As part of a larger push to boost its global subscriptions, Google’s YouTube is pilot-testing a discounted two-person Premium plan with select users in France, Hong Kong, India and Taiwan. The tier’s pilot program, which allows users to share their YouTube Premium or YouTube Music Premium membership with another household member (13 years or older) without committing to a family plan, comes as the platform looks to diversity beyond its advertising business. YouTube is testing whether the plan, similar to the Duo offering from music streamer Spotify, would be appealing to couples or roommates looking to minimize costs while maintaining separate accounts. Continue reading YouTube Tests Two-Person Premium Tier to Help Grow Subs

Apple had a legal setback last week when a federal judge in California ruled in favor of Epic Games, which sued the tech giant for violating a court order to stop demanding commission fees for purchases outside of the Apple App Store. In a ruling last week, Apple was found to be in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction prohibiting it from anticompetitive practices involving pricing. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers went so far as to refer the case to prosecutors for a possible criminal investigation. Apple has already filed a notice of appeal. Continue reading Stakes Escalate for Apple as Epic Scores Lower Court Victory

Subscription movie theater ticket sales company MoviePass is taking a cue from fantasy sports with a daily fantasy platform themed around Hollywood. Called Mogul, it has launched in beta with backing from blockchain company Mysten Labs and Hong Kong-based Web3 software company Animoca Brands. Mogul lets users track the performance of fantasy films and compete to climb leaderboards. Players are assigned a budget and given a digital wallet in which to store “studio credits” to fund projects and bet on box office performance. MoviePass says it has more than 400,000 sign-ups for Mogul’s early-access waitlist. Continue reading MoviePass Debuts Bitcoin-Based Hollywood Fantasy League

YouTube is testing a new AI Overviews feature for search and discovery powered by Gemini. A “small number” of YouTube Premium subscribers in the U.S. will notice a video results carousel popping up for some English-language search queries. The feature taps AI to highlight clips from videos deemed most helpful for a particular search. Initially, the feature will appear in response to practical inquiries, aiming for a more helpful response to things like product inquiries and requests for information about a place or activity. The idea is to provide quick highlights from several videos. Continue reading YouTube Testing Gemini-Powered AI Overviews for Searches

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streaming service has followed Netflix’s lead in battling password sharing by selling Extra Member subscriptions in the U.S. for $8 per month. The move aims to give existing subscribers “greater flexibility and control over how they manage sharing their Max accounts,” the company says, promising a seamless transition from subscription squatting to authorized account user with “profile transfer available for extra member add-ons.” Those in the midst of binging, say, “White Lotus” will not see their viewing disrupted, according to WBD. Continue reading WBD Adds ‘Extra Member’ Option for Max Password Sharers

Netflix posted record profit of $2.9 billion in Q1, a 24 percent increase year-over-year that exceeded its forecast of $2.44 billion. Revenue was up nearly 13 percent to $10.54 billion for the three month period. The streamer attributed the strong performance to “slightly higher subscription and ad revenue and the timing of expenses.” The company is looking ahead to a strong 2025 and robust growth in upcoming years, with an internal goal of doubling annual revenue to $80 billion by 2030 and global ad sales aiming to hit $9 billion. Full-year revenue is forecast to land between $43.5 billion and $44.5 billion. Continue reading Netflix Reports Another Record Quarter with $2.9 Billion Profit

DirecTV is leaning even further into streaming despite its current decision to ditch its “Stream” branding. As of Sunday, the DirecTV Stream landing page had disappeared, its traffic rerouted to DirecTV.com.  The emphasis is now on streaming on any device, “satellite-free and with no annual contract or hidden fees.” Choosing what to watch and how to watch it “should be simple,” which is why DirecTV says it’s now marketing under a single brand. The main messaging on the new landing page includes a build-your-own channel lineup option and streaming via DirecTV’s bespoke dongle Gemini Air. Continue reading DirecTV Leans into Streaming, Bringing It Under Main Banner

