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  • Worldwide LTE Subscriptions Steadily Rising

    Worldwide LTE Subscriptions Steadily Rising

    The smartphone market is continuing to grow, yet most of the world does not yet have access to 4G LTE connections. This is set to change in the near future, however, as emerging nations such as China begin to build out their infrastructure.

    Market research firm ABI Research today released a new report showing that LTE subscriptions worldwide hit 229.7 million last year. This number is expected to rise rapidly within the coming years and the firm is predicting that LTE subscriptions will hit 2 billion by the end of 2019.

    With established markets such as the U.S. beginning to see smartphone and tablet growth slow, growth in LTE subscriptions is being concentrated more in emerging markets. This is particularly true in Asia, where aggressive LTE technology rollouts have combined to add millions of new LTE subscribers in the past year.

    “Among the LTE subscription growth, Asia-Pacific contributes the most with a 49% market share. The second greatest contributor is North America with an 18% share,” comments Marina Lu, research associate at ABI Research. “The large population base in Asia combined with rapid LTE network deployment and cost-competitive smartphones has accelerated the remarkable subscriber adoption.”

    ABI’s report also predicts that several LTE-related technologies will grow along with the overall industry. LTE-Advanced is expected to hit 750 million subscribers by the year 2019 and the voice over LTE industry is expected to take off as network coverage expands. Mobile revenue is predicted to grow since LTE subscribers spend more on average.

  • Pay-TV Subscriptions to Top 1 Billion This Year

    Pay-TV Subscriptions to Top 1 Billion This Year

    Over the past few years, as the internet’s profile has risen as a mainstream entertainment service, cable and satellite providers have seen subscription numbers dropping. At the same time, purveyors of IPTV services have been seeing an influx of subscribers.

    The rise of IPTV has helped the overall pay-TV market grow throughout the past two years, with subscriptions hitting nearly 900 million near the end of 2013. Now, a new report from ABI Research shows that pay-TV subscriptions could hit over 1 billion during the coming year.

    The new report estimates that pay-TV subscriptions will rise to 1.1 billion during 2014. This would bring in just over $320 billion in revenue for pay-TV providers. This represents a significant rise from the nearly $250 billion that ABI estimates pay-TV operators took in during 2013.

    “Increasing FTTH (fiber to the home) subscriber base and bundled subscriber base of telcos are boosting the IPTV market,” said Jake Saunders, practice director of core forecasting at ABI. “ABI Research forecasts that the IPTV subscriber base will grow to 161 million subscribers in 2019 accounting for 15% of overall pay-TV market.”

    While cable subscriptions in the U.S. and other emerging markets are declining, ABI reports that emerging markets are still seeing cable TV growth, especially in Asia and South America. Along with cable and IPTV growth overall, Africa is seeing incredible growth in the pay digital terrestrial television (DTT) market. ABI estimates that DTT subscriptions rose 45% in Africa during the previous year.

  • Streaming Video on the Rise as Premium Channels See Subscriptions Fall

    Streaming Video on the Rise as Premium Channels See Subscriptions Fall

    Though cable companies are still dragging their feet, it is now clear that streaming video is the future of television. Subscriptions for streaming video services such as Netflix and Hulu are rising fast and hardware manufacturers are preparing to flood consumer markets with internet-connected video devices in the coming years. The WWE, of all organizations, has just paved the way for sports organizations to take their programming directly to consumers through a streaming subscription service.

    Market research firm NPD Group today released a new report showing that the percentage of U.S. internet households subscribing to premium TV channels such as HBO and Showtime declined to 32% as of August 2013, down 6% from the 38% of households that subscribed back in March 2012. At the same time streaming video subscriptions (what NPD refers to as subscription video-on-demand services) for those same households rose 4% from March 2012 to hit 27% as of last August.

    According to the report, subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services made up a full 71% of all digital-video transactions during 2013. The segment is now the fastest-growing type of digital acquisition according to NPD’s numbers.

