Audio Video News

The Netflix Binge Scale measures series likely to be consumed in a single week. At the top end are thrillers like Breaking Bad and Dexter, while political dramas like House of Cards and The West Wing are watched over a longer period.

Smart TVs Accounted For nearly half of those shipped in the fourth quarter of 2015, says an IHS Technology report. The category passed the 100 million mark at the same time...

Google Cast Is Emerging as a leading smart TV platform, replacing homegrown alternatives. It has been adopted by Vizio, Magnavox, Philips, and Westinghouse...

Ultra HDTVs Will Be In 11 million North American homes by the end of 2016, according to a Strategy Analytics forecast. That would be one in eight homes, and the majority of 40-inch-plus sets will be UHD...

Comcast Boosted Its Data cap from 300 gigabytes to 1 terabyte per month. That’s enough to stream 700 hours of HD video...

U.S. Broadband Speeds are rising, says Akamai, with average connection speeds hitting 14.2 Mbps in fourth-quarter 2015. That puts the U.S. in 14th place worldwide, behind South Korea (at 26.7 Mbps), Sweden, Norway, and Japan...

Data Traffic Surged in 2015 at 9.6 trillion megabytes, doubling 2014’s total and tripling that of 2013. Meanwhile, the FCC plans to reallocate new spectrum from DTV to mobile broadband...

The FCC’s Spectrum Auction got a lot of takers from broadcasters selling DTV spectrum—but why? The New York Times says they “face competition from the internet, a dwindling advertisement market in nonelection years, and aging audiences”...

The FCC’s Net Neutrality rules were declared legal by the U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C., thus preventing internet service providers from throttling content they don’t own. The decade-old legal and regulatory battle may move on to higher courts, including the Supremes...

UltraFlix brings UHD and HD streaming to partnering smart TVs (from Hisense, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Vizio) and media players (Roku 4). It offers more than 1,000 hours of movies, shows, sports, concerts, and documentaries...

Surfing While Watching TV is a way of life for 85 percent of internet users, says an eMarketer study. It sure beats being lobotomized by TV ads...

YouTube’s Subscription Streaming project is called Unplugged and could launch in 2017, according to Bloomberg. Google is trawling for content, but, unlike Hulu, YouTube has the disadvantage of not being owned by major content producers...

Spotify’s First Original Video production is Rush Hour, with Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, showing hip-hop artists in collaboration and performance. Actor Tim Robbins is co-creator...

Cable Bores Net-flixers, with 76 percent of the streamer’s customers saying it will replace traditional TV. That leaves 24 percent in the non-cord-cutting camp who say news and live sports keep them in the fold...

Netflix Needs Cable to revive its sluggish growth, says a Morgan Stanley analyst. Integrating Netflix into cable boxes—as TiVo is integrated in some systems—would attract viewers who are older and less inclined to cut the cord...

Small Cable Operators are incensed by a provision of the Comcast/TWC merger deal requiring the cable giant to compete in markets served by other operators. They also want the FCC to slow adoption of the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV standard...

Pay-TV Revenue Will Peak in 2018 worldwide, with revenues declining in 27 countries from 2015 to 2021, including the mature North American market. However, revenues will more than double in another 19 coun- tries, with strong growth in the Asia-Pacific market...

The FCC’s Cable-Ready initiative might affect diversity in media, according to the chair and vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Reps. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY) asked the FCC to slow down until the GAO completes a study on possible impacts...

Back-Catalog Music sold more than new music in 2015 for the first time, according to Nielsen. The figures include downloads and hard-copy formats but not streaming...

Virtual Reality Via Streaming is available or planned from more than half of streaming services, despite hardware and other growing pains, says a report from Level 3 Communications. Two-thirds of streaming companies believe VR will become a permanent part of their business...