Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings thinks it’s a win-win for movies to play in theaters and stream to the home, comparing the former to going out to dinner, and the latter to cooking at home. Saying it is “inevitable that the current window system breaks down,” Hastings believes that audiences will still pay for the communal experience of a movie theater. He also stated that, although he had argued for net neutrality in the past, he currently believes it is not Netflix’s primary battle anymore. Continue reading Netflix’s Hastings Says Streaming Can Coexist With Theaters

Under a three-year deal with Major League Baseball, Intel plans to live-stream one free out-of-market game each Tuesday in virtual reality. Starting next week, the games, on-demand replays and post-game highlights will be made available via the Intel True VR app on Samsung Gear VR headsets. The “Intel True VR Game of the Week” will provide baseball fans with the option of viewing a produced VR broadcast or selecting angles from up to four cameras. The experience will also feature exclusive commentary and live player and team stats. Continue reading Intel Plans to Live-Stream Free MLB Games in Virtual Reality

Intel’s new Core i9 is the first consumer desktop processor with 18 cores and 36 threads in a single chip, ideal for today’s world of 4K video and virtual reality. Cores and threads allow a CPU to accomplish dedicated tasks at the same time, without sacrificing performance, and the Core i9 is progress for creators doing video editing, running virtual reality experiences, compiling code and, especially, for live-streaming video games. Intel is also fighting off Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a rival in computer processors. Continue reading Intel’s 18-Core PC Chip Designed For 4K, VR, Gaming, More

Napster co-founder Sean Parker has been working on Screening Room, a controversial project that would bring Hollywood blockbusters into homes on the day of their release, for $50 per movie. J.J. Abrams, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg are shareholders, but industry skeptics are worried that Screening Room will provide pirates with easy pickings. But now Parker’s Screening Room Media has submitted eight patent applications addressing piracy, including a so-called P2P polluter. Continue reading Screening Room Files Eight Anti-Piracy Patent Applications

Twitter has announced its latest live streaming partnership. Marking the first time the company has teamed up with the BBC for streaming video, the deal will focus on the BBC’s U.K. election coverage. “The deal specifically involves five BBC election specials, including debates and election night results, among others,” reports TechCrunch. “The video coverage will be available in the Twitter application on both mobile and web, and will include live tweets that reference related hashtags.” Twitter previously “partnered with Bloomberg to live stream the [U.S.] presidential debates ahead of the November 2016 election.” Twitter already has live streaming deals with BuzzFeed, Live Nation, Viacom, sports leagues and others. Continue reading Twitter and BBC Team to Live-Stream U.K. Election Specials

According to Nielsen, U.S. consumers may be cutting the pay-TV cord, but they are still using their televisions. “The measurement firm found that 92 percent of all viewing among U.S. adults (those 18 and older) still takes place on the TV screen,” reports TechCrunch. The Q4 2016 data “compares TV screen-based viewing to viewing on PCs, tablets, smartphones, and other TV-connected devices like game consoles and streaming players such as the Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku and others.” Time viewing content on TV represented 82.1 percent, while time using TV-connected devices accounted for 10.2 percent. Continue reading Nielsen Research Suggests Consumers Still Using Their TVs

Twitter updated its Apple TV app this week, adding support for Periscope’s Global Map and the option of viewing live 360-degree videos. Apple TV owners can now “use the Siri remote to move around the video to view its content from different angles,” reports TechCrunch. Twitter’s TV applications are also available on Fire TV, Roku and Xbox One, with the intent of featuring Twitter’s live video shows, “including those from the WNBA, BuzzFeed, Viacom, Live Nation, and others.” In addition to Twitter’s new premium video, user-generated content is regularly streamed through tweets and the Periscope app. Continue reading Twitter Debuts First Apple TV App to Support Live 360 Video

