After endless development and lobbying from fans around the world, the BBC has finally opened up an international version of the iPlayer — its smash hit video-on-demand service — for European subscribers. But will it make the grade as other video subscription services expand? Read more »
Fox wants viewers of its TV shows to authenticate or subscribe to Hulu Plus in order to access full episodes of favorite shows online the day after they air on TV, but a significant number of viewers might simply just pirate them. Read more »
Project Runway viewers are already big social media users, sharing thoughts about the show while watching it live. So why not use Twitter as a way for fans to vote for their favorite contestant. That was the thinking behind Project Runway‘s Fan Favorite contest. Read more »
Close to 60 percent of all Netflix subscribers access the video service through a game console or another connected or mobile device, according to new data from Nielsen. Hulu, on the other hand, has a far smaller footprint in the living rooms of its users. Read more »
TwitchTV just made playing video games a whole lot more lucrative: The site opened up its partner program, offering qualifying gamers the chance to run ads on and make money with live streams of their games. Some participants of the beta already quit their day jobs. Read more »
Netflix movie recommendations can be scarily accurate — but sometimes they’re just plain scary: A viewer spotted the site recommending March of the Penguins as a violent movie, and others have gotten horror movie titles advertised as “movies about parenthood.” It’s Netflix gone wild! Read more »
Netflix faced Wall Street analysts Monday to explain why its new subscription plans were a good idea. While many on Wall Street were surprised by the effect it will have on customer additions in the short-term, most agreed that the change won’t affect the long-term story. Read more »
Chances are that one out of four of you went to YouTube or Vimeo yesterday. That’s one of the results of a new study published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which also reveals that parents like YouTube even more than people without offspring. Read more »
The second quarter of 2011 was a fast-paced one for the connected consumer segment, with every sector of the digital media landscape — music, e-books, online video and gaming — experiencing significant events and changes. Media consumption, purchase and management continued its shift towards the cloud, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A young woman held against her will, a mysterious Chinese takeout receipt, a laptop that offers access to YouTube and Facebook but not Google Earth: Those are some of the puzzle pieces of a new interactive movie called The Inside Experience, unveiled by Intel Monday. Read more »
Leo Laporte and his TWiT team made the move to their new studio on Sunday, taking the next big step toward turning the podcast network into a 24/7 live technology network. The launch came with a lot of behind-the-scenes info about what makes TWiT run. Read more »
Apple’s got a lot of money to throw around, to the tune of $76.2 billion. Is it interested in spending a chunk of that on Hulu? According to Bloomberg, Apple could make a bid for the online video service. Read more »
San Francisco–based VidCaster is taking the beta tag off its online video distribution platform, opening for anyone to sign up. For example, companies that want to use video for marketing but don’t have the resources to build and maintain a whole site themselves. Read more »
Netflix certified more Android devices for its software, adding support for a number of handsets and tablets powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor. That brings the total number of Netflix-capable smartphones and tablets up to 22. Good, because consumers don’t care whose chip powers their device. Read more »
YouTube users fluent in Japanese can now watch videos in that language with automatically generated captions, thanks to the same speech-recognition technology that also powers voice input on Android mobile devices. This is the first step towards an international expansion for auto-captioning YouTube videos. Read more »
Indie singer Daria Musk explored the boundaries of Goole+ Hangouts this weekend when she played a six-hour live concert on Google’s new video group chat service. Musk’s concert and her experiences with Google+ hint at some big opportunities for the future of live streaming. Read more »
Shaw, a Canadian ISP said this week that its movies and on demand service would be exempt from its data caps. Such a move places Shaw’s upcoming Movie Club service at an advantage to a competitive movie streaming service such as Netflix. Read more »
What should one make of the fact that Californians love to watch L.A. Story and Swimming with Sharks, or that New York is hooked on Smoking Aces? Or that Florida is all about Shrek? All of this and more is crammed into this delicious infographic. Read more »
Check out the first interview show we’ve recorded entirely in Google Plus Hangouts: We invited Jamie “Dubs” Wilkinson and Casey Pugh to hang out with us, share some of their favorite YouTube videos and tell us a little bit about their new venture Vhx.tv. Read more »
Nina Paley is upset. Her movie Sita Sings The Blues is blocked for German users on YouTube, making it the latest casualty in an ongoing conflict between the video site and German music rights group Gema. Rights holders deny that they’re to blame for the incident. Read more »
