Items tagged with Television
Hidden fees, inconsistent pricing, abysmal customer service, and limited content have all become hallmarks of the satellite television providers. T-Mobile hopes to change this and is reportedly “one step closer to taking on Big Cable later this year”. T-Mobile plans to launch its own cable television solution, TVision Home. TVision Home is “an upgraded, rebranded version of Layer3 TV”, which T-Mobile acquired in 2017. Layer3 TV was an internet-based TV platform and it offered 275 HD channels, DVR support with the ability to record 8 shows at once, and access to over 25,000 on demand titles. TVision Home will offer more than 150 channels, 35,000 On Demand movies,...
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After decades of ruling the roost, pay TV services have been hemorrhaging customers in recent years, thanks to the increasing availability of broadband connectivity and the advent of streaming services. Millions of pay TV subscribers have now cut the cord. Cable and satellite TV providers should be worried, though there is also evidence to suggest that the worst losses are behind them. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the terminology, cord cutting simply refers to ditching traditional pay TV services via cable or satellite, and adopting a streaming solution. Services like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, Sling, and YouTube TV all offer streaming options that in some cases can be more affordable...
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The streaming market is booming, and everyone and their dog wants in on the action. Apple has of course been involved in streaming for a while, thanks both to its iTunes store and also its standalone Apple TV device. But as rumor has it, the company is going to begin taking things much more seriously over the next year. It's not difficult to find a streaming device that does the job you need it to for a reasonable price. Google has Chromecast, and then there's of course Amazon's Fire TV and also Roku. The problem for Apple with those devices is that they're inexpensive, and with a starting price tag of $149 for its Apple TV, that requires some serious commitment from those who pick one up. Well,...
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Samsung this week unveiled its 2018 lineup of big screen televisions at the company's First Look event in New York, and one of the features that stands out is a new Ambient Mode. The new mode is intended for wall mounted TVs and is able to replicate the pattern on the wall behind it. This clever visual trickery acts as a sort of cloaking mechanism, as if the big screen display is not really there. We are not so far into the future that this works perfectly, of course, but a look around the web reveals that those who have seen it in person are impressed. Gizmodo, for example, says "the effect actually works surprisingly well," though also notes that it was a carefully designed demo. It remains...
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We will not call it a coup, but the number of people who are willing to ditch their cable or satellite TV service in favor of streaming content through the Internet continues to rise. Not only that, but the number of streaming service subscribers, both free and paid, has grown to 68 percent in 2016, up from 63 percent in 2014, a figure that catches up with and slightly surpasses paid TV service providers (67 percent) for the first time.That's according to the Consumer Technology Association's new study, The Changing Landscape for Video and Content. The study shows that the percentage of paid TV service subscribers has gone done from 69 percent in 2014 to 67 percent in 2016. What that shows is...
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It's no secret that Apple wants a piece of the streaming TV pie, but negotiating terms with big media firms has proven less than easy. That's especially true with Apple unwilling to budge on certain things, such as its insistence with Disney that the monthly rate per viewer it would pay to license the company's channels wouldn't change for several years.According to The Wall Street Journal, Disney was shocked by some of Apple's hard line stances, the cost of licensing per viewer being one of them. Disney, which owns lucrative channels such as ESPN and ABC, essentially told Apple to take a hike, as it's grown accustomed to annual rate increases on licensed content. Even though Apple could potentially...
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Not only is Netflix cheaper than a cable TV subscription, the value proposition is higher—much higher, in fact, which some might find surprising (and even outright dispute) due to Netflix's limited catalog of titles. Be that as it may, Netflix subscribers pay roughly three times less per hour of content than cable TV subscribers.That's one possible takeaway from a comprehensive report by Nielsen (PDF) that examines content consumption across television, radio, TV-connected devices, PCs, smartphones, and tablets. Nielsen didn't set out to compare Netflix to cable TV directly, but using the numbers provided, the folks at AllFlicks did some interesting math to figure out how much Netflix costs per...
