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Peacock's bringing your local NBC station to Premium Plus subscribers
There are better ways to watch linear TV than this
Streaming didn't kill the TV and movie stars, but all those awesome and affordable services have certainly made a mess of our media diets. If you read Android Police, you're probably more of the on-demand type when it comes to watching news and entertainment, but you still spend time on live (or just linear) programming once in a while. Comcast is hoping to leverage those occasional urgings by offering a livestream of your local NBC affiliate as an additional perk for subscribing to Peacock Premium Plus.
Free streaming TV service Pluto TV now directly integrated into Google TV
One of two reasons Google hopes you'll get a new Chromecast
Ever since it made started making (and, somehow, still hasn't completed) the transition from Android TV to Google TV, Google has been looking for ways to entice viewers to buy a new Chromecast. Well, it has just come up with two of them.
Crisis averted: NBCUniversal channels are staying on YouTube TV
The two companies announced a new deal this morning
It’s never good when a cable company and a network are disputing over contract terms — in the end, only the consumer gets hurt. Thankfully, YouTube TV and NBCUniversal have managed to avoid channel blackouts, as negotiations have ended with a new agreement made.
Your YouTube TV subscription isn't losing its NBCUniversal channels — not yet, anyway
A temporary 'short extension' while negotiations continue
YouTube TV might not be a traditional cable service, but it’s still falling victim to some old-school broadcast disputes. Earlier this week, word leaked out that Google and NBC were battling over contracts — this time with a streaming twist. While channels were supposed to disappear from the service late last night, it seems a short-term agreement is keeping the status quo for now.
At the moment Google and NBCUniversal are in the middle of an old-fashioned carrier dispute, arguing over who should pay who and how much for access to NBC channels on YouTube TV. These kinds of fights are a dime a dozen with cable and satellite providers, as are the insulting "call your cable company/call the channel owners to complain" attempts to get consumers to pick a side. But according to an industry researcher, this familiar story has a new streaming twist.
Could Google and NBCU please finish their dumb little spat so we could go back to watching YouTube TV already?
NBC threatens to remove 14 channels on September 30th
Remember back in the day, when your cable or satellite TV service was suddenly inundated with commercials about such-and-such channels going away soon, and to call your provider to complain? And then more commercials from the provider would air, telling you to call the channel office and complain instead? They're called carriage disputes, and they're very much still a thing, even in the age of cord-cutting. Now it's happening between Google-owned YouTube TV and Comcast-owned NBCUniversal.
Google TV now supports Peacock accounts as Netflix users remain in the lurch
It's a convenience thing, but that can make all the difference
Google TV, the Android user's hub for searching out and tracking streaming content, recently dumped support for Netflix content. That means if the show you're looking for is on Netflix, you'd have to tap around more to find it. But if your show is on Comcast's Peacock service instead, that's not the case anymore.
NBC's new Peacock streaming service takes flight today
15,000+ hours of content are coming home to roost nationwide
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Netflix may be the top dog when it comes to paid video streaming subscriptions, but NBCUniversal has been hatching a new egg of its own in the form of Peacock, a new streaming service with free and paid plan options. It includes plenty of content from modern day TV comedies to classic movies. Today, Peacock is going live along with some introductory perks.
Earlier today we posted about USA Network getting an Android TV app. It turns out that isn't the only NBCUniversal channel getting one today — in fact, four more have joined the roster. Those four are Bravo, E!, Syfy, and Oxygen.
If you're tired of seeing Android's underrepresentation in the creative world, then a full 62 minutes of late-night television might make up for it. This evening's episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" was shot exclusively on the Samsung Galaxy S10+.
The NBC Sports app has been around for some time now, having amassed more than five million installs. It lets you log in with TV provider credentials to watch — you guessed it — sports content from NBC. Last week, a listing cropped up for a new app with the same name and a very similar description, also published by NBC. It's not clear why both apps exist.
Passwords are a necessary nuisance in our modern digital lives: they help keep our accounts and personal data safe, but they're a hassle to keep track of and type out every time you need to log in somewhere. Android's Smart Lock for Passwords makes everything much easier by letting users automatically logging in on Android, as long as the password is synced to their Google account. Somewhat unfortunately, though, each app has to be updated to work with Smart Lock, so support isn't as ubiquitous as one could hope. Thankfully, many developers eventually do add support for Smart Lock, and the NBC app is just the latest one on that list.
News are all around us nowadays but quality news reporting that also happens to be fast and accurate is not easy to come by. Breaking News, a separate startup inside NBC News Digital Network, was one of the most popular and respected news aggregators that tried to solve that problem through a team of dedicated editors and a network of trusted partners. It then broadcast important news through its website, various social networks (@BreakingNews with >9M followers, +BreakingNews, and Breaking News on Facebook) as well as mobile apps including an Android app with over 500,000 installs.
Of the thousands and thousands of apps on the Play Store, very few get updated to meet the latest design trends and guidelines. Some developers take their sweet time, others never bother, thinking that a functional app is all that's needed and design isn't too relevant.
There are many ways to stream your favorite shows nowadays, from Netflix to Hulu to Play Movies & TV, and now you can add two more to the list. NBCUniversal Media has released dedicated apps for two of its channels: Bravo and Syfy.
The summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro should be interesting to watch this year, if only in the same sense that a burning building is hard to ignore. As it has been for decades, NBC will be the sole media outlet for the games in the United States. Sports fans can use the official NBC app to keep up with the Olympics on their phones and tablets... though keep in mind that the results of the games, including medal winners, statistics, and a general schedule, will be available in all the usual places like ESPN and Google Now.
Despite some technical objections, T-Mobile's unlimited video streaming option Binge On has proven to be a hit with the company's customers, just as the audio equivalent Music Freedom was before it. With these two programs, T-Mobile customers aren't charged against their data caps for watching or listening on participating services. Today Binge On expands to a few new services, and existing Music Freedom services are adding at least some video content to Binge On.
The adoption of Chromecast as a de facto streaming standard was rapid, helped in no small part by the fact that it was the cheapest streaming gadget on the market which was immediately compatible with both major mobile phone systems. But not everyone leaps to support new tech, and old media giants like the National Broadcasting Company have never been accused of being nimble. So it took NBC the better part of three years to support Google's streaming standard, so what - it's not like they're a multi-million dollar entertainment company backed by an international supercorp.
The great uncable-ing is upon us. Say goodbye to cable networks and expensive plans. Say hello to Internet streaming and an overabundance of inexpensive plans that eventually add up to something kinda expensive. NBC's Seeso is the latest video streaming service you can download from Google Play.