A web geek’s round-up for watching the Super Bowl

The NFL’s Super Bowl championship football game is routinely one of the most watched televised events of the year with over 100 million viewers. But increasingly, people don’t just want to watch the game, they want to interact with it. For me, that means keeping my iPhone and iPad open while the television is on. And this year’s game will actually allow me to use both devices for more than just a distraction during the … Continue Reading

Hulu adds PBS shows to its TV content library

Streaming video service Hulu is adding a huge collection of PBS television shows to its content library, the company announced Thursday.

The new content is available with commercials to all Hulu users, while premium subscribers of Hulu Plus can watch it commercial-free. Some of the shows now available include Ken Burns library, the first season of Downton Abbey, NOVA, and American Experience, as well as children’s series including Arthur, Dinosaur Train and Wild … Continue Reading

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar: Original programming is an important part of the agenda

Streaming video site Hulu is on the cusp of airing its first original series. Original programming will be an important part of the company’s agenda in the future, CEO Jason Kilar said at the D: Dive Into Media event in Dana Point, Calif. Tuesday.

Kilar expressed Hulu’s commitment to a “healthy differentiation” of its service from other video streaming services (Netflix was implied, but not named), in an on-stage interview with AllThingsD media editor Peter … Continue Reading

Why it’s stupid for Netflix to focus on competition at home

With increases in revenue and higher than expected subscriber growth, video rental service Netflix is once again the darling investment among Wall Street analysts (for the most part). However, not all the comments from Wednesday’s fourth quarter earnings results were positive.

Netflix warned of increasing competition against its domestic streaming service, while celebrating its shrinking DVD-by-mail business — two subjects analysts spend far too much time obsessing over. The biggest threat Netflix faces overall has … Continue Reading

Hulu to stream first original scripted series: “Battleground” (trailer)

Hoping that content really is king in the battle for viewer attention, video streaming company Hulu has purchased its first original scripted series.

Hulu has ordered 13, 30-minute episodes of (somewhat ironically titled) “Battleground,” a faux documentary that follows the characters behind a fictional politician’s campaign for Senator.

“Battleground” episodes will beginning airing Tuesday, February 14, and episodes will include eight minutes of advertising, according to AdAge.

The site’s exclusive new offering is part of … Continue Reading

YouTube player adds Netflix-like storyboard feature for easier navigation

YouTube will soon add a helpful storyboard feature that will help you more easily navigate videos.

The feature, as first spotted by Digital Inspiration, lets you hover your mouse over any point in the video timeline to see a single thumbnail, making it easier to find your favorite part of that talking dog video or that catchy Internet love song.

Netflix and Hulu’s video players already feature thumbnail previews, so YouTube is playing catch up … Continue Reading

Hulu to drop $500M on content in 2012, more than it earned in 2011

Despite a highly publicized 2011 quest for a buyer, Hulu operations are so peachy keen that the company will spend almost half a billion dollars on new content in 2012, CEO Jason Kilar would have you know.

The streaming video company, which specializes in providing online access to network television content, brought in $420 million in revenue in 2011, Kilar said in a blog post on the company’s 2011 performance.

The revenue figure is up … Continue Reading

How we watch TV now: Viewers are going mobile and multi-tasking

How do you watch your favorite TV shows? Chances are, you’re still using that traditional TV in your living room, but according to a report from Nielsen audiences are increasingly going mobile to consume videos and television.

Nielsen released its 2011 State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report Monday, which looks at all the data collected by the company over the course of the past year to paint a bigger picture of how we consume … Continue Reading

Digital entertainment is changing the living room for good (infographic)

There was a time when little Bobby would get up to turn the television to one of the three available channels when the family got bored. If you missed the Ed Sullivan show that night, too bad, go play chess.

Nowadays, people miss shows on purpose so they can watch them on their time, on the device of their choice. There’s none of this gather the family around the tube for a little late night … Continue Reading

Motorola Mobility acquires SetJam, beefs up entertainment value

Motorola is still picking up companies while under acquisition review with Google. Today the company purchased SetJam, a television and movie directory.

The acquisition will give Motorola hardware devices more command over the entertainment space.

