Topic: streaming wars
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Netflix Eyes Warner Bros. Discovery Acquisition
Netflix is reportedly exploring a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming divisions, having hired a bank and accessed confidential financial data. Despite a historical preference for building its own assets, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos confirmed the company evaluates mergers and acq...
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Netflix's Ad Revenue Hits $1.5 Billion in 2025
Netflix's advertising revenue has surged to $1.5 billion in 2025, with projections to reach $3 billion in 2026, signaling a major shift in its business model. The success is driven by its affordable ad-supported tier, which reaches over 94 million monthly viewers, and plans to introduce more soph...
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Paramount Sues Warner Bros. Over Failed Deal
Paramount has sued Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to force disclosure of its Netflix partnership details, arguing this is necessary for shareholder transparency in the competitive streaming landscape. Paramount's CEO criticizes WBD for rejecting its merger proposals without proving the Netflix deal...
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Brendan Carr's Controversial Statements
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr's Senate testimony raised concerns over his use of veiled threats toward broadcasters and his potential application of outdated regulatory concepts to future internet governance. The competitive streaming landscape saw significant shifts, including YouTube securing t...
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Top Podcasts Leave YouTube for Netflix
Netflix is securing exclusive video podcast rights through a partnership with iHeartMedia, directly challenging YouTube's dominance by removing full episodes of popular shows like *My Favorite Murder* from YouTube. This move is part of Netflix's strategy to diversify its content and create a uniq...
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HBO Max Launches 24/7 Channels for Friends & Game of Thrones
HBO Max is launching curated, 24/7 streaming channels that function like scheduled TV but allow for viewer control, such as rewinding or skipping episodes. The initial rollout includes twelve distinct channels dedicated to specific genres like true crime or to major franchises such as *Friends*, ...
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Sling TV Beats Disney in Court Over One-Day Cable Passes
A federal court ruled in favor of Sling TV, allowing it to continue offering one-day streaming passes for live television, which Disney had tried to block, citing insufficient evidence of irreparable harm. The dispute centered on Sling's temporary passes, which include Disney-owned channels like ...
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Disney Plus May Use AI to Create Videos
Disney is exploring AI integration for Disney Plus to enable user-generated short-form videos and enhance interactivity, signaling a strategic shift toward generative media. The streaming service added 1.5 million new North American subscribers last quarter, reaching 59.3 million total, despite r...
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Paramount+ Subscription Prices Rising in 2026
Paramount+ will increase subscription prices in early 2026, with the Essential plan rising from $7.99 to $8.99 and the Premium plan from $12.99 to $13.99 to reinvest in content and user experience. The price hike follows industry trends and aims to support growth, including a $7.7 billion deal fo...
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Netflix May Launch Its Own Video Podcasts
Netflix is developing its own exclusive video podcasts by engaging creators and updating its app, expanding beyond its recent Spotify partnership. The company is exploring short-term licensing deals with audio companies like iHeartMedia and SiriusXM to test the format's appeal on its platform. Th...
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Rate Your Favorite Shows and Movies on HBO Max
HBO Max has introduced an interactive rating feature with options "Love," "Like," or "Not For Me" to personalize content recommendations and curate sections like "Because You Love." The feature, tested extensively last year, mirrors competitors like Netflix and is accessible across all platforms ...
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Netflix Bets Big on Video Podcasts
Netflix is adding video podcasts to its platform through partnerships with Spotify’s podcast studio and The Ringer, featuring 16 series including popular sports and entertainment titles. The podcasts will stream without Netflix-inserted ads, though original ads from Spotify remain, and the servic...
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Disney's Price Hike Couldn't Have Come at a Worse Time
Disney is raising prices for its Disney Plus streaming service amid a significant public relations crisis that has alienated viewers across the political spectrum. The controversy began when Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel's show due to political pressure, sparking backlash and a reversal that dama...
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Meta Quest Unveils All-in-One Movie & TV Streaming Hub
Meta has launched Horizon TV, a unified streaming hub for its Quest headset that integrates major platforms like Prime Video, Disney Plus, and Hulu to simplify content discovery in VR. The new interface features personalized suggestions and organized categories, with partnerships including Univer...
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Roku's New AI Assistant Answers Questions About Your Shows
Roku is enhancing its voice assistant with advanced AI, enabling detailed conversational queries about entertainment and providing on-screen text responses with relevant content links. The update reflects a broader industry trend, with competitors like Amazon and Netflix also integrating AI-drive...
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Elle Duncan Leaves ESPN to Host Netflix Live Events
Netflix has hired veteran ESPN host Elle Duncan as its lead live programming voice, signaling a major strategic push into live sports and events beyond its on-demand library. The company is building a portfolio of must-see live content, including a deal for MLB games, a revival of *Star Search*, ...
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Peacock's App Opens With a Flurry of Ads
Peacock is introducing "arrival ads" on its profile selection screen next year, expanding its ad inventory by targeting viewers immediately upon launching the app. Subscribers to the ad-free Premium Plus tier will be exempt from these new profile screen advertisements, which the company describes...
