After years of trying to beat each other by selling more expensive, fancier, gel-filled, battery-powered, car-washing, lost-key-finding razors, Schick and Gillette are now duking it out in the more affordable realm of subscription blade plans. Not only is Schick now selling its own blades by mail; it’s selling blades that fit on Gillette’s handles but cost less. [More]
subscription services
Yes, Real-Life Fabletics Stores Just Exist To Sell More ‘VIP Memberships’
By 2.12.16
People love to get deals, and we love to feel like we’re part of a special club. That’s why Fabletics, a sort of Columbia House for sports bras, is apparently succeeding in its expansion into real-life retail, and plans to open as many as 100 new stores. [More]
YouTube Launches $9.99/Month “Red” Ad-Free Subscription Service
By 10.21.15
Six months after reports began to swirl that YouTube would offer users an option to watch videos sans ads, the company officially unveiled its $9.99/month subscription service. [More]
E-Book Subscription Service Oyster Shutting Down
By 9.22.15
E-book subscription service Oyster (otherwise known as “the Netflix of books” because that’s how everyone describes things now) will be shutting down after two years. [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]
FTD, Classmates Inc. To Pay $11M To Resolve Multi-State Allegations Of Deceptive Advertising
By 5.26.15
The attorneys general from 22 states signed an $11 million settlement with a national flower delivery service and social networking site today to resolve allegations that the two companies misled consumers into buying subscription services they didn’t want. [More]
YouTube Will Let Viewers Watch Videos Ad-Free For A Monthly Fee
By 4.9.15
If your dream is watch hours upon hours of animals from different species being best friends without the insistent interruption of ads, you are within reach of that reality — if you’re willing to cough up a payment every month to YouTube. [More]
Oyster, The ‘Netflix For Books’, Aims To Take On Amazon With Launch Of E-Book Store
By 4.8.15
When Oyster launched in 2013, it claimed to be the e-book version of Netflix, offering customers an all-you-can-read lending library of around 100,000 books for a monthly subscription of $9.95. A year and a half later, the company seems to have realized that a buffet of sometimes unheard of books isn’t exactly what consumers are looking for. So in an attempt to bring the latest and greatest titles to readers, the company now plans to secure its foothold in the e-book market with the launch of a retail component aimed to compete with Amazon, Apple and other online booksellers. [More]
Nickelodeon Announces Plans For Stand-Alone Subscription Service
By 1.29.15
If you’ve ever tried to withhold a tablet full of cartoons from the grasping clutches of a five-year-old intent on mainlining Dora the Explorer, then you know that children’s TV content is a pretty big deal. Often it’s the only thing that can prevent a total, shrieking, screaming, flailing and hysterical meltdown. Viacom will be trying to cash in on that need for kid fodder with a new stand-alone subscription service for Nickelodeon. [More]
Will People Pay Vessel $3/Month For More Professional YouTube Videos?
By 1.21.15
YouTube’s playlists are full of amateur and mostly amateurish video clips, which is fine because almost everything on YouTube is free. But there are also plenty of high-quality content producers posting videos on YouTube, some of whom are being paid handsomely for it. While such clips may add an air of professionalism to YouTube, will consumers be willing to pay $2.99/month for a service that curates the best of the web? [More]
Vinyl Subscription Service Like The Netflix Of Records, But You Can Buy What You Get
By 1.9.15
While it seems music has moved as far away from the more physical music era of the past — records, cassettes, CDs, etc. — as we stream millions of artists into our ears from wherever we want, whenever we want, some people still like to get their hands on a solid hunk of plastic for their listening pleasure. A new vinyl subscription service is catering to those analog folk with LP deliveries. [More]
Call Of Duty Subscription Service Will Cost $50 A Year, Include Downloadable Maps
By 9.5.11
Activision Blizzard has managed to pump up Call of Duty to a Goliath-like status in online gaming for the past several years, so it was only a matter of time until the publisher thought of a way to sap more money from dedicated players. Its answer is Call of Duty Elite, a service that offers stat-tracking, group management and social features for $50 a year. The fee also covers downloadable map packs that non-members will have to buy individually. [More]
Netflix Will Start Treating Americans As Well As Canadians 'Over Coming Months'
By 9.24.10
Making an about-face after stirring up a hornet’s nest of discontent by saying Americans were too self-absorbed to notice his company was providing cheap, streaming-only access to Canadian customers, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said he was joking and that Americans would get a similar service soon. [More]
Give Sony $50 A Year, Get Very Little In Return
By 6.25.10
Sony unveiled the specifics of its Xbox Live-like PlayStation Plus program on its PlayStation Blog, revealing an underwhelming set of features for the $50 annual fee. Bear in mind that Sony already gives away online play — something Microsoft charges for. [More]
Sony Wants To Sell You Enhanced PS3 Online Access, Motion Controller
By 6.16.10
Sony’s two biggest announcements at video game summit E3 were of copycat efforts. By the end of the month the PS3 will start PlayStation Plus, a $50-a-year tier of its currently free online service that gives gamers a grab bag of free downloads and the ability to talk with other players online regardless of what game their playing — provided they’re also PlayStation Plus subscribers. It’s the company’s answer to pay-to-play Xbox Live. The first three months of PlayStation Plus are free. [More]
Dish Customers To Get Their Tetris On For $3 A Month
By 2.8.10
You can either buy Tetris for $10 or less on a billion different platforms, or you could decide to shell out a $3 monthly fee for the old standby if you’re a Dish Network subscriber, Industry Gamers reports. [More]
TiVo Restores Service, Refunds Gift Card
By 12.3.09
TiVo may not have treated Lee right, taking him for granted and unfairly billing him while cutting off his lifetime service. Maybe it even slept around with cocktail waitresses and D-list reality show stars. But TiVo stopped dragging its feet once Lee told us his story. [More]