    “As SVOD services have gained momentum, it’s clear that some consumers are trimming their premium-TV subscriptions,” said Russ Crupnick, SVP of industry analysis at NPD. “As SVOD increasingly strives to become a channel itself, viewers might consider it to be an adequate substitution for other premium channels, or perhaps they are switching to economize on their time and money spent.”

  • Netflix Tests Lower-Priced, Standard-Def Subscription

    Netflix Tests Lower-Priced, Standard-Def Subscription

    Netflix is everywhere. The company’s streaming video app can be found on set-top boxes, smartphones, tablets, video game consoles, smart TVs, and other devices. This ubiquity has allowed Netflix to grow beyond its DVD-by-mail roots and become the largest player in the quickly-growing video streaming market.

    Along with this popularity, though, comes a problem: how to prevent subscribers from sharing streaming accounts across with others. Netflix’s millions of subscribers are a great continuing source of revenue for the company, but grabbing those few potential subscribers who share an account with a friend or family member is quickly becoming one of the only ways Netflix can expand in near-saturated markets such as the U.S.

    Netflix’s solution to the problem so far has been to embrace subscriber habits to some extent, but limit the number of screens that subscribers can watch Netflix on simultaneously. The company’s basic streaming video package now allows subscribers to watch video through Netflix on two screens at once, while a higher-price family-style package allow up to four screens at once.

    This week Netflix has introduced a third tier intended for those who never share their streaming account with anyone. The new tier would allow new subscribers to watch Netflix on only one screen at a time. However, the new tier does not offer any Netflix video in high definition, making it suitable only for those who still do not own an HD TV or those who don’t mind the lower-quality video. The package is priced at $6.99 – one dollar less than the standard two-screen streaming package.

    According to an Adweek report, the new tier is, at this point, only a test. Netflix has stated that not every new subscriber will be offered the new package, though it could certainly roll out to more people in the future.

  • Chinese Mobile Subscriptions Continued to Rise in November

    Chinese Mobile Subscriptions Continued to Rise in November

    Having a sizable chunk of the world’s population, tech manufacturers and service providers rightly see China as a huge potential growth market. As smartphone and tablet technologies begins to proliferate throughout the country, more and more of China’s citizens are now becoming mobile subscribers.

    According to a new DigiTimes report, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China has just unveiled its new numbers for the month of November. The ministry report shows that more than 1.2 billion Chinese citizens are now mobile subscribers. This represents a nearly 11% increase from the number of mobile subscribers seen in November 2012. It also means that China is quickly closing in on a fully saturated mobile population, with over 89% of the Chines population now mobile subscribers.

    Even more exciting for manufacturers is the fact that a sizable portion of those subscribers are now accessing the internet through their devices. More than 803 million Chinese mobile subscribers have access to the internet through their devices, representing nearly two-thirds (65.7%) of all Chinese mobile subscribers. A bit less than half of those subscribers (386.8 million, or over 31% of all Chinese mobile subscribers) are able to access the internet through a 3G connection.

    These numbers will no doubt continue to encourage smartphone manufacturers that have racing to introduce low-cost smartphone handsets and tablets to China and other emerging markets. Even Apple, with its iPhone 5C, is tacitly acknowledging the power of lower-cost hardware in growing markets. The obstacle now will be for name brands to compete with smaller “white-box” brands, which have found success with their super-low prices in markets where they can heavily undercut the branded competition – especially China.

    Image via Yoshi Canopus/Wikimedia Commons

  • ‘Pokemon Bank’ Subscription App Announced For 3DS

    ‘Pokemon Bank’ Subscription App Announced For 3DS

    The release of Pokemon X & Y earlier this year ushered in the first 3DS Pokemon title. Veteran Pokemon fans now have the opportunity to expand their Pokemon collections with dozens of new creature types.

    Today, Nintendo announced that it will be releasing a 3DS app to help Pokemon players keep track of and manage their caught Pokemon. Called the Pokemon Bank, the app will show up on the 3DS eShop on December 27.

