Tag: vdo

  • Wave Goodbye to High Bills: YouTube TV Contemplates Budget-friendly ‘Skinny Bundles’

    Wave Goodbye to High Bills: YouTube TV Contemplates Budget-friendly ‘Skinny Bundles’

    Google is reportedly considering restructuring its extensive channel offering on YouTube TV into smaller, more affordable packages. This move could provide relief for subscribers who have been grappling with the platform’s escalating costs.

    Proposed Changes

    YouTube TV is renowned for offering one of the smoothest live TV experiences. However, its price has surged to an eye-watering $83 per month for the base plan, up from an appealing $35 in 2017. A recent report suggests that YouTube TV could introduce lower-cost “skinny bundles” within the year.

    Presently, YouTube TV subscribers have to accept a “take it or leave it” deal, with a single plan providing access to over 100 channels. It is rumored that the service may change, allowing you to select specific genres. The most tantalizing rumor is the potential introduction of a dedicated sports package. This would allow users to access popular sports channels such as NBC Sports, Fox Sports, and ESPN without the additional cost of numerous reality TV channels. This is an adjustment that users have been eagerly requesting.

    The shift in streaming services towards cable-like bundles has made the landscape increasingly convoluted. Rival platforms like Sling TV have already addressed this issue. Sling TV offers its divided “Orange” and “Blue” packages, enabling users to focus on sports and family content (Orange) or news and entertainment (Blue), each for approximately half the price of YouTube TV. By resisting the move to unbundle, Google has been effectively directing budget-minded cord cutters to explore other options.

    These proposed changes are significant as they indicate that the $80+ pricing strategy is reaching its limit. Consumers are growing weary of paying for content they do not consume. If Google implements these changes successfully, it would position them in direct competition not only with traditional cable providers but also with more affordable streaming alternatives. This evolution is crucial for Google to continue growing in a market where subscription fatigue is a genuine concern.

    Anticipating the Changes

    If the rumors materialize, it would indeed be a timely adjustment. Users have long cherished YouTube TV’s limitless DVR and user-friendly interface, but paying more than eighty dollars to watch just a few games feels exorbitant. If Google introduced a sports-focused package that eliminated non-sports content, many past subscribers might be enticed to return.

    However, the expectations must be managed. Broadcasting networks are infamous for pressuring providers to bundle less popular channels with highly demanded ones. Observing how Google negotiates these contracts could be insightful. While the stripped-down package sounds appealing, it would be prudent to withhold judgment until official pricing is released.

    Questions & Answers

    What changes are expected for YouTube TV?
    Google is reportedly considering restructuring its channel offering on YouTube TV into smaller, more affordable packages, potentially including genre-specific bundles.

    What is the likely impact of these changes?
    The changes could make YouTube TV a more appealing option for budget-conscious consumers tired of paying for unwanted content, and could position it in direct competition with both cable providers and more affordable streaming services.

    What challenges might Google face in implementing these changes?
    Broadcasting networks often pressure providers to bundle less popular channels with highly demanded ones, so how Google negotiates these contracts will be crucial to the success of the proposed changes.

  • TikTok starts to rub out Universal Music Group content, no new deal has been reached

    TikTok starts to rub out Universal Music Group content, no new deal has been reached

    TikTok starts to remove Universal Music Publishing Group content from the pest-like short video app, as no new licensing agreement with the music label has been reached, the social media firm said.

    TikTok has also started to mute videos on its platform that feature songs written by any songwriter signed on to UMPG (Universal Music Publishing Group), after removing the songs from Universal Music Group (UMG), as the licensing deal expired on January 31.

    The report cites a person familiar with the matter, who says TikTok is likely to remove “all the UMPG content before the end of February”, considering the legality of the matter. TikTok, however, has reached out to UMG and is still open to negotiate a new deal, the source added.

    Back in the end of January 2024, Universal Music Group stated that it couldn’t reach new deal terms with TikTok. The disagreements were mainly about how artists are paid and how TikTok uses AI. Universal Music accused TikTok of trying to push for a deal that was less favorable than before.

