Established streaming industry leaders like Netflix and Amazon are facing more competition than ever. Now legacy entertainment giants are in the game with their own subscription services, like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle, while Apple TV Plus attacks around the edges. Meanwhile, the rise of ad-supported free platforms like Roku Channel and Pluto TV has attracted enough attention that Plex, YouTube, and Amazon’s Freevee are trying to get a chunk of the action too.
People have been asking for 4K, and Rode is giving it to them. The Rodecaster Video, Video S, and Video Core now have a 4K capture mode. They’re also getting expanded syncing capabilities with the Rodecaster Pro II and Duo for fully integrated audio/video production setups.
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The Watch With live reactions feature is being expanded to all long-form videos later this year. Additional features are coming in 2027, including livestreamer matchmaking, interactive fan funding on co-hosted streams, and automatic speech translation and dubbing.
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Your free streaming reruns app may look different now, with Pluto TV’s recently rolled-out update that shares tech with Paramount Plus and has a David Duchovny-starring “Escape to Pluto TV” ad campaign.
The new Home screen now blends live and on-demand content, but some users say it’s slower, makes channel surfing harder, and pushed the channel guide under Live TV. Paramount is already promising more tweaks, like bringing back Kids Mode and adding an in-player live channel changer.
Disney is also raising prices on its ad-free Hulu plan, ad-free Hulu and Disney Plus bundle, and the standalone ad-supported subscriptions for each, Bloomberg reports. It says Disney could start notifying subscribers about the price increase as soon as today, exactly one year after an earlier Disney Plus price hike and just a month after ESPN raised prices.
Along with a bunch of AI news today, YouTube music exec Lyor Cohen announced a renewed agreement with concert promoter Goldenvoice to keep streaming both weekends of the Coachella music festival for the next four years.
This continues an arrangement that will hit 15 years next April, despite Bloomberg’s report of competing bids from the likes of Netflix and Amazon. It also says that in the future we’ll see more pre-event programming, as well as mini-documentaries and other videos about artists between sets.
This builds on the feature introduced in May which allows users to build a custom video feed based on AI prompt descriptions of your interests, moods, or favorite topics. The expansion means you can create and save more than one custom feed to your home screen, with YouTube saying it’ll be available for users in the US on web, mobile, and TVs “soon.”
YouTube is expanding its likeness detection tool to include not just facial matches, but vocal matches too. At the company’s Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, executives teased the upcoming expansion that will allow creators to monitor potential synthetic soundalikes posted to the platform.
The original likeness detection feature started testing with creators and eventually was opened to anyone with a YouTube account — the company has essentially created its own deepfake monitoring and takedown regime.
If you have one of Birdfy’s smart birdwatching devices, you can tune into its video feed on the biggest screen in the house now on the Roku version of the Birdfy companion app.
A new “Premium early access” feature for users in India forces users without a subscription to wait three extra days for access to new albums:
With UMG’s ‘Hear It First’, participating artists and their labels can collaborate with Spotify to choose to make select new releases available to Premium subscribers up to three days early. Every Spotify listener gets access after that - or free listeners can subscribe at any time to get early access.
Update: Added quote from Spotify support page.
In their fight to win the war for our attention, streamers are re-creating cable from first principles.
The band’s Amelia Meath says they’re back “to continue to employ everyone that we employ,” after what’s been an “incredibly hard” year off Spotify, but implored fans to listen on other platforms instead. Their new album Ow ∞ came out last week, when the pair spoke to The Verge for our weekend questionnaire.
As Comics Beat points out, 100 or so employees had until today to decide if they’ll move with the company out of New York City to Burbank, CA, the home of Marvel Studios and Disney.
It was announced in July, but the actual move will take place next year, bringing the bits of the MCU closer together under new EIC Stephen Wacker, replacing C.B. Cebulski, who is moving to Japan to lead a manga push and become the editor of Asia originals.
The popular streaming guide is launching its own streaming service, JustWatch TV, offering paid and ad-supported streaming and rentals. Users will be able to watch included shows and movies directly on its app and website, or through connected streaming services, which keep getting pricier.
[JustWatch]
First there was Squid Game: The Challenge, then there was Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket, and now Netflix is turning Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo’s highly unethical prison experiment into yet another deranged reality series.
Correction: The New Stanford Prison Experiment is an unscripted reality series, not a reality competition show.
If you’ve been waiting to rewatch Project Hail Mary and the modern Doctor Who seasons like I have, this new bundle could make it a little less expensive even as prices for individual services keep climbing. It’s one of the biggest bundles on Prime Video, including all five streaming services for $29.99 per month.
A new settings toggle rolling out starting today excludes kids and family music from your taste profile and recommendations. With it turned on, your kids can listen to their music on repeat without it taking over your Spotify Wrapped, Discover Weekly, and Daily Mix.
Apple’s including both in the $0.99/month 50GB iCloud Plus subscription “at no extra cost.” Users in the US and other regions that aren’t on the list will need a pricier Apple One subscription to get a bundle with those services.
[Apple Newsroom (Mali)]
Apple just answered the question we raised in June by taking home 28 (plus one for an ad) Emmy awards, the most of any studio. It’s the first time Apple has come out on top thanks to its focus on tentpole titles like Pluribus and Widow’s Bay that created cultural moments this year.
The comedian, podcast host, and, yes, YouTuber on the state of media today.
Director Valerie Veatch’s excellent Ghost in the Machine documentary digging into the origins of generative artificial intelligence is set to make its debut on the PBS Documentaries YouTube channel this evening.
The AI coaching feature is only available to a small group of streamers right now. Unlike Twitch’s generative AI training toggle, which is opt out, the company says this feature would be opt-in if it’s ever expanded beyond this test.
According to a new report from Luminate, lengthy gaps between s treaming shows are one of the reasons people stop watching them. That feels right, but we want to hear from you: does waiting a few years for a series to come back make you more inclined to move on?
[Luminate]
Content creators say their videos are fair use, but one controversial company begs to differ.
You’ll also be able to unlock your account with the YouTube mobile app. Read all the details in this YouTube support post. This is a smart feature!
Fans of the dark comedy starring Cole Escola as Mrs. Lincoln won’t have to wait as long to stream it as Hamilton fans did. The version on HBO and HBO Max will be the filming of the July 28, 2026 performance at London’s Trafalgar Theatre. You might be able to see Oh, Mary! sooner in person, as its North American tour starts this month.
The new AI feature is supposed to help you track down stuff like your favorite character’s outfit, which could come in handy assuming it doesn’t just pull up random knockoffs. Amazon’s also making it easier to shop in the middle of your shows and movies with a new “Shop” tab in its X-Ray menu.
If you missed Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day while it was in theaters, you’ll be able to catch it on Peacock when its makes its streaming premiere on October 9th.
Amazon has reportedly canceled Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man detective series that premiered on Prime Video and MGM Plus earlier this year, according to TheWrap. The report adds that Sony and Amazon “will continue collaborating” on more Marvel projects, and “have already identified the next chapter of the franchise.”
Following its season three finale this week, Apple released a teaser for Silo’s fourth season, premiering in less than a year — but watch out for spoilers if you haven’t seen this week’s episode yet.
If you liked the pilot animatic for Kiana Khansmith’s Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to Be a Magical Girl, you’re going to love the Mercury Filmworks-produced, fully animated version of the first episode that just hit YouTube.
A selection of Binsky’s videos will appear on Netflix starting September 19th, similar to the streamer’s deals with Kevin Langue, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, as reported by Variety. YouTube has reportedly offered creators millions not to cross-post their videos to Netflix.
