Disney to buy most of 21st Century Fox

LOS ANGELES — In a move that will reverberate from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to TVs and smartphones around the world, the Walt Disney Company said Thursday that it had reached a deal to buy most of 21st Century Fox, the empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch, in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $52.4 billion.

While the agreement is subject to the approval of antitrust regulators — and the Justice Department recently moved to block a big media company, AT&T, from becoming even bigger — Disney is acknowledging that the future of television and movie viewing is online. The acquisition, which would make Disney a colossus unlike anything Hollywood has ever seen, is the biggest counterattack from a traditional media company against the tech giants that have aggressively moved into the entertainment business.

Disney has already announced an ambitious plan to introduce two streaming services by 2019. With this deal and the wealth of movies, TV shows and sports programming it provides, the company will now have the muscle to challenge Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook in the fast-growing realm of online video.

“The pace of disruption has only hastened,” Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive and chairman, said in an interview. “This will allow us to greatly accelerate our direct-to-consumer strategy, which is our highest priority.”

At the same time, the agreement means that one of moviedom’s most celebrated studios, 20th Century Fox, will be downsized, with some operations folded into Walt Disney Studios or refocused to make films for online distribution. Founded in 1935, the Fox studio championed Marilyn Monroe, produced classics like “The Sound of Music,” released the first “Star Wars” movie and, more recently, turned “Avatar” into the biggest ticket-seller of all time.

But lately, as most of Hollywood has, 20th Century Fox has struggled to keep pace with the changing way younger audiences view content — namely on an internet-connected device. Some analysts interpreted Mr. Murdoch’s sudden willingness to sell as his reading the writing on the wall: The business climate is going to become tougher for old-line Hollywood.

To complete the integration, a legacy-defining task, Mr. Iger, 66, agreed to renew his contract for a fourth time, delaying retirement from July 2019 to the end of 2021 and effectively ending speculation about whether he might run for president in 2020. Mr. Murdoch asked Mr. Iger to stay as a condition of the deal, which was valued at $66.1 billion including debt.

Not included in the acquisition: Fox News, the Fox broadcast network and the FS1 sports cable channel. In the news release announcing the Disney deal, Mr. Murdoch said he would spin those businesses and a handful of other properties, including the 20th Century Fox lot in Century City, which Disney is not buying, into a newly listed company. Mr. Murdoch also still controls his newspaper-focused company, News Corporation, which has holdings that include The Wall Street Journal.

Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, hopes 21st Century Fox will supercharge its plans to introduce two Netflix-style streaming services. Disney’s first major streaming effort, ESPN Plus, will arrive in the spring. A second and still unnamed offering, built around the company’s Disney, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar brands, will roll out late next year. Rounding out its streaming portfolio will be Hulu, an established service that focuses on older viewers with programming that includes ABC shows.

Mr. Iger is buying 21st Century Fox’s minority stake in Hulu, resulting in majority control of the streaming service by Disney, which previously owned 30 percent. Comcast and Time Warner also have stakes in Hulu.

Disney is buying the Fox television studio, which has 36 series in production, including “The Simpsons,” “Homeland,” “This Is Us” and “Modern Family.” Disney’s significantly smaller TV factory, ABC Studios, has delivered series of inconsistent quality and lost its biggest hitmaker in August when the “Grey’s Anatomy” producer Shonda Rhimes decamped for Netflix.

To augment ESPN Plus, Disney is adding 21st Century Fox’s chain of 22 regional cable networks dedicated to sports, including the YES Network, which carries New York Yankees games.

As part of the deal, Disney will also get the FX and National Geographic cable networks, and stakes in two behemoth overseas television-service providers, Sky of Britain and Star of India. That component of the deal would seem to contradict Disney’s push to lessen its reliance on traditional television, a business built on third-party cable subscriptions that is now in decline as people turn to streaming services for home entertainment.

But those assets serve another of Mr. Iger’s strategic goals: making Disney more of an international player. Disney has major operations in Europe, Japan and China, where it opened Shanghai Disneyland last year. But most of Disney’s profit still comes from the United States, where ESPN dominates, despite recent struggles, and annual attendance at Walt Disney World in Florida and the Disneyland Resort in California totals 162 million people.

With the acquisition, “Disney goes from being a juggernaut to being a megajuggernaut,” Steven Cahall, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients.

Mr. Cahall and other analysts said the acquisition would likely prompt other entertainment companies to join forces as a competitive maneuver. Speculation immediately surrounded Viacom and CBS, which share common ownership; Lionsgate, which owns Starz; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which controls rights to the James Bond franchise; and Sony Pictures Entertainment, which has struggled with low box office market share.

Since taking over as Disney’s chief executive in 2005, Mr. Iger has greatly expanded Disney’s theme park operations, opening in Shanghai against all odds and nearly tripling the size of Disney Cruise Line. Walt Disney Studios, bolstered by Mr. Iger’s acquisitions of Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel, has become Hollywood’s runaway leader.

Playstation Vue

[11/25/17]  Hey, I'm getting all the channels on Playstation Vue now.  But not for long.

[11/5/17]  I subscribed to Playstation Vue about a month or so ago because the NBA season was starting and they had NBA TV (on the Core package for $45).  As a bonus they also have the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, and Los Angeles Clippers in my area.  The Clippers are available on Oceanic but not on Hawaiian Telcom.  Hawaiian Telcom carries none of the three.

The other reason is that Playstation Vue carries CBS Sports Network which I don't have on my Oceanic basic cable subscription and UH football was playing on that channel that week.

After having used PS Vue for a while, I decided to cancel Hulu and CBS since PS Vue also has the recent network shows On Demand.  One drawback is that Star Trek: Discovery is only on CBS All Access.  And I have noticed that the live NFL games on KGMB are blacked out (I keep getting an error when the NFL games are on, but not at other times).  It's not blacked out on CBS All Access, so I'm tempted to re-subscribe.  [Checking further, PS Vue live feed for the NFL game works on the website, my Fire tablet, and my Fire TV, but not on my ipad or Roku.]

I do like the 30-day [actually 28] DVR, but apparently there's a limit of 30 shows, so it's not really a full 30 days for programs like NBA games and College Football.  [11/25/17 - More like 21 shows, sometimes they show more shows but those haven't been recorded yet.]  [12/19/17 - the limit of 21 shows is on my Roku 3, on my Fire TV I'm getting 28 days of NBA.]

What don't they have?  A&E, Comedy Central, Hallmark, History, Nickelodeon, Spike, TV Land (DirecTV Now carries all of them).  They do carry MLB now.  [12/19/17 - they carry Hallmark now.]

So why not get DirectTV Now instead?  Well, they don't have DVR yet.  And NBA TV is available only on their Gotta Go Big ($60) packages and up.  And they it looks like don't carry the regional Fox and NBC Sports channels that carry the Warriors, Kings, Clippers.

So I would recommend Playstation Vue for sports fans.  But maybe DirectTV for others depending on what channels you want.

[7/11/17] Playstation Vue has abruptly raised their prices.  Checking the website, the Access Slim is now called Access and costs $39.99.  Core Slim is now called Core and is $44.99.

[2/2/17]  According to Cord Cutters News, Playstation Vue has added KGMB (Honolulu's CBS station).  But it's also preceded by Hawaii News Now.  Does that mean it's only supporting the news, but not playing anything else?

Well checking the website, all of the plans including the cheapie Access Slim for $29.99 include KGMB, ABC on demand, Fox on demand, NBC on demand.  That plan also has CNBC, ESPN, ESPN2, HGTV, TBS, TNT.  I could live with that.

The Core Slim for $34.99 adds CSN Bay area, ESPNU, Prime Ticket, Fox Sports West, NBA TV.  I might go for that.

