According to The Wall Street Journal retail giant Amazon.com may challenge the Netflix streaming product with a service of their own. Apparently the company has been in talks with NBC, Time Warner, News Corp. and Viacom to get content distribution rights to TV shows and film titles. If things fall into place, Amazon hopes to get the service launched this holiday season. Full Story
The company may launch a competing streaming video rental service through YouTube property.
According to the Financial Times, Google is in talks with Hollywood to launch a streaming video-on-demand service. The service would put Google in competition with video services from Netflix, Apple and Hulu, offering titles the same day as DVD releases. The Google video-rental initiative would be launched off YouTube, and apparently developers are thinking global. Full Story
NASA has added thousands of historical images to the Flickr “Commons,” a section of the photo sharing website that allows users to tag and contribute to content made available for public use. The Flickr initiative is compiled of three categories: “Launch and Takeoff”; “Building NASA”; and “Center Namesakes.” Full Story
Time Warner Cable has launched the online broadband channel Speed2 nationwide, offering live and on-demand streaming of motorsports events in both standard and high-definition. The channel is available to Time Warner Cable Sports Pass subscribers (formally known as Time Warner Cable Sports Tier) at no additional charge. Full Story
Great news for Apple customers. Netflix subscribers can now watch streaming Netflix content on iPhones and iTouch mobile devices. Apple’s Steve Jobs first showed off the Netflix app on an iPhone 4 in June — which works on both Wi-Fi and 3G networks. Full Story
Boxee has started its movie library by adding thousands of films from partners EZTakes, Indie Movies Online, Openfilm and MUBI. Independent, cult, art, documentary and short films make up the new content which is available worldwide. All of the movies are free with commercial interruptions, except MUBI which requires pairing accounts. Full Story
Dish Network has launched its DishOnline.com website in beta mode. When it officially launches, Dish will join other television providers in offering programmed content streaming over the internet, a service that allows subscribers to watch TV in more places than in front of their TV sets. (By the way, the beta is currently working for non-subs so have a look!) Full Story
Not a DirecTV subscriber? No matter. This season you’ll be able to purchase the NFL Sunday Ticket purely for online viewing. But, according to USA Today, the service is geared towards would-be DirecTV customers who cannot get satellite service. The article goes on to say that potential customers will have to prove they are unable to get DirecTV in order to purchase the $350 NFL Sunday Ticket online package (for example if they don’t have a clear south-facing view to place the satellite.) Full Story
Verizon’s FiOS TV online service is adding three more channels from Time Warner Inc., including Adult Swim, Cartoon Network and truTV. Content from these channels will be available online within 24-hours after the shows premiere on television. The channels join Turner’s TNT and TBS which became available to FiOS TV subscribers in June. Full Story
This just in via The Wall Street Journal — Epix has agreed to give Netflix online distribution rights. This means movies such as “Iron Man 2,” “The Expendables,” and “Star Trek” will be available next month as streaming content to your PC or TV. Full Story
Hulu.com, MSNBC.com, and Yahoo.com will start letting viewers choose which types of ads they watch previous to video content, that according to a BusinessWeek article posted yesterday. The ad tool called ASq was tested by French ad company Publicis Groupe Media which showed users are twice as likely to click on ads when given the option to choose. Full Story
Netflix frequently adds more HD titles to their streaming lineup — you can find them under the “New Arrivals” tabs in the Netflix interface . Unfortunately they don’t have a simple breakdown of HD quality, so we’ve scrolled through ourselves. Videos in high-definition are AVC compressed with Dolby Digital at 48kHz. Yeah, the quality doesn’t quite match that of a Blu-ray Disc but then again you don’t have to wait for it. Full Story
Whether or not Netflix will actually build an app to run on Android devices, the company has posted an open position for an Android Video Playback Expert on their website. An apparent Netflix employee on Reddit has also posted responses to comments saying “the way Android is blowing up it would be stupid of us to ignore that.” Full Story
Earlier this week Reuters reported CBS in talks with Hulu to bring their TV content to the online service. Previously, CBS stayed clear of the popular website which offers content from (and is coincidentally owned by) the other big networks — NBC, ABC, and FOX. Now, with the launch of Hulu Plus (which charges a subscription fee), CBS has become more open to looking at content distribution agreements with the joint venture. Full Story
- Limited Time
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