Netflix seems determined to test consumers’ price-value tolerance, raising by $2 the price of its premium tier, now $24.99 per month, while raising the cost of the standard ad-supported tier by $1, to $7.99 per month. Its approach is so far working. The news came with an earnings report that indicated new subscribers rose by 18.9 million in Q4, a 44 percent increase to 302 million worldwide members on close of 2024. For the year, revenue grew 16 percent and operating income expanded six points to 27 percent, exceeding $10 billion for the first time in company history. Continue reading Netflix Increases Subscription Prices as Memberships Surge

At CES 2025 this month, LG Electronics debuted its LG UltraGear OLED Bendable Gaming Monitor, positioning it as the world’s first 5K2K-resolution bendable OLED display. The 45-inch 45GX990A can transition from completely flat to a 900R curvature within seconds, allowing users to customize their gaming experience. An upgraded Dual-Mode feature can switch easily between resolution and refresh rate presets, accommodating different aspect ratios and picture sizes. And the zippy 0.03ms (GtG) response time aims to provide heightened immersion. It did not go unnoticed at the show that the display also offers smart streaming options. Continue reading CES: LG Debuts a Dual-Mode Bendable 5K2K Game Monitor

Fitting for a trade show long associated with the latest and greatest television sets, this year’s CES featured a panel titled “The Future of Immersive TV.” The panelists, led by moderator Rick Kowalski, senior director of business intelligence for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), underscored the biggest current challenge for home entertainment is the fragmentation of platforms on which consumers view content. Multimodal content delivery is impacting production workflows and advertising services. From trends in consumer behavior to emerging technologies, the panel speculated about interactive TV, shoppable TV, and the need for consistent experiences. Continue reading CES: TV Industry Adapts to Expansion of Platforms and Devices

Disney+ is the latest major streaming service to deploy HDR10+, which adds dynamic metadata to any video source to optimize picture quality on a frame-by-frame basis. In doing so, it joins other big streamers: Apple TV+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, and Google’s YouTube. The HDR10+ standard, which replaces SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) provides improved brightness and contrast as well as the benefits of standardization and global certification. HDR, originally debuted in 2017 by Samsung and Panasonic, now has over 160 adopters and more than 13,000 compatible products. CES featured a collection of additional HDR10+ announcements. Continue reading CES: Disney+ to Support HDR10+ High Dynamic Range Video

Mastercard Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar is quite clear on his opinion of current marketing practices. “The strategies to get the right consumer insights are totally flawed,” he said. “Every single aspect of marketing has to be reinvented.” In a CES panel on “Revolutionizing Customer Engagement,” Rajamannar and Netflix Vice President of Consumer Products Josh Simon described their partnership efforts to create experiences that engage the fanbase. The discussion, led by influencer.com Chief Executive Ben Jeffries, first focused on why traditional marketing strategies are failing. Continue reading CES: Netflix and Mastercard Partner on ‘Experience’ Marketing

At CES on Monday, Comcast unveiled Universal Ads, an advertising platform aimed at being an “easy button” for small- and medium-sized businesses to buy ad time on traditional TV’s streaming businesses, with the goal of luring them away from social media and digital outlets. In addition to Comcast’s own NBCUniversal, additional partners include DirecTV, Fox Corporation, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNBC Senior Media & Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin moderated a panel with Comcast and some major partners who explained why they signed on to the new platform. Continue reading CES: Comcast Debuts Universal Ads, Inks Media Partnerships

German research organization Fraunhofer IIS has unveiled LC3plus Lossless, an audio codec that promises to streamline wireless audio transmission by introducing dynamic lossless capabilities to its established LC3plus technology. The new codec represents a complete solution for high-resolution wireless audio, automatically switching between lossless and lossy compression based on available bandwidth. This adaptive approach maintains perfect audio quality when possible while seamlessly falling back to high-quality compression when needed, all while preserving LC3plus’s core benefits of low latency and robust transmission. Continue reading CES: Fraunhofer Demonstrates Dynamic Lossless Audio Codec