[10/1/16] Cord Cutters News updated their comparison between Sling and Playstation Vue.

[7/3/16] Curious, I went to website to see what's available in my area.  There are three plans: Access Slim for $29.99/month, Core Slim for $34.99/month, Elite Slim for $44.99/month.  I assume they're all Slim because they don't yet have live ABC, NBC, Fox in my area.  The list of channels is in this article.

[7/3/16] CNET has a nice report (written 3/22/16) comparing Sling TV and Playstation Vue.  Since then Playstation View has become available on Roku.

[3/14/16] Ditching your cable TV subscription just got easier, no matter where you live in the United States.

PlayStation Vue, a service that streams live and on-demand TV over the Internet, is now available everywhere in the country, and for a lower price than ever. Starting today in 203 US TV markets, you can subscribe to the service for as little as $30 per month.

Vue is designed as an alternative to a traditional pay TV package from a satellite or cable TV provider. It delivers numerous live TV channels and on-demand programming, just like cable TV, and also lets you record shows to a "cloud DVR" and watch multiple TVs around the house from one account.

Until today Vue was only available in seven major metropolitan areas: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco and Miami. Packages in those cities start at $40 per month and include local broadcast TV channels, namely ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC (but not PBS).

If you live in one of the 203 other TV markets newly served by Vue -- places like Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, Phoenix, Portland, and St. Louis, as well as smaller cities and towns in all 50 states -- you'll only be able to subscribe to what Vue is calling "Slim" versions of its channel packages, starting at $30 per month.

The difference is that Slim packages don't have access to live local channels via Vue. According to Sony's press release, "Content from ABC, FOX and NBC will be available only as on-demand content in the Slim multi-channel plans. Most on-demand content will be available within 24 hours after airing. CBS live and on-demand programming will be added to select TV markets at a later date."

I spoke with Dan Myers, head of product for PlayStation Vue, and was given some additional details. If you live in one of the original seven markets you will not be able to subscribe to a Slim package that lacks local channels -- in other words, pricing in those seven markets will not change as a result of Vue's nationwide expansion, and starts at $40.

Beyond pricing, regional availability and the absence of local channels, Vue's Slim packages are identical to their non-slim counterparts. The cheapest $30 Access Slim package has 55 or so channels; the $35 Core Slim package has 70-odd with the addition of live national and select regional sports networks; and the $45 Elite Slim package has more than 100 channels.

This nationwide rollout and price drop brings Vue into even more direct competition with Sling TV, another Internet-delivered live TV service that competes against cable.

Unlike a typical traditional TV subscription, both Sling and Vue offer free trial periods and the ability to cancel service anytime, and don't charge equipment rental or other miscellaneous fees.

Sling TV is cheaper, starting at $20 per month, and available on many more devices than Vue, including Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, iPhones and iPads, Android phones and tablets, Android TV devices, Xbox One, and PC and Mac computers.

In pretty much every other way, however, Vue is superior on paper. It offers significantly more channels than Sling TV, particularly since the recent addition of ABC, ESPN and Disney channels. Step-up Vue packages even offer select (but not all) regional sports networks, the crown jewels of cable TV.

Very few Sling TV channels offer the ability to pause or rewind live TV, and there's no DVR functionality, whereas Vue's cloud DVR is basically a full-function recorder, just like you get from a cable company. Sling TV can only stream to one device at a time, while Vue offers up to five simultaneous streams -- so you can watch different TVs around the house at the same time, or even on the go with the iOS app. Vue supports multiple profiles for different family members (much like Netflix), has access to more "TV everywhere" apps, and has an intuitive interface that prioritizes shows over channels.

Of course, with Vue's steeper monthly fees compared to Sling, the main goal of cord cutting -- saving money compared with a traditional cable subscription -- is a bit more difficult to achieve. Whether you do so depends largely on what channels you need, what your local providers offer, and how much broadband Internet costs in your area.

***

[3/18/15] The long-awaited future of television has planted its flag firmly in the present.

A group of media, tech and telecom companies are racing this year to release web-based TV offerings that challenge the entrenched cable and satellite business. On Wednesday, Sony added to that flood of options with the introduction of its PlayStation Vue service, which offers a bundle of channels along with a personalized, searchable approach to watching live and on-demand television.

Starting at $49.99 a month, the service offers more than 50 channels, including CBS, Fox and NBC, and cable channels such as USA, TBS, Fox News and Discovery. Special features include the availability of the past three days of popular programming and personalization features based on a user’s viewing habits.

Targeted at gamers, the service initially is available to owners of the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 consoles in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. It is expected to be made available on the iPad and in other United States cities. Disney-owned networks, including ABC, ESPN and the Disney Channel, are not part of the service.

With the introduction of the PlayStation Vue, Sony joins Apple, HBO, Nickelodeon and the Dish Network in starting to redirect the television business with the release of streaming services that do not require a traditional TV subscription.

The services are targeted at a growing number of people who pay for Internet but do not subscribe for television. Instead, this group watches programs via streaming services, like Netflix, Amazon and now, potentially, Sony. The number of households in the United States that pay for broadband but not television was 10.6 million in the third quarter of 2014, up 16 percent from the same period in 2012, according to SNL Kagan.

Increasingly, viewers are searching not only for a discount on their cable bill — which SNL Kagan puts at an average of $90 a month — but also more choice to pay for what they want to watch, how they want to watch it, analysts said.

“The reality is, each individual service is not all that important, but when you start to layer lots of different options together, you have the ability to piece together your own bundle,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG Research. “I don’t think it is about saving money as much as it is about empowering consumers to build the experience you want.”

***

[Ah, it's heating up.  SlingTV with no network TV.  Sony without ABC.  Apple without NBC.  But who really needs live network TV except for news and sports.  The cable networks must be squirming.]

Sony’s version of the cable TV bundle offers a wide array of programming and their intent is clear. “We don’t expect our service to be used alongside a cable service,” says Dwayne T. Benefield, Sony VP and head of Playstation Vue. With 35 million PlayStation users in the US, the majority of whom still subscribe to cable or satellite TV, Sony sees an attractive opportunity to entice part of a highly desirable demographic (18-35-year-old males) away from the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable and convert them into recurring video customers.

PlayStation Vue’s base package offers nearly 50 channels including CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, the Discovery Channel, Nat Geo and TNT, for $50 a month with no long-term contract.

Sports fans can opt for a $60 per month bundle that adds regional sports networks like YES (New York) and Comcast SportsNet (Philadelphia and Chicago). ESPN (along with other Disney properties like ABC) remains a glaring omission for now. But by reaching distribution deals with carriers of pro franchises like the Yankees, Cubs, Bulls and Phillies, PlayStation Vue provides live home team coverage, a must for many cable subscribers. A $70 per month top-tier bundle brings the channel total to 85 with the addition of several family and lifestyle networks.

[85 channels?  Hello cable TV.  No ESPN?  Advantage back to SlingTV and Apple TV]

None of this sounds much different from a traditional pay TV package, minus the contract commitment and standalone cable box. Where Sony hopes to distinguish itself is in the user experience. Powered by its PlayStation consoles and controllers, all content can be paused or DVR’d, with the latter giving you cloud-hosted access to episodes for 28 days. For shows in syndication, PlayStation Vue will DVR episodes across all available networks. Most, but not all, of the TV programming comes with a three-day window for catch-up viewing. And if you begin watching during the middle of one of these shows you get a brief window (typically double the length of the episode) in which to start it from the beginning.

