streaming

Redbox Instant has made good on its promise to open its doors to the general public by spring. The video streaming service publicly launched in the U.S. today.

The new service is a joint venture between Verizon and Redbox that was first announced in February 2012. Redbox Instant will give new users unlimited streaming and four DVD credits for free for one month, according to the Web site. Once the month-long trial ends, the service will cost $8 per month.

Redbox Instant was rolled out in private beta in December, letting first-time users sign up for the service. It'… Read more

CBS today announced that it has launched a new, free app for the iPhone and iPad that allows for full-episode streaming to Apple's mobile devices.

The app provides access to full-length episodes of CBS' top shows, including "NCIS," "The Good Wife," and "How I Met Your Mother." The latest episodes of daytime and late-night programming will show up within 24 hours after airing. Prime-time programs will hit the app eight days after their initial broadcast.

For now, the apps are available to iPhone and iPad owners. CBS, which owns CBS Interactive, the company … Read more

For those who like watching their favorite flicks over and over again, AMC Networks has launched a movie-streaming service, Yeah, that runs new bonus material alongside cult classic movies.

AMC, which launched the pay-per-view service at South by Southwest Interactive today, is jumping into a crowded, and competitive, video-streaming market. Big players like Amazon and Netflix fight for fresh content constantly. Meanwhile, content producers stream their shows directly, as with HBO Go, or cut deals with other established streaming services.

But Yeah has decided to go in another direction: older movies with established fan bases. General Manager Lisa Judson said … Read more

Membership in Amazon Prime, the subscription service that offers rapid shipping as well as streaming movies, now tops 10 million, according to a new report from Morningstar.

Amazon doesn't disclose subscription numbers for the service. But Morningstar analyst R.J. Hottovy arrived at the number using a survey of Amazon shoppers conducted by market-research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners last November. Hottovy, whose report was first covered by Business Intelligence, also wrote that Amazon Prime now accounts for about a third of Amazon's operating income.

As Geekwire reports, it's a particularly startling number given that just a … Read more

New York-based video-hosting site Vimeo today added a way for its paying users to sell their works online as part of a new program.

At South by Southwest, the company announced Vimeo On Demand, which lets its paying Pro users (a $199 a year service) sell access to their videos to other users.

Video creators can set their own price for the video, and then get 90 percent of the revenue, the company says. Other features include the option for video makers to select where exactly they want their video to be available, as well as the design of the … Read more

Continuing its recent push into international markets, Rdio announced today that it has expanded its free streaming music service in seven new countries, bringing its total global presence up to 24.

The free music option, which launched to its first international customers in January, is now available in Austria, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Mexico. The expansion comes on the same day that Bloomberg reported that music streaming rival Spotify was close to deals with record labels to expand its ad-supported mobile radio service outside the U.S.

Much like Pandora, Spotify's music service has advertisements seeded among … Read more

How do you get someone to buy your streaming-video puck when everything already streams Netflix?

That's the question Roku has answered definitively with the Roku 3 ($99), by serving up more content sources than anyone else, with lightning-fast navigation and an onscreen interface that's finally competitive with the Apple TV. The Roku 3's updated processor and always-on design means you go from "TV off" to "House of Cards" much faster than alternative streamers, and the overhauled interface and improved cross-platform search lets you quickly find the content you want to watch. And there'… Read more

Pandora Media, the company behind the Web radio service, posted big fourth-quarter revenue gains as advertising revenue jumped 51 percent from the year-ago period.

At the same time, the company's losses widened 78 percent to $14.6 million.

"Pandora has been hiring top talent in local radio markets to further increase our share of the $15 billion radio ad market," Pandora Chief Executive Joe Kennedy said in a statement. "We are now effectively the largest radio station in almost every major market and begin fiscal year 2014 with extraordinary momentum."

Separately, Kennedy announced that he'… Read more

Apple's long-rumored streaming music service won't be arriving until this summer, or later according to a new report.

Citing sources, The New York Times says that Apple's still wrangling with Sony over licensing rights, adding delay to the service that Apple had originally aimed to launch last month. Those people now believe that negotiations will be sorted out in time for a launch this summer, or later in the year.

The report goes on to say that the service was being designed to come preinstalled on Apple's devices instead of an additional app that needed downloading … Read more