Users working with Google’s Play Movies service are already able to watch movies they’ve purchased through Google’s online store through YouTube while this week’s announcement has them considering a subscription service. Once a user purchases or rents a movie through Google Play, they can play that movie through a web browser using Google’s Movies interface, using the Google Movies app on Android, or through YouTube.

Purchase or rent a movie or television show episode through Google Play and that title is available for watching – as long as you’re logged in – on YouTube. This feature has likely paved the way for Google’s ability to sell subscription services through YouTube in the near future. This week’s report comes from a Financial Times report in which they’ve got a comment direct from YouTube on the possibility of such a service.

“[We are] looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer.” – YouTube

While this upcoming service could bring a model that would be on-par with the type of video offered with traditional cable subscriptions, services like Hulu Plus and Netflix would likely remain safe from impact. With a subscription to a library of titles rather than an always-broadcasting system like what’s suggested for YouTube here, these large-name systems could keep separate.

If on the other hand it happens to be that YouTube opens up subscriptions to channels that serve up collections of movies – that’d be a different story entirely. YouTube’s future service is suggested to be costing users $1.99 USD per channel per month. Thus far there’ve been no substantial confirmations or denials from YouTube or Google about the possibility of this service existing in the near future (other than what you see above).

Pachter isn’t the only analyst who believes that Netflix can generate more money if it made a few changes to its policies. According to Heath Terry, an analyst for Goldman Sachs & Co., a pricing/policy change can increase revenue for Netflix by up to 5 percent per subscriber. Terry also mentions that Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, can offer a variety of different plans, such as charging extra to add new users to a Netflix account.

Hastings has thought about introducing family plans to Netflix, which would allows families to have more than two stream running at the same time. He stated that it would help families save money by not having to purchase separate Netflix accounts. but Hastings doesn’t want to get into any price changes or policy changes with Netflix just yet. He says that Netflix is still recovering from its pricing fiasco back in 2011, when it increased its fees for video-streaming/DVD rentals to $15.98 a month from $9.99.

The analysts, however, believe that Netflix can do much better if it offers new account options. Terry states that with new account options, Netflix’s subscriber base can increase to 53 million by 2017, which is 20 million more subscribers than the 33 million the service currently has. Regardless of whether or not account/policy changes would be beneficial to Netflix, Netflix is doing well, with its shares increasing 76% this year, showing that it doesn’t need to implement any changes anytime soon.

[via Bloomberg]

CEO Lowell McAdam attended the NAB conference yesterday, taking part in a scheduled discussion with Gordon Smith, the National Association of Broadcasters’ President and CEO. According to Fierce Wireless, not many individuals attended the one-on-one talk event, but those who did were graced with McAdam’s discussion of its LTE network, and in particular, that videos account for a large amount of its traffic.

He also addressed concerns that broadcasters have expressed about the company’s LTE broadcasting technology, following comments he made earlier this year on using that tech to provide its subscribers with certain live broadcasts. The 2014 Super Bowl was used as one example of the type of events Verizon’s CEO would like to see broadcasted, but underscored the reality that the wireless company isn’t interested in replacing standard broadcasting.

Another interesting thing McAdam had to say was in regards to a conversation he had with the late Steve Jobs, with whom he discussed LTE and the iPhone. McAdam went to task to convince Jobs to add LTE support to the iPhone 5, with the CEO saying during the conference: “I was really trying to sell him and he sat there without any reaction. Finally, he said, ‘Enough. You had me at 10 Mbps. I know you can stream video at 10 Mbps.’ And Apple’s next phone was LTE.”

[via Fierce Wireless]

The service costs $9.99 a month to use, which is higher than other video-streaming services, but you are given a 2 week free trial to test it out. You are given a selection of classic TV shows and movies like the original Jericho, Bad Day at Black Rock, Superman and more. The selection is quite small right now, however Warner Bros promises to add a lot more content soon, while also switching out some of its current content.

Right now, only some TV shows and movies are available in 1080p streaming, and you will only be able to watch the videos in 1080p if you have a Roku set-top box. PC and Mac users will not be able to watch either 720p or 1080p videos yet, however the features should be added in the future. Warner Bros also says that 1080p streaming should be coming to more connected devices in the future.

