The next update to Microsoft’s XBox Live service will go live tomorrow, and will include long-awaited applications from some heavy-hitting partners. Sources have confirmed that the update will have brand-new apps that include Comcast’s video-on-demand service and HBO Go. Read More »
Netflix customers may be moving away from mailed discs in favor of streamed content, but that doesn’t mean it should be difficult to manage Netflix discs. ScanFLX, a nifty $0.99 iOS app, can add titles to your list of DVDs or Blu-Rays by scanning them. Read More »
After years of building up its cooking video library, iFood.tv is making the move to both bigger and smaller screens. This week, it plans to launch apps for the Boxee, Google and Yahoo connected TV platforms, while last week it launched its first Android app. Read More »
As the industry experiments with how to make money off web content, a number of sites, varying in style, approach and pricing, have rejected the idea of ad-supported models in favor of direct payment options. How do these companies match up? Find out below. Read More »
As companies like Yahoo make big investments into video content channels with name-brand talent, they might want to consider the plight of the Oprah Winfrey Network. According to SNL Kagan, OWN could end up losing as much as $143 million this year. Read More »
Blip is geting rid of more than half of its distribution partners, including a number of Smart TV platforms like Boxee, TiVo, Samsung and Vizio. Blip explained its video producers that it simply didn’t make any revenue with any of these platforms. Read More »
Animoto updated its iPhone app Wednesday, adding a much requested feature — the ability to add videos in addition to photos when creating video slideshows on their mobile devices. That puts its iPhone app more on par with competitors like Magisto and Vidify. Read More »
The music distributor and service Vevo plans to triple its global footprint in 2012, CEO Rio Caraeff tells paidContent while answering questions about a rumoured tie-up with Facebook… Read More »
YouTube is getting its first live comedy show: My Damn Channel Live is going to be live streamed on the site every weekday. It’s a big step for YouTube as it wants people to stay around longer – and a huge deal for My Damn Channel. Read More »
Comedian Aziz Ansari is following in Louis CK’s footsteps, selling his new stand-up special directly to fans as a $5 DRM-free download. The offering is powered by VHX.tv, and the company’s founders told me that they have great hopes for crowdfunding in 2012. Read More »
Wand, joypad, keyboard, trackpad, voice, mobile, wave, tablet or just plain ‘ol candybar? Which of these is the best way to navigate television, as the TV is upgraded by unfamiliar new features like web, apps, VOD and games? Read More »
Joe Penna a.k.a. MysteryGuitarMan has clocked some 325 million video views on YouTube to date, but his views went down dramatically when YouTube rolled out its redesigned home page December. The video site says that overall, engagement and subscription trends have been positive. Read More »
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Unsuccessful DVD streaming service Zediva said in an email to its former customers this weekend that it has completed its liquidation process. Creditors got $0.018 on the dollar, and customers who pre-paid for Zediva’s DVD streaming service won’t get any refund Read More »
Digitalsmiths has added social recommendations to its product offering, creating a more comprehensive way for users to search and discover videos. That technology brings in real-time data from Twitter and other social networks, to help users choose shows based on what everyone’s talking about. Read More »
Tweek’s ‘next-generation TV guide’ unites different islands of online film and TV content with curation provided by Facebook’s social graph. Now it’s launching an iPad app for European users to try and convince more people to pick it up. Read More »
This weekend, San Francisco’s first Creator’s Project — a collaborative program between the media company Vice and Intel — kicked off, showing off works of art that incorporate technology, software and connectivity. Read More »
The YouTube talent companies that have sprung up over recent years are no stranger to innovation. What was once called The Cloud Media has been transformed into Big Frame, a hybrid production/management company focused on helping creators find their voices and build their audiences. Read More »
With HBO’s new video teaser for the April 1 launch of its HBO Go service on Xbox Live, the big question is: Which of the top cable, satellite and telco TV service providers will let their customers watch Go on the Microsoft game console? Read More »
In 2010, Rumblefish launched a website called Friendly Music to make licensing soundtracks for YouTube videos ultra-easy. Now it’s added a lot more music tracks and improved the discovery process, enabling users to search for tracks based on mood and occasion. Read More »
DramaFever secured $4.5 million in funding to bring Korean dramas and other foreign TV shows to U.S. viewers. One of its new investors is YouTube co-founder Steve Chen. Check out our video with DramaFever co-founder and co-CEO Seung Bak, who doesn’t want to demonize non-commercial piracy. Read More »
TED released official apps for Android handsets and tablets as well as the Kindle Fire Thursday, giving users a chance to watch the popular TED talks on the go. The apps also come with mobile-specific features, including the ability to listen to talks without video. Read More »
Quick question: How many times have you seen someone using a tablet to capture video or take pictures? The odds are likely that most will answer “never,” but with the introduction Apple’s new iPad I think that answer is about to change, for three reasons. Read More »
Cisco wants to buy NTV set-top box software maker NDS Group to improve its own offering and grow its profile in China and India. Read More »
