Articles about Streaming

We found out a while back that the NFL will not be renewing its DirecTV Sunday Ticket deal, after a years-long run. The top-viewed sports league has decided to move on and no longer require its viewers to get a satellite dish installed just to watch their favorite team in action. Instead, the NFL is moving on to something that it hopes will attract an even broader viewership. 

For a while, it seemed that Apple TV+ was the lead streaming candidate, but a new survey indicates that is no longer the case. According to The Streamable, Apple TV+ actually trails its major competitors in terms of viewer choice. 

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It has been a very, very long time coming, but a cheaper Netflix subscription tier, complete with ads, arrives next month.

The new ad-supported plan is called Basic with Ads, and will cost $6.99 per month when it launches in the US on November 3. Netflix says that the cheaper tier will be available in 11 other countries, and shares details of the limitations subscribers will have to put up with, including the fact that some shows and movies simply will not be available if you're not paying for a more expensive ad-free Basic, Standard or Premium plan.

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Streaming video giant Netflix has signed up as a member of Barb (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) in the UK. This means that starting in November we will have access to independently audited viewing figures for Netflix shows.

The numbers will make for interesting reading as, until now, this is data that Netflix has been very secretive about. But with an ad-supported tier due to be launched, advertisers will require details about the number of people they can expect to reach with their advertisements.

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It’s no secret that the NFL’s contract for Sunday Ticket with DirecTV expires after the upcoming NFL season, the 2022-23 one. That’s good news for pretty much anyone who doesn’t or who can't get the satellite service. 

While rumors abound of who will get the new Sunday Ticket deal -- Apple TV+ has long been rumored to be the front runner -- the real preferred favorite of the people out there has been to make it available through all services, like any channel -- sign a contract with the normal restrictions (blackouts, etc.) 

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Netflix has been battling dropping subscriber numbers for a while, and the company has been looking for ways to either recoup the money lost through a shrinking userbase, or to increase the number of people willing to pay for access.

To provide a cheaper point of entry, Netflix has plans to introduce a lower-cost, ad-supported subscription tier, but the company has also talked about clamping down on people who share passwords and access to their account with friends. And with the newly announced "extra home" option, we've finally learned just how this is going to work.

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If you have ever driven a car and needed directions, there's a good chance you have tried Waze. The Google-owned service is very popular thanks to its crowdsourced traffic information -- any user can report traffic jams, police speed traps, and more. It really is a useful app that can reduce travel times.

One of the coolest features of Waze is the ability to integrate with music-streaming services, such as Spotify, so you don't have to exit the navigation app to interact with music controls. This isn't just for convenience, but for safety purposes too. Sadly, the wildly popular Apple Music has not been compatible with the aforementioned Waze feature, but today, this finally changes.

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Apple Music is the best streaming music service. Yes, it is much better than Spotify. This is fact. I know this to be true, as I have used both and found Apple's offering to be superior. Apple Music isn't limited to the company's own devices like iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV either -- it can also be accessed on Android and the web, for instance.

Today, Apple Music comes to yet another platform -- Roku. Yes, whether you have a Roku media box or TV with Roku integrated, you can now access Apple Music with it. How cool is that?

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Shares in Netflix plummeted by more than a fifth after the streaming company reported a drop in subscriber numbers for the first time in more than a decade. In the first quarter of 2022, Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers and the prediction is for things to get much worse over the rest of the year.

For those subscribers who are sticking around, there is a double whammy of bad news. Not only is there the threat that Netflix will introduce advertisements, but also that it will charge higher subscription fees to anyone who shares their account with others.

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Over the past couple of years, we’ve grown used to movies going straight to streaming. It was necessary during the height of the pandemic because theaters were closed and there were films already produced and ready to go. With the exception of James Bond: No Time to Die, which stubbornly pushed back its release date, not once, but twice. 

Theaters are now open, and late in 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home, broke box office records worldwide. Now, HBO Max has secured a deal to begin streaming another recent theater success, The Batman, from today. The movie raked in $751.1 million worldwide as of the most recent count. 

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Some four years after adding support for podcasts, streaming media service Plex has announced that podcasts will no longer be available through its apps.

While the company insists that, "we're big podcast fans here at Plex", it says that it is "sorry for the inconvenience" of dropping support. But for anyone who has been using Plex to access podcasts, they may well agree that killing off the feature is the kindest thing to do, but it has irked those who paid for a Plex Pass subscription to use it.

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There can be few Netflix users out there who have not teamed up with friends or family to share a single account between multiple households. While this is a great way to reduce the cost of accessing the streaming service, Netflix is a little irked at the revenue it is missing out on as a result.

As such, the company has announced that it is planning a test that will prompt some password-sharers to pay a bit extra to add extra "sub accounts" to their Standard and Premium plans.

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If you are a content creator (like a Twitch streamer or YouTube vlogger, for instance), you probably already have the necessary equipment, such as a high-quality camera and microphone. But no matter how great your gear is, there is something that can have a huge impact on your video quality -- lighting. Any photographer or videographer will tell you that having proper lighting is extremely important.

And now, Logitech has released a new device to help streamers and other creators improve their content. Called "Litra Glow Premium Streaming Light," this light source is powered by USB and can be controlled by Logitech's G HUB software on Windows and Mac. Linux users can enjoy it too, however, as there are hardware controls (brightness and warmth) on the rear of the light as well, making it operating system agnostic.

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Following the release of her latest album, 30, Adele has had a greater impact on Spotify than the artist -- or anyone else -- expected. The new LP has already been streamed millions of times, and this is hardly surprising for Adele's first album in six years. But the singer has also managed to convince Spotify to make a big change to the platform.

The streaming music service has stopped shuffling albums by default, in recognition of the fact that bands and artists craft albums with a great deal of attention to detail, carefully curating track order to create a narrative or mood.

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If you want to be a world-famous YouTube creator, Twitch streamer, or podcaster, you must have a great personality. With so many people creating content, you should have a way to stand out from the crowd too. For most creators, it will never become more than a hobby -- earning a living from these platforms is highly unlikely.

With all of that said, you should also buy good hardware. For instance, if I discover an interesting streamer on Twitch, I won't bother subscribing if it is difficult to hear them speak -- a good microphone is absolutely essential. Thankfully, quality gear doesn't have to break the bank. For instance, today, Turtle Beach unveils the latest mic from its Neat Microphones subsidiary. Called "Bumblebee II," it is an affordable USB-C mic that comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable in the box.

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If you are a cord-cutter, a phrase some people like to debate, then you may be familiar with a great way to get your local over-the-air channels. The service is called Locast, and it rebroadcasts all the OTA without the rabbit-ears. That fills one of the great empty spots that folks had when it came to getting rid of cable or satellite. 

Unfortunately, there are some rather powerful entities out there that don’t like this idea very much. Why? Because Locast doesn’t charge (although it does request a monthly "donation" to keep the stream flowing uninterrupted), so there’s no cut for them to take. On Tuesday, Locast was dealt a huge blow when Judge Louis Stanton said a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox would be allowed to proceed to trial.

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