If you’re a classic movie buff, this new streaming service will be a Godsend for you. There are movies and TV shows from Warner Bros, MGM, RKO, and Allied Artists, that should bring to you the nostalgia of the old (very old) days. Warner Archive is very unique, but it will most likely have a hard time appealing to the majority of consumers, most of who are fine with Netflix and its modern selection of media.

[via Warner Archives]

Hurley initially announced his plans to start a new video website earlier this month at SXSW, and at the time, he said he was about a month away from officially launching the new site to the public, so there’s still about a week and a half left before that happens, but Hurley officially announced MixBit today via Twitter, and created a landing page for the new service.

On the MixBit website, Hurley notes that “instead of sitting around, we thought you’d want a new site to not only watch cat videos, but create them…together!” This suggests that MixBit will not only be a consumption platform to watch videos, but a service that allows you to create videos with other users as well.

Hurley noted that MixBit won’t be a YouTube competitor, but rather a supplement. MixBit’s collaboration focus could create a whole new meaning to video-streaming sites, but we’ll have to wait and see what it’s all about first. Details are rather scarce at this point, and there’s no exact launch date specified, but we should hear more about it sometime in the near future.

According to the sources, the company’s board still has not made a decision about whether the popular video streaming service will be sold, or if other steps will be taken instead. As we reported on March 1, Disney and News Corp., which own the majority of the company, can’t agree on how the service should be monetized. That information came from sources who likewise claimed the two were considering selling Hulu.

Reportedly, News Corp. is leaning towards using subscriptions as the primary way of funding the service, such as the already available Hulu Plus monthly subscription that costs $8 USD. This differs from how Disney thinks it should be run, however, with the latter company maintaining that Hulu should utilize an advertisement-based business mode, relying on ads, which are displayed on videos regardless of whether users have a monthly subscription.

Thus far, it is said that both the majority holders have approached Dick Clark Productions, Hollywood Reporter, and Guggenheim Partners LLC, and all of them are said to have shown interest in the possibility. Beyond that, nothing else is known, and nothing official has been stated. When asked, Hulu declined commenting on the rumor.

[via Bloomberg]

The new service will not be using an algorithm. The service has a designated team to help run it 24 hours a day. According to the VEVO’s Senior Vice President of Product and Technology, there will be a lot of heavy lifting occuring behind the scenes. The team has to keep track of the live feed by attaching “metadata” related to the content. Meaning they have to change and adjust information according to the content currently played so that users will be able to, for example, share the correct content to their social feeds and save the right content to their playlists.

VEVO TV is just a start of things to come. In the future, the service can expand to become multiple channels dedicated to a certain category. There could be a channel dedicated to only live music, another for new up-and-coming artists, and several for the various music genres like Rap, Country, Reggae, Pop, and more.

VEVO TV will not be limited to just the PC. Viewers will be able to access the live streaming service from a variety of devices like their Android, iOS, or Windows phones and tablets. The content will also be available through internet TV boxes like Roku, as well as game consoles. VEVO TV brings back the retro MTV, which used to be THE network for watching non-stop music videos.

[via TechCrunch]

Content creators can set the available viewing period for their video after a Vimean purchases it. The time ranges from 24 hours to 1 year. Creators are also able to allow downloads for their videos, however, once a video is downloaded, the Vimean will be allowed to view the video whenever they want and wherever they want. Creators are also able to choose which regions their videos will be available in.

Video creators will be able to keep 90% of the revenue they generate, after the transaction fees. Vimeo will keep the remaining 10% and cover all “delivery costs”. Vimeo on Demand is another way for content creators to be able to make money off of their hard work. Vimeo introduced Tip Jar last year that let users donate money to video creators, and it launched “movies” which was the first pay-to-view experience to be featured on Vimeo.

Vimeo believes that many content creators do exceptional work with their videos and that they should be compensated for it. It’s not the only service monetizing its content. YouTube is rumored to be launching a paid content service too sometime in the Spring. Its paid content services may range from $1 to $5. With Vimeo, users are able to watch their content on their smartphone, tablets, gaming systems, and Smart TVs all in HD. Paid content services like Vimeo’s and YouTube’s are helping strengthen the advancement of Internet TV.