    UMG is the parent company of UMPG that represents an expansive roster of artists such as Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Sting, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, Steve Lacy, Drake, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Rosalía, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, U2, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Pearl Jam, and Bob Dylan. Although I can’t recall any TikTok videos with Bob Dylan…

    The music label had reached a deal with TikTok in February 2021, which allowed users on the video app to add clips from UMG’s catalog to their videos.

    UMG, the world’s largest music company, had said TikTok accounts for only about 1% of its total revenue.
    TikTok said UMG and UMPG catalog represents around 20% to 30% of popular songs, that vary depending on the region

  • Netflix starts forcing grandfathered subscribers to stop paying Apple

    Netflix starts forcing grandfathered subscribers to stop paying Apple

    In 2018, Netflix stopped accepting payments for new subscriptions through the App Store, forcing new subscribers and those returning after a brief hiatus to pay Netflix through its website. It has been six years since Netflix allowed such subscribers to pay for their service through the App Store. This way, Netflix could avoid paying Apple its 15% to 30% cut on in-app transactions that go through Apple’s in-app payment processing platform.

    Netflix representative Momo Zhao told The Verge that all “members on the basic plan who were using an iTunes method of payment” now must pay Netflix directly for service using a credit card or a debit card. Those who signed up for Netflix before the video streamer stopped allowing users to subscribe through the App Store were able to hold on to a good deal for years and continued to pay each renewal period through Apple.

    Netflix has allowed grandfathered subscribers to continue to pay each month through the App Store, but that is about to change. As one “X” subscriber wrote in a tweet, “Netflix stopped working with Apple Pay and didn’t inform me. Now I’m locked out of my $9.99 a month price I had paid for years and I had to get charged $31 until I get a refund through Apple.”

    If you’re in the same shoes as the person who posted the above tweet, you’ll have to pay $5.50 more a month for the same plan you were paying $9.99 a month for or pay $3 less per month for the privilege of having your streaming interrupted by ads. No matter which plan you choose, you’ll be paying Netflix directly.

    To reiterate, if you are a long-time Netflix subscriber and have been paying through the App Store to maintain your Netflix subscription, be on the lookout for an email from the video streamer that says that if you want to remain a Netflix subscriber, you will have to stop paying your bill through Apple. And you might be paying a little more or a little less each month for Netflix service depending on whether you can live with ads running on the videos you’re watching.

  • Google makes a small change to the Android version of the YouTube app

    Google makes a small change to the Android version of the YouTube app

    Google likes to fool around with YouTube like a person who can’t stop scratching an itch. Unlike changes made to Google Maps that are helpful, some of the changes made to YouTube appear to be done for no real reason. Recently, the web version of the video stream moved from square corners to rounded corners on the thumbnails and the video player, and the feedback from YouTube users was not exactly favorable.

    Now it appears that YouTube is making the same change to videos on the YouTube Android app. The result is a more blinding white light in the background which might lead some users to turn on Dark theme. Open the YouTube app on Android and tap the profile picture in the upper right corner. Next, tap on Settings > General > Appearance. A popup box will ask you to choose from using the device theme, Light theme, or Dark theme. Make your choice.

    Since the rounded corners extend to the video player on the web and not just the thumbnails, we can assume that this will be the case for the Android app as well. Right now, the new look hasn’t been pushed out to many Android devices and it has yet to appear on my Pixel 6 Pro using Android 14 Beta 5.3.

    On the YouTube website, the rounded corners do not appear when you are watching a video in full screen or in Theater mode. But once you return to Default view, they do return. Now we don’t know exactly when Google plans to roll this out more widely to Android users and whether it will follow through by rounding the corners on the iOS YouTube app.

  • Netflix continues to add subscribers in the U.S. after cracking down on password sharing

    Netflix continues to add subscribers in the U.S. after cracking down on password sharing

