Live Nation and MSG Entertainment. Warner Music Group’s peer group included Live Nation, Universal Music Group and Spotify. SiriusXM, Spotify, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group were in Live Nation’s peer group.  

Companies end up paying similarly — and handsomely — because compensation committees don’t want to underpay a CEO. As Spotify’s annual report put it, executive compensation must be adequate to “attract, engage, and retain the best executives to work for us.” Effectively, whatever eBay and Electronic Arts — both are in Spotify’s peer group — are paying its executives, Spotify will pay comparably. And what Spotify pays will influence what Warner Music Group pays. And what Warner Music Group pays will influence what Live Nation pays. And so on and so on. 

BigXthaPlug (real name Xavier Landum) was arrested early Friday (Aug. 22) in North Texas for marijuana and weapon possession.

According to Dallas County Jail records, the rapper was booked for possession of marijuana (less than two ounces) and unlawful possession of a firearm. The Dallas rapper was also arrested on marijuana charges in Arlington, Texas, in February.

Per an arrest affidavit viewed by FOX4, BigXthaPlug’s vehicle was pulled over for allegedly not having a front license plate. Officers reportedly found a pair of weapons in BigX’s truck and marijuana.

Billboard has reached out to Dallas police and reps for BigXthaPlug for comment.

Thursday night (Aug. 21) was set to be a celebratory occasion for BigX, who released his country-trap album I Hope You’re Happy on Friday.

The Nashville experiment finds BigX tag-teaming with an array of country stars, including Jelly Roll, Luke Combs, Shaboozey, Ink, Tucker Wetmore, Thomas Rhett, Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman and Darius Rucker.

The 27-year-old credited a Billboard interview at the top of 2025 with pushing him to complete a country-themed project after promising that he had a country project on the way, when that actually wasn’t the case at the time.

“I go and do a Billboard interview and I straight up say, ‘I got a country project on the way,’” he told the New York Times’ Popcast. “And I never had a country project on the way … I wasn’t thinking properly, they had just made me cry in the middle of the interview … We come back and I’m kinda trying to change the narrative, ‘I got a country project on the way.’ After I was like, ‘Damn.’

He continued: “I said that and my team was like, ‘You know you gotta do it now, right?’ Days later, You got Jelly Roll saying [he wants in on the album] and we getting demo after demo from all these other artists.”