    Though the app will be free to download, it will require a subscription to use. Using the app will cost players $5 per year, though players who download the app between its release and the end of January will receive a free 30 days of the app.

    The Pokemon Bank will allow players to manage up to 3,000 Pokemon. A companion app called the Poke Transporter, which comes with the download of the Bank, will allow players to transfer Pokemon from Pokemon X & Y, Pokemon Black and White, and Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. Pokemon can also be transferred between multiple copies of Pokemon X & Y using the apps.

    A preview of the Pokemon Bank and its functions was released today. It shows off how Pokemon will be sorted and how they can be moved easily between games. It also teases a filtering feature that will certainly be useful for Pokemon fans that really have caught ’em all:

  • Adobe Extends $10 Photoshop CC Subscription To Everyone

    Adobe Extends $10 Photoshop CC Subscription To Everyone

    A few months ago, Adobe launched the Photoshop Photography Program in an attempt to get people still using Photoshop CS3 or higher to upgrade to Adobe’s Creative Cloud service. Now Adobe is extending it to everybody.

    Adobe announced this afternoon that its Photoshop Photography Program is now open to everybody. Starting today and running through December 2, everybody can now get Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, 20GB of cloud storage and Behance Pro for only $9.99 a month.

    For those not in the know, Creative Cloud is Adobe’s new cloud-based service that gives you all the software that used to be in Creative Suite, but at a cheaper up-front subscription price. With this deal, the savings are even more pronounced as everybody gets access to the latest version of Photoshop and Lightroom for $9.99 a month. It should be noted that the fee also gives you access to all upcoming updates to Photoshop for the length of the update.

    As noted above, this deal used to only be available to people who were still using Photoshop CS3 or higher. Adobe says that will remain the case when the current deal expires on December 2. From there, those who own a previous version of Photoshop will have until December 31 to lock themselves into the special $9.99 rate.

    If you want to learn more about this special promotion or anything else related to Creative Cloud, check out Adobe’s exhaustive FAQ. Any questions you may have are probably answered there.

    [Image: Adobe Photoshop Family]

  • Pay-TV Subscriptions Reach 886 Million Worldwide

    Pay-TV Subscriptions Reach 886 Million Worldwide

    Though many internet users in the U.S. and Europe are doing away with their traditional cable and satellite subscriptions in favor of streaming solutions such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, the worldwide base of pay-TV subscribers is still rising steadily.

    Today, market research firm ABI Research released a report showing that worldwide pay-TV subscriptions are expected to reach 886.5 million by the end of this year. This represents a 6% increase from subscriptions in 2012. Third quarter 2013 revenue from those subscriptions reached $62.6 billion.

    Given the lack of enthusiasm for pay-TV in western markets, it isn’t surprising that the rise in pay-TV subscriptions is coming mainly from emerging markets such as China, Brazil, and India. ABI predicts that these markets will lead the worldwide pay-TV subscription market to over 1 billion subscriptions and over $229 billion in yearly revenue by the year 2018.

    “Emerging markets are key drivers of global growth in pay-TV subscribers as developed markets are experiencing flat growth rates,” said Jake Saunders, practice director at ABI.

    ABI sees IPTV subscriptions as the main driver of pay-TV subscriptions in countries such as France, Germany, and the UK, with total Western European IPTV subscriptions up 1.9 million year-over-year during the third quarter of 2013. This effect isn’t being seen in other countries such as Italy and Spain, where ABI blames poor consumer buying power for those countries’ 2% and 7% pay-TV subscription drops, respectively.

    North America was seen losing subscriptions last quarter, but only under 1% of total pay-TV subscriptions. Cable TV subscriptions in particular fell by 1.7 million over the past year. Despite the small declines, pay-TV revenue in North America is still rising, suggesting that more expensive offerings are paying off for cable providers. According to ABI, year-over-year pay-TV revenue in North America grew 3% during the third quarter.