    Once Netflix started its plan to crack down on password-sharing in May, the video streamer started to add new subscribers. A report in BroadbandTV News cited stats from Antenna which revealed that after a 12.9% decline in the number of gross additions to its U.S. subscriber list in April, Netflix saw that figure rise 27.8% in May and an incredible 128.9% in June. July showed a 25.7% drop off in U.S. gross additions.
    Still, the company did manage to add 2.6 million U.S. subscribers in July after signing up 3.5 million in June. Since the beginning of the crackdown in May, Netflix has added 7.5 million U.S. subscribers which seems to indicate that the company has done a good job in convincing password borrowers that they still want to watch the platform’s content even if they have to pay for it with their own money.
    Netflix no longer offers the basic ad-free service in the U.S. which means that besides the ad-supported tier, U.S. Netflix subscribers can choose between Standard and Premium. Priced at $15.49 monthly, Standard includes unlimited ad-free movies, TV shows, and mobile games and can be used by two supported devices at a time. Content is streamed in Full HD and one person who doesn’t live with the subscriber can be added for $7.99 per month.
    The Premium service, which costs $19.99 per month, includes unlimited ad-free movies, TV shows, and mobile games and four supported devices can use the service at a time. Content is streamed in Ultra HD, Netflix spatial audio is included, and six supported devices can download content for offline viewing. Up to two extra members who don’t live with the subscriber can be added for $7.99 per month per subscriber.
    Discussing the elimination of its old Basic package, Netflix wrote, “We’ll be interested to see how this impacts the composition of Netflix subscriptions and sign-ups overall in the coming months.” For the quarter that ended June 30, Netflix doubled projections by adding 5.9 million subscribers worldwide bringing its total globally to 238.3 million.
    Meanwhile, some of the new content on Netflix includes PainKiller, a series about the Sackler family and how it pushed doctors to prescribe its Oxycontin painkiller. The second season of Heartstopper also recently dropped on the platform.
  • Netflix adds new feature to iOS, Android to help you quickly find content to watch

    Netflix adds new feature to iOS, Android to help you quickly find content to watch

    Netflix announced today that it is adding a new feature to its popular mobile phone app. Called My Netflix, this is a one-stop shop for both iOS and Android users that features shortcuts to help you find something to stream on the platform. The new My Netflix Hub will show you the content you recently downloaded, the movies and television shows you gave a thumbs up to, shows and movies you’ve saved to My List, trailers that you’ve viewed, what content you’re in the middle of watching, content you’ve recently viewed and more.

    With the My Netflix Hub, you can check it out wherever you are to get ideas of what to watch next including shows and movies that you’re in the middle of watching, or content that you’ve downloaded to view at any time. Even with the capabilities of the My Netflix Hub, you can always visit your Home tab or other parts of the app to see the entire Netflix library.

    The My Netflix Hub learns more about you the more you use it. So if you save more medical dramas or give a thumbs up to every episode of Grey’s Anatomy, you’re apt to find more medical dramas in the My Netflix Hub. The Hub is rolling out today to iOS users and will be available on Android devices early next month. Check to see if the My Netflix Hub has arrived by opening the app and looking for the tab on the bottom right corner of the display.
    If the My Netflix Hub hasn’t been added to your iOS Netflix app, you can try to manually update the app by opening the App Store and tapping on the profile picture in the upper right corner. You’ll see a list of apps that are in a queue to be updated. Scroll down until you see “Netflix” (that is, if it appears on the list) and tap on “Update.” Wait for the app to be updated before you open the Netflix app to check whether the My Netflix Hub has arrived on your iPhone. I can tell you that the update has hit the Netflix app on my iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 16.6.
  • TikTok launches text posts in an attempt to take on X

    TikTok launches text posts in an attempt to take on X

    Despite the social network bleeding users, Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, took some questionable decisions over the weekend. After rebranding Twitter’s logo to “X” and promising to bring a bunch of new features that no one asked for, Musk’s is now facing another big problem: the stiff competition.

    Meta’s attempt to take on Twitter hasn’t been entirely successful, as Threads still needs a lot of features to offer a similar users experience. But another contender to take Twitter’s place has just made its first step toward fulfilling its plans.

    TikTok has just announced text posts, a new feature that offers users a Twitter-like experience. This will allow creators to share their stories and other types of content in a different, simpler way. The new feature is available starting today and doesn’t involve too many clicks to make it work.

    When you access the Camera page, you can now choose from three options: photo, video, and text. Tapping on the text option will direct users to the text creation page where they can type out the content of their post. It’s not as fast and smooth as tweeting a message but considering that TikTok is a video-first platform, this will have to do for now.

