Displaying items by tag: streaming media

Hey, remember all of those rumors that YouTube would by live streaming service Twitch? Well it looks like all of that might have been wrong. According to a new report uncovered by the Wall Street Journal it is not YouTube or Google that is buying up Twitch, it is Amazon. This is something of a departure from what most analysts felt was going to happen within the company. A lot of people felt the marriage of Twitch and YouTube was one that made sense even if there was reluctance on the part of the community.

As you have probably read over the last couple of month, ok really years, ISPs (internet service providers) have really been pushing to offset the cost of maintaining and even upgrading their networks. To be perfectly honest we can see some of their point. I mean maintaining a network that has hundreds of thousands of connections cannot be easy or inexpensive. There is a lot of money and manpower needed to make any significant changes when it comes to many of the ISP level networks out there.

Netflix just can’t seem to stop pissing off ISPs. At a recent panel they took a few shots at both AT&T and Comcast, just for fun. Things got started when Netflix went after AT&T’s paid peering program. This is where content providers have to pay extra to ensure proper service levels to customers on an ISP’s network. AT&T says that Netflix has always paid these, it is just that the name has changed and well they are really not charges anyway.

The “debate” over net neutrality has gotten a little heated between two players in the struggle. These two players are Netflix and Verizon and has reached the lawsuit threatening stage. The story goes like this: Netflix decided to change the message they present to customers when there movie streaming needs to adjust. Instead of the usual “we are adjusting the quality” message that was previously used the video streaming company decided to drop in messages that specifically call out the ISPs that they are running over. In the case of Verizon the message stated “The Verizon Network is crowded right now”.

Samsung has quietly started shutting down its Music Hub service for streaming and purchase of music from Samsung which is intended to compete with popular services such as iTunes and Spotify. However, they did not manage to compete with them so they decided the time has come to say goodbye.

Years after similar technology was implemented by their main competitor, YouTube, Vimeo has unveiled its tools to combat illegal video content. This video service introduced a system called Copyright Match, which is used to protect copyrights. In line with its policy to encourage the setting up of original and high-quality video content, the new service will fight distributing pirated content such as TV series, movies, or sporting events, without obtaining copyrights for them.

Google has apparently decided to buy Twitch, a platform for publishing content from games, according to Variety. The value of the acquisition is estimated at over a billion dollars.

The popular service for streaming video and movie/TV series renting, Netflix, on Monday announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2014. According to the data, Netflix in this period achieved revenues amounting to $1 billion and received 4 million new subscribers. Now they have more than 48 million subscribers, which is still less than HBO's 130 million.

After they brought free music streaming to users on mobile devices in mid-December, Spotify has announced that in the first week after the introduction of these features they marked quadrupled numbers of their users.

Home Theater PCs, Streaming Media devices, and other homer entertainment electronic devices are an interesting market. It is also one that has died and been resurrected more than once. Right now it is on an upswing with devices from multiple companies dropping products on the market. We have been taking a look at a few of these not only from a technology perspective, but also from a usage standpoint. Some of these are very basic with limited functionality and, to be honest, are not worth the price that the manufacturers are asking. However, as with any product, there are ones that stand out. We are taking a look at one of these today in the form of the NETGEAR NeoTV MAX.