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BBC iPlayer now hosts all post-revival 'Doctor Who' episodes
Whovians, rejoice: every 'modern' episode of Doctor Who is back on iPlayer. (At least for Brits, anyway.) All of the adventures starring Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi as the humanoid and usually heartwarming alien are included in the re-release. They're being offered as a sort of warm-up for series 11, which will debut this fall with Jodie Whittaker as the iconic Time Lord. You'll need to hurry, though, if you want to watch everything before the show comes back.
The World Cup is Twitter’s next chance at video dominance
As the 2018 FIFA World Cup gets ready to kick off June 14th, the 32 international teams competing in Russia aren't the only ones preparing for the big event. Fans are too, and Twitter wants to be the online place where they stay up to date on all the action. After striking deal with Fox Sports, the World Cup TV rights holder in the US, Twitter will offer users access to exclusive video content. That includes real-time highlights, player interviews, pre- and post-match press conferences, as well as a daily show called FIFA World Cup Now that will livestream 27 episodes. And outside of the US, Twitter has partnerships for live shows and highlight clips in Australia, Brazil, France, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan and the UK.
Netflix snags Guillermo del Toro horror anthology series
Netflix has just ordered a horror anthology series created by Guillermo del Toro, who will also serve as executive producer. The stories included in Guillermo del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight will be "both equally sophisticated and horrific," according to Netflix, and will be curated by del Toro. The filmmaker will also write and direct certain episodes.
YouTube Remix could mean the end of Google Play Music
Google will reportedly shutter Google Play Music as part of a long-rumored audio and video cleanup. According to Droidlife, the subscription streaming service — a rival to Spotify, Apple Music and others — will be replaced by YouTube Remix later this year. The new offering will reportedly offer both on-demand music and video clips sourced from YouTube. In short, it'll be Play Music and YouTube Music (the fate of which is still unclear) mashed together. YouTube Remix has been teased since mid-2017 and was slated for a March 2018 release by Bloomberg last December. (Obviously, that didn't happen.) Droidlife is now reporting that Google Play Music users will be forced to migrate by the end of 2018.
Football drama 'Friday Night Lights' starts streaming on Hulu
The good news for fans of Friday Night Lights, the highly acclaimed TV show about a high school football team in Texas, just keep on coming. Only a couple of weeks after Amazon announced that the series would be streaming on its video service, Hulu is doing the same today. That's going to make people who have missed the show since it disappeared from Netflix last October quite happy, as they'll now have another place on the internet to catch up on all the Dillon Panthers drama.
ESPN+ is the sports-streaming cord-cutters have been waiting for
After months of rumors and speculation about what it would look like or how much it would cost, ESPN's standalone streaming service is finally launching today. It's called ESPN+ and it's priced at $5 a month, which will get you both live and on-demand content that, according to the company, is geared toward underserved sports fans. The first thing you should know about ESPN+ is that it isn't meant to replace the traditional ESPN network but rather is designed to be complementary to it. With the streaming offering, for instance, you won't have access to ESPN's flagship show, SportsCenter. Instead, ESPN+ will have its own original programming, including shows that will focus on news, scores and highlights about specific sports and leagues.
ESPN+ offers a first look at Disney’s big plans for streaming
Disney has been relatively open about its plans to carve out a name for itself in the video-streaming wars, as it readies to compete with the likes of Netflix and Hulu. Although the company isn't launching its flagship service until the end of 2019, we now have an idea of what it might look like. This is where ESPN+, the long-awaited standalone streaming service from Disney-owned ESPN, comes in. The new $5-per-month offering, which launches today featuring both live and on-demand content, is the first service to arrive from the Walt Disney Co.'s direct-to-consumer division.
Twitter and Fox Sports have high hopes for their World Cup live show
With the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia just around the corner, right holders to the event are starting to share more details about their coverage plans. And, to no surprise to anyone, social media will play a major role in that. Fox Sports, FIFA's English-language broadcast partner in the US, is going all out on Twitter this year with a partnership that includes a daily, 30-minute live show from Russia and bringing near-live highlights to the platform. Twitter, which has around 330 million active users, has been ramping up its sports efforts in recent years, and it plans to use the upcoming World Cup to showcase the power (and potential) of its platform. Just yesterday, the company announced a three-year deal with Major League Soccer to stream 24 games per season.
Netflix’s real advantage is that it’s a tech company first
Netflix hasn't been coy about its plans to take over Hollywood. The company has already said it could spend up to $8 billion on content this year alone. But, for all the awards House of Cards and Icarus rack up, one of the reasons Netflix has tasted success so rapidly is its streaming technology. That's an area it has been perfecting in-house since 2010, when it became more than a simple mail-order DVD rental shop.
Netflix is bringing video previews to its mobile apps
A year after introducing video previews on its TV experience, Netflix is now planning to bring the feature to its mobile apps. The company announced today this will be rolling out in April, noting that it was developed to help make it easier and faster for users to find content on their smartphone. As you might expect, the execution here looks different: These mobile video previews are vertical, which makes them feel similar to Snapchat or Instagram stories. Once they launch, you'll see a new section dubbed "Previews" when you open the Netflix app, and you'll be able to browse them by swiping left on each one.
