You know that jarring moment when you're peacefully binge-watching your favorite show, and suddenly a commercial blasts at full volume, making you scramble for the remote? Well, California just said "enough is enough." The Golden State has implemented groundbreaking legislation that requires major streaming platforms to keep their advertisement volumes in check, marking a significant shift in how we experience digital entertainment.
We've all been there, you're settling into your favorite show at a reasonable volume when suddenly a streaming ad explodes through your speakers like an air horn at 2 AM. Your neighbors probably think you're hosting a midnight infomercial convention. Really, you're just another victim of streaming's most annoying problem: commercials that blast way louder than the show you were just watching. California decided to do something about it, and the fix could help viewers across the country.
Disney's streaming landscape is undergoing its most dramatic transformation since Disney+ launched in 2019, and the implications reach far beyond simple app consolidation. The entertainment giant has officially announced plans to sunset the standalone Hulu app, marking the end of an era for one of streaming's pioneering platforms. After nearly two decades as an independent service, Disney revealed it will fully integrate Hulu into Disney+ by 2026, creating what the company calls a "unified app...
The streaming wars have morphed into something unexpected, a collaboration race. For years services fought for your attention, and your wallet. Now they have discovered a twist: team up, keep you subscribed longer, help you spend less.
When someone offers you a "free" TV, your first instinct should be to check for the catch, because there's always one. I've covered the streaming industry for years, and the shift I've watched up close now shows up in the numbers: 81% of viewers consider ads a fair trade for free or cheaper content. That acceptance has unleashed a sophisticated business model that is reshaping how we watch.
When emergencies strike, every second counts. Whether you are caught in severe weather, facing a natural disaster, or dealing with other urgent threats, timely, accurate information can be the difference between life and death. That is exactly what makes TuneIn's new partnership with FEMA so compelling, it brings real-time emergency alerts directly to drivers through their vehicle dashboards and mobile streams.
Ad, skip, another ad. Sound familiar? YouTube Premium Lite aims to break that loop without blowing up your budget. YouTube Premium Lite costs $7.99 a month, positioning itself as a more affordable alternative to the full Premium experience. The service removes ads on most YouTube videos, wherever you are watching them, while YouTube doesn’t charge a cent for hosting all of your uploaded videos or showing them to the world. With interruptions getting longer and more frequent, the question is...
Disney's latest price hike announcement couldn't have come at a worse time. While Disney has raised prices every October for three years running, this round lands with a thud. The company is hiking prices across almost all streaming plans starting October 21, 2025, with increases ranging from $2 to $3 per month. What makes this especially problematic? The timing collides with ongoing subscriber cancellations after recent controversies, with subscriptions reportedly "hemorrhaging" after the...
YouTube TV just dodged a major bullet, but not without taking some hits. In a classic streaming industry nail-biter, Google managed to secure NBC's channels with a last-minute extension, keeping roughly 10 million subscribers from losing access to Sunday Night Football and other premium content. The win came with a sting, Univision and its Spanish-language networks have officially gone dark on the platform.
The streaming landscape in 2025 is not just about picking a service and calling it a day. From Netflix and Disney+ to Max, Prime Video, and Hulu, the real story in 2025 is how crowded and expensive streaming has become. Video streaming technology has moved from basic content delivery to AI-powered systems that study what you watch and tweak quality in real time. With hundreds of niche services jockeying for attention, catalogs shift constantly, and price changes pop up alongside password...
Breaking: The era of Daniel Ek's leadership at Spotify looks like it might be approaching a hinge point. Big claim, so let’s slow down. Rumors are flying about a shake-up, but here’s the only firm ground right now: there are no verified reports confirming that Ek is leaving the company he co-founded in 2006.
When YouTube TV announced its latest price hike to $82.99 per month in December 2024, many subscribers felt that familiar sting of yet another streaming service getting more expensive. But here's the thing. While that increase was supposed to hit existing subscribers on January 13, 2025, I've managed to dodge it completely. And I'm not alone.
When Netflix's $320 million sci-fi epic The Electric State underperformed critically with a 30 Metacritic score and 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was not just another streaming flop, it was a wake-up call about a distribution strategy problem. The film's dismal reception sparked industry confusion about Netflix's filmmaking efforts, and the confusion is justified. Here is a streaming giant that can make genuinely great films like The Irishman, Roma, and All Quiet on the Western Front, yet the...
Four years. That's how long Spotify users have been waiting since the streaming giant first announced its Hi-Fi tier in 2021. Meanwhile, Apple Music rolled out lossless audio support in 2021, and Amazon Music made its lossless streaming free after launching a paid HD tier in 2019. But here's what you need to know: Spotify is finally making good on that promise, and the rollout is happening right now.
The late-night television landscape just saw something rare, maybe unprecedented: affiliate stations essentially forcing a network to yank one of its flagship shows. When Sinclair and Nexstar refused to carry Jimmy Kimmel Live!, they did more than flex corporate muscle; they exposed the structural cracks in a broadcasting model that has been melting like an ice cube for years. The numbers are blunt: roughly 23% of U.S. households (about a quarter) were reached by stations that preempted the...
You know how sometimes a single partnership can shift an entire industry? That is exactly what is happening with YouTube’s NFL deal, and it is wild to watch in real time. When the platform secured the NFL Sunday Ticket contract valued at about $2 billion per year under a seven-year deal, they were not just buying rights, they were buying the future of how we watch football.
