02/11, 1:15am
Netflix makes truce over video privacy act break
Netflix has let a low-profile SEC filing reveal that it had privately settled a lawsuit. The dispute, which was resolved last year but would only be settled with a $9 million payment this year, accused Netflix of breaking the Video Privacy Protection Act and other consumer protection laws by keeping subscribers' video rental histories even after they cancelled. Customers who had resubscribed later found their past histories and queues intact, even though the VPPA required that it be purged in less than a year.
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02/10, 7:30pm
Amazon hires for own TV shows
Two new job listings have hinted that Amazon will be the next commercial Internet video service to produce some of its own content. Its studio division is hiring for the People's Production Company to create comedies and children's shows. Unlike its counterparts, though, it would be developing for traditional formats as well.
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02/10, 1:50pm
Amazon not making changes to its Prime model soon
Amazon won't split its streaming video service from Prime Instant Video in the near future despite rumors to the contrary. Brad Beale, Head of Digital Video Content Acquisition at Amazon, said during a Wednesday interview with GigaOM that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Previously, a letter to shareholders from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings mentioned that he expects Amazon to introduce a service that would undercut its own.
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02/10, 7:40am
Roku branches out to UK in earnest
Roku's international plans became real Friday after it began UK and Ireland. The Roku LT and Roku 2 XS are now available for £50 and £100 respectively (60 and 120 euros). British customers are simultaneously getting BBC iPlayer to catch up on the past one to two weeks of TV shows.
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02/09, 4:30pm
Netflix Android port gets social sharing
Netflix has updated its Android app (Market to add Facebook sharing in those countries that support it. Canada, Ireland, Latin American countries, and the UK now let viewers share what they're watching or check others' habits directly from the app. American users can't yet get access as Netflix is waiting on a bill easing video privacy permissions.
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02/09, 11:20am
Nielsen says most cord-cutting about cost
New Nielsen data about TV viewing habits has shown that cord-cutters, or those who drop paid TV in favor of Internet viewing, are often decreasing their viewing habits as a whole. Someone who has broadband but only watches traditional TV over the air watches less than half that of a regular cable subscriber, at nearly 123 minutes a day on average instead of 257, but still uses it much more than Internet streaming. These viewers typically saw no more than 11.2 minutes a day of streaming video, which was over double the five minutes of a cable subscriber but far from a direct substitute.
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02/08, 8:20pm
Studios continue to push for disc sales
Disney is reportedly considering imposing a 28-day delay between DVD or Blu-ray movie releases and availability through rental chains such as Netflix and Redbox. The company's chief executive, Bob Iger, noted the potential strategy change during a quarterly conference call with investors and analysts.
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02/08, 11:40am
Amazon now offers Viacom content, library at 15K+
Amazon on Wednesday officially confirmed earlier rumors that it has inked a deal with cable provider Viacom to bring its TV shows to Amazon's Instant Video streaming service. As part of the deal, Amazon will allow customers to access thousands of episodes from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT, and Logo. This will include past seasons of shows like Chappelle's Show, Hot in Cleveland, Jersey Shore, Yo Gabba Gabba, and iCarly, among others.
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02/06, 1:35pm
Netflix starts airing its first original series
As promised at the start of the year, the first original Netflix series has become available on Monday. Starring Steven Van Zandt, Lilyhammer is set in Norway and the one-time Olympic host town of Lillehammer. All eight episodes of the first season are live in the US, Canada, and Latin America.
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02/06, 9:35am
Redbox, Verizon to give downloads, streams, discs
Redbox and Verizon started the week with word of creating an all-encompassing movie service. The strategy would see Verizon provide movie downloads and streaming while Redbox supplied new Blu-ray and DVD discs to rent. While details were short, it would have subscriptions "and more," all while making sure viewers had access on the "media and devices they prefer."
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02/02, 2:40pm
Viacom may expand on-demand content soon
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman hinted in a discussion of fiscal results that his company was about to sign a significant digital content deal. The agreement was cast as for an online, subscription-based video on demand service and could be made public next week, The Hollywood Reporter understood. Which service, and what content, weren't divulged.
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02/01, 9:35pm
Vizio CinemaWide gets price at middle size
Vizio has quietly updated the product page for its flagship TV of the year, the CinemaWide, to give it a price. The middle tier 58-inch set should cost $3,499. Smaller 50- and high-end 71-inch sets are still coming, but didn't immediately get prices.
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01/31, 11:05pm
Redbox must buy discs but gets them faster
Disagreements between Redbox and Warner Bros. may have inadvertently benefited viewers after a deal between the two expired Tuesday. Redbox will now have to buy Blu-ray and DVD discs from retail to stock its catalog rather than at a lower price from Warner, but it will no longer face the 28-day delay instituted by Warner to try and shelter traditional rentals and sales. Warner earlier in the month had started insisting on an even longer 56-day delay that likely pushed Redbox into the more expensive but much faster arrangement.
