We’ve been pretty outspoken about NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. From what looked like a good start full of social media promise, the broadcaster has failed to deliver the most crucial element of all: a large, unfettered river of live sports content from the event itself, available to anyone, not just cable subscribers (coverage here, here, and here). It’s been getting a lot of grief on… → Read More
Netflix has just released its second quarter 2012 earnings report, in which the video rental veteran outpaced estimates, improving on last quarter and meeting most expectations and even beating some. Revenue increased to $889 million compared to the same period for 2011. Earnings per share came in at $0.11 per share. In the weeks leading up to the release, analysts had been projected Netflix to… → Read More
NBCUniversal continues to ramp up international streaming deals as a way of getting its content in a non-pirated (read: revenue-generating) format out to the masses. Today, the media company is making a key move into China in a multi-year licensing deal with Youku, the country’s biggest online video player with 300 million monthly viewers, to provide a rolling selection of 100 feature films as… → Read More
Spotify’s move last year to open its platform to other apps has created more stickiness for its streamed music services. Now, one of the startups based around that idea has found some traction of its own: Oslo-based Soundrop, which creates “listening rooms” and social jukebox-style service for Spotify users (think Turntable.fm), has picked up its first round of investment, $3 million from … → Read More
Miami-based streaming music startup Senzari, which aims to take on Pandora by targeting the markets Pandora misses (i.e., the rest of the world), has just closed an additional round of funding totaling $1 million. The round includes investors in both Miami and Silicon Valley, including, notably Dave McClure’s 500 Startups.
The company had previously raised $2 million from undisclosed angels in… → Read More
Music streaming provider Deezer is one of the bigger (and older — it’s been around since 2006) services of its kind, with some 20 million registered users in 48 territories, and 15 million tracks in its catalog — but it has failed to capture mindshare in quite the same way as rival Spotify; and some might argue that this will make it harder in the long run for Deezer to keep up and… → Read More
Netflix has been making a few moves to separate its DVD business more from its streaming operation, and today brings news of the latest move in that direction: the company has bought the domain name DVD.com, the company has confirmed to us.
The news raises questions of Netflix possibly getting ready to pull a Qwikster on us after all and separate its streaming and DVD businesses — something… → Read More
Pop the champagne and up the bandwidth, because 2012 is the year we finally do away with discs. According to a Bloomberg report on IHS Screen Digest, more viewers will stream movies than watch them on disc, an inflection point that can only mean the relatively quick demise of high-density optical media. Streaming will increase to 3.4 billion titles this year, up from 1.4 billion. Blu-ray and DVD… → Read More
Alan Lomax single-handedly (and some would say, heavy-handedly) saved the folk music from oblivion. Son of John Lomax, Alan travelled across the US and around the world recording folk musicians in their natural habitat. Some of his most notable songs – work songs, cowboy songs, and ballads – formed the bedrock of the folk movement and the succeeding rise of the singer-songwriter in the 1960s and… → Read More
Unlimited streaming music service MOG is expanding its footprint yet again with a new AT&T deal that will see its mobile application pre-installed on AT&T’s first new LTE smartphones: the Samsung Galaxy S Skyrocket and the HTC Vivid. The app will be pre-loaded onto these two AT&T 4G (LTE) phones, and customers will be able to try the service for free for a week. In addition, the… → Read More
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it. CanIStream.it is a new search engine that shows you where you can stream, rent, download and buy movies. The site checks the libraries at Netflix, Amazon, iTunes and Hulu and provides links to the appropriate listings. And if a movie isn’t available, you can sign up for CanIStream.it, set a reminder… → Read More
Cloud Engines, Inc., makers of the Pogoplug line of devices and accompanying software, are launching a new hardware product today called Pogoplug Mobile. The device works like the company’s current Pogoplug product – you attach your hard drive or drives, plug it into your router and instantly have your own personal cloud. In short, it’s like a NAS (network-attached storage) box for your… → Read More
Game reviews are always inadequate, in that while they can describe how it feels to control your guy, or how the level design is frustrating, you can only kind of get it. Video reviews help, but you can never be sure you and the reviewer are on the same page — more so than with books and movies, I’d say. OnLive and GameSpot are hoping to change that up a bit by adding instant game demos to… → Read More
Streaming music service Rdio from Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, is today launching two new music gifting options – physical gift cards and online credits. Consumers will be able to purchase the virtual gift card options in $10, $25, $50 and $100 values or in user-selected amounts. Meanwhile, physical cards in the $10 and $25 values will be sold in over 600 Target retail stores… → Read More
As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Rdio family plans are now available for, as Bob Dylan would say, “the wife and family” and “the whole kids.”