Criterion Capital Partners is announcing Wednesday that it has bought SeeSaw.com, a site that aspired to become U.K.’s Hulu but was close to being shut down just six weeks ago. SeeSaw’s past is troubled, but Criterion is nonetheless willing to make a bet on its future. Read more »
Netflix will start to charge $16 per month come September if you want to rent both DVDs and watch movies online. Should you accept the price hike or downgrade your subscription? This easy online test will tell you how to get your money’s worth. Read more »
A little over a month after European authorities took down the popular movie streaming site Kino.to, two similar sites have emerged — and each claims to be the official heir, with one accusing the other of stealing its content. Pirates that steal stuff? That’s unheard of. Read more »
The Netflix blog has seen thousands of comments ever since the company announced its new pricing structure earlier today, with many customers threatening to cancel altogether. People are also turning to Facebook and Twitter in what looks like a major backlash against the company. Read more »
The 2011 MLB Home Run Derby begins at 8:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. PDT this evening, and will be available on ESPN, ESPN3, Facebook, and a variety of mobile apps. MLB players will also be live tweeting during the contest, adding a social element to the Derby. Read more »
Microsoft could be rolling out a new subscription video service later this year, pitting it against services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, as Microsoft seeks to grab more revenues from Xbox subscribers. But it will need to be available on other devices, too. Read more »
Hulu has made its first pitch to a number of prospective buyers, but Netflix didn’t come to the party: The popular subscription service apparently has no interest in buying its catch-up TV competitor. However, there are plenty of other well-known suitors still in the game. Read more »
Leonado DiCaprio, Dexter Morgan and your mom are only some of the people who are using Google’s new and much-hyped video chatting feature Hangouts, if we can believe screenshots taken by users of the service. But of course, the question is: Can we? Read more »
The search for a Hulu buyer continues, as it’s being pitched to a wide range of media and technology companies. While much of the press has been focused on the possibility of a tech giant buying Hulu, an acquisition by Verizon might be its best bet. Read more »
H.264 remains the dominant force in online video, as the video codec now accounts for more than two-thirds of online video, according to a blog post by MeFeedia. Meanwhile, Google’s WebM format has yet to gain any significant traction after being released a year ago. Read more »
Cycling fans have some exciting weeks ahead of them, with the Tour de France starting this weekend. Most of the races will happen during work hours in the U.S., but NBC is selling an all-access pass to watch the entire tour online and on your iPad. Read more »
A new study from Yahoo shows that online video viewing is increasingly happening during primetime viewing hours. Not just that, but more of that video is full-length TV and movie content. So what’s that mean for traditional broadcasters, as more viewers spend more time with online content? Read more »
Apple has released a special FAQ page to address commonly voiced concerns about its new Final Cut Pro X video editing software. Arguably, it’s a step Apple should’ve taken before the FCP X release, not now that opinion is starting to galvanize against it. Read more »
Cloud-based video creation startup Animoto is ready to invest heavily in its growing business with a new round of funding it’s announcing Wednesday. The company has raised $25 million, led by Spectrum Equity Investors with participation from existing investors Madrona Venture Group and Amazon.com. Read more »
Forget live music: One of the hottest trends in live streaming is competitive gaming, also known as e-sports. Gaming competitions attract hundreds of thousands of simultaneous viewers, and the events are streamed online by a number of sites that specifically cater to gamers and their fans. Read more »
The Spike Jonze short film scenes from the suburbs, featuring music by Arcade Fire, was scheduled for a worldwide online premiere Monday. However, arthouse movie site MUBI got a last-minute request to block viewers from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Australia from accessing the video. Read more »
Hollywood has set its eyes on Newzbin2, an indexing site that facilitates movie and TV show downloads from Usenet servers. However, it’s not going after the site directly, but is instead suing British ISP BT to have Newzbin2 blocked on the IP address level. Read more »
As YouTube’s self-made stars have grown in popularity, a number of companies have been founded to maximize their online influence across multiple platforms. Here’s an overview of those working behind-the-scenes on big deals for Ryan Higa, Annoying Orange, ShayCarl and Mystery Guitar Man. Read more »
Reviewers and video professionals apparently aren’t as enthusiastic about Final Cut Pro X as I was on the day of its release. Of course, I’m not a video pro, but that doesn’t mean the rancor with which FCP X has been greeted is necessarily justified. Read more »
Hulu Plus subscribers with Google Android phones can now watch their favorite movies and television shows on the go. The bad news: Only six handsets support the software for now. The good news: If your phone is supported, the Hulu Plus app offers a great experience. Read more »