Facebook has inked deals with millennial-focused news and entertainment publishers ATTN, BuzzFeed, Group Nine Media, Vox Media and others to produce original programming for its upcoming video service. The social network will pay up to $250,000 per episode for long-form scripted shows, which it will then own, and up to $35,000 for shorter videos, for which creators will receive 55 percent of ad revenue (both formats will carry advertising). The video initiative is expected to position the platform in competition with YouTube Red, Snapchat’s Discover, and even traditional TV networks. Continue reading Facebook Inks Deals with BuzzFeed, Vox for Video Content

For a year-and-a-half, Amazon has been promoting subscriptions to HBO, Starz and other streaming services. Now, it plans to expand Amazon Channels to Austria, Germany and the U.K. with between 25 to 42 live and on-demand channels from its content partners, thus offering the kind of a la carte TV that many viewers want. Apparently, the success of Channels took Amazon by surprise, and it has created two new channels — Anime Strike and Heera for Bollywood fans — while postponing plans for its own live service. Continue reading Following U.S. Success, Amazon Brings Channels to Europe

Verizon’s $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo’s Internet business is likely to close in mid-June, at which point the combination of Yahoo and AOL (with its 1.3 billion users) could serve as the “platform … to test out an over-the-top service,” according to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. The OTT offering “would be in addition to the telco’s go90 ad-supported mobile video service,” reports Variety. “Verizon has reportedly been mulling an Internet-delivered skinny bundle offering, akin to AT&T’s DirecTV Now and Dish Network’s Sling TV.” Continue reading Verizon May Use Yahoo-AOL to Test New OTT Video Service

Since Baidu began creating and licensing content, the Chinese search engine titan has become focused on protecting copyright, a complete U-turn from the days when it was often accused of being a pipeline for pirated content. Among its newly licensed content are original shows from Netflix. Data from China’s Supreme People’s Court reveals that almost 87,000 copyright-related cases were filed in the country in 2016, a figure that is 15-times more than the cases filed ten years previously. Continue reading Chinese Search Engine Baidu Now Defender of Copyright Law

Facebook is pursuing eSports to satisfy user demand for more premium content. Earlier in 2017, the company inked deals with five eSports teams to publish live and on-demand video of players practicing and competing. Now Facebook has signed a deal with global eSports contest organizer ESL, to stream matches, player interviews and additional content. According to SuperData Research, in 2016 people watched 9.6 billion hours of live-streamed eSports and other videogame content, a number projected to rise to 11.4 billion in 2017. Continue reading Facebook Bolsters Premium Content With New eSports Deals

On its official Xfinity Mobile website, Comcast is now allowing its Xfinity Internet customers to sign up for the service at a discounted rate of $45 per month. The regular price will be $65 per month for unlimited mobile service. Xfinity Mobile was unveiled in April and will roll out to stores over the coming months throughout Comcast’s current markets. The service runs on top of Verizon’s network, but access to Comcast’s 16 million Wi-Fi hotspots means users will automatically be switched over to Wi-Fi when available. Continue reading Comcast Rolls Out Xfinity Mobile, With Streaming TV Service

In addition to its more than 100 TV-like linear channels, Pluto TV is now offering thousands of free movies and TV shows on demand via its streaming platform. Pluto TV is expanding its “ad-supported service with VOD as it positions itself as a kind of Spotify for premium video,” reports Variety. “It’s worth noting that Ken Parks, Pluto’s executive chairman, was Spotify’s first U.S. employee and led the music streamer’s negotiations with record labels.” The startup, which launched in 2014 and currently touts more than six million monthly viewers, may introduce a hybrid free/subscription model in the future. Continue reading Pluto TV Now Offers Free On-Demand Movies and TV Shows

The latest eMarketer forecast suggests that adults in the U.S. will interact with media over 12 hours per day this year, due to increases in digital usage and media multitasking. However, while 56 percent of Americans now have the ability to view online video via their TV sets, most are still watching traditional TV the majority of the time. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), there has been a 20 percent jump since 2015 in the number of consumers who can access Internet video directly through their TV or a device like Chromecast, but 39 percent of the time people are watching broadcast TV compared to 24 percent of the time when they are streaming content. Continue reading Majority of Consumers Have Access to Internet Video via TV