    In addition to creating posts, TikTok users can also customize their content by including Sound, tagging a location, enabling comments, and allowing Duets. It will enrich the text posts and make them more dynamic beyond what Twitter offers currently.

    For example, TikTok users can add stickers to their text posts, tags and hashtags, as well as background colors and sounds. On top of that, it’s also possible to save drafts and store them with other unpublished posts for later editing or discard them if you’re not content with how they end up.

    It’s a neat new feature that will probably not attract many of Twitter’s users, since Musk’s social platform caters to a different type of audience, but you might as well try in out before the ship sinks to have some alternatives to retreat to.

  • Netflix discontinues the Basic plan in the US and UK

    Netflix discontinues the Basic plan in the US and UK

    Netflix is going ahead with its strategy to completely remove the Basic plan to force customers into choosing more expensive plans or ads. Back in June, Netflix quietly removed the Basic tier in Canada, a move that was expected to extend to other regions in the coming months.

    Earlier today, Cord Busters noticed that that the Basic plan has been discontinued in the UK and US. New customers in these two countries will no longer be able to choose the cheapest Netflix plan starting today, although Basic tier subscribers get to keep their plan until they change to another tier.

    The information has been confirmed by Netflix on its support page: “the Basic plan is no longer available for new or rejoining members. If you are currently on the Basic plan, you can remain on this plan until you change plans or cancel your account.”

    Netflix launched its ad-supported tier in late 2022 as “Basic with Ads” for £4.99 / $6.99 per month, but its name was changed a few months ago when it received a few upgrades like video quality from 720p to 1080p and two simultaneous streams.

    The renamed Standard with Ads plan offered almost the same perks as the Basic plan, but with one big difference: it forced subscribers to watch several minutes of ads per hour. Other differences between the two plans are the number of simultaneous streams and the video quality.

    With the removal of the Basic tier, customers in the UK and US will now have to pay at least £10.99 or $15.49 per month if they want Netflix in their homes or on the go without having to watch ads. It’s pretty clear that Netflix wants more customers to choose its Standard with Ads tier rather than a plan that doesn’t run ads, unless it’s one that’s priced a lot higher.

  • Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing has just begun in the US

    Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing has just begun in the US

    Netflix promised to take drastic measures to prevent customers from sharing their passwords. Today, the first step toward making people pay extra if they want to share their Netfix subscription with others has been made.

    If you have a Netflix subscription and live in the US, you should get an email containing updates on sharing between households. The streaming service announced Netflix customers in the US will receive emails informing them that if they want to share their account outside of their household, they must pay for it.

    Basically, Netflix tells you what options you have if you’re already sharing your account with someone outside your household and how much it will cost you to continue doing it.

    • Transfer a profile. Anyone on your account can transfer a profile to a new membership that they pay for.
    • Buy an extra member. You can share your Netflix account with someone who doesn’t live with you for $7.99/month more.

    After encouraging its customers to share their passwords with friends and family outside their household, Netflix backtracks on its initial statements and now says in a blog post that “an account is for use by one household.”

    We’re not sure what’s going to happen if you don’t start paying for extra membership if you’re sharing your password, but chances are that the people you’re sharing your service with won’t be able to access it. It’s probably just a matter of time before Netflix will start cutting access to these accounts (if that’s even technically possible).

  • YouTube Premium rolls out in Vietnam

    YouTube Premium rolls out in Vietnam

    YouTube Premium, the Google pay service to watch YouTube videos without ads, has become available in Vietnam, starting at a price of VND49,000 ($2.09) a month.

    Google’s initial offering of YouTube Premium services has been available only to select customers from Wednesday, before the mass rollout begins next week.

    The monthly subscription fee for individuals is VND79,000, and VND149,000 for families, which can include up to 5 accounts. Students can subscribe monthly for VND49,000.

    Users can pay directly by connecting their Google account with an international payment card, similar to how they buy Google Drive storage. iOS users can also make payments via iTunes.

    YouTube Premium is a premium account package with more benefits than the free version, including no ads, picture-in-picture mode, background playback, video downloads, and uninterrupted YouTube Music services.

    Previously, Vietnamese users have reported being bombarded with ads, even illegal ones, like those for fake medicines and herbs, on their free accounts. Some users have bought Premium overseas or from third parties for VND30,000-35,000 per month. The latter option will add them to a family group with five other users to use a family Premium account.

