video-streaming

For years, Amazon appeared to be a big pushover when it came to delivering Web entertainment.

During the early part of the Internet Age, Amazon shipped CDs and DVDs to customers who ordered them via the Web and CEO Jeff Bezos' company became synonymous with Web music and movies. Then Apple's iTunes, and Netflix, laid waste to physical discs by delivering digital downloads and streaming video, and Amazon quietly drifted to the back of the pack.

But today Amazon flexed some muscle of its own by announcing it would stream movies for free to people who subscribe to the … Read more

The streaming market is about to get a bit more crowded, according to a new report.

Redbox President Mitch Lowe confirmed to a group of analysts yesterday that his company is planning to launch a streaming service to compete with Netflix, the Los Angeles Times is reporting. Similar to Netflix, Redbox's streaming service will be subscription-based, requiring customers to pay a single monthly fee for access to its slate of films.

Netflix is the dominant force in the streaming business. The company offers content from major film studios and top television networks across a wide array of devices, including … Read more

Netflix may have thought about it, but the company won't be bringing ads to its streaming service.

Speaking to Fast Company in an interview posted today, Netflix Vice President of Corporate Communications Steve Swasey said the topic of bringing advertising to the company's streaming service has been brought to the table from time to time over at Netflix headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif., but the arguments in favor of ads haven't been all that compelling.

"Every time, we shoot it down," Swasey said.

Netflix's streaming service has relied on a subscription model since its … Read more

All signs point to Amazon.com launching a streaming service to compete with Netflix. However, its arrival may already be delayed.

Citing unnamed sources, The Los Angeles Times reported that Amazon initially wanted to launch its streaming service in early February. However, due to issues with getting the service up and running and the difficulty it is having acquiring content, the publication's sources say Amazon has pushed the launch back to as early as late February.

Reports of Amazon launching a streaming service have been surfacing for quite some time. Back in August, the company was said to be in negotiations with film and television studios … Read more

As January came and went, those hoping for Netflix on the Boxee Box were once again disappointed.

In an early morning blog post today, Boxee revealed that its Netflix app failed to make a self-imposed January 31 deadline because "we have not yet satisfied Netflix's security requirements." Boxee didn't say exactly what the issue is, but added that aside from that hangup, the app works as expected on internal units of its set-top box.

Knowing that users wouldn't be happy to hear the news, Boxee's vice president of marketing, Andrew Kippen, attempted to quell … Read more

Rumors have been heating up over the last few weeks that Amazon was on the verge of offering "free" unlimited video streaming to its Prime members, who pay $79.99 a year for free two-day shipping on many items sold on Amazon. Now a tipster has sent a few screenshots to Engadget allegedly showing an unlimited video-streaming section to complement Amazon's VOD (video-on-demand) offerings.

Whether someone at Amazon accidentally jumped the gun on the launch is unclear, but the section has now disappeared along with the "Watch now," free unlimited streaming button (I have an … Read more

Lots of apps can stream music, photos, and video from a PC to an iOS device, but very few support TV shows recorded with Windows Media Center.

That's a shame, because WMC has been my DVR for years (and it's more awesome than ever now that it has a Ceton InfiniTV 4 CableCard adapter).

Enter Remote Potato ($6.99), a new app that streams just about anything stored on your PC: music, photos, videos, and, hallelujah, recorded TV. What's more, it provides access to your TV guide, meaning you can schedule recordings on the go.

Now for the bad news: the app's pretty buggy at this stage, and getting it connected to your PC can be a hassle.

The latter requires the Remote Potato server client (for Windows 7 only). It's easy enough to install, but doesn't offer any way to automatically connect to the iPhone app. Thus, you have to supply the PC's IP address. And if you want to use Remote Potato outside your home (i.e., outside your network), you'll need to sign up for a dynamic-DNS service (like DynDNS) and do some port-forwarding on your router.

Other media-server solutions don't force you to jump through these kinds of hoops, so I have to give Remote Potato a demerit on that.… Read more

Netflix went a long way to answering skeptics today by reporting big jumps in profits and subscriber growth.

The nation's top video rental service reported fourth-quarter net earnings of $47 million or 87 cents per share, on $596 million in revenue. These figures represent a sharp climb from the same period a year ago.

Income for the quarter, which ended December 31, rose 52 percent and revenue grew 34 percent from the year-ago period.

The big news came in the form of subscriber growth. Netflix reported that the total number of Netflix subscribers is 20 million. For the quarter, … Read more

Time Warner's very public bashing of Netflix in recent weeks is a result of the media conglomerate's frustration over having to bid against the Web's top video-rental service for Warner Bros. content, says a Netflix executive.

If it weren't for Netflix bidding up the price, Time Warner, parent company of pay TV service HBO, would have an easier time acquiring Warner Bros. content after the licensing deal between the studio and HBO expires in 2014. That is what Ted Sarandos, Netflix's content-acquisition chief, said today at a conference in Miami, according to PaidContent. Presumably, this … Read more