Amazon just made a move that's got Prime members scratching their heads. After years of letting users share shipping benefits through their household feature, the e-commerce giant has quietly pulled the plug on shared Prime shipping perks. This isn't just a minor policy tweak—it's a fundamental shift in how Amazon views its most valuable subscription service and what it means for the millions of families who've been splitting the benefits.
YouTube TV's multiview feature was supposed to be a game-changer for sports fans and cord-cutters alike. After all, YouTube TV grew from zero to an estimated 9.5 million subscribers in just eight years, becoming the largest virtual multichannel video programming distributor in the United States. Lately, though, something's off with this flagship feature. And people are noticing.
The streaming wars just got a whole lot more interesting for sports fans. If you've been waiting for a sign to ditch that bloated cable package, this might be it. ESPN and Fox just announced they're bundling their new streaming services for $39.99 per month—a $10 discount compared to buying them separately. That's roughly half what you'd pay for YouTube TV's $82.99 monthly fee, and we're talking about accessing the heart of American sports programming.
You're already living in the future of entertainment — you just don't know it yet. That building collapse in Netflix's "The Eternaut"? AI-generated. Those eerily perfect recommendations that keep you scrolling? Powered by machine learning algorithms processing hundreds of billions of your viewing decisions. And those AI-powered ads coming in 2026? They're going to know exactly what you want to buy before you do.
Netflix's move into live programming just got a rocket boost. NASA announced this summer that its NASA+ live feeds—including rocket launches, spacewalks, and those mesmerizing Earth views from the International Space Station—are heading to Netflix. This marks the first time Netflix has embedded live programming from an outside source directly into its U.S. platform.
YouTube just dropped another AI bombshell, and spoiler alert: it's not all sunshine and seamless video discovery. The platform is testing AI-generated search carousels that surface video clips before you even click play—and content creators are already seeing dollar signs disappear.
Picture this: you're halfway through binge-watching your latest obsession when that dreaded notification pops up — you've hit 90% of your monthly data cap. Sound familiar? Well, if you're a Comcast customer (or considering becoming one), those days might finally be behind you.
Apple likes to make their products simple. However, sometimes that simplicity leads to a confusing user-experience. Take the Apple TV, for example. How do you turn it off? Just press the power button, right? Sorry, there is no power button. Okay, so it's like an iPhone and has a nondescript button designated as a power button, right? Nope.
Reddit is one of the internet's greatest sources of funny and interesting videos. Its user base is extremely active, and a system of upvotes and downvotes ensures that the best content always rises to the top.
The Google Play Store is known for some pretty random promotions and offers, most of the time it's a free book or a discounted movie. But this time, an entire season for Game of Thrones is up for grabs. Yes, that's right, all of Season 5 of Game of Thrones is free to download, watch, or just stash in your library for later.
Much like the Chromecast, Android TV devices such as the Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield TV have always had those beautiful background images as their default screensaver. However, unlike the Chromecast, these "Backdrop" images, as they're called, weren't always customizable on Android TV.
Although lots of the bigger hotel chains are lessening the restrictions they put on their room TVs, some smaller ones are still taking measures to prevent you from plugging in computers or streaming devices into an HDMI port. However, there are a few steps you can take to bypass these restrictions and watch your own media in a hotel that has restricted TVs.
Over the course of the past century or so, media consumption has gone from a few readers enjoying their local print publication to billions of users viewing countless hours of video across the globe each day. This was a gradual evolution at first, but recent advancements in mobile connectivity have sent us into a climb the likes of which we have never seen before.
Android TV devices have had those beautiful Chromecast background images as their screensaver for quite a while now. Envious of this feature, Apple copied the idea for a similarly-styled screensaver in their newest Apple TV, but with one big twist—they used videos instead of still photos.
Cord cutters are changing everything about TV—the more of us that sever ties with cable, the more changes we start to see. In fact, viewing habits have already changed so drastically that waiting a week to see the next episode in a series is no longer acceptable, as binge watching has completely eclipsed this old-fashioned format.
The Google Cast feature that serves as the primary interface for the Chromecast and comes bundled with Android TV devices like the Nexus Player is a marvel of modern technology. But as these things go, troubleshooting issues can be difficult with something so groundbreaking, especially when you consider that there are two parts to the equation—the casting device (your phone, tablet, or computer) and the receiver.
Previously, you'd need to install the Google Cast extension to cast webpages from your Chrome web browser to your Chromecast-connected TV, but as of March 24th, you don't need it anymore. Casting now works natively in Google Chrome (which had been available in the Beta version for a few months), and you can activate the hidden feature right now.
Netflix has become the subject of heavy buzz this week, and not due to the latest season of Daredevil (which gets two thumbs up, btw). The online video entertainment provider is drawing fire over its admission that it has been throttling video streams for its AT&T and Verizon customers for years.
The older I get, the more my Friday nights involve watching Netflix at home with a bottle of Maker's Mark and a box of Oreos. Netflix is a big part of my life, and I'm not alone. YouTube and Netflix make up over 50% of all activity on the Internet, so it might be worth your time to understand why Netflix seems to cause so many headaches and what can be done about it.
Watching the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament without cable used to be easy. As long as you had an internet connection, CBS and Turner (TBS, TNT, and TruTV), which co-broadcast March Madness, let you watch all 67 games online free of charge.
Even though the 88th Academy Awards have come and gone, there's a good chance you still haven't seen all the films that were nominated—or even those that won big.