After some Netflix subscribers started seeing teaser ads playing either before or after the company’s original programming, the streaming video service has confirmed that yes, it’s testing teasers — only featuring its own shows, before or after its own shows — but no, it won’t be introducing any third-party ads. [More]
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Study: Streaming Video Is Now More Than Half Of All Prime-Time Internet Traffic
By 5.28.15
If you’re in the United States, and you use the internet of an evening after work, then chances are you like your Netflix. In fact, chances are you like your Netflix a lot. And millions of other Americans seem to agree with you, because Netflix is taking up a huge amount of all prime-time internet traffic in the country. [More]
1-In-10 U.S. Households Sharing Passwords For Netflix & Other Streaming Services
By 5.18.15
A new study confirms that video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, have quickly become the new norm, and are being accessed by a majority of American homes. However, not everyone who’s logging in to binge-watch Orange Is The New Black or Transparent is paying for it. [More]
Why Cord-Cutters Aren’t Getting The Holy Grail TV Of Streaming Services Just Yet
By 5.14.15
As a growing number of consumers drop — or never sign up for — traditional pay-TV services, it’s easy to point to Netflix as a big reason. And yet, Netflix and similar services don’t actually replace the TV experience, especially when it comes to sports. Newer offerings, like Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, replicate the live TV watching experience, but falter compared to traditional pay-TV when it comes to things like DVR functionality. What’s stopping the big players from offering an all-in-one online service now? [More]
Netflix To FCC: You Should Block The AT&T/DirecTV Merger Unless Conditions Are Added
By 5.5.15
AT&T and DirecTV announced their big corporate betrothal the better part of a year ago. The planned merger between the two companies has, comparatively speaking, flown under the radar as so much time and attention fell to the now-collapsed Comcast/TWC plans. But now that the 30-million ton elephant has left the merger room, all eyes are swiveling back to the other looming giant. [More]
Net Neutrality Is Already Improving Internet Connections And It Hasn’t Even Gone Into Effect
By 5.1.15
Though the FCC narrowly voted to approve the new Open Internet Order (AKA net neutrality) several months ago, the rules don’t actually kick in until June 12. Yet with those new guidelines looming, some Internet service providers are already beginning to play nice with the companies that do most of the heavy lifting for the web. [More]
New Ratings Service Claims To Know Which Netflix Originals Are Most Popular
By 4.28.15
Netflix is a very data-driven company. They no doubt have clear internal metrics not only on just how many people are watching Orange Is The New Black, House of Cards, and Daredevil, but on how many episodes they’re watching in a single sitting, what part of the country they’re watching from, what time of day they’re doing it, and which bits, if any, they fast-forward. And they keep them all secret. Super duper secret. [More]
HBO CEO Brushes Off Idea Of Simultaneously Releasing All Episodes Of A Show
By 4.27.15
While Netflix and Amazon may be catering to binge-watchers by releasing all episodes of their original shows online at once — and even though HBO’s online library allows users to plow through entire series of older shows — don’t expect the network to dump an entire new season of Game of Thrones or True Detective onto HBO Go or HBO Now. [More]
What Will Comcast Do With The $45B It Couldn’t Spend Buying Time Warner Cable?
By 4.24.15
Comcast’s dream of achieving full coast-to-coast cable dominance this year came to an official end this morning when they had to admit the Time Warner Cable merger was just not going to happen. But Comcast is a huge business, with impatient shareholders. They need to continue proving growth, which means buying other businesses to make theirs bigger. TWC might not be on the table anymore, but something, somewhere has to be. [More]
Here Are The Most Ridiculously Long Binge-Watches Available For Anyone With 200+ Hours To Kill
By 4.20.15
If you’re like us, you like your TV. Sure you do! But let’s say you’ve been busy: you’re all caught up on the big prestige dramas. There are no secrets or spoilers left for you in Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, or Orphan Black. There’s a TV-shaped void in your life to fill, and endless reruns on cable just aren’t cutting it. You need something that can really occupy your time. Not just a few hours, but days. Weeks. You have months to kill, and you need something to binge-watch right now. And lots of it. [More]
Netflix Bases International Pricing On Country’s Piracy Level
By 4.16.15
Netflix has rapidly expanded beyond the borders of the U.S. and now has 60 million subscribers worldwide. However the price of Netflix service varies from country to country, and the company says this is due in no small part to local piracy levels. [More]
Netflix Changes Tune About Seeking Data Cap Exemptions For Service
By 4.16.15
In recent years, Netflix has been a vocal proponent of net neutrality and an outspoken critic of ISP business models that would allow certain deep-pocketed companies to gain a competitive edge over smaller players in the streaming video market. Thus the company was heavily criticized in March when it made deals with Australian ISPs that would exempt Netflix from users’ monthly data caps. This morning, the company announced that it regrets this decision and will no longer seek exemptions going forward. [More]
HBO Now Accounted For Almost 1% Of Internet Video Traffic On Sunday Night
By 4.15.15
HBO’s standalone streaming service HBO Now is only a week old but a look at traffic numbers for its first big-event night give hope that it might be finding traction with consumers. [More]
Netflix Will Release Audio Description Tracks For ‘Daredevil’ So Blind Fans Can Enjoy The Show Too
By 4.15.15
Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand or this is your first time using the Internet, you probably know enough about Marvel’s Daredevil series to know that the hero is blind. The thing is, if Matt Murdock existed in real life without any of the comic book powers he possesses on the new Netflix show, until yesterday he wouldn’t have been able to fully enjoy his own kick-punching romps through the bad guys of Hell’s Kitchen. [More]
Netflix Announces First Slate Of “Recommended” TVs
By 4.7.15
At International CES in January, Netflix revealed that it was going to begin evaluating web-connected TV sets to determine which ones were the best for accessing Netflix’s videos. Today, the company unveiled its first slate TVs that will carry its “Recommended” badge of distinction. [More]
Report: The Next Apple TV Won’t Allow For 4K Video Streaming
By 4.6.15
Just because something is new, doesn’t necessarily always mean it’ll have the newest technology — perhaps because it’s because that technology still needs to prove itself or there’s really not a need for it yet. That appears to be the reason behind Apple’s reported decision not to have its new Apple TV support 4K streaming video. [More]
Sling TV Users Finding Some Shows Are Now Being Blocked From Streaming
By 3.30.15
TV production and distribution is a complicated entanglement of interests involving studios, distributors, networks, and pay-TV services, not to mention deals any of these people might have with other companies like home video or on-demand streaming sites. That’s been one of the huge impediments to getting live-streaming of all TV content — having to please all those parties who may not all agree. And that appears to be why Sling TV users are now finding that they can’t access every show on all of the networks. [More]
Macy’s CFO: Sales Are Sluggish Because Women Don’t Want To Put Makeup On To Shop There
By 3.25.15
You there, with the bare lips and the TJ Maxx bag binge-watching Scandal online: Did you decide to skip Macy’s and head to an off-price store because you just couldn’t bear to tear yourself away from Netflix and put your face on that day? Macy’s CFO seems to think an aversion to lipstick and millennials’ love of digital content (among other things) is funneling customers away in favor of off-price stores and online shopping, leading to sagging sales. [More]