  • YouTube’s Rumored Subscription Music Service Could Launch This Year [REPORT]

    YouTube’s Rumored Subscription Music Service Could Launch This Year [REPORT]

    Another report now claims that YouTube is pretty close to launching their oft-rumored subscription music streaming service, one that would incorporate videos and offer both free and paid tiers.

    From Billboard:

    The service, designed with mobile listening in mind, will have a free component and a premium tier that offers unlimited access to a full catalog of tracks similar to what’s already available via YouTube’s parent company, Google Inc., via its All Access subscription music service. Premium features would include the ability to cache music for offline listening and removing ads.

    The free tier is likely to be unlimited, on-demand access to full tracks on all platforms, including mobile, said several people who have been briefed on the proposed service. In that sense, the paid tier is more of a “soft sell” as YouTube’s primary goal is to continue to amass ears and eyes to its mobile platform to sell ads.

    Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that a YouTube music service is on the way. Those reports emerged a couple of months before Google unveiled their Google Play Music All Access subscription service. But at the time, there was always a distinction between GPMAA and any possible YouTube music service. Even then, it seemed that Google was looking to launch them both as two separate entities.

    “We’re always working on new and better ways for people to enjoy YouTube content across all screens, and on giving partners more opportunities to reach their fans. However, we have nothing to announce at this time,” said YouTube in a statement.

    Months ago, YouTube gave another one of those “we’re not going to confirm anything, but it’s a mighty good idea, right?” statements:

    “While we don’t comment on rumor or speculation, there are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we’re looking at that.”

    Basically, this product is probably coming – and has probably been in the works for quite a long time now. The only question is when will they pull the trigger, and according to Billboard’s report it could be as early as the end of this year.

    Image via YouTube

  • Netflix Gives Students Free Subscriptions For Talking About Movies And TV Shows

    Netflix Gives Students Free Subscriptions For Talking About Movies And TV Shows

    In the UK and Ireland, Netflix is offering students a shot at a year’s free subscription as part of a Student Ambassador program. Announced via Twitter and Facebook, the program calls on students to use Twitter to discuss shows and movies they watch on Netflix with the larger community.

    “Students are a big part of our Netflix UK and Ireland community and we want to hear what you think about our films, TV shows and our service in general,” Netflix says. “That’s why we’re looking for student ambassadors to champion Netflix UK and Ireland on Twitter and get people talking about our films and TV shows.”

    Netflix is asking students to ask questions around different shows each week for seven weeks with the goal of getting students talking on Twitter using specific hashtags. Netflix says it will help these ambassadors out with the questions.

    The company says it is looking for students who “know their Battlestar from their Breaking Bad,” are dedicated Twitter users and are sociable and active in university life.

    In addition to the free Netflix subscription, the ambassador that generates the most discussion by the end of December will get an unspecified smart TV, gaming console and tablet.

    Those looking to participate are directed to email NetflixUK@wearesocial.net. They’ll send more info from there.

    Image: Netflix

  • Google’s Subscription Music Service Lands in Europe

    Google’s Subscription Music Service Lands in Europe

    Nearly three months after it went live in the U.S. and a few weeks after it came to Australia and New Zealand, Google has just launched its Play Music All Access subscription-based streaming service in a bunch of European countries.

    A new international availability page shows that Music All Access is now available in 12 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States.

    Google’s Spotify rival allows users to stream millions of tracks for a set monthly price, and all of the music appears alongside their already-purchased (or uploaded) music in their libraries. Google Play Music All Access also offers curated playlists, recommendations, and a radio feature. For more on the service, check out our walkthrough.

    Pricing is similar to what you find in the U.S. and Australia, with monthly fees totaling £9.99 in the U.K. and €9.99 elsewhere. Google is running a similar promotion to the one they ran when the service first launched in the U.S. – sign up before September 15th and your monthly price is cut to £7.99 (and €7.99).

    As Google Play Music All Access launches in these 9 new areas, it might spur the company to get moving on an iOS app. Google suggested back in May that an iOS Play Music app was imminent (a couple of weeks away), but they’ve yet to launch it.

