A month after admitting that it was deliberately broadcasting lower-resolution video to AT&T and Verizon wireless users, Netflix has introduced a new tool that will let users around the world choose how much of their data plan they want to blow through binge-watching House of Cards.
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Netflix Introduces Data Usage Controls For Mobile Users
By 5.5.16
Sling TV: Data Caps Are Cable Industry Tool To “Sabotage” Streaming Video
By 4.22.16
Since Comcast began expanding its years-long “test” of data caps and overage fees, complaints to the FCC about these new limits have skyrocketed. And some streaming video companies say that data caps are causing customers to either limit their use or drop these services rather than risk paying a penalty for going over their monthly allotment. [More]
Netflix Mulling The Idea Of Offering An Offline Viewing Option
By 4.19.16
With Amazon launching new month-to-month Prime membership options, which include access to its streaming video and music libraries, and upcoming price hikes for its own streaming service, Netflix seems to be feeling the heat of competition burning just a little bit hotter. [More]
Amazon Launching Standalone Video Service For $9; Allowing Monthly Prime Access For $11
By 4.17.16
While Netflix and Amazon Prime have been seen as the two main competitors in the subscription streaming market, it’s been difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison of the two because Amazon has long charged a yearly fee for Prime, and even then the Amazon subscription also includes other benefits like discounted shipping. But now Amazon appears to be taking dead-aim at Netflix with a monthly, streaming-only version of its video service that is less-expensive than the competition. The e-tailer is also looking to expand its Prime membership my making it available on a month-to-month basis. [More]
Netflix Agrees To Offer Audio Description Tracks For The Blind On More Titles
By 4.14.16
Many folks might take Netflix for granted: you fire up the site or the app, or grab a disc from your mailbox (yes, people still do that) and boom, you’re enjoying a movie. It’s not always so easy for blind people, however, as many popular movies and TV shows don’t come with audio description tracks. That’s about to change under the terms of a new settlement between advocacy groups for the blind and Netflix. [More]
Confirmed: Netflix Price Hikes Coming Next Month For 17 Million U.S. Customers
By 4.8.16
If you’ve got a grandfathered Netflix Standard plan that has you paying just $7.99 per month for HD streaming, here’s your reminder that you’ll either be paying $9.99 come May for the same quality and the ability to watch content on two screens at a time, or will be stuck in standard definition on only one screen. You’re not alone — an estimated 17 million customers in the U.S. will be affected by the change, and many of them aren’t aware of it. [More]
Cable Industry Doesn’t Understand Net Neutrality, Wants Netflix Investigated For Throttling
By 3.28.16
The core tenet of “net neutrality” is that Internet service providers — the Comcasts, Time Warner Cables, and Verizons of the world — can’t do anything to block, limit, or expedite users’ access to content. Regardless of whether it’s a video stream or a PDF, these carriers should be delivering the content as quickly as they advertise. And even though the cable industry is currently fighting net neutrality in court, it apparently has no understanding of that basic underlying principle. [More]
Netflix Admits To Throttling Its Own Streams On AT&T, Verizon Wireless Because Data Caps
By 3.25.16
If you have a network connection of a certain speed available on your phone, you expect receive data at roughly that speed, more or less. That’s how it works. Except that’s not how it’s been working for Netflix: the popular streaming video service was moving at a fraction of what users expected, on Verizon and AT&T networks. Consumers were all ready to line up and blame their mobile carriers, but the wireless companies weren’t the ones screwing around with anything, as it turns out. Netflix was. [More]
Time Warner Wants Hulu To Stop Airing Current Seasons Of TV Shows
By 2.1.16
One of the things that has allowed Hulu to compete in the streaming video subscription market is the fact that it offers users the ability to watch some currently airing shows shortly after they’ve premiered on TV. But a new report claims that if content powerhouse Time Warner Inc. has its say, even Hulu subscribers may have to wait a long time before seeing recently aired shows. [More]
Reminder: Netflix Users With Grandfathered Standard Streaming Plans Will See A Price Hike Soon
By 1.20.16
Though most current Netflix subscribers got the news last fall that the price of their standard monthly streaming plan would be going up by $1 in a year, there were others that had been grandfathered in and were already paying less for that subscription. Netflix is now reminding those folks that they’ll be facing a $2 price hike soon. [More]
Netflix Laughs Off NBC’s Obsession With Streaming Service’s Ratings
By 1.18.16
Last week, NBC spent a good chunk of its Television Critics Association press event claiming that it has reliable Netflix ratings, and that once people bore of binge-watching a show they go back to “watching TV the way that God intended.” Now Netflix wants to know why NBC is wasting its time focusing on something other than NBC. [More]
NBC Exec: Viewers Always Come Back From Binges, Netflix Not A “Consistent” Threat
By 1.15.16
There’s obviously some disruption afoot in the TV marketplace of late. Broadcast and cable networks continue to think that they represent TV. Netflix, Amazon, and an up-and-coming generation of cord-cutters seem to disagree. And yet for all money the young whippersnapper businesses seem to get from the young whippersnapper audiences, at least one member of the old guard thinks it’s all so much chaff in the wind. [More]
You May Soon Not Be Able To Access Any International Netflix Content You Want
By 1.14.16
Sure, your U.S. Netflix account offers a wide variety of movies and TV shows, but those offerings vary from country to country. Some show that aired in Europe last year may not even be available for Netflix to license to stateside viewers. Or an American movie may be unavailable locally because HBO or some other service has an exclusive, but people in Colombia can watch it on their Netflix. Clever Netflixers have long employed various workarounds to access international Netflix offerings, but now the streaming video service is warning that these may soon not work. [More]
Netflix Goes Live In More Than 130 New Countries (But Not China)
By 1.6.16
In the span of an hour this morning, Netflix more than tripled the number of countries in which it offers service, effectively serving everywhere in the world with one huge exception: China. [More]
New Dish DVR Lets You Record Up To 16 Shows At Once, Watch 4 Channels Simultaneously In HD
By 1.5.16
Do you feel the need to watch everything on TV all at once? Then Dish might be the TV provider for you. The satellite company is coming out with a new DVR that features 16 different tuners for people who just can’t get enough TV. [More]
Warner Bros. Trying To Block Devices That Get Around 4K Video Copyright Protection
By 1.4.16
A week ago, Warner Bros. home video folks announced they would be catering to the growing number of 4K TV owners by releasing 35 recent titles — including Mad Max: Fury Road and The LEGO Movie — on ultra-HD BluRay discs. Two days later, the entertainment giant was in court, suing to stop a company from selling devices that would let users get around the digital copyright protections on these, and other, 4K titles. [More]
Netflix “Making A Murderer” Documentary Inspires Viewers To Seek Justice… Through Yelp
By 12.30.15
Netflix recently premiered a 10-part true-crime documentary Making A Murderer, about controversial murder investigation in Wisconsin. Some viewers of the show have been so moved by what they’ve watched that they’re forming virtual picket lines on Yelp and other review sites. [More]
A Whole Bunch Of Christmas Movies You Can Stream Instead Of Talking To Your Family
By 12.23.15
The presents have all been unwrapped, the egg nog has done its job and you’re ready to stop talking to everyone who’s been getting on your nerves all day. Here’s to hoping you’ve got access to a streaming subscription service, and your father-in-law finally figured out where he put the piece of paper with the WiFi password on it. [More]