    However, this method is only helpful for eliminating ads, but other features are not available.

    There are also risks from sharing names, addresses and profile pictures with other people in the group, and users may get scammed when buying from third parties

  • Useful new features are coming to YouTube Premium

    Useful new features are coming to YouTube Premium

    YouTube Premium offers features such as ad-free YouTube and YouTube Music and the ability to keep both services running in the background instead of closing down when you open another app. The premium version of YouTube and YouTube Music also allows subscribers to download content to play at another time, possibly when there is no cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity available.
    YouTube Premium is adding some new features, including one that will allow FaceTime users to view YouTube videos with others at the same time. This is similar to the Google Meet Live Sharing that is already available for Android users. In the coming weeks, YouTube Premium will be adding SharePlay support. Some services already offer support for SharePlay, including Hulu, HBO Max, TikTok, Apple Fitness Plus, Twitch, Spotify, and ESPN Plus.

    Also on the way to YouTube Premium subscribers using iOS is a feature called “1080p Premium” which delivers 1080p HD video to subscribers with an enhanced bitrate. This will make videos “extra crisp and clear.” Google hopes to bring this to YouTube Premium subscribers using an Android-powered device. Google says, “Whether you’re an avid sports fan or locked in on the latest gaming videos, this new feature will bring our members an even deeper visual quality!” There are no changes to videos being viewed in 1080p using the free version of YouTube.

    Starting today, YouTube Premium subscribers will be able to use the Queue feature on phones and tablets. Queue temporarily saves videos for users to view later. Unlike “Save to Watch later” or “Save to playlist,” which saves content on subscribers’ devices, videos and tunes can be put in a queue by tapping the three-dot menu to the right of videos (excluding Shorts) and selecting “Play last in queue.” In the Queue list, you can change the order of the videos in line to be played or remove videos from the queue.
    YouTube Premium members are also getting a feature called “Continue watching.” If you begin viewing a YouTube video but don’t finish watching it, the next time you open YouTube.com, you’ll see a prompt in the bottom right corner of the display that when tapped, will start the video you had been viewing from the exact point where you left off. And with Smart Downloads, YouTube will automatically download recommended videos for offline viewing.
    An individual subscription is priced at $11.99 per month and you can sign up for a year in advance for $119.99 which works out to $9.99 per month. A family subscription that adds up to 5 family members (13 years old and up) costs $22.99 per month, and a student subscription (which needs proof that you are a student) costs $6.99 monthly. All of these subscriptions offer a one-month free trial and you can learn more about subscribing to the service by going to www.youtube.com/premium.
  • Netflix will be blocked without local office

    Netflix will be blocked without local office

    An official said that providers of cross-border over-the-top (OTT) television services such as Netflix and iQiYi will be blocked and sanctioned if they do not establish legal entities in Vietnam.

    “If a cross-border OTT television service provider does not have a legal entity in Vietnam, the Ministry of Information and Communications will coordinate with telecommunications enterprises to block access to it,” Nguyen Ha Yen, deputy general director of the ministry’s Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, said at a conference on the issue Monday.

    He noted that five cross-border OTT television service providers are operating in Vietnam, including two from the U.S. and three from China.

    According to a new policy on communications media management that came into effect at the beginning of the year, pay television service providers operating in Vietnam must have a representative office in the country that falls under the management of Vietnamese authorities.

    According to the ministry, the policy is to ensure fairness between international and domestic enterprises in the pay television service market.

    “The world’s OTT giants attract a large amount of advertising but do not comply with Vietnamese regulations. That’s not fair to domestic OTT businesses,” said Tran Van Uy, chairman of the Vietnam Pay Television Association.

    Uy said that if OTT television services are not managed, there is a risk their content could upset a variety of cultural, political and legal norms.

    Many films that are not allowed to be shown via Vietnamese OTT services due to violations of certain regulations are still broadcast by Netflix, he noted.

    “There should be sanctions on both hardware devices and applications. Many TV sets sold in Vietnam have Netflix built into their operating systems, so people can use the service simply by pressing a single button on the remote,” he said.

