Trending about Cord Cutters

Some YouTube users say they no longer have to tap play at all. Opening the app is apparently enough to start a Short playing, according to a report from Android Authority published today. One user described a Short auto-launching through connected earphones and waking a sleeping partner, with no interaction involved beyond opening the app.

Spotify closed the second quarter of 2026 with 300 million Premium subscribers, a first for any audio-streaming service, according to the company's Q2 2026 earnings release, published Tuesday. The same report showed gross margin climbing to an all-time high of 33.4%, up 193 basis points from 31.5% a year earlier (TechTimes). Spotify added 7 million net Premium subscribers during the quarter, a million ahead of its own guidance, pushing the total up 9% year over year, while operating income...

Warner Bros. Discovery this week launched two new mobile features for HBO Max subscribers in the U.S.: a swipeable vertical Shorts feed and a conversational AI search tool called Ask HBO Max. Both are built around the same problem too many choices, not enough watching and neither is available to all subscribers yet.

Spotify expanded its Playlist Notes feature yesterday so listeners can attach short written context to podcast episodes and audiobooks, not just songs, inside playlists they own or collaborate on (Spotify Newsroom, yesterday). The update also introduces a separate, more exclusive layer: Editor Notes, where Spotify's own curators explain why a track made the cut on flagship playlists (Spotify Newsroom, yesterday).

Most people assume a TV without Bluetooth means a trip to the electronics store. It doesn't. Bluetooth has become mainstream in most televisions now, but that's only half the picture: plenty of older or specialty sets, like a favorite pair of wired headphones or a plasma TV still hanging on in the den, never got the feature and won't get it through a software update either, according to Wirecutter/NYT reporting from last month. Figuring out how to add Bluetooth to a TV without Bluetooth usually...

Roku entered the OLED television market for the first time on September 1, 2026, with two new sets priced well below what LG and Samsung charge for comparable screens. The Roku Pro Series OLED TV starts at $999 for a 55-inch model and is available now, while the higher-end Roku Pro Series LX OLED TV starts at $1,299 and ships in October.

Search "my Roku remote won't pair," and most of what comes back isn't a pairing failure at all. If the remote can already move through Roku's menus and pull up voice search, pairing has succeeded, and the real issue is that the TV hasn't been set up for power and volume control yet, which is a separate step handled independently of pairing.

Amazon has added Luna game streaming directly to the Prime Video app, giving Prime members access to a rotating catalog of streamable games through a new Games tab on Fire TV devices. No console required, no separate download. On geography, the two outlets that confirmed today's rollout don't agree: Engadget says the launch covers the US and UK, while VGC specifies the UK only. Both confirm Fire TV as the starting point, with additional devices and countries to follow in the coming months....

LG introduced a picture setting that lets movie studios influence how individual streaming titles appear on compatible televisions. Creator Original Picture Mode can apply title-specific parameters for shadow detail, color balance, noise reduction, and motion handling instead of relying on one general cinema preset.

Netflix's decision to license short-form clips from Condé Nast, Hearst, and BuzzFeed Studios is one of the clearest strategic tells the company has offered in years. Not because the content matters three-to-twenty-minute clips from Bon Appétit and Cosmopolitan are table stakes, not programming strategy but because of who Netflix chose not to sign. The deals are with publishers, not creators. In the Netflix vs YouTube short-form video battle shaping up this year, that distinction is the whole...

Reviewed by: Y. Garcia

BBC director-general Matt Brittin confirmed this week that the corporation has held early talks with Channel 4 about a possible streaming partnership, with the most concrete idea being Channel 4 content distributed through BBC iPlayer while Channel 4 retains its ad-funded business model. The timing was pointed: Brittin's appearance before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee came just two days after Sky announced a £1.6 billion acquisition of ITV, according to Hollywood...

Apple TV+ is occupying Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con for the first time, with a two-hour Apple TV+ Hall H panel on Saturday, July 25 covering five titles, a separate late-night sneak preview of Dark Matter Season 2, and a free multi-sensory Silo installation open to the public, Deadline reported today. The panel runs 2:00–4:00 PM and will be moderated by Josh Horowitz, host of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast.

Roku's market position has a way of making the platform look more capable than it is. Across U.S. broadband households, Roku OS accounts for 28% of connected TV platform usage, ahead of Samsung Tizen at 23%, with Amazon Fire TV, LG webOS, and Vizio SmartCast trailing at a distance, according to Parks Associates research.

Netflix ended 2025 with 325 million global subscribers, $45 billion in revenue, and a 29.5% operating margin, per its annual filing with the SEC. Those are numbers most traditional media companies would trade their entire legacy for. Yet the idea of Netflix becoming cable is no longer just a metaphor. It is visible in the product roadmap, in the acquisition pipeline, and in the engagement metrics that have been keeping executives up at night.

Microsoft today launched a limited test of Xbox free ad-supported cloud gaming, letting Xbox Insiders stream games from their existing libraries at no cost in exchange for watching a short ad block before play begins. Sessions cap at one hour. No subscription required. The owned-games requirement does the heavy lifting here: if you don't already have eligible titles in your library, the offer gives you nothing.

A quick reality check before you start: This guide works best for households in urban and suburban areas within range of broadcast transmitters. Rural readers, apartment dwellers with no exterior placement options, and anyone whose primary goal is free live sports coverage will hit real limits, spelled out at each relevant step. Go in with accurate expectations.

In 2022, Apple signed a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal with Major League Soccer and immediately built a wall around it. Fans who wanted to watch games had to pay $100 per year for MLS Season Pass, a subscription layered on top of their existing Apple TV subscription, Awful Announcing reported. The Apple TV sports strategy was, in theory, ambitious. In practice, it was a friction machine. In the first three years of the deal, MLS struggled to meaningfully grow its Season Pass subscriber base, even...