    [Google Play via Android Police]

  • YouTube Subscription Fees May Soon Be A Reality

    YouTube Subscription Fees May Soon Be A Reality

    Are YouTube subscription fees almost upon us? A recent report suggests that the oft rumored feature is soon to be announced.

    The Daily Mail reports that Google will introduce a YouTube subscription fee this week. The new initiative will allow channels to monetize their content with direct contributions from fans, instead of relying upon ad revenue.

    The current report suggests that Google will add 25 to 50 channels to the initial rollout of its subscription service. It will also reportedly cost as little as $2 a month per channel, and doing so will provide a few perks to the subscribers. The biggest, of course, is exclusive content only available to subscribers. The videos will also reportedly be ad-free.

    The current rumors, however, don’t address what YouTube intends to offer to non-subscribers. Will subscriber content only be available to those who pay? Or will YouTube allow non-subscribers to watch some content with the support of advertising?

    Alongside channel subscriptions, previous rumors also suggested that YouTube would begin monetizing live events. In other words, users could pay a small fee to watch major live events, like the Red Bull Stratos Jump from last year.

    There’s still too many variables to even think about with a platform as big as YouTube. The announcement is expected to come sometime this week though. We’ll continue to keep an eye for any such announcement, and bring you all the details as soon as it happens.

  • HBO GO without the Cable Subscription? HBO CEO Says Maybe, Possibly, Down the Road. Maybe.

    HBO GO without the Cable Subscription? HBO CEO Says Maybe, Possibly, Down the Road. Maybe.

    There is a lot of awesome content coming from HBO. The venerable premium cable network has produced some of the best shows to ever grace the small screen (The Wire, The Sopranos), and currently produces some of the most interesting (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire) and popular (True Blood) programs around.

    Because the content is so good, people are willing to do just about anything to get to it. For some, that means paying over $100 a month for a cable subscription + HBO. For others who have cut the cord on cable, that usually means pirating it.

    But that’s not because they’re cheap, or because they think that the content isn’t worth paying for. Quite the contrary, actually. At least one online campaign showed that people are more than willing to pay HBO, directly, for their content.

    And until now, HBO has shut down any and all hopes of their content moving out from under the cable subscription umbrella. Until now.

    HBO CEO Richard Plepler gave cordcutters a glimmer of hope this week. Speaking at the Game of Thrones season 3 premiere, Plepler said that offering HBO content (via HBO GO, the company’s on demand content hub) without requiring a cable subscription could maybe possibly might just may be an option, down the line, maybe.

    “Right now we have the right model,” Plepler told Reuters. “Maybe HBO GO, with our broadband partners, could evolve.”

    He went on to say that they would “have to make the math work.”

    Not exactly a signal that HBO is planning to give up on the lucrative cable subscription-based model that has served them so well for so many years, but it sounds like Plepler is aware that the times may be a’ changing. Although abandoning the traditional distirubtion system system may be a shaky business call, Plepler seems to understand that there is an availability issue with HBO content:

    “Doesn’t mean we are not mindful that the problem exists,” he said.

    If HBO decided to go this route with an internet-packaged HBO deal, they know that they would have plenty of support for the venture. Last summer, a viral campaign saw hundreds of thousands of people take to Twitter and shout, “Take my money, HBO!”

    The campaign was simple. Give us a standalone HBO GO service, free of cable requirements, and take our money. As in we’re ready to pay you for your content if you will just let us. People tweeted the price that they might pay for such a service, and the average was an impressive $12+ per month – a couple bucks more than Netflix. Some people even said that they would pay well over $20 per month for a cordless HBO GO service.

    The effort received over 163,000 supporters in just two days.

    Shortly after, HBO dismissed the whole thing with a single tweet, basically saying that their model was the right model for now. Thanks, but no thanks.

