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What you need to know about Disney+ Star
Today, in several countries outside the US, Disney+ is debuting a new "channel" dubbed Star. It's the new bucket into which the media giant will put all of its titles not suitable for young eyes.
Comcast, Verizon make some on-demand viewing free
Comcast and Verizon (Engadget's parent company) have been scrambling to help people stay online during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now they're giving customer more to do with that access. On Comcast, subscribers with Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex now have preview access to on-demand videos from several premium TV networks and streaming services for at least 30 days. Epix and Showtime are the highlights if you're looking for pure entertainment, but there's also CuriosityStream (for 60 days), History Vault, Kids Room, The Great Courses Signature Collection and The Reading Corner to keep your family educated, while DOGTV and Grokker respectively provide pet programming and exercise.
Hulu lands all of Fox’s big animated comedies
Hulu has announced a deal with 20th Century Fox that will see the majority of Fox's animated sitcoms sticking with the platform. The most notable new addition to the service is King of the Hill, all 13 seasons of which are now available to stream. In addition, Hulu will cement itself as the exclusive online home of pretty much every Fox cartoon worth mentioning, including Bob's Burgers, Family Guy and Futurama.
Can British comedy make a killing online?
For such a benign business, the language of comedy is violent, with acts describing their efforts to kill their audience on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, unless they're an A-list act with a huge following, that's likely to be the only killing that they make on a regular basis. In the UK, comedy is a lucrative gig for the winners and a grossly underpaid one for everyone else. And it's even worse in the digital sphere, as acts struggle to convince people to pay for their jokes.
Spielberg doesn’t think Netflix should win Oscars
In an interview, Steven Spielberg stated that content on Netflix should be considered television...and ineligible for Oscars. "Once you commit to a television format, you're a TV movie," he said while chatting to ITV News during a tour promoting his upcoming film Ready Player One.
The UK is getting an all-game show streaming service
There are quite a few subscription video on demand services out there these days and there's about to be one more. A trio of media execs have come together to form InQuisiTiVe Media and will soon launch a subscription service all about British quiz shows. IQTV is scheduled to launch in the UK this July and will offer over 100 quiz show titles including Mastermind, Celebrity Mastermind, The Weakest Link, Countdown and Only Connect. Deals with BBC Worldwide, Banijay and Channel 4 will allow it to have an ongoing stream of new episodes. InQuisiTiVe Media was launched by former Zodiak Media CEO Marc-Antoine d'Halluin, former Lovefilm exec Nick James and Rod Henwood former head of the Harry Potter digital platform Pottermore.
BBC and ITV's 'BritBox' streaming service arrives in the US
The BBC and ITV have banded together to launch their own subscription streaming service in the US. They've teased "BritBox" before, but now it's actually here, for $6.99 per month on the web, Apple TV and Android (Roku, Chromecast and iOS apps are in the works.) If you've wanted a Netflix equivalent for Top Gear, Doctor Who and The Great British Bake Off, however, you'll be sorely disappointed. At launch, the service is being propped up by older classics such as Miss Marple and Sherlock Holmes (the one starring Jeremy Brett, not the Benedict Cumberbatch reboot.)
Walter brings foreign prestige TV dramas to the US
The internet has democratized almost everything to the point where almost anyone can now start their own streaming service. Channel 4, a British public service broadcaster, is joining the fray by launching its own internet TV platform in the US. Walter Presents will launch in March with the stated aim of showcasing the best foreign-language dramas from across the world. Unfortunately, the victim in all of this peak TV madness is your wallet, which will be asked to shell out $6.99 a month for the privilege.
Netflix still the dominant streaming provider, according to latest NPD report
No, you can't hold the Bluths responsible for this -- not yet, anyway. The NPD Group's just released its latest figures for streaming video on demand (SVOD) in Q1 2013 and, unsurprisingly, Netflix still reigns supreme. According to the data, it's the many hours of available ad-free boob tube (read: TV) programming that's propelling SVOD viewership, so much so that it's increased by 34 percent year-over-year. Break that down amongst SVOD providers and you'll find 90 percent of that viewing pie belongs to (wait for it!)... Netflix, which actually represents a 4-percent drop from the same quarter last year. As for the general state of SVOD, the majority of eyeballs still turn to the television set for a streaming fix, with that device commanding an 80 percent share. And, yes, it's once again Netflix that garners the most use here (nearly 90 percent), but rival streaming services Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime are making gains at 10 and 2 percent, respectively. Although there does appear to be a minor chink in Reed Hastings' red armor. These latest numbers also show streaming subs branching out from a sole dependence on Netflix, with 10 percent adding Amazon Prime to the mix and 8 percent doubling down with Netflix and Hulu. Translation: they couldn't find what they wanted on Netflix. We've all been there.