PlayStation Vue isn’t an inexpensive mini-bundle for cordcutters on a budget. The reality for consumers is that content costs money, no matter who’s delivering it to you. At $60 a month for the middle tier bundle, along with what you’ll be paying for your Internet connection, switching to Sony as your TV provider isn’t likely to save you any money. The company is betting instead that users will embrace an improved user experience as a value proposition. With PlayStation Vue the electronics giant isn’t looking to change the game but to play it better than the cable guys.

[Of course, it's going to save you money.  Most cable subscribers already have internet access.  And  $60 is cheaper than $90 (or the $110 that I'm paying Time Warner Cable now).  However the problem is that the internet access providers are also the TV providers and apparently you can get a pretty decent deal bundling internet and TV, especially if you threaten to switch.  They'll probably give you a lousy deal if you go internet only -- well except for the cheapie $15 service.]

delete downloaded videos on Fire tablet

You can easily download Amazon videos (movies or TV shows) to your Fire tablet for offline viewing.

But after you watch them, how do you delete the video to free up space?

It's not so obvious.

Here's a set of old instructions on how to do it for the Kindle Fire.  I believe the Kindle Fire is the same (or very similar) to the cheapie Fire tablet that I have.  If so, the instructions are a little different now.

Here's how I did it (mostly following the instructions, at first anyway).

1) tap Video

2) tap Library

3) tap the three horizontal lines at the top left

4) tap Downloads

5) tap and hold the video you want to delete (in my case it's a TV show)

6) tap View Season Details

7) scroll up to see the episode list, the videos that have been downloaded will have a trash can icon on the right

8) tap the trash can icon and you will get the message "Do you want to remove this video from your device?"

9) tap OK to delete the video

Amazon video viewing history

It's easy to view your Netflix and Hulu viewing history, but harder to figure out how to view your Amazon video viewing history.

This article explained how, but that was last year.  Now it's a little different (they added a step).  Well, actually this link still works, but if you want to do it the long way, here's what to do.

1) log in to your Amazon account
2) arrow to Accounts & Lists
3) select Your Recommendations
4) click on Improve Your Recommendations
5) click on Videos you've watched

journey through technology

“Why is it so hard for old people to understand how incredible the technology of today is?”

Why? I’m almost 60. I guess I’m old (when I was 18, my girlfriend called me an “old fuddy-duddy”), so I’ll give it a try. I’ll stick to electronics.

[it's kind of cool to look at the pictures]

-- Timothy Mauch, quora

breakthrough cancer treatment approved

Opening a new era in cancer care, U.S. health officials on Wednesday approved a breakthrough treatment that genetically engineers patients' own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia.

The Food and Drug Administration called the approval historic, the first gene therapy to hit the U.S. market. Made from scratch for every patient, it's one of a wave of "living drugs" under development to fight additional blood cancers and other tumors, too.

Novartis Pharmaceuticals set the price for its one-time infusion of so-called "CAR-T cells" at $475,000, but said there would be no charge for patients who didn't show a response within a month.

"This is a brand new way of treating cancer," said Dr. Stephan Grupp of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who treated the first child with CAR-T cell therapy — a girl who'd been near death but now is cancer-free for five years and counting. "That's enormously exciting."

CAR-T treatment uses gene therapy techniques not to fix disease-causing genes but to turbocharge T cells, immune system soldiers that cancer too often can evade. Researchers filter those cells from a patient's blood, reprogram them to harbor a "chimeric antigen receptor" or CAR that zeroes in on cancer, and grow hundreds of millions of copies. Returned to the patient, the revved-up cells can continue multiplying to fight disease for months or years.

It's a completely different way to harness the immune system than popular immunotherapy drugs called "checkpoint inhibitors" that treat a variety of cancers by helping the body's natural T cells better spot tumors. CAR-T cell therapy gives patients stronger T cells to do that job.

"We're entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient's own cells to attack a deadly cancer," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.

In a key study of 63 advanced patients, 83 percent went into remission soon after receiving the CAR-T cells. Importantly, it's not clear how long that benefit lasts: Some patients did relapse months later. The others still are being tracked to see how they fare long-term.

Still, "a far higher percentage of patients go into remission with this therapy than anything else we've seen to date with relapsed leukemia," said Dr. Ted Laetsch of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, one of the study sites. "I wouldn't say we know for sure how many will be cured yet by this therapy. There certainly is a hope" that some will be.

safety systems reduce car crashes

WASHINGTON — Safety systems to prevent cars from drifting into another lane or that warn drivers of vehicles in their blind spots are beginning to live up to their potential to reduce crashes significantly, according to two studies released Wednesday.

The lane-keeping study looked at police crash data from 25 states between 2009 and 2015 for vehicle models where the systems were sold as optional. Lane-keeping systems lowered rates of single-vehicle, sideswipe and head-on crashes of all severities by 11 percent, and crashes of those types in which there were injuries, by 21 percent, the study found.

Because there were only 40 fatal crashes in the data, researchers used a simpler analysis that didn't control for differences in drivers' ages, genders, insurance risk and other factors for those crashes. They found the technology cut the fatal crash rate by 86 percent.

That's probably high, said Jessica Cicchino, the institute's vice president for research, but even if lane-keeping systems cut such crashes by half it would be significant, she said. Cicchino said about a quarter of traffic fatalities involve a vehicle drifting into another lane.

"Now we have evidence that this technology really can save lives and has the potential to prevent thousands of deaths once it's on every vehicle," Cicchino said.

If all passenger vehicles had been equipped with lane departure warning systems in 2015, an estimated 85,000 police-reported crashes would have been prevented, the study found.

Disney to leave Netflix

Disney is launching its own streaming movie service, and that means Disney will stop streaming its movies on Netflix.

But not right away. You’ve got a couple years.

And it’s possible that some of its most popular movies, like the Avengers and other Marvel movies, as well as the Star Wars saga, could end up staying on Netflix, after all.

Confusing, right? Here’s what we know, for now:

• Disney has announced plans to launch a Disney-branded streaming service in 2019. It hasn’t said how much it will cost.
• Disney currently has a deal that lets Netflix stream old Disney movies, as well as ones that have recently been in theaters. That deal expires near the end of 2019, and covers new Disney movies that appear in theaters through the end of 2018. That means Netflix will have the right to show Disney movies that have already come out this year, like Cars 3, as well as ones on tap for 2017, like Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
• That deal also means Netflix will eventually stream Disney movies scheduled for next year, like Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, The Incredibles 2 and the untitled “Star Wars Story” movie about Han Solo. 
• Disney says it won’t renew its current Netflix deal, which means that it will have the right to show all of its old movies on its new streaming service, as well as new ones. So films that are scheduled for release in 2019, like Toy Story 4 and a sequel to Frozen, will end up on the new service.
• That doesn’t necessarily mean that Disney’s Marvel movies, like a fourth Avengers movie, or its Lucasfilm movies, like the 9th installment of the Star Wars series, will end up on the Disney streaming service. Disney CEO Bob Iger says his company hasn’t decided whether to include those movies in its Disney-branded service, or create different services just for those properties. It’s even possible that they’ll strike a new deal to license those movies to Netflix or another streaming service, he says: “It's all in discussion.”
• It doesn’t seem likely that Disney will let someone else stream some of its most popular movies if it’s already selling a streaming service to consumers. But it’s not impossible: Disney may decide that the people who really want to pay for Disney and Pixar movies aren’t as interested in Marvel movies. And for the right price, Netflix or other streaming services will be happy stream Disney’s superhero and Star Wars movies.
• This also doesn’t affect, for now, other Disney-related content that Netflix streams, like the Marvel TV shows including Daredevil and Luke Cage.

Got it? No? Confused? Fair enough: The man who runs Disney isn’t sure, either. “It's premature to say exactly what we will do,” Iger says.