[via Vimeo]

Of course, this isn’t the first time Netflix has revealed such information, having released a graph on the performance of top networks back in 2011. That information was harder to sort through, however, and far less appealing to the eye. With the ISP Speed Index, the information has been aggregated in a single location, with easily digestible information and the ability to pull up data for eight countries.

According to Netflix, 33 million customers stream in excess of a billion hours of video every month, providing ample data. Streaming data has been provided for the US, UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Mexico. The US rounds out the list with both the fastest and slowest ISP speeds, while Mexico comes in at the bottom of the list for highest speed, and second from bottom (after the US) in the lowest speed category.

Mexico has the lowest overall speed at 1.65Mbps, however, while Finland has the top overall speed at 2.57Mbps. For the United States, Google Fiber comes in as #1 with 3.35Mbps, while Clearwire comes in last at 1.25Mbps; the average speed is 2.3Mbps. The UK’s speeds are a tad less polarized, with Virgin beating out the rest of its competition at 2.37Mbps, and EVERYTHINGEVERYWHERE coming in last with 1.77Mbps; the average speed is 2.07Mbps.

[via Netflix]

Then again, Hurley notes that he isn’t launching the service to kill YouTube. Instead, he’s creating a platform that’s better suited for collaboration purposes, and says that “there’s always going to be a place for YouTube.” Indeed, given its large user base, we don’t think YouTube will go away anytime soon, no matter how awesome a new video service might be, but while Hurley means no harm to YouTube, we wouldn’t be surprised if his new service clashed a little with Google’s video powerhouse.

Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion six-and-a-half years ago, and Hurley stayed on board until 2010 when he stepped down from his role. Since then, he’s been working on several projects, including a service called Zeen that lets people “discover and create beautiful magazines.” However, it looks like his latest project is this new video service.

Other points of discussion during Hurley’s interview session included how YouTube was bought by Google, and how many of the key discussions took place at a Denny’s restaurant with Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin. He even met with Yahoo a week after his discussion with Google about a possible acquisition, but YouTube ended up going with Google in the long run.

[via Adweek]

While the NOOK devices and its services are available in multiple countries, it seems that today’s announcement of new partnerships are exclusive to the US, and financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Other partners announced today include Relativity Media, Little Pim, and Film Buff. Of course, this is another step for Barnes & Noble to compete with Amazon’s Instant Video service and Apple’s iTunes video sector.

Of course, this move is a way for Barnes & Noble to bolster up its NOOK business. While the company is uncertain as to the future of NOOK, it seems they’re wanting to change some things around, and today’s partnerships with several big studios may point the NOOK business in the right direction, but we’ll have to wait and see.

As part of the deal, NOOK users will have access to a handful of new movies and TV shows, including The Hunger Games, the Twilight series, Skyfall, Rocky, Fargo, Flight, Paranormal Activity 4, Act of Valor, Safe Haven, House at the End of the Street, Mad Men, Border Wars, and Amazing Planet. The deal made with Little Pim will consist of foreign language learning for children.

It gets even better for Hulu though, as it reports that Hulu Plus now has 3 million paying subscribers. The number of Hulu Plus subscribers doubled in the past year, as it was sitting below 1.5 million when 2011 came to a close. Hulu Plus grew steadily throughout the year, receiving its biggest boost in quarter one. We can probably expect a similar jump in Q1 2013, as many people will have just received a new device capable of playing Hulu’s videos.

It was also a big year for content, as Hulu says it grew offered content by 40% during 2012. That’s pretty aggressive growth, with Hulu now working with 430 content partners – those are partnerships that have put 60,000 TV episodes from 2,300 series on the streaming service. In 2012 alone, Hulu paid $500 million to make new content available, and since launching back in October 2007, it has paid out more than $1 billion to its partners.

All things considered, 2012 sounds like it was an excellent year for Hulu. It’s only getting more popular as time goes on, though it still has a ways to go before it can challenge Netflix for streaming domination. We’re looking forward to seeing what Hulu does in 2013, and if it’s as big as 2012 was, then it should be another excellent year.

For their first rankings, it comes at no surprise that Google Fiber comes out on top. The service is about as fast as it gets, and it’s also dirt cheap. In second place, however, is Verizon‘s own fiber optic offering, FiOS, and Comcast ranked third. Charter and Cablevision round out the top five.