    But these few words from HBO’s CEO gives cordcutters a little bit of hope that HBO could break at least a few of their ties with cable. It’s not like it would be a first for the company. Last year they launched HBO Nordic, a standalone streaming service like HBO GO, in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark. It’s available for under 10 euros per month.

    Hope. Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

  • Amazon Is Working With Record Labels On Subscription-Based Music Service [Rumor]

    Amazon Is Working With Record Labels On Subscription-Based Music Service [Rumor]

    Despite earlier attempts to bring streaming music to the masses, Spotify really nailed the concept when it launched in 2008. Now its the service every company in the business of selling music is trying to copy, including Amazon.

    The Verge reports that Amazon is currently in talks with record labels on setting up its own subscription-based music service. If successful, Amazon could prove a formidable rival to incumbents like Spotify as it really has an established business in selling physical and digital music.

    Of course, it probably will be a while before we see anything from this. Those privy to the meetings say that Amazon and the record labels are now just beginning to talk, and that said talks are “very informal” at this point in time.

    Amazon is just the latest company said to be in talks with record labels about setting up a subscription music service. Analysts have predicted that Apple will get into the streaming Internet radio business this year to take on services like Pandora. Google is also reportedly getting into the streaming music scene with YouTube.

    Out of all the rumored players, Amazon seems the most well suited for the music streaming business. It already has an established cloud infrastructure with Amazon Cloud Player. There’s also the rumored existence of a Kindle phone and $99 Kindle Fire HD; both of which could provide the perfect platform to launch a streaming service on.

    As always, the above is nothing but a rumor for now. That being said, it’s completely within the realm of possibility so don’t be surprised if Amazon announces something similar to Spotify this year.

  • Google’s RSS Subscription Chrome Extension Is Back, Sans Google Reader Support

    Google’s RSS Subscription Chrome Extension Is Back, Sans Google Reader Support

    Shortly after Google announced that they would be killing off Google Reader, angering a significant amount of users, they dealt another blow to RSS by yanking the Google RSS Subscription Chrome extension. More anger ensued. Why must you destroy everything that we love, Google?

    Well, here’s a bit of good news: The extension is back.

    Finnur Thorarinsson, the author of the extension, announced its return on a Chromium issues thread. According to him, it was removed by mistake.

    The extension has been updated to remove Google Reader and iGoogle from the lists of supported feed readers, “to prevent [new users] from getting hooked on Reader and then be disappointed in a few months time,” according to the extension’s author.

    Here’s what he had to say:

    I’m the author of the RSS Subscription Extension (from Google) and I wanted to provide a quick update on what Peter said.

    My RSS extension was removed by mistake but it is now up again on the webstore:

    It was not _tied_ to Google Reader, per se, since you choose which feed reader to use — but I’ve now removed the Google Reader option for new users to prevent them from getting hooked on Reader and then be disappointed in a few months time.

    Also, please note that even though clones of my extension exist in the webstore, some of them were copied a long time ago and have not been updated since. They might therefore be vulnerable to security issues and can not really be recommended without making sure they’ve kept up with the times.

    The RSS Subscription extension allows users to quickly add RSS and Atom feeds to a variety of feed readers. That functionality still remains, minus the ability to subscribe via Google Reader.

    So, Google, burned down the house and spared one small possession from the fire. For what it’s worth, Thorarinsson himself is just as upset about the whole Google Reader shutdown as the rest of us.

    “I’m an avid user of Google Reader and am pretty unhappy about the Reader situation as well,” he says.

    [h/t CNET]

  • Spotify Adds 1 Million Paid Subscriptions in Just 3 Months

    Spotify Adds 1 Million Paid Subscriptions in Just 3 Months

    Spotify has tacked on a million paid users just a little over three months.

    That’s the word from SXSW, where the company has announced that they can now boast 6 million paid subscribers. Back in December, Spotify announced that their paid subscriber total had hit 5 million. In July 2012, it was 4 million. And back in January of 2012, it was 3 million. If you do your math, you’ll notice that it took roughly a year for Spotify to turn 3 million in 5 million, but only 3 months to turn 5 million into 6 million.