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01/31, 12:50pm
Hulu CEO careful not to commit to or deny Apple TV
Hulu chief Jason Kilar used careful language in an interview at the D: Dive Into Media conference when discussing major content deals. He wouldn't confirm or deny any talks to bring Hulu Plus to the Apple TV. The executive was aware it was a potentially loaded question and denied it twice when pressed.
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01/27, 6:30am
Netflix users hit with new delay
Warner Bros. has altered the terms of its deal with Netflix yet again, throwing up another barrier to users looking to get their hands on a recent release rental. While Netflix users were just getting used to the 56 delay in getting a recent release rental, they will now have to also wait 28 days after a new DVD has been released before they can even add it to their queue. An anonymous insider has tipped the LA Times that the new arrangement takes effect on February 1.
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01/25, 7:40pm
Netflix to stay out of games for now
Netflix's CEO Reed Hastings in the call discussing his company's fall 2011 results reaffirmed suspicions that the company was no longer working on video game rentals. The decision to cancel the Qwikster spinoff had also ended plans to rent games at the same time. The still-united company would be focused solely on its movie and TV businesses.
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01/25, 4:55pm
Netflix Q4 2011 buoyed by US, hurt elsewhere
Netflix saw the fuller consequences of its more controversial decisions on Wednesday with results from the fall. The company added more streaming customers than it expected, 220,000, but the "continued impact" of its price hike for those keeping DVDs and streaming led to it shedding 2.76 million disc subscriptions. These, along with the costs of expansion outside of the US, dragged Netflix's profit down 13 percent year over year to $41 million.
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01/25, 12:10pm
Amazon Instant Video may go separate
Amazon might separate at least the subscription side of its Instant Video service to better compete in Internet video. A rumor late Tuesday from the New York Post had it breaking the subscription video out from its bundling with the $79 Prime service. Studios are reportedly unhappy that Amazon was following its traditional practice of using a service as a loss leader, presumably for setting unrealistic price expectations or treating movies and TV shows as afterthoughts.
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01/23, 9:25am
YouTube sees big increase in video viewing
YouTube in a briefing Monday said it had pushed past four billion video streams a day. The milestone was explained to Reuters as a 25 percent boost over the three billion from just eight months earlier. A full 60 hours of new video was being uploaded every minute versus 48 hours at the earlier point.
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01/20, 6:20pm
Netflix gets new CMO and COO
Netflix on Friday shook up its executive staff in an attempt to control its image. Its 12-year chief marketing officer Leslie Kilgore would join the board as a regular director and was taking on marketing VP Jessie Becker as a temporary replacement. It was also appointing a new COO, former Disney communications head Jonathan Friedland.
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01/20, 12:20am
Major TiVo Premiere update arrives at last
TiVo posted a much-requested update for its Premiere-series DVRs mid-week that answered a number of complaints while adding upsides of its own. The 20.2 upgrade speeds up the interface to touch on a common lag problem and brings the Grid and Live Guides into HD for the first time. Those who have more than one TiVo now have the luxury of streaming a show recorded on one TiVo to another on the same network instead of having to transfer it completely.
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01/18, 6:45pm
Microsoft's Cutler shifts to Xbox team
Exploration has confirmed that at least two key Microsoft staffers have jumped from the Azure cloud service to the Xbox team. Dave Cutler, best known as the chief architect behind Windows NT, has left for the gamign division, ZDNet heard after talking to Microsoft. While his exact project wasn't known, he would be helping shift the Xbox to a digital media hub, a transition that had already started with the fall 2011 Dashboard update.
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01/17, 10:45am
Netflix sued over reporting false information
Movie streaming and rental-by-mail service Netflix has been named in a class-action lawsuit for reportedly hiding decreases in its subscriber base and releasing false information about contracts with content providers. The lawsuit was filed on the behalf of institutional investors at the City of Royal Oak Retirement System.
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01/16, 10:35am
Lovefilm to begin streaming ABC TV show seasons
Online UK movie service Lovefilm has signed a deal with Disney UK to bring a library of TV series from ABC Studios to its subscribers. Branded as ABC TV On Demand, the portal will give members access to full seasons of shows such as Lost, Castle, Desperate Housewives, and more. Shows will air as full seasons soon before the next one airs on UK paid or free TV networks.
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01/15, 6:05pm
Hulu starts up own online-only TV series
Hulu followed in Netflix's footsteps Sunday by launching its first fictional, original TV series. Battleground covers a fictional political campaign in Wisconsin and is produced by JD Walsh, 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb, and Hagai Shaham. It should be followed up by more documentaries, including a second season of Morgan Spurlock's A Day in the Life and Richard Linklater's new Up to Speed.