As expected, mobile networks are bunched up near the bottom of the list. While 4G LTE is continually growing, average speeds on mobile networks still aren’t quite as fast as what you get with a connection at home. However, both Verizon and AT&T DSL services are at the bottom of the list as well showing poor performance, behind TimeWarner Cable, Cox, and CenturyLink.

Netflix points out that the average Mbps speeds listed are well below the peak performance of the respective ISP, which is due to a variety of factors like WiFi, different devices and routers, and a variety of encodes. However, this should still give you a good idea on how well each ISP handles video streaming.

That’s because this website, www.mehr.ir, will focus on promoting Islam and Iranian culture. We don’t know how heavily it will be moderated, but you can bet that at least some moderation will going down. After all, it’s hard to imagine that the government will allow any kind of video up on the site, otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a reason to ban YouTube.

It isn’t all that surprising to see a site like this go live, as Iran has been censoring the Internet for quite a while now. YouTube has been censored for a number of years, but web filters don’t always stop Iranians from viewing the banned websites. Apparently the hope here is that people will just visit Mehr, which is headed up by the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, instead of bypassing the filters to hop on YouTube.

We shall see how this all works out, but one encouraging thing is that users are invited to upload their own material, which is a step in the right direction. The IPIB will also be uploading content of its own, so it looks like the organization will have a big role in maintaining (and perhaps moderating) the website.

[via The Telegraph]

With these six full-length films, Vimeo kicks off a preview of its new pay-to-view service. The idea is pretty straightforward: since many creators put a lot of work into their films, they should have the option to charge actual money to view it. It serves as a way of promoting independent filmmakers, and could potentially allow creators to make the project they want without going entirely broke.

The six movies that are available for purchase through Vimeo are Sons of the Clouds, We Are Legion, Shut Up and Play the Hits, Further, Sunny, and Beauty Is Embarrassing. Prices for each range from $4.99 up to $9.00. Content creators get to set their own prices for their movies, and each comes with a different viewing period – for instance, the viewing period for We Are Legion is only 2 days, whereas Further‘s viewing period lasts for 60 days. The movies are also playable on all supported devices, which includes smartphones, smart TVs, and game consoles.

Vimeo’s pay-to-view service will be rolled out in early 2013, but at this moment, that window is all we have as far as a launch date goes. We’re certainly excited to see if this takes off, because if it means more money for independents, we’re all for it. What do you think? Will you be taking advantage of Vimeo’s pay-to-view service?

In Europe, it’s a bit of a different story there, as YouTube accounts for 20% of all downstream traffic during peak hours on both fixed and mobile networks. It probably won’t come as much of a surprise that video streaming sites take up most of the downstream traffic during peak hours, but what’s interesting is that Netflix takes so much share for itself. Amazon, Hulu, and HBO Go were all mentioned in Sandvine’s report, but they only respectively account for 1.8%, 1.4%, and 0.5% of downstream traffic on North American fixed networks during peak hours.

Hearing that, it’s immediately clear just how strong Netflix is in North America. All in all, Sandvine says that mean monthly data usage on North American fixed networks has risen quite a bit, jumping from 23GB to 51GB in just one year. That’s an increase of 120%, and we can probably expect that to climb even higher as more people begin turning to the Internet for their video content.

Sandvine, which calls itself a “leading provider of intelligent broadband network solutions for fixed and mobile operators,” collected this data from a selection of its 200 customers around the world. It’s an interesting study to say the least, and we’ll be even more interested to see where these numbers are a year from now. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Sandvine is predicting that the 2014 World Cup will be the most-streamed event in Internet history.

Using the new Roku Search tool you can find movies, TV shows, actors, and directors across Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Crackle, VUDU, and HBO Go. The search results show you where the content you’re looking for is available on the Roku service. After finding the content you’re looking for, selecting the channel in the results will take you directly to the movie or show you want to watch.

Roku says that the new search tool will grow in importance as it adds new streaming partners to its service. Right now, the search can guide users through nearly 130,000 movies and TV episodes and almost 100,000 actors and directors. Roku Search is available on the Roku 2, Roku LT, and Roku HD players.

The search tool is also available on the Roku Streaming Stick. Users can search for the keyboard and the Remote tab of the Roku iOS and Android mobile applications. The updated has the new search tool and will be rolling out over the next week at no cost. Users not wanting to wait for the update be applied automatically can run a manual update to bring their device up to software version 4.8 352X.