*** [9/14/17]

Bad news for Netflix: Disney CEO Bob Iger now says that Disney’s forthcoming streaming service, which is set to debut in late 2019, will exclusively get Star Wars and Marvel movies. This is in addition to Pixar and Disney studio films, which were the content focus of the service when it was initially announced.

The addition of Marvel and Star Wars movies coming exclusively to the app (via CNBC) along with Disney’s television library, will make for a very deep well of content for the own-brand subscription streaming offering. This will be very useful in helping to attract subscribers who might be hesitant about putting down yet another recurring financial commitment with the growing selection of over-the-top streaming offerings.

deadly heat waves

Three-quarters of the world’s inhabitants, including those living in Hawaii, will be exposed to deadly heat waves by the end of the century unless greenhouse gases are not substantially reduced, according to a study published today in Nature Climate Change.

And even if bold action is taken to curtail emissions, nearly half of the world’s population still faces living with the dangerous hot spells, with tropical regions feeling the worst of it, the study said.

“We’re left with a choice between bad and terrible,” said lead author Camilo Mora, a University of Hawaii professor.

In Hawaii, according to Mora, the extreme heat might last two or three months at a time, driving residents and tourists indoors in search of air-conditioned relief — all the while straining island power grids.


The episodes will be reminiscent of the oppressive heat and humidity felt here a few days each year now, he said, and for about a week during the strong El Nino summer two years ago.

*** and now let's go to the know-nothing comments...

plainly_the_elder
14 hours ago

More fake news by the climate death cultists intended to grease the rails of the government grant gravy train.

[etc.]

Oceanic no more

A household name for more than 50 years in local cable TV has signed off.

As of today the dominant cable TV system operator in the state has been re-branded as Spectrum, replacing Oceanic, which had served kamaaina customers since the 1960s.

Spectrum is the result of Charter Communications Inc. acquiring Time Warner Cable in a roughly $60 billion deal in May 2016. Charter has been converting Time Warner Cable customers in 28 states to its own service under the Spectrum brand since September, and Hawaii is the last market to undergo the changeover.

As part of the switch, Hawaii customers have the option to keep their existing service packages but also now have new packages to choose from. The Oceanic name, however, wasn’t retained despite a long association in the islands, where a series of mainland companies acquired and maintained the brand.

Oceanic was born as an outgrowth of developing Mililani in the 1960s. At the time, over-the-air TV service wouldn’t reach or wouldn’t be received well in Central Oahu, so Mililani’s developer Castle &Cooke Inc. established its own service initially called Mililani Cablevision.

Castle &Cooke’s real estate development arm, Oceanic Properties, decided to expand the business, and in 1968 announced plans to offer what was then known as cable community antenna television, or CATV, between downtown neighborhoods and Waialae-Kahala. What evolved was Oceanic Cablevision, which acquired competitors and grew to serve most of the state under a succession of different owners and variations of the Oceanic name.

Among those past owners were American Television and Communications Corp., Warner Cable and most recently Time Warner.

Kit Beuret, Oceanic’s director of public affairs from 1982 to 2002, recalled that under Time Warner there was a push to ditch the Oceanic name and streamline operations. Beuret and others at the company here argued against the plan.

“You know how it is with kamaaina businesses,” he said. “We really wanted to hang on to that brand. It was one of the most recognizable brands in Hawaii.”

There are no plans to change existing Hawaii service packages, said company spokesman Dennis Johnson. “We want to make this as smooth a transition as possible,” he said. “Current customers do not need to do anything.”

Local programming will be unchanged, including high school and University of Hawaii sports coverage, he added. UH sports programming will henceforth be known as Spectrum Sports, but the high school sports programming known as OC16 will retain the reference to Oceanic Cable in its new name, Spectrum OC16.

Netflix is bigger than cable

Netflix has, for the first time, surpassed cable in total subscribers according to Leichtman Research. US cable companies have 48.61 million subscribers while Netflix has just hit 50.85 million. The numbers don't count minor cable networks, which could in themselves amount to 5% of total cable customers.

For many this won't be a surprise. Let's be honest, with Netflix having doubled its subscriber base - adding 27 million subs - over the last five years there was always going to come a time when it beat other services.

And the good news for cable is that this isn't having a massively detrimental effect on their numbers either. While cable subs are down by 4 million in the same five years that Netflix has seen huge growth, that's not a massive drop off. It's also worth bearing in mind that cable TV makes up only 50% of total TV viewership in pay TV. That said, Q1 2017 shows a net loss in subscriptions while Q1 2016 saw cable grow a little.

Satellite TV is doing okay, with around 38 million subscribers. Dish Network added 318,000 customers in Q1 with Direct TV stalling with gains that didn't outpace customer loses. Satellite is still growing faster than cable though.

Faster still though are the internet-delivered services like Sling TV and Direct TV now which have added 350,000 in Q1. These services now have 1.7 million customers between them, and it's likely that this segment will continue to see growth as customers move away from cable TV.

In total there are 93,319,187 subscribers to cable, satellite and internet streaming services in the US, which account for 95% of pay TV viewers. Netflix certainly isn't going to hit 100m US subscriptions anytime soon, and it's likely that it will hit a wall of some sort eventually. But if the service continues to improve and offer diverse programming it's likely that customers will feel as I do - that it's worth the modest monthly fee to have access to a library of great content.

the cheapo Fire tablet (what's missing?)

Sure the Fire tablet is a bargain at $50 (or sometimes even cheaper, it was like $33.33 on Black Friday).  But there's no such thing as a free lunch.  (Well, maybe there is, but in this case, no.)

So what's the downside of buying a Fire tablet vs. and ipad or Galaxy Tab?  Well the first thing is that if you buy the cheapie version, there's an ad on the splash screen when the thing turns on.  You have to flick it up to get rid of it.  But the main thing is that it doesn't have all the apps.

I tried to install TBS on it today.  Nope, not compatible with my tablet Amazon.com says, only with my Fire TVs.

I found that odd since I had TNT installed on my tablet.  But when I tried to run it, it said there was an update available with no option to bypass the update.  But then you try to install the update, it goes to the app store and the Watch TNT page.  And guess what, not compatible with the Fire tablet either.

I'd say TBS and TNT are pretty big names for Amazon not to support.

Well, I guess it's possible to load Google Play on the Fire tablet, but I never tried it.  But why bother when I can just use my ipad (other than the fact it's full of pictures and videos already)...

Then again, I guess I shouldn't complain.  After all, I think I paid like only $40 for mine.

more popular than cable

Internet video services are more popular than cable, according to a May study from Fluent LLC. that was reported by eMarketer.  Fluent, a data and marketing company, found that 67% of U.S. internet users watch TV via a streaming service, a la Netflix Inc. (NFLX), Hulu and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), while 61% have cable subscriptions at home.

Millennials, age 18 to 34, used streaming services at a higher rate and Netflix was the most popular service among them.  According to the study, 77% of millennials said they use streaming services vs. 57% who have cable at home -- there's some cross over of people subscribing to both.  For people aged 35 and older it was a more even split, with 65% using streaming services and 62% subscribing to cable.

Of the streaming services, Netflix was the most popular, with 48% of all respondents saying they use the service. Amazon and Hulu -- a joint venture by Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Walt Disney Co. (DIS), 21st Century Fox Inc. (FOX) and Time Warner Inc. (TWX), were tied with 16%, followed by Alphabet Inc.-owned (GOOGL) YouTube Red's 11% share and HBO being popular among 10% of survey respondents.

More than 34% of people said low cost was the main factor in opting for a streaming service and for millennials the convenience of watching whenever and wherever was important for 29% of them, while 21% of nonmillennials said the same. And original content, which has been of increasing importance for companies, was a deciding factor for 18% of all respondents. Only 7% were interested in syndicated content.

