Viki is “the Hulu for the rest of the world,” according to the company’s CEO Razmig Hovaghimian. It takes content from all over the globe, licenses it for cheap and brings it to the U.S. and other countries. The company announced a partnership with Amazon that will add more than 1,000 hours of entertainment from Japan and Korea to Amazon’s Prime Instant service. Continue reading Viki to Expand Reach with Amazon Prime Instant Partnership

Netflix has been through some well-documented ups and downs, but for those who still have doubts about the company, Netflix had a resounding answer this week: 27.15 million. That’s the number of American homes that presently subscribe to the streaming service, a number exceeding even the company’s own expectations for the fourth quarter of 2012. Continue reading Netflix Strategy Takes Root, Numbers Surge in Fourth Quarter

Netflix will expand its offerings through new deals with Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. Television Group. The licensing agreements will provide the streaming site with complete previous seasons of animated and live-action programming from Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation and Adult Swim. The shows will become available beginning March 30. Continue reading Netflix Signs New Deals with Turner and Warner Bros. TV

The latest project from showrunner Tom Fontana, writer/producer of acclaimed shows such as “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Oz,” is not currently available via cable or broadcast in the U.S. Instead, the historical Vatican drama “Borgia” was launched without a network, has aired in France, and is now looking to additional options, including streaming. Adweek talks with Fontana about the unorthodox path the show has taken. Continue reading Vatican Drama Borgia Takes Unconventional Distribution Path

To release his first single in six years, Justin Timberlake went with an unorthodox approach. After investing in Myspace, he is helping to relaunch the social networking site by making his new track the first thing that loads on its homepage. After months of private beta previews, the new Myspace is open for business with a new focus on helping artists post music to share with fans. Continue reading Justin Timberlake Promotes New Single with Myspace Launch

M-GO promises to be the “people friendliest” rent/buy movie service the Internet has to offer. It’s backed by Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation and is ready to stream movies through browsers and to connected devices preloaded with its apps. And it really is friendly: “M-GO promises that if you’re looking for a movie it doesn’t offer, it will search other stores to find it for you,” writes Engadget. Continue reading M-GO Launches Beta of Streaming Service for Multiple Devices

Amazon launched a new service called AutoRip that will start offering free MP3 downloads of any CD you buy from the site. But the really interesting part of the new service is the fact that it will give consumers MP3 versions of any album they’ve purchased from Amazon in the last 15 years. AutoRip will link to 50,000 albums and counting, and users will be able to listen in the cloud and/or download digital copies. Continue reading Amazon: AutoRip Service Offers Free MP3 Copies of Your CDs

Heavy-hitting music-streaming company Deezer wants into the U.S. market in order to increase its overall market share. The Paris-based Spotify competitor launched a free streaming service in late December in more than 150 countries. The service currently allows users two hours of free listening per month on desktops and laptops, marking the first time the company has offered a free service backed by advertising outside its native France. Continue reading Spotify Rival Deezer Launches Wide, Seeks U.S. Partner

The concept of TV Everywhere is simple: it’s “supposed to let you watch whatever you want, wherever you want to watch it, on any device you want — as long as you pay for TV,” writes AllThingsD. But behind the straightforward idea, cable companies have been struggling for three years to get it done — “and they still can’t really deliver,” suggests the article. But startup NimbleTV says it can do the job. Continue reading NimbleTV Launches NYC Trial Run of TV Everywhere

Research organization NPD estimates that approximately 25 million U.S. households currently have smart TVs. While nearly six out of 10 owners are using their smart TVs to watch over-the-top video services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, and roughly 15 percent are accessing music services like Pandora, the majority of Americans are not utilizing applications beyond streaming video and music. The latest NPD Connected Intelligence Application & Convergence report suggests the Internet connected HDTV screen has yet to reach beyond its TV-centric heritage. Continue reading NPD Study: Consumers Slow to Adopt Apps on Smart TVs

According to a blog post from Hulu CEO Jason Kilar, the video service earned $695 million in revenue in 2012. Additionally, Hulu Plus saw a 50 percent increase in paying subscribers, passing the three million mark.
By comparison, Hulu’s 2011 numbers included $400 million in revenue and less than 1.5 million Hulu Plus subscribers. Continue reading Hulu Earned $695 Million in 2012 and Doubled its Paying Subscribers

The pixel might be on its way out, if a team of British researchers have their way. They’d like to see the vector take over within the next five years, reports ExtremeTech. While vector graphics are well suited for illustrations, clipart, maps and typography, bitmap (which is a grid of pixels) graphics are used for all else, including streaming videos, digital cameras, movie editing, video game textures and more. Continue reading Vectorized Streaming Video: British Researchers Aim to Kill the Pixel

We’ve been following this year’s legal battles of Aereo as major broadcast networks have sued the online TV startup over copyright infringement. Since the service streams TV signals of New York stations for a monthly fee without paying for the right to carry signals, Aereo has created an uproar in the television industry. Now Aereo has begun paying for content, after adding Bloomberg TV to its program lineup.

“We believe that our members will see deep value adding in Bloomberg Television as their ‘go-to’ source for financial news,” said Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kanojia in a written statement. The service also plans to announce expansion to 15 new cities early next year. Kanojia recently said that Aereo is pursuing additional content deals.

“Meanwhile, Aereo and major broadcasters are awaiting a critical decision from an appeals court in their legal battle,” notes the Wall Street Journal. “Last month broadcasters argued their appeal of a lower court’s decision in July denying the broadcasters’ request for a preliminary injunction shutting down Aereo’s service.”

The legal battle could take years to be resolved. “Without a preliminary injunction, Aereo has time to expand and streaming competitors also have a chance to emerge,” notes WSJ.

Amazon’s cloud-based music storage and streaming service is now available on Roku and Samsung’s Smart TVs, allowing users to play digital music on a single device. The app “finally gives Roku a good response to Apple TV’s iTunes Match,” notes CNET. Months ago Roku announced that the Amazon Cloud Player was “coming soon.”

Like its competitor iTunes Match, Amazon Cloud Player charges $25 per year to store up to 250,000 songs. It also includes a feature that automatically identifies music files and upgrades the quality using a 256 Kbps file from the Amazon catalog. “That’s a ton of digital music, although the competing Google Play Music allows you to store up to 20,000 tracks for free and is available on Google TV devices,” explains the post.

The release was announced the same day that Amazon added its Amazon Instant Video app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

According to a related post from CNET, the Instant Video streaming app “allows for access to over 140,000 movies and television shows that can be downloaded for purchase or rental.”

Amazon offers access to its streaming library across devices including the iPad, Kindle Fire HD, PlayStation 3, PCs and Macs. The app is only available to customers who pay for the company’s $79-a-year Prime membership.