Of course, Xbox Live Gold is a little on the expensive side these days, so if you need a different place to watch the debate, YouTube has you covered. YouTube will be streaming the debate through its Election Hub, complete with commentary and additional footage from its partners like The Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, The New York Times, and ABC News. If you live and breathe politics, the YouTube Election Hub is probably your best bet for all-encompassing debate coverage.

Naturally, there are plenty of other places to catch the debate, including Politico, which will be tossing pre-debate coverage into the mix starting at 5PM Pacific Time. C-SPAN will be streaming the debate over at its own Election Hub, and Univision will even be translating the debate into Spanish as it happens. In short, if you want to watch the debate tonight, you have plenty of options to choose from – all you need to do is pick one.

Tonight’s debate will have Romney and President Obama debating over domestic policy. It’s bound to be an exciting debate for some and a bore for others, but it’s one of the best chances we’ll have to see Romney and President Obama go head-to-head on the issues. Where are you watching the debate tonight?

The idea behind the TiVo Stream is to get you up off the couch while still letting you watch your favorite shows. It can stream and record television shows to your mobile devices so you can watch them on the go, which will undoubtedly be a hit for people who have a handful of favorite shows but don’t have the luxury of being able to set aside time to watch them all each week. The four-inch square device needs to plug into a TiVo Premiere DVR in order to work, and it can stream to up to four different devices at once.

Unfortunately, there are a few limitations in place. The first is that it’s controlled through an iOS app, meaning that if you’re not using an iDevice, you’re out of luck for the time being – though TiVo does say that it will be coming to Android at some point in the future. Another limitation is that some networks will restrict your ability to record TV shows to your device. Some won’t allow it all, and all transferred content is copy protected, which means that you’ll only be able to watch these shows on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.

Still, despite the restrictions, it’s likely to be a hit with those who have a wide range of shows they like to keep up with. If you want one, you don’t have much longer to wait, as it will be available at Tivo.com on September 6. Be sure to have a look at our story timeline below for more information on TiVo!

[via Engadget]

Writing on the Vimeo Staff Blog, Blake Whitman gave Vimeo users a few reasons why this new team up will come in handy. First, Vimeo users can upload straight from Dropbox, meaning that they won’t even have to visit Vimeo to upload a new video. Second, Dropbox users have the option of automatically uploading to Vimeo – just drop the video into the auto-upload folder that appears when you link accounts, and Vimeo says “we’ll handle the rest.” Finally, when users are uploading from Dropbox, they’re free to close the browser window as soon as the upload begins; since Dropbox uploads in the background, there isn’t any need to watch a progress bar.

In order to take advantage of this new functionality, users will need to link their Vimeo account to their Dropbox account. Users can do so by heading to the Vimeo upload page or their account settings, much like the way you’d link your Vimeo account to your Facebook or Twitter. Once that’s done, you’re free to upload videos to Vimeo through Dropbox to your heart’s content.

It’s a cool new set of features, and they will undoubtedly come in handy for all of the Vimeo users who also take advantage of Dropbox. As you can see from the video above, Vimeo has been hitting the additional features hard lately, so we wouldn’t be surprised if the company had more announcements planned for the not-so-distant future. Be sure to check out our story timeline below for more on both Vimeo and Dropbox!

A Consumer Reports survey of 15,000 users found that 81% of those who have used a video streaming service in the last six months have used Netflix. That made it far and away the most popular service, but it was #6 when it comes to customer satisfaction. 69% of Netflix users said they were satisfied, and the others called out things like poor selection of titles and being unable to see Netflix as a viable replacement for cable.

Vudu, surprisingly, garnered a 76% satisfaction rate, giving it the top metric. Apple’s iTunes was close behind at 75%, while Amazon Instant Video took a 74% satisfaction rate. Amazon Prime’s video streaming option and Hulu are both satisfying 70% of their customers. While that is certainly not a happy set of numbers for Netflix, its subscription numbers don’t lie so we doubt it’s losing much sleep over this.