-- via etrade (TWX)

cut the cord? maybe not yet

We interrupt your regularly scheduled edition of Schwab Sector Views to let you know about an exciting development in entertainment: Are you tired of having to subscribe to a patchwork of multiple services to see the programs you like? Are you tired of having to wait for shows to load and buffering problems? Are you tired of missing out on live sports and local news? What if I told you you could drop all that in favor of a service that bundles all of the channels you want, including live sports and local channels? It comes on instantly and allows you to seamlessly move between shows with the simple touch of a button... How lucky are we to live in a time like this?!

OK—a bit of sarcasm to make the point that despite all the talk you might hear about “cord cutting” and the changing media landscape, investors may want to think twice about dumping all the “old” media stocks from their portfolios. In fact, in some cases, much of the near-term bad news may be priced in already and could even provide some potential opportunities.

people still watch TV?

Surprise: an overwhelming majority of adults still watch TV on a TV despite cord-cutting and the prevalence of mobile broadband. 92 percent of those aged 18 and older according to a recent report from Nielsen, to be exact. "Sure, viewers have more options today, but when looking at platforms in a comparative fashion, it's clear that consumers choose the television as the primary vehicle for [programming]," Tom Ziangas of AMC Research said in a blog post. The study found that of the gross minutes counted last year, 509,196,299,668 minutes (82.1 percent) were spent watching shows and movies via a flatscreen itself, and an additional 63,637,309,003 minutes (10.3 percent) came from TV-connected devices like game consoles.

Among adults, watching videos on their computer, smartphone or tablet accounted for under eight percent of all viewing time. "What we found was that contrary to the popular narrative that smaller screens were talking away time from the TV glass, when we looked deeper we found that overall time spent viewing on the TV had the most minutes among every age or ethnic demographic we looked at," Nielsen's Peter Katsingris said.

So, people really like watching stuff on a screen that's too big to fit in their pocket or messenger bag despite having ready access to Netflix on the go. This potentially shows that even though cord-cutting has gone mainstream, a decent number of people either still have pay-TV subscriptions or use the smart apps built into their display versus a Roku device or a PlayStation.

Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV channel update

[5/23/17] Noticed that TNT and TBS have come to Roku.  Two less reasons to stick to the Fire TV.  Pretty much the only reason to stick with the Fire (for me) are the Hulu captions and the watched status bars.  Hallmark and OWN have also come to Roku.

[2/13/17] A couple new channels I have added to my Roku.

Google Photos lets me display my Google photos as a slideshow and individually.  It also has a screensaver, but photos come out tiny.

Hallmark Channel.  This was on Fire TV previously and now it's on Roku.  Don't see it yet in the Movies & TV category or the TV Everywhere category.  Had to search for it to find it.  Wait, there it is.  Number 195 out of 721 in Movies & TV.  I expect it to be moving up in the coming weeks.

Actually the content is rather skimpy with only two shows listed: Home & Family and When Calls The Heart.  There's more movies though with 30 listed, though 5 of them are Kitten Bowl.  There are two of the Good Witch Movies: Good Witch's Garden (2009) and Good Witch's Family (2011).  Authentication required.  Time Warner Spectrum supported, along with DirecTV and Hawaiian Telcom.  But no PlayStation Vue or Sling.  Checking Roku, I see The Good Witch (the first film in the series) is free on Popcorn Flix and OVGuide, among others.  I'll try Family Flix (powered by OVGuide).  Disappointingly the movie is 4:3 with no captions.  Try Popcorn Flix.  Same thing.  Checking the DVD on Amazon, the movie is 1.33:1 (4:3) with no mention of subtitles.

[1/20/17] Oddly the lineup of TV shows on FreeForm on Fire TV is a little different than on Roku.  It has 31 shows including The Mindy Project which is not on Roku.  Roku has 34 shows including Baby Daddy, The Middle, Reba, Young & Hungry which are not on Fire TV.  They both have the same 27 movies.  Checking the Apple TV, it has the same shows as on Roku, but has only 25 of the 27 movies, missing Campus Confidential and The Spectacular Now.

Checking the website, they list 37 shows and the same 27 movies.  They have all the shows available on Roku/Apple TV plus The Mindy Project.  The other two are shows which are not yet available to watch:  Famous In Love which is a new show coming in April and Happily Ever After: The Twins (stay tuned for a new season).

Here's the current list of TV shows: 10 Things I Hate About You, Baby Daddy, Becoming Us, Beyond, Bunheads, Cheer Squad, Dead of Summer, Famous In Love, Greek, Guilt, The Twins: Happily Ever After?, Jane by Design, Job or No Job, Last Man Standing, Lincoln Heights, Make It or Break It, Melissa & Joey, Monica The Medium, Next Step Realty NYC, Oh My Josh!, Open Road, Party Girl, Pretty Little Liars, Reba, Recovery Road, School of Doodle, Shadowhunters, Startup U, Stichers, Switched at Birth, The Fosters, The Middle, The Mindy Project, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, Time for Bed with Punam Patel, Twisted, Young & Hungry.  They used to have Gilmore Girls, but it's not listed now.

[1/6/17] FreeForm has come to Fire TV.  Like ABC, it doesn't support validation from Time Warner Cable, but does support Hawaiian Telcom and Playstation Vue.  It works, but I prefer the Roku app.  The Roku app has better captions (I think it uses the Roku captions) and rewinding shows is cumbersome on the Fire TV (if you can get it to work at all).

[12/10/16] Here's a chart from CNet (updated 12/7/16) showing what apps or "channels" are available on the Apple TV (old and new), Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, Android TV

[11/20/16] Activating the ABC app on the Fire TV.  For no great reason, since all the shows are also on Hulu (as far as I can see).  I see DirecTV, Playstation Vue, Hawaiian Telcom, but no Time Warner Cable.

[11/16/16]  OK, now I see season 5 of NCIS Los Angeles on the Fire TV USA Network app.  Activating through Hawaiian Telcom again because when I activated it through TWC/Spectrum it had a blank square in the top right where the logo of the TV service appears.

[11/14/16]  USA Network finally arrives on Fire TV.  But when I tried to activate, I didn't see Time Warner Cable on the list.  Hawaiian Telcom, Playstation Vue were supported.

Checking the Roku.  Oddly NCIS: Los Angeles has only one episode available on the Fire TV (season one, episode one).  But the Roku has the entire season five in addition to that episode.  Asks me to log in.  And strangely, the Roku authentication does show Time Warner Cable | Spectrum as one of the choices.  (But here's a sneaky workaround.)

Maybe the app is still in beta, but it says "coming soon" on the icon on the menu.

Anyway, log out and try the workaround Roku login.  It worked.  But still only season 1, episode 1 for NCIS: Los Angeles.  And NCIS too.  I do see season 2 of Mr. Robot though.

And now I don't see the Coming Soon designation.  Maybe it was left over from the preview app that I had installed earlier (and uninstalled).

[10/22/16] Here's a disadvantage with the Watch ESPN app on the Fire TV.  I was looking to replay the UCF-UConn football game, but didn't see it on the app.  I checked the web and the game was on.  So I switched to the app on the Roku and the game was there.  Don't ask me why.

[10/1/16] Did some more experimenting with The CW app on my Fire TV and Fire TV Stick.  Looks like the problem occurs if CC (closed captions) are on.  If CC is on, then the video gets stuck trying to load the commercial.  But if you turn off CC, then the commercials play through fine.  Luckily you can turn off CC while the commercials are stuck trying to load.

[9/30/16]  The CW app is back for the Fire TV.  Searching from the Amazon web page brings up two entries.  One is dated Sep 29, 2016 and the other one is date Sep 30, 2016.  The Sep 30, 2016 one is the one works with the Fire TV.  The earlier one works only on the Fire tablet.