Netflix isn't chasing the competition into sports or live TV
Fresh off of its Oscars win for Icarus, a documentary about Russia's doping epidemic in sports, Netflix held a press event at its Hollywood headquarters. There, inside a 280,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art studio that it just opened last year, CEO Reed Hastings talked about the state of Netflix and the industry as a whole. The setting seemed fitting, considering the company is planning an $8 billion investment in original content for 2018 alone. That programming strategy is what makes Hastings confident that Netflix's future is bright, especially as it faces increased competition from the likes of Amazon, Hulu and, soon, Disney. The latter of which is also a partner, since it owns all of the Marvel franchises that Netflix has built a mini-verse around.
Netflix is taking a wait-and-see approach to virtual reality
Netflix was one of the first video-streaming services to adopt VR in 2015, when it introduced a 360-degree app that let users step into a virtual room to watch movies or TV shows on a Gear VR. Then, a year later, it launched a version of that application for Google's Daydream headset, but the company has been relatively quiet in the VR space ever since. The reason for that, simply put, is that Netflix doesn't see the technology as a priority -- at least not right now. Speaking at a media event inside the company's Hollywood headquarters, Chief Production Officer Greg Peters said that Netflix is only focused on seeing how VR systems evolve at the moment.
Facebook nabs exclusive streaming rights for pro surfing
If you're interested in professional surfing, there's no higher competition than the World Surf League (WSL). Hawaiian John John Florence is the current men's champion, while Australian Tyler Wright dominates the women's division. At the moment, you can watch championship events for free on Facebook or through the WSL website and mobile app. But that's about to change — Facebook has inked a "historic partnership" that will make it the exclusive platform for WSL streaming. It covers all men and women Championship Tour events in 2018 and 2019, as well as the Junior Championships, Qualifying Series 10,000 and Big Wave Tour events.
Hulu now boasts 17 million subscribers
Hulu announced today that it ended 2017 with over 17 million subscribers, a whopping 40 percent growth compared to the numbers it released in 2016. That's a pretty big jump and not only did the streaming service close out last year on a high note, it started this year off with two Golden Globes for its original The Handmaid's Tale. The show also helped get Hulu 10 Emmys in September and was one of Hulu's top three watched dramas last year.
'Friends' finally comes to Netflix UK
In August 2011, Channel 4 broadcast Friends for the last time. It was the end of an era — many, myself included, had grown up with the coffee-fueled Manhattanites on the terrestrial channel and its hipper sibling E4. That same year, the beloved sitcom switched to Comedy Central, restricting it to those with an applicable Sky, BT or Virgin Media package. If, like me, you've missed the gang and their New York hijinks, good news — the show is now available on Netflix in the UK. It's been an awfully long wait — all 10 seasons, after all, came to US Netflix on January 1st, 2015.
Vidme's YouTube-meets-Reddit video service is no more
Video service Vidme is shutting down after almost four years, citing competition from online juggernauts Google and Facebook. The self-professed YouTube-meets-Reddit-style platform boasted 25 million users as recently as last December, which is a blip in comparison to YouTube's 1.5 billion users. Like fellow video also-ran Fullscreen, Vidme is the latest millennial-chasing platform to luck out in its hunt for a niche. The service is wasting no time in disabling sign-ups, video uploads, and paid channel subscriptions, according to co-founder Warren Shaeffer.
Amazon may be prepping a free ad-supported video service (updated)
Amazon Prime Video is a decent bargain when you're getting unlimited streaming video and a host of other perks, but it has some fresh competition: Roku, Vudu and others are starting to offer some content for free. How do you compete with that? By offering your own free service, naturally. Ad Age sources claim that Amazon is developing a free, ad-supported streaming service as a "complement" to Prime Video, reviving an idea that had surfaced back in 2014. It would reportedly give creators a lot of power and viewer data in exchange for content guarantees, although the material wouldn't compete with what Prime offers.
Social media's biggest stars are launching a streaming service
Three of the biggest social media stars (with a combined 70 million followers across platforms) are launching their own video streaming service, reports Variety. Dubbed "Zeus," the upcoming VOD outlet is the brainchild of Andrew "King Bach" Bachelor (who was Vine's most-followed personality, before the video-looping app went kaput), along with fellow digital celebs Amanda Cerny, and DeStorm Power.
Netflix is getting more expensive in the UK
Some Netflix subscriptions have just gotten a tad pricier in the UK, reflecting a similar hike announced over in the US. The most basic, £6 per month plan remains unaffected, but the price of the "Standard" tier, which adds HD streaming and the option of watching on two screens at once, has risen from £7.50 to £8 per month. The "Premium" option, which includes 4K content and lets you watch on four screens simultaneously, has also increased from £9 to £10 per month. New subscribers are being asked to pay these prices from today (after their free trial period, that is), while existing members will be formally notified later this month before the hike kicks in this November.
Plex makes its adaptive streaming tech available to all
If you own a giant personal media collection (legally or otherwise), few services are as useful as Plex. The media server and streaming apps combo makes it easy to watch your favorite movies and TV shows from anywhere, and on any device. Now, the company behind Plex is adding a few nifty features to keep your streams running smoothly. The first is Auto Quality, which had previously been limited to Plex Pass subscribers. Switch it on and Plex will automatically adjust video quality depending on your connection and how many other people are hammering your Plex server.