[via PC Mag]

Amazon says that Fringe and The West Wing will be available this summer exclusively on Prime Instant Video, a subtle dig, perhaps, at Netflix and other streaming services. Customers will be able to watch video on a wide variety of devices like the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Roku streamers, plus various tablets. As of writing, Prime Instant Video has around 18,000 movies and TVs ready to stream.

The popular online retailer has been ramping up its content deal as of late. Earlier in the year it added shows from The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, plus movies from Magnolia Pictures. The company is also hoping to produce original content for Prime Instant Video, a similar strategy to Netflix and Hulu. Amazon began accepting pitches for shows back in May, with successful writers getting a chance to earn $10,000 if the company options the idea.

If you’re looking at the logo above, you might be saying to yourself, “I recognize that image.” Yep, The Laugh Factory is a very iconic Hollywood comedy club and has played host to some of the most famous – and infamous – comedian performances of all time. Now, users will be able to watch future performances from the comfort of their couch – as well as an extensive collection of previous shows.

“The Laugh Factory is home to over 30 years of top quality entertainment, and for the first time ever, they’re opening their doors to a digital audience in a whole new way. We can’t wait for everyone to check out the app for themselves, and enjoy hours of comedy gold exclusively on PlayStation 3,” Sony wrote in a PlayStation Blog post. The app will launch on September 1, and users will be able to access content for free until December. After that, it will cost $3 per month.

[via PlayStation Blog]

Customers will be able to choose from over 1,000 titles from Sky’s catalogue, with movies costing between 99p and £3.49. If you don’t fancy paying per title, then the Now TV also offers a monthly subscription called “Sky Movies Pass” which costs £14.99 per month. That will give you access to around 600 movies from all the major studios. Sky also promises that five new movies will be added to the service every Friday, with the titles available on Now TV 12 months before they arrive on services such as Netflix or Lovefilm.

Better yet, there’s a 30-day free trial for the service. After that, you’ll have to pay per title or use the monthly subscription. The service will launch tomorrow on PCs, Macs, and select Android devices. Sky says that an app for the iPhone and iPad is also coming, and the service will eventually roll out to hardware like the PlayStation 3 and Roku streamers. Movies won’t be the only content either, with sports and TV shows coming in the future from Sky Sports and Sky Atlantic. The monthly subscription may be expensive now compared to Netflix and Lovefilm, but it may be worth considering given the expanded movie library and the promise of additional content.

The show in question is Prisoners of War, an Israeli drama that is one of the most heralded series in the region. It was the highest-rated TV drama in Israel, and won nine Israeli Emmy Awards. The story follows two soldiers after they emerge from an enemy prison in which they were captured for 17 years during war. Hulu has the exclusive rights to air it in the US.

“We are looking forward for this great opportunity to bring the unique voice of ‘Prisoners of War’ to a worldwide audience. We are happy and proud to partner with a market leader such as Hulu in this U.S. debut,” said Keshet Broadcast CEO Avi Nir. The show will debut on Hulu tomorrow, July 14.

Update: Prisoners of War is Hulu’s first exclusive non-English show. The service already has other non-English content.

[via Shockya]

According to a Nielsen study released today, 19% of Netflix users prefer to stream TV shows instead of movies. That is admittedly still very much a minority of users, but when you consider that just last year, that number was 8%, it’s clear that a trend is beginning to emerge. The amount of users who said they prefer streaming movies for the first time fell below 50%.

Last year, 53% of users said their preferred Netflix content was movies. This year, it was 47%. That leaves 35% of users saying they enjoy both forms of entertainment equally. That number remained relatively unchanged (it was 36% last year). This clearly is a good sign as Netflix continues to work on expanding its original TV programming. Shows like Lilyhammer, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and Arrested Development all exist exclusively on Netflix.

[via Hollywood Reporter]

The problem that occurred last weekend was that Amazon’s Web Services division collapsed from massive thunderstorms that ravaged a huge chunk of the eastern half of the country. Netflix, along with many other online powerhouses, use Amazon’s servers to power their operations. Netflix admitted it was due to issues on Amazon’s end, but did not outright criticize the online retail giant.

Instead, Netflix merely said, “This outage highlighted the need for additional tools.” It was nevertheless “a reminder that as everyone transitions from local storage to the cloud, that it is always a good idea to keep hard-copy back-ups of everything, because you never know what might take down the cloud.”