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Merriam-Webster's 2025 Word of the Year Revealed: 'Slop'
Merriam-Webster has named "slop" its 2025 Word of the Year, formally defining it as low-quality, mass-produced AI-generated digital content. The year saw a split in industry response, with some major platforms implementing policies to curb AI slop while others, like Meta and OpenAI, launched appl...
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Google's Discover Feed Now Includes X and Instagram Posts
Google Discover is expanding to include content from social networks like YouTube Shorts, Instagram, and X, making the feed more dynamic and personalized. Users will gain greater control over their feed, including the ability to follow specific creators or publishers and preview content before ch...
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YouTube TV to Add Custom Multiview and Channel Bundles
YouTube TV is introducing a fully customizable multiview feature, allowing users to watch multiple live streams of their own choosing simultaneously, such as a sports game alongside an unrelated entertainment show. The service will also launch new, topic-focused channel bundles, like a dedicated ...
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Amazon Prime Video Halts AI Recaps After Fallout Error
Amazon Prime Video removed its AI-generated recap feature after significant criticism over factual inaccuracies, particularly in its summary of *Fallout*, which contained errors about key story elements and timelines. The experimental Video Recaps tool used AI to create short video summaries with...
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Gemini 3: Does It Live Up to Google's Hype?
Google's Gemini 3 Pro has been released, featuring enhanced logical reasoning, the ability to process multiple data types, and improved zero-shot generation for creating interactive visualizations and handling complex tasks. Real-world testing shows that while Gemini 3 can replicate core concepts...
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Amazon's NFL Thursday Night Football Gets an AI Upgrade
Amazon is introducing AI-powered features like Pocket Health for its Thursday Night Football coverage to provide real-time, interactive insights during live NFL games. New End of Game AI tools for the 2025 season will heighten suspense by evaluating possession scenarios and predicting comeback po...
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Top AI YouTube Channels Are Vanishing
YouTube has removed several top-subscribed channels known for producing high volumes of low-quality, AI-generated content, signaling a potential crackdown on what is termed "AI slop." The removals align with CEO Neal Mohan's stated plans to reduce low-quality AI content by enhancing systems again...
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Pornhub to Block UK Users Starting Next Month
Pornhub will block all UK users by February 2026 unless they have completed mandatory age verification, a direct result of the UK's Online Safety Act. Its parent company, Aylo, argues the law is flawed, claiming it pushes users to riskier sites and compromises adult privacy and data security. Thi...
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Make AI Writing Sound Human with Wikipedia's AI-Spotting Guide
A new tool called Humanizer, developed by Siqi Chen, uses Wikipedia's AI-detection guidelines to make AI-generated text appear more natural by avoiding flagged stylistic patterns. The tool specifically scrubs linguistic giveaways like vague attributions and promotional language, transforming AI o...
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Pete Davidson and Michael Irvin Star in Netflix's First Original Podcasts
Netflix is launching its first two original video podcasts this month, featuring comedian Pete Davidson and NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin, marking its strategic entry into the podcasting arena. **The Pete Davidson Show** premieres January 30th with weekly, unfiltered discussions from his garage...
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LG Unveils New Home Robot That Completes Household Chores
LG is unveiling a new home robot called the CLOiD at CES, featuring a significant evolution in design with two fully articulated, dexterous arms for complex household tasks. The robot's arms have seven degrees of freedom for human-like motion and it is equipped with smart technology, including se...
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Get Your ChatGPT Year in Review: See Your Chatbot Conversations Summarized
ChatGPT's new "Year in Review" feature provides users with a personalized summary of their annual chat history, including statistics, conversation themes, and a custom pixel art image. The review categorizes users with an archetype and a humorous award based on their interaction patterns, offerin...
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Customize ChatGPT's Tone: Choose How Nice It Is
OpenAI has introduced new controls, including a tone slider, allowing users to customize ChatGPT's conversational warmth and enthusiasm, moving beyond a one-size-fits-all style. Users can also adjust formatting preferences, like emoji frequency, and select preset personality styles (e.g., quirky ...
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NYT Sues Perplexity Over 'Verbatim' Copying of Articles
The New York Times has sued AI startup Perplexity, alleging its "answer engine" copies or closely mimics the newspaper's copyrighted articles, continuing a broader conflict between media and AI firms over content use. The lawsuit claims Perplexity's actions cause economic harm by creating substit...
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Apple TV Removes 'The Hunt' Amid Plagiarism Claims
Apple TV has postponed the release of the French series 'The Hunt' due to plagiarism allegations, specifically similarities to Douglas Fairbairn's 1974 novel *Shoot*, and is conducting a review. The plot of 'The Hunt' involves a group of friends on a hunting trip who are attacked by another group...
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Aqara's $99 Smart Lock: A Stylish, Budget-Friendly Pick
The Aqara B50 Smart Lock is an affordable $99.99 device that offers multiple unlocking methods, including passcodes, voice commands, smartphone control, and a physical key, without requiring an additional hub. It features versatile PIN management with options for temporary, scheduled, or permanen...