“Motorola and SetJam share the vision of making content delivery, discovery, and consumption seamless across any screen, and as a world leader in video technology, Motorola will provide us with unprecedented levels of reach and distribution,” said Ryan Janssen, chief … Continue Reading

Hulu lands exclusive digital syndication rights to TV comedy ‘Community’

Hulu and Netflix are embroiled in a melee over digital content rights to the most popular TV shows. Friday, Hulu landed a blow by announcing that it is now the exclusive digital syndication partner for the Emmy award-winning television comedy series Community.

Hulu already carried Community, and Netflix didn’t. The exclusivity deal means that Netflix and other streaming-video rivals are now frozen out of this show.

Community is a B-list get for Hulu, and … Continue Reading

Hulu Plus may be expanding into Germany

Streaming video service Hulu is exploring the idea of expanding into Germany, according to German media news site Horizont.net.

The report indicates that Hulu is in talks with many major German TV networks to reach a deal that would allow the service to stream content throughout the country. Previously, Hulu was unsuccessful in reaching deals with European TV networks because many of them had plans to start their own online, on-demand services. However, German regulators … Continue Reading

YouTube rolls out the first of its Disney movie archive to renters

As promised, YouTube is rolling out content from Disney and is starting with movie rentals through the website today, according to a company blog post.

Children are becoming increasingly interested in playing, imagining and being entertained by the internet over traditional forms of family play. According to a survey performed by Nielsen, 44 percent of kids aged 6-12 want an iPad for Christmas, closely followed by an iPod touch. Where families once gathered around the … Continue Reading

Hulu Plus & ESPN apps coming to Amazon’s Kindle Fire

Amazon’s new tablet computer the Kindle Fire is getting a healthy injection of entertainment and sports content when it launches later this month.

The company announced today that the Kindle Fire will add application support for Hulu Plus, Hulu’s premium subscription service for streaming TV and movie content as well as ESPN ScoreCenter.

The news comes just days after Amazon’s announcement that a slew of popular music, gaming and social media apps would appear on … Continue Reading

Why Hulu Plus isn’t available on Apple TV yet

It’s only fitting that, on Halloween night, we find out the reason streaming video service Hulu Plus has yet to make its way to the Apple TV is that Apple is apparently scared of the competition.

Hulu could take business away from Apple’s TV show and movie purchases via iTunes. Apple’s $99 set-top streaming media box was also recently upgraded to permit  customers to take advantage of past purchases, which can be downloaded through Apple … Continue Reading

Hulu signs TV content deal with the CW

Video streaming site Hulu has signed an agreement to carry TV shows from the CW network the day after they air, the company announced today.

The CW, which is jointly owned by CBS Corp. and Time Warner, airs television shows aimed at a young, mostly female crowd (because the male demographic is embarrassed to admit it likes Gossip Girl). Its lineup of programs includes Supernatural, Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, Nikita and America’s Next Top … Continue Reading

Netflix heads to the U.K. and Ireland in early 2012

Netflix will launch its popular streaming TV and movie service in the U.K. and Ireland in the first months of 2012, the company announced today.

Netflix has had a turbulent past few months with a price hike that angered users and a botched plan to move physical DVD rentals to a site called Qwikster. But even with its shortcomings, the service has been trying to rapidly expand its presence outside of North America. This year, … Continue Reading

Hulu Plus brings its TV treasure trove to Nintendo Wii and 3DS

Nintendo’s 3DS handheld and Wii console will get access to Hulu Plus‘ trove of streaming TV content before the end of 2011, the company said today.

One of the most pressing issues facing streaming services like Netflix and Hulu is access. Netflix figured that out early and pushed out apps for phones, tablets, game consoles and other connected devices. Hulu has been slightly behind with getting Hulu Plus on every imaginable device, but it’s now … Continue Reading

Skype and Rdio founder to challenge Netflix with Vdio (updated)

One of the founders of Skype and Rdio has decided to make a run at Netflix and Hulu with a mysterious new video service called Vdio, according to a GigaOM report.

Janus Friis, the co-creator of Skype, Kazaa, Joost and Rdio, has kept Vdio a secret for as long as two years and received $5.6 million in funding in Oct. 2010 while the company was listed under the name Project WBS. At present, Vdio.com is … Continue Reading