Subscribing to the Max streaming service is expected to become more costly in 2025. That could mean indirectly, like through another streaming password crackdown, or directly, like through increases to monthly and/or annual subscription prices.

Password crackdowns as a “form of price rises”

During the earnings call for parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for its fiscal Q3 2024, which ended on September 30, WBD signaled that it's gearing up to roll out its next strategy for growing streaming revenue—charging subscribers extra for sharing passwords—over the next few months. This will start with "very soft messaging" toward Max users before the crackdown intensifies in 2025 and 2026, WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said.

Wiedenfels admitted that on their own, password crackdowns are “a form of price rises.” Netflix kicked off this form of price hike in the US in May 2023, and other streaming services have followed. That means Max is behind some rivals when it comes to implementing this restriction. Further, Max has been discussing its password crackdown since March, so subscribers could take some comfort in not seeing the restrictions launch sooner.

Read full article

Comments

TikTok on Thursday debuted a new feature that will more closely connect its app, which already influences which songs top the charts, to the streaming services where users discover and play their favorite music. With the launch of a new “Share to TikTok” feature, music fans will be able to directly share tracks from both […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Het bericht Streamingdienst HBO Max gaat accounts delen ook aanpakken verscheen eerst op DutchCowboys.

Het bericht Amazon vertelt wat er in je serie gebeurde nadat je in slaap viel verscheen eerst op DutchCowboys.

Streaming in the US has become a broken and fiendishly complex tangle of ephemeral choices—and that's before you factor in sports. You can see why it might seem somehow easier to stream shows from other countries, where the networks, some of them with public dollars behind them, offer broader access if you seem to be located there.

So it is that privacy-focused Swiss firm Proton has released a Proton VPN app for Apple TV. The firm notes that it "offers over 6,200 servers across 100 countries" and its own guides to accessing various regional content providers, such as Britain's BBC and France.tv, or sports and live event channels, "no matter where you are."

That this—virtual geolocation—is mentioned ahead of "privacy and security benefits" is notable, but only if you haven't looked. I typed "VPN" into an Apple TV's App Store search interface today and learned that Proton was now one among dozens and dozens of VPN offerings for Apple TV. "Dozens" is as far as I can go, because I eventually got tired of clicking to keep scrolling down.

Read full article

Comments

Het bericht Hilarisch moment in een film? Bewaar ze nu met Netflix Momenten verscheen eerst op DutchCowboys.

Het bericht Drie redenen om The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin te kijken op Netflix verscheen eerst op DutchCowboys.

Trying to watch your favorite NFL team's games throughout a season is a fiendish logistics puzzle, one that doesn't even have a "just pay for it" shortcut.

You can buy a Sunday Ticket package from YouTube, but that only covers games on Sunday and only those not shown in your local TV market. You can pay for cable or set up an HDTV antenna, but you have to hope it catches NBC, CBS, and Fox for Sunday games (if your local station chooses to carry your team), and for Monday night games, ABC (though most are on ESPN and some even exclusive to ESPN+). Thursday nights? That's Amazon Prime.

Oh, and this year's Christmas Day games are on Netflix. And the games played in London and Germany are on the NFL Network, which requires either cable or an NFL+ subscription. And Peacock also had that one game in Brazil and is getting another playoff game this year. Many of these games get broadcast options in their home regions, though that doesn't much help ex-pat fans.

Read full article

Comments

Subscription fees for video streaming services have been on a steady incline. But despite subscribers paying more, surveys suggest they're becoming less satisfied with what's available to watch.

At the start of 2024, the industry began declaring the end of Peak TV, a term coined by FX Networks Chairman John Landgraf that refers to an era of rampant content spending that gave us shows like The Wire, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. For streaming services, the Peak TV era meant trying to lure subscribers with original content that was often buoyed by critical acclaim and/or top-tier actors, writers, and/or directors. However, as streaming services struggle to reach or maintain profitability, 2024 saw a drop in the number of new scripted shows for the first time in at least 10 years, FX Research found.

Meanwhile, overall satisfaction with the quality of content available on streaming services seems to have declined for the past couple of years. Most surveys suggest a generally small decline in perceived quality, but that’s still perturbing considering how frequently streaming services increase subscription fees. There was a time when a streaming subscription represented an exclusive ticket to viewing some of the best new TV shows and movies. But we’ve reached a point where the most streamed TV show last year was Suits—an original from the USA Network cable channel that ended in 2019.

Read full article

Comments

Het bericht Kijkers spenderen gemiddeld 2 uur per dag op Netflix verscheen eerst op DutchCowboys.

Het bericht Disney+ lanceert vandaag abonnement met reclame in Nederland verscheen eerst op DutchCowboys.

Spotify brengt een nieuwe functie naar Nederland: Audiobooks. De nieuwe functie houdt in dat je toegang krijgt tot 15.000 Nederlandstalige audioboeken. Premium-abonnees krijgen twaalf uur luistertijd per maand. Wie meer wil, moet meer betalen.

“Het is voor het eerst dat deze feature beschikbaar wordt in niet-Engelstalige markten, en dat moment wordt gecombineerd met een flinke uitbreiding van de groeiende boeken-catalogus, met Franse en Nederlandse auteurs. Daarvoor werken we nauw samen met lokale uitgevers zodat we de luisterervaring doorlopend kunnen uitbreiden aan onze abonnees in West-Europa”, zegt David Kaefer, de baas van Audiobooks bij Spotify.

Voor alle gebruikers van Spotify

Hoewel Spotify zelf nog spreekt van een bèta-introductie, wordt de functie wel voor alle gebruikers in Nederland en België beschikbaar. Gratis gebruikers van de dienst kunnen boeken los kopen. Premium-abonnees krijgen maandelijks twaalf uur aan luistertijd gratis. Zijn je twaalf uur luistertijd op, dan kun je voor 9,99 euro tien uur extra luistertijd kopen. Zijn die op, dan kun je voor hetzelfde bedrag opnieuw meer luistertijd aanschaffen – en zo door. Koop je te veel luistertijd, dan blijft de overgebleven tijd tot twaalf maanden na aanschaf geldig.

De nieuwe functie is inmiddels naar alle Nederlandse gebruikers uitgerold. Je kunt de Audiobooks vinden als een nieuwe sectie, naast muziek en podcasts, bovenaan het home-scherm van de app.

Foto: Shutterstock

Lees Spotify brengt Audiobooks naar Nederland met 15.000 Nederlandstalige audioboeken verder op Numrush

Het bericht Je account delen mag straks ook niet meer op Videoland verscheen eerst op DutchCowboys.