The three major players in the content streaming arena are Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. All are battling to get exclusive rights to certain studios' movies or certain networks' TV shows. They hope that exclusive content will entice users to join or stick with their service.
For consumers, exclusive content is not a particularly welcome development, since it means that they may have to subscribe to a number of services, each with its own fees, to gain access to the best movies and TV shows available.
Tech Giants Battle to Control Your Living RoomAmazon's Prime Instant Video service is basically an entertaining add-on to the online retailer's $79-per-year fast shipping service. Prime Instant Videos work on computers and on nearly 200 models of set-top boxes, Internet connected TVs, and Blu-ray players, including the Roku box and Google TV devices.
Netflix charges $8 per month to let you stream advertising-free movies and TV shows on consoles (including the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360), as well as online, on iOS and some Android devices, and on the Apple TV, Roku, and TiVo boxes. Hulu Plus also charges $8 per month and works on as many devices as Netflix does, excluding Apple TV.
Yet in their current form, these streaming services aren't yet ready to replace your cable provider. For one thing, many new movies are unavailable for streaming for at least one month after they're released on DVD. And TV series are often embargoed until a month after the last episode of a season has aired.
Tech Giants Battle to Control Your Living RoomBut if you like reruns and older TV shows, streaming services can be a great supplement to your TV subscription. Cases in point: Netflix and Amazon last week unveiled separate deals to expand their lineups of Disney and ABC series, including Alias and Switched at Birth, plus old episodes of Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, and all episodes of Lost, Brothers & Sisters, and Ugly Betty.
If you don't want to pay increasingly pricey monthly fees for streaming TV and you don't mind watching ads, consider YouTube, which has some interesting plans to shift from its current reliance on user-generated kitten clips to high-quality video. The Google-owned site is set to unveil some 100 channels of original programming from partners such as the Wall Street Journal, Madonna, and Ashton Kutcher. These channels, for which YouTube is reportedly paying producers some $100 million in advance advertising revenue, are set to debut early next year.
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http://www.pcworld.com/article/243360/tech_giants_battle_to_control_your_living_room.html
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