Givit is giving FlipShare users a place to store all of their videos. Cisco will alert them that they can port the videos over to Givit’s private video-sharing service, which will provide up to 2 GB of free storage to all former FlipShare users. Read More »
Fragmentation? What fragmentation? Netflix’s Android app is being used on close to 1000 different Android devices each and every day, complete with multiple OS versions and custom ROMs. But for its daily testing, the company relies on a surprisingly small array of Android handsets and tablets. Read More »
March Madness is a go! Once again, games will be streamed online, but this time around, you will have to pay $3.99 to watch – unless you are a Comcast cable TV customer, in which case live streaming is still free. Confused? Check our explanation for … Read More »
Berlin’s Tape.tv has teamed up with Spotify to help fill the void left by the old, music-oriented MTV. But underneath the hood, its approach could be another interesting example of how onerous music rights in Germany have sparked a different kind of music startup. Read More »
Intel is reportedly working on a major TV initiative, with the plan to sell subscriptions of TV channel bundles over the Internet. The move would be powered by Intel’s own hardware, and would pit the company against former allies such as Google TV. Read More »
SBNation, the sports blog network is teaming up with YouTube and launching a sports channel that will have everything from baseball to trash talk. And while it won’t do much to ESPN viewership in the near term, it will surely put Yahoo Sports under pressure. … Read More »
After threatening to sue each other for copyright infringement in December, the largest players in China’s fast-growing online video market have now emerged aiming to join forces to milk what could become a prosperous market sector. Read More »
Second screen startup Peel is seeing its universal remote control hardware becoming a commodity — but doesn’t actually mind this all that much. The company is preparing for a post-hardware future with a new iOS app feature that allows real-time second screen engagement during American Idol. Read More »
Last week, I lambasted Virgin Media for taking two years to launch its iPad TV guide for its TiVo set-top box. I have since learned the app has been ready for months; it was submitted to and approved by Apple months ago… Read More »
The massive amount of data that is emerging from connected, digital systems, is fundamentally changing everything, from Internet search to entertainment, to disease management, to energy consumption. Here’s 10 case studies that highlight the power of big data. Read More »
Will the next big TV show debut on Hulu? The site is establishing itself as a kind of testbed for TV content, producing exclusive content that then finds it way to traditional broadcasters. The latest example is a distribution deal with media powerhouse Fremantle. Read More »
Barry Diller’s latest investment in media disruption hasn’t even launched yet and it’s already in court. That’s part of the appeal of Aereo for Diller, chairman of IAC, who gleefully admits: “One of the reasons I love it is it’s going to be a great fight.” Read More »
It’s no secret that we’re watching more online videos. What’s not so well understood is just how dramatically this consumption will soon increase — and the pain that is going to inflict on Internet service providers. Alon Maor, the CEO of Qwilt, offers his solution. Read More »
With its latest redesign, Vevo takes music video viewing beyond the stop-and-start video experience available on most streaming sites today. With continuous playback of videos and Facebook connectivity, Vevo makes watching music videos online sorta like watching MTV back in its heyday. Read More »
Internet TV box service Roku is prepared to take on a big and high-risk new investment to support its international ambitions. It is aiming to raise up to $50 million by this summer to go to the UK, France, Germany and the Far East. Read More »
The BBC is developing a radical scheme under which UK viewers would pay to download new and old BBC TV shows from a service it hopes will compete with iTunes. Read More »
Al Jazeera has just launched a multi-lingual educational campaign about social media, with YouTube videos explaining how to use Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms. The goal is to make people more media-savvy and, in the long run, raise a new generation of citizen journalists. Read More »
Google+ Hangouts are a great way to communicate with a small group of people — except when you’re blind, and don’t know who is part of a Hangout. A new Chrome extension wants to solve this by making Hangouts accessible to blind and visually impaired people. Read More »
I had high hopes for the new Apple TV and the type of interactive experiences that it could usher in. And while 1080p video is great and all, I can’t shake the feeling that this new $99 box has so much potential completely untapped. Read More »
The Apple TV got a minor refresh today and is now supporting 1080p video playback and video streaming via iTunes in the Cloud. Apple also slightly revamped the UI, leaving more room for partner apps — but didn’t open up the device to third-party developers. Read More »
Expect YouTube to look very different come Wednesday: The video-sharing site is rolling out its new channel-page design across its entire site, switching over all publishers who haven’t done so in recent months. The new design is meant to make users stick around longer. Read More »
Simple.tv is targeting cord cutters with its low-cost, bring-your-own-storage DVR that’s slated for release by the end of spring. We have the first screenshots of the HTML5 app that the company will use to target Boxee, Google TV and other connected devices. Read More »
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