Apple adds HBO to Apple TV Channels in the latest betas of iOS 12.3 and tvOS 12.3. Channels lets users subscribe to streaming video services from within the TV app.
The most notable addition is HBO for $14.99 per month, in time for the final three episodes of Game of Thrones, while other recently added channels include Cinemax, EPIX, Sundance Now, Lifetime Movie Club, and UMC.
Peanuts In Space: Secrets of Apollo 10 is coming next month to the Apple TV. It’s a documentary that tries to answer a fundamental question.
Clicker for Netflix is a cool Mac app that lets you control Netflix right from your Touch Bar. Launch Netflix right from the Dock, control it with the Touch Bar, use Picture-in-Picture to watch while multitasking, prevent trailers from auto-playing, auto-resume your last played video, automatically skip the video intro, automatically advance to the next episode, hide the “Who’s Watching?” popup, and remove the Netflix Originals row. The Touch Bar controls include play/pause, jump back 10 seconds, jump forward 10 seconds, go to the next episode, enable/disable closed captions, and launch Picture-in-Picture. It requires macOS 10.10 Yosemite or higher. Get the app for US$5.
Apple has created a new Apple TV YouTube channel. You’ll see trailers for upcoming shows and movies, behind the scenes clips, and more.
Today Bryan Chaffin, Charlotte Henry AND Dave Hamilton join host Kelly Guimont to discuss Disney+ and how it compares to other services.
Over the weekend Netflix announced Beyoncé’s Coachella performance will be coming to the service on April 17.
…a trailer that dropped today promises the special, called Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé, will be “interspersed with candid footage and interviews detailing the preparation and powerful intent behind her vision, [the movie] traces the emotional road from creative concept to cultural movement.”
DirecTV Now is offering customers a free 4K Apple TV when you prepay for four months of service.
4K Apple TV (32 GB): Ends 4/30/2019. New sub’s only. Must prepay first four months of service at full price. Requires minimum $50/mo. subscription before taxes. Device and prepayment are nonrefundable. New subscribers only. Online orders will be shipped via FedEx ground to address provided. Allow 1-2 weeks for delivery. Offer limited to 1 per DIRECTV NOW account; 2 per shipping address. Not combinable with select offers. 4k HD not avail. w/DIRECTV NOW.
Roger Fingas put together a brief guide to watching the 2019 March Madness tournament on your Apple devices.
For college basketball fans, the NCAA’s March Madness tournament is nigh — 2019’s games run March 19 through Apr. 8. Here’s how to follow along on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV if you’re not watching on cable or satellite.
John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the current state of Blu-ray and streaming, and look ahead to WWDC.
RTL Group, which owns My Brilliant Friend and Femantle, creator of American Gods, is in talks with Apple to supply video content.
Back in December AT&T CEO Randal Stephenson said that it would hike the DirecTV price and adjust the content available.
A pirate copy of Aquaman circulating among torrent sites could suggest that iTunes DRM has been broken, and tvOS could be to blame.
Apple has ordered a straight-to-series CIA drama based on an upcoming memoir by Amaryllis Fox. It will star Brie Larson.
The Hulu free plan price is going from US$7.99 to US$5.99/month. However, its Live TV plan is increasing to US$44.99. [Hulu Pause Ads Have Arrived] Hulu Free Plan Reduction The company announced the change last month as a response to Netflix’s price increase. The changes went into effect yesterday. Existing subscribers will see their bill…
Andrew Orr and John Martellaro join host Kelly Guimont to talk about Barry Diller’s backward stance on Netflix, and (say it with me) Facebook’s latest user data kerfuffle.
An opinion piece by Farhad Manjoo caught my eye. He writes how, instead of Netflix exporting American culture, it shares international culture with everyone.
Despite a supposed surge in nationalism across the globe, many people like to watch movies and TV shows from other countries. “What we’re learning is that people have very diverse and eclectic tastes, and if you provide them with the world’s stories, they will be really adventurous, and they will find something unexpected,” Cindy Holland, Netflix’s vice president for original content, told me.
Mr. Manjoo also mentions the difference between Netflix and other tech companies. Netflix sells subscriptions, not advertising. I think this is an important difference, in case foreigners get a negative impression from our typically garish ads.
Charter Spectrum TV Essentials will be coming to the Apple TV for US$14.99/month plus tax.
Host Kelly Guimont talks to Charlotte Henry and John Martellaro about the moviegoing experience and what Apple’s executive shuffle tells us.
Because the Academy Awards is in a couple days, iTunes is having an Oscars movie sale for past and present nominations.
The Apple video launch is rumored to launch in April or early May. It sounds like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO won’t be part of it.
Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch is a choose-your-own-adventure game that went viral. As it turns out, Netflix saved the choices you made.
He found that Netflix is tracking the decisions its users make (which makes sense considering how the film works), and that it is keeping those decisions long after a user has finished the film. It is also stores aggregated forms of the users choice to “help [Netflix] determine how to improve this model of storytelling in the context of a show or movie.”
This doesn’t seem like a huge issue to me. This is standard analytics the platform keeps.
Apple made a multi-year deal with Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Productions. The production company has recently hired Terry Wood from Netflix.
Now when you finish watching a downloaded episode it will be deleted and the next episode will automatically download.
This means that subscribers can connect their account directly within iOS.