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01/11, 1:55pm
Microsoft and Google TV plans trade fortunes
Microsoft and Google made both official and unofficial plans for their TV strategies on Wednesday. A leak uncovered by Reuters had Microsoft freezing its long-rumored plans for live subscription Xbox TV. The company had decided that the rates TV channels were asking for the Internet-only service were "too expensive" for the plan it wanted to offer, industry insiders said.
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01/09, 1:15pm
RCA soundbar to stream Netflix, Vudu, Pandora
At a pre-CES event, RCA showed off a new sound bar that connects to the web to let subscribers access their Netflix, Pandoara, Vudu and other services. The 37-inch RCA Wi-Fi Home Theater Sound Bar (model RTS739WS) is paired with two satellite speakers a subwoofer to deliver surround sound. There is an HDMI output and an optical audio input for adding audio from a TV or other source such as a set-top or receiver.
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01/09, 3:45am
Netflix expands to Britain
Netflix confirmed its long-in-the-making plans to expand to Ireland and the UK on Monday. The service works much like its American equivalent but has some accommodation for the local market, such as The Only Way is Essex. Going to the area also brings the full Facebook integration that's currently off-limits to Americans.
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01/05, 9:35pm
Wait period doubled to 56 days
Corroborating earlier reports, Warner Brothers is said to be set to extend the delay time for movie availability through streaming providers or DVD rental outlets. Customers will now have to wait 56 days from the start of DVD sales before titles will arrive through streaming channels or disc rentals, essentially doubling the window from the current period of 28 days.
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01/05, 3:50pm
Broadcom makes deal with SlingBox, Myriad
Chipmaker Broadcom has made a few significant deals this week, partnering with Sling Media for its EchoStar set-top technology and with Myriad for the Alien Vue solution. The deals could result in a Broadcom system-on-chip that may allow set-top boxes for TVs that run Android apps and aren't limited to home Wi-Fi networks. Thus far, only Dish Network allows place-shifting in Sling's Slingbox set-tops.
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01/05, 3:35pm
HBO hopes to slow down Netflix with price change
HBO confimed Thursday that it had stopped directly supplying Netflix with discounted discs. The change won't affect Netflix's ability to get discs, but it will force Netflix to get discs from other sources, CNET was told. It isn't expected to hurt availability or prices in the near term, although Netflix has never had HBO streaming rights.
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01/04, 3:45pm
Netflix streamed 2b hours of TV in fourth quarter
Netflix just revealed that its subscribers watched over two billion hours of TV shows and movies in the fourth quarter of 2011, leading one analyst to name it as the 15th largest TV 'network.' Richard Greenfield from BTIG believes Netflix is replacing TV viewing time in households and is the second-most watched in homes with cable and the subscription service. He had previously expected it to be 25th rather than 15th in the quarter.
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01/03, 1:35pm
First original Netflix series called Lilyhammer
Netflix will begin to show its first original series on February 6, and not House of Cards, as expected. Instead, the series is titled Lilyhammer, and is set in Norway, with Sopranos actor and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt as the star and the executive producer. The series will come to Netflix subscribers in Canada, the US, and Latin America.
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12/29, 6:25pm
Apple catches flack for iPhone bar fiascos, more
Tis the season for year-end "best of" and "worst of" lists, and while Apple has finished 2011 with a number of triumphs that landed it on nearly everyone's top-10 for Christmas presents, it was not without a few missteps -- two of which are included in CNN's list of top 10 "tech fails" of 2011. The company's "sins" are minor compared to fiascos like the Netflix/Qwikster debacle or RIM's various Blackberry woes, but they were enough to make the list.
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12/28, 9:00am
ForeSee gives Amazon and Apple nods in appeal
ForeSee late Tuesday gave the nod to technology-driven online shops for satisfaction with online shopping during the holidays. Amazon led the group with a new high of 88 points. A one-point climb by Apple was enough to put it at a new high of 83 and a five-way tie with Avon, QVC, VistaPrint, and JC Penney, now headed by Apple's former retail VP Ron Johnson.
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12/27, 11:20am
Kindle Fire modified to run buggy Android 4.0.3
Those on the XDA-Developers forums have brought a rough build of Android 4.0 to the Kindle Fire tablet. The early build is meant to hash out a number of problems and features that still don't work with the help of the community. The About screen shows Android 4.0.3 is onboard, which was placed there with a CyanogenMod 9 root.
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12/26, 1:45pm
Hollywood may face cost of 3D, Internet in 2012
New estimates compiled by Hollywood.com point to the movie industry facing a rare decline. Assuming the last week of the year reflects trends, movie theaters will have made $10.1 billion in 2011, or 4.5 percent less than in 2010. AllThingsD didn't glean explanations from the research.