In the conference track of CES this year is a lineup of talks and panels on gaming and esports. During the “Generational Shifts: The Evolution of Gaming” panel, moderated by Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Senior Manager of Market Research Steven Hummel, industry executives and thought leaders shared their views on market trends emerging post-pandemic and how those trends are driving gaming across other media. While it is not surprising to hear that the average age of gamers tends to skew younger these days, perhaps the bigger takeaway is that gaming has become the new social media for many. Continue reading CES: Gaming Is the New Social Media for Young Generations

YouTube has partnered with Creative Artists Agency to develop technology that will help celebrities identify and remove deepfake videos created by AI to exploit their images. YouTube announced the tech in September and has now gained CAA’s support in the form of “critical feedback to help us build our detection systems and refine the controls.” In exchange, “several of the world’s most influential figures will have access to early-stage technology designed to identify and manage AI-generated content that features their likeness, including their face, on YouTube at scale,” the streamer announced. CAA’s clients includes celebrity talent spanning acting, music and sports. Continue reading CAA to Help YouTube Develop an AI Deepfake Removal Tool

Amazon is testing a new way to provide viewers with content recommendations with AI Topics, now in limited beta release for Prime Video. AI Topics eschews traditional recommendation algorithms in favor of AI that “discovers” Prime Video content based on a combination of viewing history and personal interests. Users can request “mind-bending sci-fi” or “fantasy quests,” then navigate seamlessly through topics curated for them that appear on the Prime Video home page. Once a topic is selected, movies, series and linear channels will populate alongside additional related topics. Continue reading Amazon Testing ‘AI Topics’ Recommendations for Prime Video

YouTube’s Playables, a no-download app for light games, is testing a multiplayer feature for select titles. The Playables multiplayer lets users play games in real time with others on the platform. The test kicks off with two games available on both desktop and mobile, “Ludo Club” and “Magic Tiles 3.” YouTube launched Playables to all users in May with more than 75 titles and announced this week that it plans to introduce more features and content in the future. Gaming is a “sizable” viewing market for YouTube, according to Statista, which says its most-subscribed game channels each average about 47 million monthly subscribers. Continue reading YouTube Playables Experiments with Live Multiplayer Gaming

Hundreds of thousands more YouTube channels are gaining access to its AI-powered auto-dubbing feature, which generates audio translation tracks for YouTube videos, helping to make the platform’s content more accessible to viewers around the world. The expanded rollout targets informational channels in the Partner Program, such as tutorials on cooking, sewing, tourism and home improvement. Availability “will expand to other types of content soon,” according to video streamer, which began testing the feature with select creators last year. Based on technology developed by Aloud, YouTube’s auto-dubbing emerged from the Area 120 internal incubator program. Continue reading YouTube Expands Access to Improved AI-Powered Dubbing

Taylor Swift ranked first among the world’s musical artists on the annual Spotify Wrapped chart that ranks the year’s top songs, albums, podcasts and audiobooks. Her more than 26.6 billion global streams earned her the preeminent title of Spotify’s Global Top Artist for the second consecutive year. The Weeknd, Bad Bunny, Drake and Billie Eilish rounded out the top performers, at numbers 2 through 5, respectively. Women dominated the global Top 10 for albums, led by Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” followed by Eilish’s “Hit Me Soft and Hard.” Swift claimed a total of three slots among the Most-Streamed Albums Globally. Continue reading Spotify Wrapped: Swift Leads a Banner Year for Female Artists

Google has added a Gemini extension that lets users link their Spotify accounts and leverage the AI for music search and discovery. Currently only for Android in English, the app accepts spoken and text prompts to select music by song, album, artist or playlist using “Play & Search.” Only Spotify Premium subscribers will be able to request and play specific tunes on demand. And while users will be able to use Gemini to activate existing playlists or pipe music themed to an activity or mood (like workouts or romantic meals), it cannot create a Spotify playlist or radio. Continue reading Google Offers Spotify Extension for Gemini Mobile Ecosystem

Microsoft is releasing a mini PC designed specifically to access the cloud version of Windows. The $349 Windows 365 Link is a compact, fanless system that will connect local monitors and peripherals to Windows in the cloud. Microsoft plans to bring it to market next year as a companion to the Windows 365 cloud suite, helping companies transition employees to virtual machines. The concept is described as the first move toward a new type of “boot to cloud PCs” that offer little in the way of versatility, but are cheap, easy to operate and secure. Continue reading Microsoft’s Windows 365 Link a Mini PC for Cloud Streaming