Tried installing from the web page and apparently the install failed.  OK, go to the Fire TV.  Don't see it in the apps section, but found it with a search.  And it installed OK from there.

The interface looks more modern than the one on the Roku.  Captions are OK, but not customizable as far as I can see.  I wish I could make the background semi-transparent.

Playing Legends of Tomorrow.  It played OK for several minutes than now has paused with a spinning circle.  Maybe it's buffering or maybe it's stuck.  Waiting a few minutes.  Still spinning.  In other words, it's stuck.

Let's try CW Seed then.  Doesn't appear in search.  Let's try from the Amazon web site.  App last updated 6/11/16 and not compatible with Fire TV.

OK, let's try playing the video again.  It resumes (just before) where it left off, but then got stuck again.  Try another video.  Stuck.  Try The Flash.  Stuck.  It looks like it gets stuck when it's trying to play a commercial.  So it's still buggy.  I'll try again later.

[9/29/16] CW arrives on Fire TV.  Apparently it will also give access to CW Seed.  Let's take a look.

Hmm. Don't see it in the apps section.  Doesn't come up in in search.  Let's try add it with the link in the article.  Sorry we couldn't find that page.

Log into Amazon.  Search for CW.  Comes up with CW and CW Seed.  But I can only add it to my tablet not to my Fire TV.  Maybe the article is premature.

Hmm.  AFTV News is reporting it too.  Looking at the comments, the app got pulled.

Searching further, I see that the CW Seed app is now available for Apple TV.  But you have to download it from the app store.  Well, that lets out the owners of an older generation Apple TV (like me).  Looking at the site, the app is currently available for Amazon Fire (the tablet), Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Roku, Apple TV.  No mention of Amazon Fire TV yet.

Search some more.  I see that on iTunes that The CW app was updated today and "Apple TV: Yes".

And I see a story over three years old that stated that The CW was coming to Apple TV.

[9/27/16] Noticed that Xumo appeared on my Roku and I don't remember adding it on purpose.  It reminds me a lot of The Scene and I thought The Scene had just undergone a name change.  But apparently not.

Let's compare.  Xumo features Fail Army, newsy, The Pet Connection, Buzz Feed, Sports Illustrated.  The second row has recommendations: Funny or Die, Bloomberg Politics, People Are Awesome, Just For Laughs, Field & Stream.

There are 10 comedy channels, 8 sports channels, 10 news channels, 15 entertainment channels, 7 fashion channels, 10 lifestyle channels.

Let's compare The Scene.  The Scene has 34 "brands".  Among them are Wired, Buzz Feed, GQ, The Weather Channel, newsy, Vogue, Golf Digest, Vanity Fair, Variety, The Onion, Forbes, Glamour.  The developer is Conde Nast which is a magazine publisher.  Xumo's holding company is Viant.  Viant was acquired by Time which is of course another magazine publisher.

So what about common channels like Buzz Feed and newsy?   Newsy is owned by E.W. Scripps.  Buzz Feed is apparently an independent company.  So apparently they made separate deals to be carried on The Scene and on Xumo.

[9/27/16] CW arrived on Roku today.  No cable subscription necessary!  I guess they'll make their money on ads.  This is almost like TV B.C. (before cable), where TV networks made their money on ads (and there were like three of them).  OK, let me switch to my Roku from my Fire TV to check it out.

Checking it out, the interface looks viritually identical to CW Seed (except for the Latest section).  I guess that makes sense.  And, yep, all the shows are there: Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl.  All have five episodes.  Oddly they're not in synch.  For example, Arrow has the first episode of last season, while The Flash has the 17th episode, etc.

Seems to be streaming OK and the captions look OK, maybe a little big.  Changed the Roku captions size from default to small.  Now maybe a little too small?  Both are acceptable.  Sometimes the captions go a bit off the screen (like they did on CBS All Access), but not too bad.

Thumbs up.  This is a keeper.

[9/27/16] CW app coming soon to Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV.  Don't know if it will come only to the fourth generation Apple TV, but it apparently will support AirPlay.  No cable subscription needed?

[9/14/16] NFL channel finally updated for this season for Roku.  Very slow initially when trying to access NFL Network/Redzone and NFL Now.  I thought my Roku locked up.

Authentication required for NFL Network/Redzone.  Don't see Time Warner Cable or Playstion Vue, much less Sling.  But do see Hawaiian Telcom, DirecTV and DISH.  [Yeah, NFL not listed on the Oceanic site.]

[9/13/16] Activating FreeForm on my Roku.  Doesn't support Time Warner.  Does support Hawaiian Telcom.  Don't see DirecTV either.  Do see PlayStation Vue, but not Sling.  Since FreeForm used to be ABC Family and ABC owns Disney, I would assume it's the same for the Disney Channel.

OK, activating Disney XD.  Again no Time Warner Cable, but I do see DirecTV along with Hawaiian Telcom.  Also Playstation VUE, but no Sling.

[9/12/16] CNBC channel has been updated for Roku.  There's no longer the portfolio list with associated clips.  Instead you can watch complete shows (with verification) and clips.  Unlike the Apple TV app, there's no live TV.

Featured shows at the top, then below it are the rows: Top Video, Latest Episodes, Make It: Dreamers and Game Changers (clips), The 2016 Presidential Election, In Case You Missed It, Binge with Carl Quintanilla, Cramer Remixed, Strange Success, All Shows.

The clips have no captions, but the complete shows do (though they lag the video).

I haven't been able to get the videos to play on the Roku HD.  The menu comes up but when I press OK, nothing happens.

It's progress.  But I'll miss the portfilio.

[8/20/16] Checking the Roku TV, I see five new channels available: Science Channel, ID (Investigation Discovery), TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery.

Let's try Animal Planet.  I assume the process will be similar on all of these as the developer on all is Discovery Communications.

Looks like the whole lineup is there including live TV.  Taking a look at Dr. Dee: Alaska Vet.  The season 2 episodes are unlocked while the season 1 episodes require verification.  Going to Insane Pools: Off the Deep End, all the episodes require you to sign in to watch.  Same with My Cat From Hell.

OK, let's sign in.  Need to activate from computer (or tablet or phone I guess).  Time Warner Cable is supported.  Also DirecTV and Hawaiian Telcom.  Also PlayStation Vue, but not Sling TV.

The captions are pretty small.  But it uses the Roku caption settings so you can change them.  Changed the size to medium and it looks fine.

Well since Roku has three shows to a row, I'll add Discovery and Science.  Had to select my provider, but didn't have to log in again.  Still had to enter the activation code.

The video froze and the Roku locked up temporarily a couple of times.  Don't know if it's a problem with the channel or the Roku TV.

[8/20/16] Browsing AFTV News, I see that TNT and TBS have come to Fire TV.

On the TBS app, I see 13 movies are available including 50 First Dates, Splash, Kindergarten Cop.  As far as TV is concerned, there's 8 episodes of Conan, 10 episodes of 2 Broke Girls, 13 episodes of Big Bang Theory.  Also Angie Tribeca (10 episodes - all of season 2), Family Guy (5 episodes), Friends (5 episodes), Full House (5 episodes), Seinfeld (5 episodes).

Requires activation.  Activating it, I see TBS is also available on the Apple TV (I assume only on the new one).  Time Warner Cable not supported.  Hawaiian Telcom supported as well as DirecTV.  Also see PlayStation Vue, but not Sling.  I see they have decent customization of close captions.  Hey Steve Wozniak was a guest on Conan.  That was way back on March 7, 2016.  Not quite the current episodes that you can catch on Nowhere TV on the Roku (at last look).  But that's OK.

