The Latest on Cord Cutters

A Plex stream that stutters doesn't always mean the server needs more muscle. These Plex tips and tricks are built around one diagnostic habit: checking whether buffering comes from your network, a forced transcode, or an undersized server before you spend a dollar fixing a problem that isn't there.

Spotify podcast memberships began rolling out in 34 markets on October 20, giving eligible shows a way to sell exclusive content through Spotify, with purchases handled on the web. Creators can offer paid Memberships with multiple tiers and pricing options, charging listeners in addition to any Spotify plan they already have.

If you're trying to pin down LG Smart TV software update support years, the sources reviewed do not identify one support period covering every LG TV. The most concrete, sourced commitment comes from a specific 2024 initiative called the webOS Re:New program, and it names particular models rather than LG's whole lineup.

Pay TV has been losing subscribers for years, but analysts at MoffettNathanson now see a possible floor. The firm projects the US pay-TV market could stabilize at more than 50 million subscribers by 2030, down from roughly 62 million today.

Paramount Skydance is the name of the corporate entity acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery. It is not an announced streaming brand, and there is no confirmed HBO Max and Paramount Plus merger into a single app, according to a Paramount SEC filing from earlier this year. That distinction matters because online chatter has treated "Paramount Skydance" as a future consumer app name, when the filing uses it only to identify the company buying Warner Bros. Discovery.

Turning off Roku's automatic content recognition system took investigators at The Markup 11 to 24 clicks. That click count applies specifically to Roku's ACR setting on Roku TVs, the feature built into Roku's television hardware rather than its streaming sticks (The Markup, 2023). Even after finding it, disabling ACR doesn't answer the bigger question most people actually have: how to stop Roku from tracking what you watch across every app you open. This guide walks through the Roku privacy...

Netflix released just 23 original films in the first quarter of 2026, its lowest quarterly output in eight years, though that total still outpaces what most legacy studios manage in the same stretch. That drop is the clearest sign yet that Netflix is pulling back on film volume, with movies now carrying less weight in the mix.

One Android Authority reviewer switched from an Apple TV 4K to Google's $100 TV Streamer and got a full-screen Taco Bell ad, complete with a QR code, planted on the home screen. Scroll further and a Target-sponsored March Madness section sat in the "For You" feed, next to promos for shows on Prime Video, Peacock, and Disney Plus. That screenshot keeps resurfacing whenever the Apple TV 4K vs Google TV privacy debate flares up online, and it's worth figuring out what it actually proves.

The Paramount WBD merger officially closed on Oct. 6, combining HBO, HBO Max, CNN, Paramount+, CBS, and dozens of other brands under a new parent company named Skydance, according to Skydance's closing announcement. The company said the transaction received the required regulatory approvals across nearly 70 jurisdictions worldwide.

Pokémon Night Out 2026 is officially confirmed, and its first event has already taken place. The Pokémon Company announced the electronic dance music concert series on April 13 as part of Pokémon's 30th anniversary celebrations. The Los Angeles show was held at Intuit Dome on October 24, while the second event is scheduled for November 10 at The O2 in London.

Warner Bros. Discovery yesterday began testing HBO Max Shorts with a limited group of U.S. iPhone users: a vertically scrollable feed of scenes, trailers, and bonus clips drawn entirely from the existing HBO Max library. The feature is not original programming. It is existing content reformatted for vertical mobile playback, designed to pull subscribers from a 30-second clip into a full episode or series. Broader availability across devices and markets is planned, with no timeline attached.

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.

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...

Since the October 29, 2025 closing, Disney has controlled a subsidiary that used to be a scrappy sports-streaming challenger: FuboTV. The Fubo Hulu Live TV deal folded Disney's Hulu + Live TV service into Fubo's corporate structure, creating a combined company with nearly 6 million subscribers overnight and, by UBS estimates cited in Disney's own announcement, the sixth-largest pay-TV provider in the country (Disney investor relations). It also handed Disney 70% of the combined entity's...

Spotify's Running Mode doesn't listen to your footsteps or track your pace the way the original Spotify Running feature did. That older feature used phone hardware to detect your cadence automatically before Spotify retired it in 2018 (The Verge, 2 months ago; Engadget, yesterday). Running Mode works differently: it builds a soundtrack around the BPM, duration, and music preferences you dial in before you start moving, rather than reacting to how fast you're actually running (The Verge, 2...

If Netflix, Hulu, or another streaming service seems to be showing more commercials, there is data behind that impression. Ad minutes per hour across major US streaming services rose 18% between January and August 2026, according to Ampere Analysis.

Horror fans have an unusually crowded month ahead. Prime Video, Netflix, Peacock, and AMC+ all have new horror series arriving in October 2026, with four premieres landing within a little more than two weeks of each other.

Audible buries a handful of useful features behind menu labels that don't always explain themselves clearly.