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12/26, 11:40am
Boxee 1.5 marks shift from desktop to devices
Boxee marked a swansong for its desktop app with the launch of 1.5. The app has a newly refreshed interface with quicker access to the browser and the menu appearing as an overlay with quicker search. Movie and TV sections have been given their own updates, such as easier navigation by genres and sources, more details, and a better way to check for unwatched video episodes.
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12/22, 5:55pm
Destination of TV tech remains unclear
Motorola Mobility has reportedly moved to acquire SetJam, a startup that compiles data from a variety of streaming video services. The company offers a "data integrity engine" that indexes TV shows and movie listings from sources such as Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. The system automatically determines the number of specific episodes available from each source.
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12/22, 12:05pm
Citi study shows Netflix stil in comfortable lead
A new Citi Investment Research study from analyst Mike Mahaney points to Netflix still increasing its share of Internet movie and TV viewing. Between May and December, Netflix's share of those watching movies on TV grew from 20 to 27 percent. Most of that came at the expense of Hulu, which was down from 19 percent to 15.
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12/21, 6:05pm
Deal includes both TV shows and movies.
Amazon's UK-based Lovefilm has closed a deal with Sony Pictures Television. The arrangement will give subscribers to the media rental and downloading service exclusive streamed access to Sony's current TV series as well as past shows. Also included will be future movie releases from Sony.
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12/20, 1:25pm
Myriad Alien Vue meant for cable providers
Myriad, the developers of the Alien Dalvik platform that lets Android apps to run on iOS and other operating systems, has now introduced Myriad Alien Vue. This latest product will allow apps to run on users' existing TVs and set-top boxes. It includes its own app store and supports multi-screen playback and cross-platform viewing from TVs, smartphones, and tablets.
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12/20, 8:20am
Netflix gets streaming for past BBC episodes
Netflix on Tuesday gave British and Irish viewers access to BBC shows. A new deal will stream all past seasons of key TV shows, including Doctor Who, Spooks, Top Gear, and others. For many, the subscription will act as a way to catch shows after they leave the BBC iPlayer.
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12/15, 5:40pm
Swype must first fix screen resolution issuue
Netflix has released an update for its Android app, providing support for 4.x Android devices (free, Android Market). The timing of the new version is synchronized with the first shipments in the US of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Most of the changes are to accommodate the lack of hardware navigation buttons.
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12/14, 3:35pm
Nielsen shows game console usage numbers, bumps
Streaming and video-on-demand on game consoles has seen a sharp increase over the past year, media researcher Nielsen revealed after performing a study in October. Users now spend 14 percent of their time on the Xbox 360, 15 percent on the PS3, and 33 percent on the Wii watching videos from services such as Netflix, Hulu, MLB Network, and ESPN3.
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12/14, 12:30pm
iPad interface mimics Android, website
Netflix has updated its iOS app to v2.0, making two important changes. Users can firstly access Netflix through iOS in Latin America. More broadly the iPad interface has been overhauled, bringing it in line with the layout of the recent Android tablet app, as well as the Netflix website.
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12/14, 11:35am
Nokia Lumia 710 on T-Mobile goes black, adds apps
Nokia has inadvertently spoiled T-Mobile's special event by posting details of the carrier's special version of the Lumia 710. The first Nokia Windows Phone in the US, it will be unique on the outside through the black design, including a unique black-and-white two-tone design. T-Mobile would also preload US-friendly apps from ESPN, Netflix, Slacker Radio, a slightly redundant TeleNav GPS, T-Mobile TV, and the Weather Channel.
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12/13, 7:40pm
Verizon may try to take over Netflix
A claim from Mediatech Capital managing partner Porter Bibb late Tuesday maintained that Verizon was "very serious" about buying Netflix. Fueling earlier rumors, he explained to Bloomberg that sources inside Verizon wanted either Netflix or "something similar." Bidding was underway with unnamed competitors that Bibb heard could see a sale before Easter for an estimated $4.6 billion.
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12/12, 9:40am
Nook Color update goes live
Barnes & Noble as promised has rolled out the 1.4 update to the Nook Color. The upgrade is key to switching on content made available first on the Nook Tablet and lets users get the Netflix video app as well as watch UltraViolet-linked movies through the Flixster app. Readers can also browse Nook Comics from Marvel, IDW, Dynamite, and others.
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12/07, 4:45pm
Netflix and Hulu can use Facebook for video recs
The US Congress late Tuesday passed a modification to a law that would help get over blocks preventing Facebook integration with Hulu and Netflix. A change to the Video Privacy Protection Act backed by Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte would let users share their video habits online. Until now, the law required written consent, criminalizing attempts to share history or other more detailed content.
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