latest
YouTube TV is one of several popular ways to get your cable TV fix without dealing with all those other cable TV inconveniences, though platform support has always been a limiting factor. Today the PS4 picks up compatibility with Google's service, allowing those that enjoy Sony's exclusive games to also enjoy their streaming cable programming courtesy of YouTube — all just a mere two years after the Xbox One got it.
Read update
- While T-Mobile is still clearly gung-ho about getting into the TV game, a year-end blog entry confirms that plans for the service's deployment will have to wait until 2019. Honestly, that seemed like an inevitability by this point, but at least now we have it straight from Legere's mouth.
It has been slightly more than a year since T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced the company was working on its own TV service, and he promised something "disruptive." Since then, some of the carrier's plans have taken shape with the acquisition of Layer3 and a set top box that stopped by the FCC. However, Bloomberg reports that Tmo has delayed launching the service this year. It turns out streaming TV is pretty hard to get right.
Late last year, T-Mobile announced its intentions to "uncarrier" television service, with its purchase of Layer3, an online TV provider. The first fruits of that acquisition have just reared their head at the FCC in the form of a new T-Mobile-branded set-top box.
The latest version of Google Play Movies & TV is making the rounds, and this one has quite a bit to discuss. There are several surface-level changes, including a new bottom nav bar, improved support for Rotten Tomatoes, and even some rearrangements to the screens in the app. Digging a bit deeper, we can also see there's a new Guide screen in development, some degree of support for external content providers, and even a rating system for content.
Near the end of last year, T-Mobile announced that it was buying Layer3 TV, an online television provider. T-Mobile said that it wanted to "un-carrier" the TV industry by offering its own service, and purchasing Layer3 was the first step. T-Mobile's acquisition of Layer3 is now complete, according to a press release from today.
You may not have heard of Arris International, but it's one of the world's largest set-top box manufacturers. Cable/satellite/TV operators will contract Arris to manufacture their proprietary set-top boxes, which they then sell to their customers. Today, Arris announced that it would begin offering new Android TV-based solutions to operators.
Comcast is doing what Comcast does best: making its monopolized customers really, really hate the company. That's just Comcast's general state of being, but in this specific sense, it's all about the streaming cable TV app for Android. As promised, the former XFINITY TV app has been replaced with the all-new, all-different XFINITY Stream.
Report: Google reaches agreement with CBS for 'Unplugged' web TV service - Fox and Disney may follow
The future of cable cutting, getting rid of expensive cable or satellite television service in favor or more economical web subscriptions, is murky. Currently users need to choose between competing libraries on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and other big-name streamers, or negate some of the savings of cable cutting by subscribing to multiple services. Some newer offerings like SlingTV and PlayStation Vue are bridging the gap, and it looks like Google wants to join them, according to the latest report from the Wall Street Journal.
The writing isn't quite on the wall for traditional cable and satellite television - not so long as companies like Comcast can manipulate the market with artificial monopolies and data caps, anyway - but things are definitely looking up for cord-cutters. The latest fruit of the union between American telecom AT&T and satellite TV giant DirecTV is a series of TV packages that don't require, well, TV packages. These data-only streaming options will become available some time in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to an AT&T press release.
AMC, the American cable channel that's home to shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead, has more apps than you might think. There's AMC Extras, a bunch of DVD-style content to promote various shows, AMC Tablet, which is basically a companion app for said shows, specialized apps for half a dozen other shows, and even a Christmas movie app. Now they've launched one that's just for watching new episodes... which makes sense, considering that's what most people want to do with their content in the first place.
Android TV and similar set-top boxes are incredibly popular with the cord-cutting crowd. But if you still subscribe to cable, the various networks included with your package are finally getting their respective acts together and creating decent online options for streaming shows and movies. EPIX, a channel that's mostly focused on playing older and second-run movies, has finally made its way to Android TV. The app went live back on June 9th, but for some reason the company is just announcing it now.
Far be it from me to tell gigantic companies like Turner Broadcasting or Time Warner what to do with their Android apps. But when the last version of your official streaming app has what look like Froyo screenshots on the Play Store (from back when it wasn't even the Play Store), it might be time for an update. Adult Swim, the allegedly grown-up portion of Cartoon Network's programming block, now has a much more modern app for fans to watch new shows and back episodes.