The shows you watch and the shows your five-year-old niece watch probably differ: she might prefer short 30-minute animated cartoons about an exploring adolescent, and you might go for something with more action or political backstabbing. While you both deserve to have a high quality product streaming on your screen, Netflix announced today that it might have found a better way to make sure that still happens, while using less data. [More]
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Streaming Video Binges Now Take Up More Than 70% Of The (Prime-Time) Internet
By 12.7.15
Do you remember 2007? Way back then in the long-long ago times, movies came on physical discs and you binge-watched a TV series by happening to turn on the TV while a Law and Order marathon was running. Now, however, it seems like basically everything streams to us over the internet… and basically the whole internet, or at least a huge fraction of it, is for streaming. [More]
YouTube Wants To Be Your New Netflix, Seeks Rights To TV And Movies
By 12.3.15
If you want to curl up on the sofa on a cold winter night and watch a movie, that’s what Netflix is for. And if you want to watch music videos, mash-ups, or cats doing foolish things, you’ve got your YouTube. That’s how it’s been since approximately the dawn of time, by which we mean roughly the last five or six years. But it looks like the times, they are a-changing, and YouTube wants to be your one-stop shop for video of any and all sorts. [More]
6 Thanksgiving Movies You Can Stream Instead Of Talking To Your In-Laws
By 11.25.15
So your mother-in-law is asking you again, whether she’ll ever be a grandmother. Your options include feigning a disaster in another room, straight up ignoring her or claiming you have to go to the bathroom, again. Or, you could turn on a Thanksgiving-themed movie and have everyone gather ’round, shut up and watch it together. [More]
You Can Record Movies Off Netflix, Or Music Off Spotify, But You’re Not Allowed To
By 11.6.15
Once upon a time, in the long-long ago bygone years of the 20th century, teenagers communicated their feelings through a medium known as the mix tape. Those of us who can remember tape cassettes can remember hitting “record” on a boom box at exactly the right moment when a favorite song started on the radio or, as the ’90s waned into the shadow of Y2K, recording tracks off a bunch of CDs into one themed tape to play in the car or slip into the hand of a not-so-secret crush. [More]
Netflix Adds 5-Minute Videos For Kids To Give Parents A Bedtime Bargaining Tool
By 11.4.15
If you’re a parent, you probably face bedtime with a grim determination to stick to your guns, stay firm and get that kid tucked in and the lights out when you say so. Not as easy as it sounds, as many of you likely know: kids are wily adversaries, armed with a seemingly endless arsenal of excuses and a knack for bargaining. Netflix wants to help parents compromise with their tiny foes, launching a collection of five-minute bedtime videos. [More]
Networks May Be Preparing To Wean Themselves Off “Pure Heroin” Of Netflix Money
By 11.3.15
For years, Netflix has been showering networks and TV production studios with gobs of cash to run their shows online. Not even two years ago, one executive said the money was so good that it was like “pure heroin” for content producers. But the best drugs often have the worst side effects, and now some TV folks are reportedly looking to break their addiction to Netflix. [More]
Report: T-Mobile May Let Customers Stream Video Without Eating Into Their Data Plans
By 10.29.15
Maybe you’ve had that moment, the one where you’re 47 minutes deep in a Star Trek: The Next Generation binge session on your phone (because you can’t be bothered to find a larger screen) and you suddenly realize you haven’t switched over to WiFi. Visions of your swiftly dwindling data plan may no longer dance in front of your eyes at such times if you’re a T-Mobile customer, if a new rumor proves to be true. [More]
Credit Card Processors Aren’t Buying Netflix’s EMV Shift Excuse
By 10.16.15
When Netflix announced its quarterly results this week, they had an explanation for why their new subscriber number fell short of their projections. The shift to smart-chip (or EMV) payment cards means that the service lost some subscribers while customers received new card numbers and forgot to change them over. That’s a good story, but people in the banking business have some issues with it. [More]
Netflix Streaming Is Down, But Everything Will Be Okay
By 10.15.15
We know that you just settled down to watch episodes of “Criminal Minds” while you eat dinner or whatever your weird personal ritual is, and were horrified to see that Netflix is down. Don’t fret, little consumer: everything is going to be okay soon. Soon-ish? [More]
Amazon Agrees To Include Closed Captions On All Streaming Videos
By 10.15.15
Hard of hearing Amazon Prime subscribers already know that all the videos on that subscription service include closed captions, but not every video offered online by Amazon comes with captions. That is going to change after the e-tailer reached a deal with the National Association of the Deaf to expand its captioning efforts to encompass the site’s full catalog. [More]
Verizon’s New Ads Are Apparently Unfamiliar With Verizon’s Own Business Practices
By 10.12.15
Verizon recently began airing an ad where the telecom titan declares that, “A better network doesn’t mess with your data.” Whoever made this Verizon commercial has apparently never heard of this company called Verizon and the ways it has — and wants to — mess with your data. [More]
Netflix Adds $1 Per Month To “Standard” Plan For New Subscribers
By 10.8.15
Three months after Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the company wasn’t planning to increase rates in the U.S. anytime soon, the company announced it was doing just that — by $1, at least for one plan. [More]
Virgin America To Offer Free In-Flight WiFi For Netflix Subscribers
By 9.30.15
Netflix customers who’ve wished they could download content to bring with them on their mobile devices when they fly still won’t be able to do that, but they will be able to stream video on some Virgin America planes by way of a new partnership that gives Netflix subscribers free WiFi. [More]
Netflix Deal With Oculus & Samsung Means You’ll Actually Have Something To Watch With That VR Headset
By 9.24.15
So you’ve got your cool virtual reality headset, and you’re just dying to try it. But what are you supposed to watch on it? Until now, there’s been a limited amount of content available for VR headsets. That’s all changed now, as Netflix announced a deal with Oculus and Samsung that includes a virtual reality version of Netflix’s entire library. [More]
Netflix Knows The Exact Moment You Get Hooked On A TV Show
By 9.23.15
“I know, it starts out slow, but if you can just get through a few episodes, I swear, it’s totally worth it and you will be addicted. Just trust me.” We’ve all heard something like that before, and now Netflix is repeating it, with a list that pinpoints the exact episode its users get hooked on a TV show. [More]
BBC Launching Netflix-Like Service Next Year
By 9.18.15
Between Netflix, Hulu, SlingTV, Amazon Prime and other similar companies, cord-cutting consumers (or those considering cutting the cord) have several options for streaming video. The latest entrant into the over-the-top [OTT] ring comes from the other side of the pond: the BBC. [More]
Chicago Sued Over 9% “Cloud Tax” On Streaming Services
By 9.14.15
Back in July, the city of Chicago started levying an unpopular new tax on its residents: cloud services, including streaming media like Netflix, suddenly cost 9% extra. Neither denizens of the Windy City nor the businesses who serve them are at all happy with this, however, and now the lawsuits have begun. [More]