    Long story short: Spotify is growing faster than it ever has.

    It’s not just paid subscriptions that are growing – total users are also up 4 million in the past three months, from 20 to 24 million. Of course, total users counts are great and all, but the big questions is how many unpaid users Spotify can turn into paid users with subscription-only features like mobile play, offline radio, and no advertisements.

    Spotify has made a few non-subscriber based headlines in the past few months. Back in December, they made a splash when they acquired the catalog of Metallica, longtime foes of services like Napster. In the past three months, Spotify has landed on a bunch of new devices like TiVo, Roku, and Windows Phone 8.

    And they just expanded the beta for their new web player in the U.K. The browser app should be making its way to the U.S. soon.

  • Netflix Tattoo Scores Guy Free 1-Year Subscription

    Netflix Tattoo Scores Guy Free 1-Year Subscription

    How much would it take for you to get a Netflix tattoo? Would you do it for a free year’s worth of the service?

    If you think you love Netflix and their selection of streaming offerings, you don’t. Unless you’ve permanently inked the name “Netflix” on your body, you don’t really love Netflix. Yes, I know you watched all of House of Cards in three days. You still don’t really love Netflix.

    Twitter user @TheRealMyron does. He loves Netflix a lot. TheRealMyron got a Netflix tattoo, and for his troubles received a free year of Netflix.

    In case you were wondering, Netflix didn’t ask this guy to get a tatto in order to receive a free year. He just did it to show his love, tweeted the photo @Netflix and they responded with the offer. Social media done right? I guess?

    Netflix’s streaming-only plan is $7.99 a month – so that means that TheRealMyron was awarded a prize worth $95.88 for his troubles. If Netflix decided to throw in unlimited DVDs too, that’s $191.76. And if they bumped him up to the Blu-Ray option, it means that his tattoo netted him $215.76

    Worth it!

  • Google Subscription Music Service Coming In Third Quarter [Report]

    Google Subscription Music Service Coming In Third Quarter [Report]

    Rumors persisted throughout this past weekend that Google is working on a subscription music service that would take on Spotify, Pandora and the like.

    Bloomberg has since put out a report, citing two people with knowledge of the situation, that Google does indeed plan to do so, that negotiations are under way with major record labels, that the service will work with both Android and non-Android devices, and that the “worldwide service” is targeted for the third quarter. The report also says Google is discussing the renewal of deals for the use of songs in consumer-made YouTube videos.

    Obviously Google doesn’t comment on “rumor and speculation”.

    Such a service from Google would complement Google Play Music and YouTube quite nicely, basically eliminating the need for users to use Spotify or Pandora, provided that they prefer the Google experience. Of course, that will not necessarily be the case. People seem to be liking these services just fine, and Spotify’s heavy integration with Facebook seems to be a hit on the social level. Google still can’t really compete there (unless of course, they do tap into Facebook’s Open Graph).

    Either way, such an offering will give people more reason to turn to Google for their music needs, and it will be interesting to see how the competition shakes out. Those deals with labels will obviously be of vital importance.

    Meanwhile, it has been said that Spotify will try to negotiate with labels to make its free streaming service available on mobile devices, which would make the service all the more attractive of an option for users who aren’t willing to pay.

    Google’s Google Music offering recently got music matching capabilities.

  • TwitchTV to Offer Expensive Ad-Free Subscription

    TwitchTV to Offer Expensive Ad-Free Subscription

    One of the most frustrating experiences while watching an eSports event online is dropping a stream and having to reload and sit through another commercial while the action continues. TwitchTV, the most popular video game streaming service, has heard customer complaints and is now offering a solution.

    The new “Twitch Turbo” subscription service will allow users to remove all ads from the Twitch website. That means no pre-roll ads, no display ads, and no companion ads.