[via GigaOM]

In total, that’s more than 1400 titles, and when it comes to HBO original programming like Game of Thrones, it’s the only place you’ll be able to legally stream that content. Bringing that platform to the Kindle Fire means millions of users can now access the content on the go, and makes it a stronger Netflix rival.

Netflix has said repeatedly that it doesn’t see other streaming services like Hulu as its primary competitor. It instead looks at HBO as the main threat to its market share. It is an enormous testament to HBO’s content creators that said limited content is enough to pose a threat to Netflix when it comes to where consumers want to spend their streaming resources.

[via Android Police]

Featured: Okay, so Google I/O may technically be over, but we’re still pouring over analysis and impressions of the event. We’re going to start with this piece that you’ve all been waiting for – it’s our official Android 4.1 Jelly Bean review. And another review for something that came to light this week – Chrome for iOS review.

Lexus, Comcast, & Mayans: So it’s time to wrap up this last evening wrap-up of the week. We do that by checking into the other big stories of the day. Starting with this – 144K Lexus recall adds to Toyota’s stuck accelerator woes. And moving along to cable news – Boxee and Comcast reveal cable encryption workaround. And finally, as always we end the week with something out of the ordinary – Newly discovered Mayan text says 2012 is the end of the calendar, not the world.

The new online service, which is to be operated by the state-owned China Movie Channel, has already signed on a content agreement with Paramount Pictures. Movies and TV shows are included. MGM is apparently also interested in providing content. The service is likely to be priced at the equivalent of less than $10 a month, on par with Netflix. China is partnering up with a company called Jiaflix Enterprises.

“This new venture will bring the best that Hollywood has to offer to viewers in China. It represents a great opportunity for Hollywood to increase its exports to China and enhance cultural cooperation between our two nations,” said Jiaflix partner Sid Ganis, who is also a Columbia Pictures chairman. It will launch in the fourth quarter of the year.

[via Reuters]

Netflix’s argument was that it is not a public accommodation like a physical video rental store. Because its service is offered to people inside their homes, it feels like it is under no obligation to provide special services to people with disabilities. However, US District Court Judge Michael Ponsor said in his ruling, “This argument is unpersuasive.” The National Association for the Deaf says that what it’s asking for isn’t much.

The association’s chief executive said, “There’s no excuse for this, in our view, because movies already have captioning files. What excuse does Netflix have for not including it in their Internet streaming videos?” And it certainly isn’t a question of technological capabilities, because there are captions available on some of its titles. Netflix has not commented publicly on the case.

[via LA Times]

He created a video about his experience, and to show off exactly all the kinds of content Netflix has to offer. Not surprisingly, the folks at the company’s Los Gatos, California headquarters liked the idea as well, and invited Malkoff to visit. CEO Reed Hastings declared June 11 as “Mark Malkoff Day” in celebration of his bringing awareness to the power of Netflix streaming.

In an interview, Malkoff said, “Watching 252 films in a month was like a mini-school. I enjoyed it, but it was challenging at times — especially watching 29.4 hours of closing credits in a month. … Everybody was really supportive of my Netflix project, except my internet service provider who I’m pretty sure hates me.”

[via Mashable]

And over the course of the three-day spats of competition, a total of 4.7 million viewers tuned in. Both of those numbers are records for the MLG. The busiest day was on Sunday, when 2.2 million unique online viewers decided to watch incredible gamers doing what they do best. And surprisingly, more than 20,000 people went to Anaheim to watch the event live and in person.

Professional gaming is a huge part of the culture in South Korea, as well as other regions including Europe. However, in the US, it has not caught on quite as much. This latest event, though, shows that the event is on the rise. In fact, the number of peak concurrent online viewers almost doubled from the last MLG event in 2011 to this latest Anaheim event.

[via Mashable]

At an event in San Francisco called the “TV of Tomorrow” show, Roku CEO Anthony Wood opined, “Will people use Blu-ray players in four years? I don’t think so.” Of course, Wood hardly has a vested interest in hoping that Blu-ray will succeed so he brings to the table a partisan viewpoint. Nevertheless, he believes that Roku will have a life that exceeds Blu-ray players, even though there is some doubt about that within the streaming world as well.