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CNN App Launches 'Shorts' Feed for Bite-Sized Videos
CNN has launched a dedicated "Shorts" feed in its mobile app for vertical, bite-sized videos, mimicking the format of platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels to attract audiences who prefer quick news updates. The Shorts feed is now prominently featured on the homepage alongside traditional new...
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ESPN Ends Bet Service, Forges New DraftKings Partnership
ESPN is discontinuing its ESPN Bet service and forming a new partnership with DraftKings, ending its collaboration with Penn Entertainment. The ESPN app will integrate DraftKings' sportsbook, daily fantasy contests, and Pick6 feature starting December 1st, with full integration expected by 2026. ...
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OpenAI's Sora App Now Available on Android
OpenAI has launched the Sora video generation app for Android, making it available in key markets like the U.S., Japan, and Korea through the Google Play Store. A new "character cameos" feature introduces reusable digital avatars that users can integrate into their video projects for enhanced cre...
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Apple Launches Web-Based App Store
Apple has launched a web-based App Store at apps.apple.com, offering a centralized hub for discovering apps across all its devices with an interactive interface. The web store enhances discoverability with search and category browsing but does not support direct downloads, instead linking to the ...
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Perplexity AI Simplifies Patent Research
Perplexity's new AI tool enables patent searches using conversational language, allowing users to ask questions in plain English and receive relevant results instantly. The system uses semantic understanding to broaden search scope beyond simple keywords, identifying related terminology and impro...
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Windows 11's Vision Pro-style remote desktop launches on Quest 3
Microsoft's virtual desktop feature for Meta Quest headsets is now broadly available, enabling users to project their Windows 11 environment into mixed reality and transform multi-monitor setups into a curved ultrawide display. Setup requires downloading the Mixed Reality Link app on a Windows PC...
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Mark Zuckerberg: AI Content Is Coming to Your Social Feeds
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to significantly increase AI-generated content across its platforms, integrating it into recommendation systems to simplify content creation and remixing. Zuckerberg described AI as central to the next phase of social media, following eras of content from ...
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Amazon's 'Help Me Decide' Button Uses AI to Simplify Shopping
Amazon has launched a "Help me decide" AI feature that uses personal shopping data like browsing history and past purchases to recommend tailored products when comparing similar items. This tool is part of Amazon's broader AI integration in shopping, which includes assistants like Rufus, AI-gener...
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DirecTV to Launch AI-Powered Screensaver Ads
DirecTV is launching an AI-driven screensaver that turns idle screens into personalized, interactive shopping environments, developed with Glance for Gemini devices. The feature allows users to insert their likeness into AI-generated scenes via a QR code and mobile app, with customization through...
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Apple's Next-Gen Vision Pro Spotted in Regulatory Filing
A regulatory filing confirms Apple is developing a next-generation Vision Pro headset, maintaining Wi-Fi 6 compatibility and identified by model number A3416. The new model may feature an M5 processor for better performance and a redesigned head strap to improve comfort, with a potential release ...
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Amazon's 2025 Event: Top 8 Reveals You Need to See
Amazon unveiled a major refresh of its hardware ecosystem, featuring smarter devices with enhanced AI capabilities, including upgraded Echo Show smart displays with improved cameras and the new Alexa Plus assistant. The company introduced premium audio options like the Echo Dot Max and Echo Studi...
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Elon Musk Pressures Netflix to Drop Woke Content
Elon Musk has publicly canceled his Netflix subscription and urged others to do the same, criticizing the platform for including transgender characters in shows like *Dead End: Paranormal Park* and labeling the content as harmful for children. His actions are part of a broader movement by right-w...
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Microsoft Photos to Automatically Organize Your Images
Microsoft is testing a new AI feature for the Windows 11 Photos app that automatically organizes photos into folders, initially available to Insiders on Copilot Plus PCs. The AI sorts images by visual content, grouping receipts, screenshots, identity documents, and handwritten notes into categori...
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I Tried the Free Ad-Supported Telly TV for 3 Months
Telly offers a free 55-inch television with a secondary screen that displays constant ads, news, and widgets, which cannot be turned off and requires users to accept ongoing promotions in exchange for the device. The TV collects personal data, including viewing habits and room occupancy, raising ...
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Bang & Olufsen's New Earbuds Cost More Than an iPhone
Bang & Olufsen's Beo Grace earbuds are priced at $1,500, targeting the ultra-luxury market with a flashy aluminum design and advanced active noise cancellation. They feature 12mm titanium drivers, Dolby Atmos support, and innovative NearTap technology for touch-free volume control, but offer only...
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Steam Game Pulled After $150K Crypto Heist
A malicious game called BlockBlasters was removed from Steam after being exposed as a cryptodrainer that stole over $150,000 from players' cryptocurrency wallets. The game initially appeared legitimate with positive reviews but secretly integrated the cryptodrainer in an August update, with a Lat...
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EchoStar Sells $17B Satellite Spectrum to SpaceX in Landmark Deal
EchoStar has sold $17 billion in wireless spectrum licenses to SpaceX to enhance satellite-based cellular connectivity, including next-generation Starlink services. The sale, along with a previous $23 billion transaction, is expected to resolve an FCC inquiry into EchoStar's spectrum usage, promp...
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