WebTV

I pay Verizon FiOS about $163 a month for internet and TV service. I’ve been a Netflix customer for close to six years now. Yet even with my financial loyalty to both of these companies, I can’t watch a movie on Netflix while I eat dinner. Thanks, net neutrality! Okay, to be fair, I can Continue Reading →

It’s sort of hard to remember now, but Netflix, the streaming video service, used to be Netflix, the DVD-by-mail service. And in fact, Netflix is still a DVD-by-mail service for 6.7 million people. But that number used to be twice as big. And after a violent and unsuccessful attempt to kill it off quickly, Netflix Continue Reading →

Verizon Internet customers who want to watch Netflix at high quality and without interruption just can’t catch a break. While Comcast subscribers saw near-immediate speed improvements after Netflix paid for a direct connection to the Comcast network, Netflix performance on Verizon remains poor—and it’s getting worse. Netflix’s latest ISP speed rankings, released today, show that Continue Reading →

  The Internet Association, a trade group composed of some of the biggest tech companies in the world, has filed comment with the FCC asking it to intervene in the conflict over payments being demanded by big ISPs. According to a report in The Hill, companies like Comcast and Verizon are charging Netflix and others Continue Reading →

It’s been 10 weeks since Verizon and Netflix struck a deal in which Netflix will pay the ISP for a direct connection to its network. Yet customers are still complaining about bad performance. The reason is that Verizon and Netflix haven’t set up enough connections to make much of a difference, and Verizon has said Continue Reading →

When Aereo was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court and paused its service last month, it seemed as if the TV streaming service was out of options. But on Wednesday, Aereo lawyers filed a letter with a New York district court indicating that the company now considers itself a cable provider. It now believes that Continue Reading →

Netflix will once again have a big presence at the Emmys. It’s been nominated for a wide array of awards this year, including outstanding drama series for House of Cards and outstanding comedy series for Orange is the New Black. House of Cards’ leads Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright have been nominated for outstanding lead Continue Reading →

For the marketing executives whose job it is to round up eyeballs to watch television, the summer is turning out to be hazy, crazy, anything but lazy. A deluge of original programming is replacing many of the reruns that typically dominate schedules this time of year, offering viewers perhaps the most new summertime series since Continue Reading →

When videos blur, buffer, or won’t play altogether, YouTube is now pinning the blame on your internet service provider. “Experiencing interruptions?” reads the message in a blue bar underneath choppy video, as seen in the above screenshot. Clicking “find out why” brings you to Google’s new website, where it displays video playback quality for internet Continue Reading →

After months of debate and speculation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against internet TV service Aereo in a 6-3 decision, effectively killing the service, at least in its current form. Barry Diller, Aereo’s biggest financial backer and one of its most vocal supporters, said the ruling means “it’s over now” for Aereo and that there’s Continue Reading →