For Wood, the question is whether or not dedicated set-top boxes – devices that customers need to buy in order to access services like Netflix and Hulu on their TVs – will be relevant in a few years. The majority of American households now have a video game console, which are perfectly capable of delivering the same kind of digital content. In addition, Internet-connected TV sets are on the rise, negating the need for something extra that you need to plug into your TV.

[via GigaOM]

The app is exclusive to Lumia devices, and will net you four months worth of Voddler Plus, normally costing €7.90 per month. In addition to that, you’ll get two “Lumia tickets”, allowing you to create and coordinate a Movie Night with a friend. If you don’t want to pony up for the Plus service after that, you can always continue viewing the ad-supported movies for free.

Voddler is restricted to a few select European countries, though, including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Spain. The company says that more market are on the way for 2012 though, so keep an eye out if this sounds like your kind of thing. The app should be sitting in the Windows Marketplace right now, waiting for those lucky enough to live in the selected countries.

[via Engadget]

The latter will make its way to Netflix instant steaming beginning July 3. The Lying Game, meanwhile, is a distant announcement. It won’t be hitting the digital airwaves until next year when the second season begins airing on TV. Netflix has found a pretty solid partner in ABC Family, with shows like Melissa & Joey, Greek, Kyle XY, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager all making their way to the streaming platform.

As we all know, TV on Netflix is a godsend. Nobody wants to go out to the store and buy those terrible expensive DVD or Blu-ray box sets anymore. Just clicking the remote to Netflix and streaming classic episodes of your favorite shows has revolutionized the way we stay connected to serial dramas, comedies, and more. Bringing both Pretty Little Liars and The Lying Game to Netflix means it will gain new fans who will, hopefully for ABC Family, begin watchin the new episodes when they air.

[via TV Over Mind]

If they have to wait 28 days before they can just run out to Redbox or get a copy in the mail, some fans of the movie may go out to the store and buy the physical disc, which provides significantly more revenue to the studio than a $1 rental. Studios are also happy if you pay $5 or so to get a digital rental of the movie. It’s going to be a constant problem for Netflix and Redbox.

Disney seemed like it didn’t have a problem, because lots of consumers still buy its movies as gifts or for their children, or because they like having a physical item for their movie collection. But it is branching out to other movies that appeal more to the digital crowd. The perfect example of this is John Carter, which was a flop at the box office, but with its second life in the home video market, there is a chance it might now find a new fan base. But Netflix is fighting back – it still wants to offer John Cartner and other Disney flicks ASAP so it is actually buying bulk copies of the movie from retailers. So even though John Carter just came out, Netflix subscribers can get a copy in the mail.

[via Mercury News]

It’s also very simple. All that you need to do is browse through your virtual file folders, find the video you want, and then tap on it. The streaming client will open seamlessly. Videos can be streamed through WiFi or over mobile data networks. It’s a pretty neat feature to say the least. The update is now live in the Google Play Store.

In 2012, the cloud space is much more competitive, but on the flip side it’s much more exciting. A lot of people are finally starting to understand the power of the cloud, but as it makes its way into the mainstream market, will consumers stick with the names they know (Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive) or will companies like Dropbox be able to get their message across to those users? Only time will tell.

[via Life Hacker]

As you would expect, the revenue model from Popcornflix comes in the form of advertisements. “In the movie and TV category, we are right up there with the big players,” said the SVP of Popcornflix parent company Screen Media Ventures, Gary Delfiner. Of course, the company has a long way to go before it can truly compete with Netflix and Hulu.

After all, Popcornflix is only available on one major device, and its library doesn’t exactly consist of major blockbusters. “We don’t have huge movies, we have good movies,” Delfiner said. There are between 400 and 800 movies in every territory in which Popcornflix operates. For now, it’s just working on building its user base. It seems to be on a good track to do that.

[via GigaOM]

The streamer naturally supports full 1080p video, as well as surround sound, and pipes media via the 300Mbit/s WiFi adapter. If your reception is a little shaky then there’s an Ethernet port, with other ports including HDMI and optical out.

How are you going to control all of this? Using the supplied remote control app, available for iOS and Android. The free application will allow you to control just about any function on the streamer via WiFi, letting you get rid of another unnecessary physical remote. If this sounds like the media streamer for you, then have a hunt around retailers where you should expect to pick one up for around $69.99.