The plan costs $17.99 for two accounts and three accounts costs $22.99 a month. Unlimited web and mobile plans still cost $9.99 a month (as do additional accounts added to the family plan. → Read More
If the rumors prove accurate, and it certainly looks like they will, Google will introduce a mobile streaming music service à la Spotify or Rdio sooner rather than later. The big idea is that you’ll be able to listen to any song you want on demand so long as you have network access, either via Wi-Fi or 3G/4G/etc. It’s music in the cloud, in other words. Google won’t be the first company to offer… → Read More
As the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show wraps up today, we’d like to share a few secrets. The CrunchGear writing team, with support from TechCrunch TV, provided more than 20 hours of live CES video coverage, taking our viewers right to the industry and media access only exhibit floor. For a look at video highlights, check out ces.crunchgear.com. Hundreds of Twitter questions were answered in… → Read More
What’s the best streaming music service around? My guess would be Spotify, but the only catch is that it’s not available here in the U.S. (unless you’re willing to use a European VPN). In fact, the service is so well-like, so influential that “to spotify” has now become a fully recognized word in Sweden [Swedish, obv], Spotify’s home base. → Read More
Netflix is one of the best performing stocks this year, up 225 percent year-to-date, with a $9.3 billion market cap. But it is also priced to perfection, with a lot of short sellers hoping to profit from its fall and antsy Wall Street analysts downgrading the stock. Today, CEO Reed Hastings defended Netflix’s prospects in a very public, very detailed, and very unusual blog post on Seeking Alpha. → Read More
A few weeks ago, some data came out suggesting that Netflix alone accounts for 21 percent of Internet traffic during peak TV hours. But if you add in a couple other sources of streaming video from the Web, namely YouTube and other forms of Flash video, the traffic share of Web video jumps to 37 percent (with 10 percent from YouTube and 6 percent fro Flash video). BitTorrent is another 8 percent… → Read More
Apple has posted a cryptic message on its Web site, teasing the world about an “exciting” iTunes announcement that’s coming tomorrow. What could it be? I saw that someone had suggested The Beatles were finally coming to iTunes, but really, who cares? If you want The Beatles on your iPhone you can grab the newly remastered albums that came out last year, “rip, mix, burn,” then off you go. → Read More
So this popped up on the FCC website today, and it’s all very mysterious, but it looks like Netgear and Roku may have teamed up to make a streaming media box for the home, not unlike the HP product that was released the other day. The FCC filing shows that the device has HDMI, composite, 802.11 b/g/n, and ethernet connectivity. Of course, this could be something else entirely. Whatever it… → Read More
I love how Sony pretty much ignores the rest of the world, and does whatever they want. Take memory cards for example. Rather then use the industry standard compact flash or SD cards, Sony creates a new format in the memory stick. No one but Sony uses it, and they continue to use the memory stick to this day. Sometimes, admittedly, they win (Blu-ray) and sometimes they lose (Betamax), but they are… → Read More
HP announced more then just laptops tonight, but this product is a bit of and odd man out. For whatever reason they’ve decided to come out with a wireless media streaming box. Makes sense, until you start reading up on exactly how it works. The video does stream at 1080p, so that’s cool; but after that, it just gets strange. → Read More
We didn’t get an official announcement, but it looks like Sony is going to be selling their own version of a Netflix and Amazon video streaming netbox. Get this though, the Sony product plays the much wanted MKV and DivX files – something conspicuously missing from other company offerings. The Sony product (who’s name we don’t have yet) runs on wireless N, supports 1080p… → Read More
You’ll soon be able to watch “Dinner for Schmucks” via Netflix instant streaming. The company inked a deal with Epix, a new pay TV channel, for the rights to Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate movies. The deal cost Netflix $1 billion. That’s quite a bit of money, yes. → Read More
UFC President Dana White believes the Internet is the future of television, so this Roku deal makes all kinds of sense. Beginning with next week’s pay-per-view, UFC 114, Roku owners will be able to stream live UFC events right to their TV. It’s in HD, too. Nothing but the best for you guys! → Read More
Today in the U.S. people are getting their hands on the 3G version of the iPad for the first time. The hardware is supposed to be exactly the same as the WiFi-only version except, of course, it has a cell chip in it to receive data over AT&T’s 3G network when you’re not connected to WiFi. Since the hardware is basically the same, all the apps should function the same, right? Wrong.
Reports… → Read More
It seemed like only yesterday that Joost and Hulu were seen as also-rans. Surprisingly, the latter online video streaming service has taken off and is now offering a $10 per month “plus” service and will be rolling it out to select markets by May 24. The LA Times writes that the service will offer a “more comprehensive selection” over the current one limited episode model. → Read More
There’s always been a few annoying little issues left to be addressed on Netflix Instant viewing. I mean, you can’t get 1080p, there’s not 5.1 sound, and most importantly, there’s no subtitles. As someone who has family members with hearing disabilities, I’ve been keenly aware that Netflix has been lacking in that regard. There’s good news though, Netflix has been working on that particular issue… → Read More
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