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Google today announced that it's adding live TV listings to search. That means when you perform search for a TV show, such as Lucifer or Billions (both highly recommended, by the way), you'll not only see apps and sites where you can catch the latest episode, but also see which channel(s) you can tune to in the evening for a live viewing. Of course, this can be a little tricky with there being so many different cable and satellite TV providers. To make sure the information it's providing to you is relevant, Google will let you select your specific provider for personalized results. You'll also see cards that provide additional information about the content you're looking up. "There are now more...
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Samsung had lots to show off at the IFA event in Berlin, and while some of the focus was on high-def TVs as we'd expect, there was also an unveiling of a product we might not have expected: An "Ultra HD" Blu-ray player. As hard as it might be to believe, Blu-ray content has now been available on the market for over eight years, and admittedly, it didn't take but a few years after its launch when people began to question its lifespan. After all, our Internet connections are getting faster, and services like Netflix have proven that people are fine with consuming media that way. But, let's be honest: streamed content doesn't look as good as content that's already been downloaded or burned to a...
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AT&T is trumpeting the arrival of what it says is the first-ever nationwide package of television and wireless phone service from a single provider. It costs $200 per month and includes HD and DVR service for up to four TV receivers, unlimited talk and texting for four wireless lines, and 10GB of shareable wireless data. The new package, which AT&T is calling "All in One," will be available starting August 10. It's meant to be simple and straightforward, and is one of several new offerings the company has planned after completing the acquisition of satellite TV provider DirecTV for $49 billion. "AT&T is wasting no time extending the benefits of its DirecTV acquisition to consumers,"...
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It's official -- AT&T is now the proud owner of DirecTV, making it the largest pay TV provider in the U.S. and the world. The $49 billion acquisition bumps AT&T's customer base in the U.S. to 26 million, along with 19 million customers in Latin America, including Mexico and the Caribbean. It also makes AT&T and mega-force in the sports world. DirecTV enjoyed exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, an add-on that allows customers to watch every out-of-market NFL game on their TVs, mobile devices, and PCs. As a DirecTV subscriber myself and displaced Boston sports fan, NFL Sunday Ticket has allowed me to follow the New England Patriots. It's a popular service, and a huge win for AT&T....
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If you live in Canada, go ahead and stop reading now to avoid any feelings of jealously and resentment. That's because Samsung is offering one heck of a bundle offer to U.S. residents -- purchase a select 4K SUHD television and receive a 32GB Galaxy S6 smartphone for free, zip, zilch, nada! That's a tantalizing offer that could be of interest to anyone shopping a TV or phone.It's an especially good deal if you're looking to upgrade your aging television to a 4K Ultra HD model. The only caveat is that you have to stick with a handful of specific models, those being the Samsung JS9500 (65-inch), JS9100 (78-inch), JS9000 (65-inch), JS8500 (55-inch), JS850D (65-inch), or JS8600 (78-inch).These are...
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Just when you think you've seen everything, here comes Samsung with the industry's first mirror and transparent OLED display panels. The South Korean outfit rolled out the displays at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and is pitching the displays as being suitable for personalized shopping and informational browsing. Paired with Intel's Real Sense technology, Samsung's displays are able to create an interactive closet or "self-modeling" wardrobe so that consumers can see what different types of clothes and jewelry would look like on them. It's a rather unique angle for the online shopping experience and could help take the guesswork out of ordering clothing...
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Whenever Apple does something, it wants to do it better than the competition, rather than just deliver the bare-minimum to get by. Its upcoming TV service is no exception. Apple certainly won’t be the first to offer such a service when it arrives, and it knows it has to do something special to taste success right out of the gate. One of its biggest goals is to deliver widespread access to local programming. If successful, Apple would immediately one-up all of the competition, such as Sony and Dish, which have only been able to offer local programming in a handful of cities. The problem, not surprisingly, is that dealing with all of the business contracts to make this a reality...
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