On the TNT app, I see 19 movies available including 2012, The Da Vinci Code, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Green Mile, Grudge Match, S.W.A.T., The Shawshank Redemption, Olympus Has Fallen, Transporter 3, War of theWorlds.  And TV shows such as the Last Ship (11 episodes), Rizzolli & Isles (3 episodes), The Librarians (5 episodes), Bones (10 episodes), Castle (6 episodes), Charmed (5 episodes), Grimm (5 episodes), Hawaii Five-0 [yes it's a zero] (5 episodes),

Didn't have to activate.  I assume it took the activation from my TBS sign in.  Checking Hulu, I see they have some of the TNT shows, but nothing from TBS (well they do have Family Guy and Seinfeld, but those are syndicated shows).  And of course, Netflix has Friends.  Wait a minute, Hulu has season 1 of Angie Tribeca.  Never mind..

[8/20/16] See that Hallmark Channel Everywhere has come to the Fire TV.  Apparently requires a cable subscription.  It automatically logged me in (on the computer) using I don't know what account.  Probably my Time Warner Cable account.  Content is limited.  There's 21 movies, Chesapeake Shores (which is a TV series that just premiered), and 10 episodes of Home & Family (which is their daily lifestyle show).

OK, now I see I gotta log in.  They do support Time Warner Cable as well as Hawaiian Telcom and DirecTV.  Don't see Playstation Vue or Sling though.

(Don't see an NFL app though, which I why started searching through the apps in the first place.)

[8/13/16] Hulu will no longer carry the CW lineup.  But never fail, the CW app is coming to Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV (4 only?), Chromecast.

[8/12/16] And since I've been using the Fire TV more and more lately, I can tell you that the Fire TV now supports Fox Now, FXNow, CNN Go (still doesn't support Time Warner Cable), NBC Sports (since I've been watching the Olympics on it), Yahoo (but my internet too slow so the video constantly buffers).

So the Fire TV is getting there.  It still doesn't have NatGeo and CNBC though.  If it ever gets NatGeo, I'd have less temptation to switch back and forth to/from the Roku and Apple TV.

[8/11/16] Notice that Fox Sports Go is now available on the Roku (requires cable or satellite subscription).  The date on the app (channel) is Aug 10, 2016.  So the Roku joins the Fire TV.  Coming "later this year" to the Apple TV 4.

[5/19/16] Updated chart with Starz (not available on my 3rd generation Apple TV, but now available on the fourth generation).  Added Vudu which is available on Roku, but not Fire TV or Apple TV.  Flixster which supported UltraViolet has now been dropped by Fire TV.  There's no device that supports the three main formats.  Apple TV supports only iTunes.  Fire TV supports only Amazon Video.  Roku supports Vudu and Amazon Video.  Well I guess Amazon Video is the most universal as I can stream it to the Apple TV from my iPad.

[5/18/16] Noticed about a month ago, that CBS All Access was now available on my Fire TV.  I believe it's because the OS got updated.  Then when I checked my Fire TV Stick, I saw that it wasn't available but soon after it became available when the OS got updated on that device as well.

Sling TV is also on the Fire TV joining Roku.  But not on Apple TV (but you can AirPlay it).

[3/14/16] Notice America: The Story of Us no longer on the History Channel website or app.  Well it's on the website, but not the videos.  Looking at the app, I no longer see Mankind Decoded on the list of shows, but it's still there when I do a search.

[3/13/16] History Vault Channel comes to Roku.  $4.99 a month.  This should mean less shows from The History Channel on Netflix and on the regular History Channel app.  Shows like America: The Story of Us, Mankind: The Story of All of Us, The Men Who Built America.  No longer on Netflix.  The first two are still available on the History Channel app, some episodes for free, some episodes for subscribers.

[2/26/16] Checking if the Fox Now app on the Apple TV still supports my twc account.  Logging in to twctv, apparently the only TV live channel I can get now is QVC.  Turning to On Demand, I'm locked out of most of the shows.  The only ones I see unlocked are from FOX (e.g. American Idol), so maybe it might work.  Let's see.  There's a lot of episodes available even to non-subscribers.  But, for example, the first twelve episodes of Grandfathered are locked to non-subscribers.  Try log in.  Still logged in to twctv.  Go to foxnow.com/activate.  Hey it worked.  Fox apparently is one of the few networks that support my basic account.  I would guess ABC and NBC too.  But ABC doesn't support Time Warner.  And, browsing now, apparently you no longer need to log in to NBC to watch all the shows available?  What about CBS?  Looks like to watch anything on the Apple TV you have to be a subscriber.  Now if Apple TV (or Roku) were to get a CW TV app, I could give up my Hulu subscription, since all the shows I regularly watch are from CW (The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrw), ABC (The Middle, Goldbergs, Fresh Off The Boat), and CBS (Supergirl, Limitless).  Actually I think I might be able to stream from the CW TV app on the iPad.  But never installed that app yet.  I think I might try that.

[1/5/16] Got a email from Roku that some new channels are available.  Install USA Now.  Requires authentication.  Time Warner is supported. Also DirecTV, Hawaiian Telcom.  No Sling TV.

Signed on.  But got an error.  Apparently not accepting my stripped down Oceanic account. OK, let's try Pat's signin.  But how to do it?  It kept detecting that I was signed on with my account.  OK, sign on to usanetwork with Pat's account on the computer first.  Then activate the Roku after that.  OK that worked.  Can now watch Mr. Robot.

How about HGTV?  Hey there's Live TV.  Need to sign in with your TV provider.  I see Time Warner, DirecTV, Hawaiian Telcom. But don't see Sling TV even though they carry that channel live.

Select Time Warner Cable.  Put in activation code.  OK, it's working.  I assume it took Pat's sign on, so I don't know if my sign on would work.

I'll assume it'll also work with the Food Network and Travel Channel since they were all mentioned in the same blog post.  I guess I'll add the Travel Channel too then.  Travel TV looks similar to HGTV in that it also supports Live TV.  After entering the code. it prompted me to sign in.  I entered my on signin and it worked. Watching Live TV. So I assume my signin also supports HGTV.

WTH, let's add the Food Network too.  Yep, also supports Live TV.  Put in the code.  Must have assumed I was already logged in.  Started to play.  But then locked up.  Try to get back to the home screen, but got a blank screen.  Apparently the Roku locked up.

HGTV, Travel Channel, and Food Network also available on Fire TV.  Supposedly available on the Apple TV too, but don't see them on mine.  Maybe only on the new Apple TV.  Yeah, "beginning with the 4th generation."

NatGeoTV asked me to log in again.  My account is not authorized.  Logout and re-activate. Darn it automatically logged me in with my sign in.  Logout and re-activate.  Clear cookies on Chrome from the past hour.  Log in with Pat's account.  OK, that worked.

[11/24/15] CBS All Access arrives on Amazon Fire TV.  OK, they finally caught up to Roku and Apple TV.  Noticed Watch ABC is also on Fire TV.  Hmm.  Don't see CBS All Access while browsing on the Fire TV.  May have to add it via the web.  Roku also recently added Watch ABC.  NBC reportedly coming to Fire TV.  Fox Now and FX Now "soon".

Searching... Haven't found CBS All Access yet, but noticed Drama Fever and MBC On Demand.  So the Fire TV might not be a bad choice for my sister.  The ad (by AdRise) on MBC On Demand is pausing.  I guess because of my slow internet connection.  Also taking a long time to buffer before playing the video.   This is almost like iTunes on the Apple TV.  Forget it.  I'm not going to wait.  Wait, it started.  Then paused again.  Agony.  Forget it.

Did a voice search.  Search for CBS and CBS app.  Nope.  Didn't come up.