    Huynh Long Thuy, general director of VieON Corporation, the owner of the Vietnamese OTT app VieON, said that over the past five years, cross-border OTT service providers have directly charged users in Vietnam, and have many times shown content that distorts Vietnamese history and infringes on the country’s sovereignty.

    The streaming services did not remove the content until Vietnamese authorities asked them to do so. If Vietnamese OTT services provide such content, they will be punished immediately, Thuy said.

    According to ministry statistics, revenues from OTT television services in Vietnam stood at VND1.55 trillion (US$65.68 million) in 2022, up 27.2% over 2017.

    The number of OTT television subscribers reached 5.5 million, an increase of 26.2% compared to 2017.

    Vietnam currently has 22 local and foreign pay television service providers, including Netflix, iFlix from Malaysia, and WeTV from China.

    Netflix is expected to open an office in Vietnam late this year.

  • Netflix’s crackdown on password-sharing extends to more countries

    Netflix’s crackdown on password-sharing extends to more countries

    After announcing its plan to prevent its customers from sharing their accounts with friends and family, Netflix started to trial new changes to password sharing in several countries from Latin America, including Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic.

    Earlier this week, Netflix announced that the changes to account sharing revealed last year will be rolled out in more countries. Detailed at the beginning of this month, these changes are now introduced in four countries before being rolled out globally in March.

    Starting today, changes to account sharing are rolling out in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. If you live in any of these countries and share your account with one or more people, you’ll have to pay extra. But first, customers in these four countries will be asked to set their primary location, allowing them and anyone who lives in the household to use the Netflix account.

    Next, Netflix customers who’d like to provide access to their account to someone else will be able to do so from the Manage Access and Devices page. Another important change involves the ability to transfer a profile to a new account, which is paid for, thus keeping personalized recommendations, viewing history, My List, and saved games.

    Don’t worry, even after setting your primary location, you will still be able to watch Netflix on your personal device or log into a new TV when you’re not at home.

    The most important part of these changes is the option to buy an extra member. To continue to share your account with others, you will have to pay for each extra member who uses your account. Netflix customers subscribed to either Standard or Premium plan and live in one of the four countries mentioned can add an extra member sub account for up to two people they don’t live with.

    Each sub account comes with a profile, personalized recommendations, login and password of their own. As far as the price goes, a sub account costs CAD$7.99 a month in Canada, NZD$7.99 in New Zealand, 3.99€ in Portugal, and 5.99€ in Spain.

  • HBO Max is getting pricier with no ads effective immediately

    HBO Max is getting pricier with no ads effective immediately

    Are you excited for the impending arrival of HBO’s hugely anticipated “The Last of Us” series based on the massively popular video game of the same name? Did you miss the glorious second season of Mike White’s “The White Lotus” and want to see what all that hype (and those awards) are about… eventually?

    Your excitement and/or eagerness to check out new HBO Max content is likely to take a (small) hit, as the streaming service just got its first-ever price hike. This is reportedly coming into effect immediately as far as new subscriptions go, with existing users also looking at paying an extra buck a month starting from their next billing cycle (but no earlier than February 11).
    Since its debut under this name was released in May 2020 for $14.99 a month with no ads, HBO Max is jumping to $15.99, which doesn’t sound like a big deal… by itself. But if you’re subscribed to more than one streaming platform (and you probably are), the price increases of the last couple of years are likely to add up after a while to a pretty hefty sum.
    Netflix, for instance, revised its monthly charges for both Basic and Standard plans in early 2022… after previously pulling a similar stunt in 2019. The only HBO Max option without commercials is now 50 cents costlier than Netflix’s standard streaming tier, but at $19.99, the industry leader’s Premium plan remains unrivaled… in a bad way.
    With (almost) all the negative attention in the world pointed in Netflix’s direction after a string of inexplicable show cancellations and a very unpopular crackdown on password sharing, this was probably the best moment to bring about an HBO Max price hike that had frankly been a long time coming.
    Of course, the Warner Discovery-owned platform is not in an ideal spot from a public perception standpoint either on the heels of some unpopular content… managing decisions of its own, but at least the aforementioned “Last of Us” series is getting glowing reviews and the first season of “House of the Dragon” broke all the possible viewership records.