Last month, Hulu announced that the second season for its Castle Rock series will arrive on October 23, though it only provided a very brief teaser video that said, 'Misery arrives.' As expected given that the series is based on the Stephen King universe, that phrase referred to the novel Misery, which will be the foundation for Hulu's upcoming original work.
Easily one of the most Millennial companies in the world, PopSockets, just revealed a new sort of knob accessory for devices outside the mobile smart device market. The first PopSocket was a knob with a top that stuck to the back of a smartphone in order to keep headphone cords wrapped. Now the company is worth a couple hundred million dollars, and they want to make a "first foray into the food and beverage space!" Their words, not mine.
Walmart's Vudu digital video platform has introduced a new feature called Family Play that scrubs certain scenes out of movies so that younger audiences can watch them. The feature is available on a selection of movies offered on the Vudu platform, a number that will grow over future weeks and months, according to the company. The service now also offers a Kids Mode and reviews designed for parents.
Today the folks at LEGO introduced a thick-with-pieces new brick set for their Winter Village product range. This is the LEGO Creator Expert Gingerbread House, the 10th individual set in the modern Winter Village LEGO universe. This set looks both modern and retro at the same time - it seems to roll with classic North Pole furnishings, but stays general enough to be a holiday release any individual get on board with later this year.
At long last, Disney finally announced its long-rumored video streaming service to rival Netflix and other VOD businesses last month. It's still quite a while before it formally launches to initial markets, which leaves plenty of time for more tidbits to fall from the rumor grapevine. Pretty soon, however, we can get first-hand information as the app has reportedly launched in the Netherlands where lucky testers can try out the service for free at least for two months.
Viacom's BET Networks subsidiary has teamed with Tyler Perry Studios to launch BET+, a streaming service version of the network that'll offer more than 1,000 hours of programming, according to the company, including original shows and movies. The company plans a wide variety of original content for the service's first year, including a movie called Sacrifice starring Paula Patton.
Following its soft launch earlier this summer, fuboTV has officially launched its ad-supported Fubo Sports Network. The official launch brings both original content and live programming to the channel, including live horse racing, NCAA basketball and football, and more. The company has partnered with Stadium, FanDuel, and TVG, among others, and it also plans to stream live sports movies and documentaries every week.
Netflix popularized binge-watching by dropping all of the episodes in a season at the same time. This is a bittersweet arrangement: while it enables users to enjoy multiple episodes in the same time period, viewers also complain that they end up watching an entire season over a few days, leaving them with a year or longer to wait until the next season arrives. Competitor Hulu follows a more traditional arrangement.
Netflix has slightly redesigned its interface, adding a new tab called 'Latest' that makes it easy to find newly added content and to see which shows will be getting additions in the near future. The tab is located in the relatively new interface's left-side panel, where users can also access the search tool, return to home, and more. In addition, the new tab allows users to sign up for reminders.
In January 2019, Netflix released the fifth season for its comedy Grace and Frankie, a show that it plans to end with the launch of its seventh season. When that day comes, Grace and Frankie will officially be the longest-running Netflix original, joining other early hits like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards.
HBO ordered a pilot episode for a Watchmen TV series from Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof in 2017, something that resulted in a full first season order in summer 2018. At the time it announced its plans to launch an original Watchmen series, HBO said the show would premiere in 2019 but didn't provide many details beyond that. Fast-forward to a tweet published today and we finally have a release date.
NBC Sports Gold, the company's live and on-demand sports streaming platform, has launched on Comcast Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex. Consumers who subscribe to either of these Comcast products will be able to directly access the NBC sports product, according to the company, including all fifteen of the subscription options available through NBC Sports Gold.