Streaming

New research from Bitdefender reveals a rise in 'stream-jacking' attacks against high-profile accounts in order to spread fraudulent messages.

The attacks may involve a full account takeover or simply luring followers to a mimicked channel with the promise of rewards using various techniques including livestream pop-ups, QR codes, and malicious links.

Streaming music service Spotify has announced Jam, a group playlist feature that can be used by up to 32 people. Spotify describes the new social feature as a "personalized, real-time listening session for your group to tune into together".

It is, in many ways, an amalgamation of several existing features of Spotify, such as Blend, personalized playlists and collaborative playlists. All users of Spotify -- free and paying -- are able to contribute to a Jam, but the ability to create them is limited to Premium Subscribers.

Spotify has launched a new personalized playlist option which gives users a unique way to create mixes to suite any mood, occasion or activity.

The company describes Niche Mixes as "a set of personalized playlists that combines all that our Mixes offer in a playful way". What this means in practice is that you can search for an "activity, vibe or aesthetic" (running, 80s, meditative, for instance), add the word "mix", and you'll be provided with a custom playlist to suit.

Having already test driven its paid-for account sharing in Latin America, Netflix has expanded its efforts to end password sharing to four other regions.

Now, users in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain will no longer be able to share their Netflix account with friends or family outside of their household without paying to do so. The company is pushing the move as a way to give "members greater control over who can access their account", but the reality is about money.

Netflix recently announced a crackdown on the sharing of account details and has introduced a paid sharing option to allow multiple users. It isn't surprising then that there's a thriving Dark Web market for streaming account details.

Research from AtlasVPN shows that account logins for popular streaming services are being sold for an average of $11.

At the same time as sharing its Q4 2022 earnings report, Netflix has revealed that its much-hyped crackdown on password sharing will roll out before the end of this quarter.

In a letter to shareholders, the company reveals that more than 100 million households currently share their accounts with others, pointing out that this "undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve Netflix". Having already tested charging for account sharing in Latin America, the plan is to expand this to a much larger proportion of the subscriber base.

Netflix has announced a new feature that makes it possible to log out of any logged-in devices from Account Settings.

While the company is suggesting that is something that would be useful for things such as forgetting to log out of your Netflix account on a hotel TV, it is also likely to be used to give freeloaders the boot. Additionally, it serves as a helpful security feature, giving Netflix subscribers a way to remotely log out of unrecognized devices.

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. 

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.

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.

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.) 

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.

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.

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?

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.