Neptune is a new social video app aiming to compete in the short-form space against stalwarts like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Currently in beta with a test base of about 1,000 users, Neptune has amassed a waitlist of 400,000, according to the company. The app’s noteworthy features include the ability to hide likes and follower counts, in furtherance of a desire to prioritize creativity over competition. That goal stems from founder Ashley Darling’s past experience working as a talent director at the beauty and wellness agency OPTYX, where her focus was “underestimated influencers.” Continue reading TikTok Challenger Neptune Lets Users Hide Likes, Followers

Popular website hosting platform WordPress.com has launched an AI website builder that can facilitate creation of a relatively simple website in just a few minutes. Free to anyone who registers for an account, the tool uses a chat-style interface, making website building “as simple as having a conversation,” according to the company, which says the new feature “takes your input and instantly creates a fully designed, content-ready WordPress website, complete with text, layouts, and images.” At the moment, the tool is not able to create a complex site that requires e-commerce or other integrations. Continue reading WordPress AI Website Builder a Free Solution for Basic Sites

Google’s Gemini coding assistant has gained agentic capabilities, available as part of Gemini in Android Studio, a subscription service for businesses designed to make app development for the Android ecosystem easier and more secure. This agent-centric “AI-powered cloud for developers and operators” is designed to infuse AI into all stages of application development, laying the groundwork for more rapid software creation cycles. The service is available to those who subscribe to Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise editions. The new offering was unveiled at the Google Cloud Next 2025 developer conference in Las Vegas. Continue reading Google Pushes Gemini in Android Studio for App Developers

Patreon, a subscription platform popular among individual creators and small companies, is expanding beyond boutique service with a network initiative that has inked Wondery and Sony Music Entertainment to podcasting deals. Patreon says podcasting is its largest category, with participants earning more than $472 million from over 6.7 million paid memberships. The figure marked a 35 percent increase from 2023. With more than 100 million total memberships, Patreon says it is “the best place on the Internet for independent podcasters and media networks alike.” The 12-year-old company provides tools for creators to connect directly with fans. Continue reading Patreon Signs Podcasting Deals with Wondery and Sony Music

Runway has introduced a new video generation model, launching a next phase of competition that could transform film production. Notably, its Gen-4 system improves the consistency of characters, locations and objects across multiple scenes, an elusive prospect for most AI video generators. The New York-based startup calls its new development “a step towards Universal Generative Models that understand the world.” The key, Runway says, is to provide a single reference image of the character, item or environment as part of the model’s project material. Runway Gen-4 can generate 5- and 10-second clips at 720p resolution. Continue reading Runway Gen-4 Tackles AI’s Elusive Video Scene Consistency

Tech firm Infinite Reality — which specializes in AI-powered 3D immersive experiences — has agreed to pay $207 million for Napster, the 26-year-old music streaming service. The sellers are crypto investment firm Hivemind Capital Partners and blockchain firm Algorand, that acquired the platform in 2022. Infinite Reality is privately held, listing among its investors Liberty Media, Live Nation, MGM, T-Mobile and Barry Diller’s IAC. The company plans to steer Napster to superfan experiences, making it “more immersive, more social, and more shoppable.” Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos, former global music chief at Roblox, will continue in his current post. Continue reading Infinite Reality Agrees to Acquire Napster in $207 Million Deal

Netflix has begun streaming HDR10+ programming for AV1-enabled devices, enhancing the customer viewing experience for subscribers at the $25 per month Premium level. Previously, high-definition content had been limited to HDR10 and Dolby Vision, which it will continue to offer. Netflix has been “a pioneering adopter of High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology” starting nearly a decade ago, not only streaming in the format but also producing and encoding in it. “In the last five years, HDR streaming has increased by more than 300 percent” on Netflix while HDR-configured devices have more than doubled, according to the company. Continue reading Netflix Enhanced Viewing Supports HDR10+ on AV1 Devices

Anthropic’s Claude can now search the Internet in real time, allowing it to provide timely and relevant responses that are also more accurate than what the chatbot previously offered, according to the company. Claude incorporates direct citations for its Web-retrieved material, so users can fact-check its sources. “Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format.” While this is not exactly groundbreaking — ChatGPT, Grok 3, Copilot, Perplexity and Gemini all have real-time Web retrieval and most include citations — Claude takes a slightly different approach. Continue reading Real-Time Web Access Informs Claude 3.7 Sonnet Responses