News and Updates about Cord Cutters

The documented discount on a Roku Pro Series OLED TV sale belongs to the standard 120Hz model, not the faster 144Hz Pro Series LX OLED. During a past sale event, Amazon had the 55-inch Pro Series OLED at $699.99 and the 65-inch at $799.99, well under the set's $999.99 and $1,199.99 list prices (Tom's Guide, two weeks ago). The standard model is confirmed available nationwide on Amazon right now; the pricier LX was only announced for an October 2026 launch, and no sale price has been documented...

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.

TikTok videos on Disney Plus are becoming real, and Disney+ subscribers will start seeing that content inside the app within the next few months. The rollout stems from a global Disney Plus TikTok partnership the two companies announced yesterday, according to The Walt Disney Company's announcement and USA Today. Opt-in creators will have their short-form videos appear on both TikTok and Verts, the vertical-video feed built into the Disney+ mobile app.

Reports of a Disney Plus free tier trace back to internal talks inside Disney, not a public announcement. Two people familiar with the matter told Business Insider that the company is discussing making some Disney+ content available without a subscription.

Netflix is cutting roughly 6% of its global workforce, about 1,000 jobs, in its steepest reduction since 2022. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters told staff in an internal memo that the greatest impact falls on the company's product, technology, legal, and HR teams.

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.

Apple TV won 28 television Emmys this year, more than any other outlet, with parent company Apple's total reaching 29 once a separate commercial-category award is folded in. It's the first time Apple TV has finished at the top of the Emmy tally since the service launched in 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter today.

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...

Spotify went down twice yesterday without publicly explaining why either time. Two separate disruptions on Monday, July 27 left users unable to stream music, log in, search the library, or manage their accounts before both were resolved, Engadget reported yesterday. The Spotify outage is over. The explanation hasn't come.

Spotify launched Fresh Finds Forward on Sept. 17, turning its decade-old Fresh Finds playlist brand into a 12-month support program for independent artists. The company says the program will support around 10,000 emerging artists each year.

Spotify began rolling out a beta feature called Taste Profile to Premium subscribers ages 18 and older in the United States on Sept. 23, letting listeners type plain-language notes that steer their Home feed.

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.

Netflix nudging ahead as UK viewers' starting point is a narrow finding with a broad implication: the broadcast default is gone.

Netflix's July shareholder letter contained a number that cuts against a decade of streaming-industry assumptions: revenue grew 13% year over year to $12.6 billion, while member viewing hours for the first half of 2026 grew just 2%. The two figures don't cover identical periods, but the gap is wide enough to raise a real question at the heart of any credible Netflix monetization strategy: if people aren't watching dramatically more, what's actually driving the revenue?

Google TV Freeplay now has 10,000 free movies and shows available to stream on demand, the first time the service has offered on-demand video since it launched. Google made the announcement on its blog yesterday, describing the addition as giving users "instant access to free entertainment." No subscription is required to watch.

Put a 4K stream and an Ultra HD Blu-ray of the same movie on the same television, and both will paint the screen with an identical 3,840 x 2,160 grid of pixels. Yet anyone who has watched both back to back knows they rarely look the same, a gap Engadget laid out today in its breakdown of 4K Blu-ray vs 4K streaming picture quality. The resolution numbers match. The amount of picture data sitting behind them does not, and that mismatch explains almost everything else in this comparison.

The Onn Full HD streaming stick, a $15 Google TV dongle that turns any HDMI-equipped television into a capable smart TV, has become harder to find and more expensive to buy. Its publicly displayed price has climbed to $30 for some shoppers, double its 2023 launch price, with in-store stock running thin at many locations, according to Cord Cutters News and Android Police. For cord-cutters who relied on the Onn Full HD streaming stick as the cheapest entry point into Google TV, the question is...