Canal Plus chief: Amazon, Netflix will bring video-on-demand to France early next year
Amazon might be continuing its European HD streaming video invasion by arriving in France next March, according to Canal Plus' president, Bertrand Meheu. The executive is well-placed to have that info, as he says his company will be supplying Amazon with content for the service's launch on the Kindle Fire. If true, it's not known yet if it would be in the form of Lovefilm, which launched in Germany and the UK recently, or if it would be available on PCs, Macs, Xbox 360 consoles or Smart TVs as it is elsewhere. Canal Plus has been fighting to keep such competitors out of the notoriously protectionist country, but it was recently blocked by a state watchdog from hoarding VOD rights exclusively for its own networks. The company also said that Netflix would arrive in France by "early 2013" -- another credible claim, considering the huge amount of content it produces that the US streaming service would surely need.
Warner Bros. pushing movie delays from 28 to 56 days for Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster?
While HBO is reportedly not supplying DVDs directly to its rival Netflix, Warner Bros. is apparently flexing its muscle by working out agreements that will keep new release movies away from Blockbuster, Netflix and Redbox renters. This news comes from anonymous sources dropping a dime in the ear of AllThingsD's Peter Kafka, who reports the arrangements will be announced at CES, not long after Warner extended the window for Blockbuster to match the other two. This news comes at the same time Time Warner's CFO John Martin remarked upon "alternate" distribution channels as a way for it to move through a more challenging home video market. That means the company is focusing on things like day-and-date VOD releases with disc which it's seeking to protect from competition by cut-rate rental services like these three, likely by leveraging their desire for content to feed streaming movie offerings. According to Home Media Magazine, he believes the industry has "got to embrace these higher margin opportunities" -- which is probably going to leave just the older flicks in its 7,000 movie deep library for the rest of us trying to watch via subscription or $1~ rentals. Update: Bloomberg reports Redbox has denied reaching any revised agreement, and that its deal with Warner still calls for a 28-day delay only. We'll likely find out what the deal is in a few days, so stay tuned.
Cablevision launches Bollywood Hits On Demand
Rather than, you know, giving loyal customers a few extra high-def channels, Cablevision has decided to instead exhaust resources on pushing Bollywood Hits On Demand out to iO TV subscribers. Bollywood. Hits. On. Demand. Personally, we've no qualms with Bollywood flicks, but we can't help but scratch our heads on this one, particularly since it's an SD VOD service. Nevertheless, it still marks the company's very first international subscription video on demand service, and those interested will have to pony up $9.95 per month in order to indulge.[Via Multichannel]
BBC HD heads to Taiwan on Chunghwa Telecom
BBC HD is about to head east -- way east. This month, the channel will make its Taiwanese debut via an SVOD (subscription video-on-demand) service on Chunghwa Telecom. Viewers who tune in will reportedly be able to select from "ten three-hour multiple genre blocks of programs at any one time," which will feature "drama, comedy, documentary, natural history, music and arts programming." Of note, the channel will be shown in English with traditional Chinese subtitles added on, but there will be "program promos and navigational menus in traditional Chinese."[Via Variety]
Hitachi Maxell 1TB SVOD optical disc cart
Good morning, kids. Are you ready for the optical disc format of the day? It's Hitachi Maxell's 1TB stacked volumetric optical disc (SVOD) array, comprised of rather thin DVD-size discswith DVD-size capacities: 9.4GB total storage each on two 92µm thick data layers. Yeah, we know, we promised a terabyte; well, watch and learn. These polycarbonate discs may be too thin to be manufactured from typical plastics, but they can be stacked in an optical array 100 tall, and 6.5 x 13.3 x 16.1cm (2.5 x 5.2 x 6.3-inches) in size. Even though Hitachi Maxell wants to make the terabyte carts relatively cheap at ¥40,000 (about $340 US) and claims there are consumer applications, don't toss that HD DVD player just yet. It's pretty easy to realize why optical arrays are really of only limited utility for the end-user; if these should ever be popularized, we'd imagine it would serve first as data archival medium for businesses before you'd ever outfit your rig with, like, the high def optical disc system, dude.[Thanks, Andrew]