    Unfortunately, the service is priced absurdly high at $8.99 per month. A subscription to Netflix Instant Watch streaming is only $8 per month. With a year-long PlayStation Plus subscription, for less than $5 per month gamers could be playing games themselves instead of watching other people game on a stream. Not to mention free ad-blocking software can do the same job as Twitch Turbo for free.

    The Turbo service doesn’t only offer ad-free Twitch, however. Subscribers will also get an “Exclusive Turbo Badge” to show off on the site, as well as custom set of new emoticons and exclusive chat colors. Also, subscribers will get priority when interacting with customer support.

    TwitchTV is quickly becoming the online destination for streaming games and eSports. Last year the company raised $15 million in venture capital during a funding round. At the time Twitch CEO Emmett Shear claimed that the website was seeing 20 million unique visitors per month.

  • YouTube May Soon Launch Paid Channel Subscriptions [REPORT]

    YouTube May Soon Launch Paid Channel Subscriptions [REPORT]

    Over a year ago, YouTube started a big push toward making the site more channel-centric. Not only did they facilitate the launch of a bunch of new original content channels across all types of categories (sports, automotive, comedy, etc.), but they also changed up the way the site looks to encourage users to subscribe to channels.

    In all, Google invested over $100 million into new original channels. Recent reports have suggested that Google is investing even more into original YouTube content.

    Now, it looks like Google is looking to offer another incentive for content creators to produce for YouTube, as well as another reason for advertisers to flock.

    AdAge is reporting that YouTube is gearing up to launch paid channel subscriptions. They quote multiple sources familiar with the plans who say that the paid subscriptions could debut as early as Q2 of this year.

    It’s unknown exactly which channels would launch as part of this new model, but the sources said that users would be asked to pay between $1 and $5 a month to gain access to the paid channels.

    According to AdAge, “YouTube is also considering charging for content libraries and access to live events, a la pay-per-view, as well as self-help or financial advice shows.”

    This is not the first time we’ve heard talk of new paid channel subscriptions. Back in June of last year, YouTube CEO Salr Kamangar talked paid subscriptions at the Reuters Media and Tech Summit. The main focus was on certain cable channels who could find more success on YouTube with a subscription, but he also discussed other content creators on YouTube being able to charge for their content.

    The report indicates that any paid subscription model would most likely be small (25 or less channels) at first.

    The big question is whether or not YouTube users think there’s anything on YouTube worth paying for – and if not, who can create that?

  • Cordcutting on the Rise? Cable Subscriptions Projected to Shrink Over the Next Few Years

    Cordcutting on the Rise? Cable Subscriptions Projected to Shrink Over the Next Few Years

    As television and film streaming options continue to expand, people are finding it easier to get the content they want without paying for cable or premium services like HBO. The movement to ditch cable and move to online-only media sources has the catchy little name of “cordcutting.”

    Recent data from research firm TDG (by way of Paid Content) suggest that cordcutting is becoming more popular, as cable subscriptions are set to decline over the next few years.

    But don’t think that it signals the end for payTV. Subscriptions aren’t set to fall off that dramatically. However, it does suggest that the golden age of payTV may be behind us.

    The data from TDG shows that 2012 saw a total of 100.8 million U.S. payTV households. That was down roughly 100,000 from 2011, which registered 100.9 million.

    They project that subscriptions will fall to 99.3 million in 2013, and keep falling from there.

    As you can see, it’s not a massive plunge. They predict that by 2017, cable paid subscriptions will total 94.6 million U.S. households, about 6% less than what we see today. But TDG says that 2011 was the peak, and that the drop off has “long-term tectonic implications.”

    That’s because online streaming options will only continue to improve over the next decade and beyond. As of right now, some popular content is monopolized by cable channels – think live sporting events and premium content from networks like HBO and Showtime. And customers are forced to buy big cable packages, even if they only want to watch a few channels. But even a company like HBO, who has kept themselves tucked under the wing of cable (quite stubbornly, we might add) has launched their HBO streaming service as a standalone product in Scandinavia.

    Do you think the tide is turning? Have you cut the cord?