OK, go to amazon.com.  Search for CBS. Maybe this is it?  Nope, compatibility with my device is x'd out.  Well maybe I'll need to wait a day or two.  Ah, reading the story...  It runs only on Fire OS 5 which is not yet on the 1st-gen Fire TV.

[11/1/15] CBS All Access and NBC (and M2M) arrive on Apple TV.  CBS All Access might make the Apple TV my favorite streamer.  The main thing missing is Amazon Instant Video, but I can view that with AirPlay.

[10/4/15] NBC comes to Roku (cable subscription required for full access).  CuriosityStream too ($5.99 monthly for HD).  NFL channel finally updated for Roku.

[9/16/15] TV Everywhere is what Hawaiiantel calls their support for apps.  And they do support a lot of them.  I thought they didn't support FXX (or something), but I guess they do now.  [8/31/16 - checking the app list, Hawaiian Telcom supports almost everything, but oddly one notable exception is Fox.  Time Warner Cable has a lot more notable exceptions: like Disney, CNN, TNT, TBS.  Playstation Vue supports almost everything too.  Sling? Not many.]

[6/7/15] NatGeo TV has arrived on Apple TV.  Requires activation for full episodes.  Time Warner Cable, HawaiianTelcom, DirecTV supported.

[4/7/15] CBS Sports and USA Now has appeared on Apple TV.  But don't excited.  Unlike the iPad app, no live sports.  And USA Now requires authentication.  I'll check if Time Warner Cable is supported.

CBS Sports has long been on the Roku for years.  No live sports here either.  Mostly I go on to to watch Fantasy Football Today.  The Apple app has more content than the Roku app.  Features clips from shows too (like Jim Rome for example).

USA Now is also available for iOS, Android, Windows 8, XBox One.  But not the Roku.  Checking USA Network on my computer, it shows I'm signed in to Time Warner Cable, so I guess they're supported.

Funny when I tried it out on the Apple TV, the play button said sign in, but it never asked for me to sign in.  Apparently it knew I was already logged on.  Then I went to settings and logged in and it automatically logged me in.  But then I logged off and now it asked me to authenticate.  Featured shows are Dig, Suits, Chrisley Knows Best, Sirens, Burn Notice.  I thought they might be on Hulu.  OK, let's go to Hulu.  Dig asks to connect to a participating provider.  But not many are supported.  Time Warner Cable, Hawaiian Telcom, DirectTV are all not supported.  Suits?  same thing.  Chrisley?  same thing.  Sirens,  Same thing.  Burn Notice.  Same thing and only two episodes.  Season 1 of Sirens is on Netflix.  And all of Burn Notice is on Netflix.  Psych is also on Netflix.  So the other series might be coming to Netflix next year.

OK, let's activate the Apple TV.  Yeah Time Warner Cable is supported.  USA Now is kind of like Hulu Plus as it features the newer episodes and not the entire series (except for Christley Knows Best which has the entire series which started in 2014).

[4/28/15] NBC Sports Live Extra added to Apple TV.  Full access requires cable subscription.  Time Warner Cable supported (as well as Hawaiian Telcom and DirecTV).  Also on Roku.

I also see WatchABC in the Apple TV background.  Hey, how come it's working now?  Ah, I see this was updated in December to allow access to last week's shows without having to sign in with a provider.

Let's see try the recent episodes which require a sign in.  Nope, doesn't support Time Warner Cable, but does support Hawaiian Telcom [and DirecTV].  But I guess it doesn't matter that much because all (or practically all) the shows are also available on Hulu Plus, including the recent episodes.

Let me check CNN Go again.  I see that you can play some clips, but subscription is required for full access to shows like Mike Rowe's Somebody Gotta Do it.   Once again Time Warner cable not supported.  And once again Hawaiian Telcom (and DirecTV) is supported.

[4/25/15] Noticed Fox Sports Go on the Fire TV.  Supports Time Warner Cable.  Don't see this on Roku or Apple TV.

[3/27/15] Another new channel on Apple TV: CNNgo.  Live feed and archived shows requires a TV subscription.  Time Warner Cable not supported.  (Supported are AT&T U-verse, Cox, DirecTV, Dish, Optimum, suddenlink, Verizon FIOS; also Hawaiian Telcom).  That's disappointing.  And after I arranged my channels and everything...

[3/25/15] Three channels added to Apple TV: Ted Talks, Tastemade, Young Hollywood.  Probably won't watch any of them.  Well maybe Ted Talks, though it's also available on youtube.  (Ted has had a Roku channel for a while.  Tastemade too.  But not Young Hollywood yet.)

Another one not likely to come to Apple TV: Sling TV.  As it would compete with their upcoming service.

[3/15/15] Via Cordkillers 61, CNet has an article with a table listing what "channels" are available/not available for the Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Google Nexus Player (how come Google gets two choices?).

Not listed is CNBC.  The Apple TV app allows you to stream live as well as have On Demand access to past shows (cable subscription required).   The Roku has a CNBC app, but it just plays clips and allows you to enter a portfolio of your stocks with live updating.  Not available on the other streamers as far as I know.

AppleTV's YouTube app is also much more responsive than the comparable youtube app on the Roku (very sluggish on the Roku 2 and Roku HD, I don't have a Roku 3 anymore).  And it's now been updated to support captions.

Their On app has interesting internet shows, while the On app for Roku has some (20) movies instead.

Probably the most nobable app missing from AppleTV is Amazon Instant Video.

What's currently on my Roku that's not on my Apple TV?  NBC News app (no live TV).  Livestream app where you can watch local news live.  TIME, CNET, Nat Geo TV, Portico, Nowhere TV (where you can watch Conan and access TWIT for example).  Plus some lesser watched channels like SnagFilms, TubiTV, Shout Factory, Rewind, Classic TV, Crunchyroll (actually AppleTV has an app, but you can only watch a few sample episodes for free), KDrama, DramaFever.  Not to mention Plex (watch network TV shows on your TV for free), Flixster (not available for AppleTV contrary to the CNet article, probably confused it with Flickr), Vudu, Facebook, Pandora.  Plus CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, The Hawaii Channel, Roku Recommends.

What's on my Apple TV that's not on my Roku?  The Weather Channel, ABC News, Sky News, A&E, fyi, 120 Sports, ACC Sports, Tennis Channel, Red Bull TV, Fusion, dailymotion, Vimeo, Podcasts, Radio, Lifetime, iCloud Photos, Apple Events (which pops up whenever Apple makes a major public presentation).  (Some of these are available on Roku, but I don't have them on since I rarely watch these.)

So what do they have in common (that I have on both my AppleTV and my Roku)?  Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crackle, FX Now, Fox Now, HBO Go, On (see above), Yahoo! (I thought they used to have movies on the AppleTV app, but I guess they took it off), WSJ Live, CBS News, Bloomberg TV, CNBC (sort of, see above), PBS, Smithsonian, History, Watch ESPN, MLB.TV, NBA, NFL Now, The Scene, Youtube.

I guess the Roku is more fun to play with (and waste time with) checking out some of the obscure channels available.  But the vast majority of what I normally watch (namely Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN) is available on both.  The major difference is CNBC which is a different experience on both.

I like the system captions on the Apple TV the best.  The Roku captions are OK too, but I didn't particularly care for the Roku 3 captions for Netflix and Hulu Plus (see my Roku 3 entry somewhere below -- The Fire TV captions are similar to the Roku 3 in that they used the app captions rather than the system captions).

And what of my Amazon Fire TV?  I still have it, but I rarely use it.  It's in a cabinet at my mom's place.

[3/16/15]  And what about cable TV?  There's still some stuff I would watch (or at least have playing in the background) that's not on the streaming boxes.  Like The Today Show (though the clips are available on the NBC News app), Regis and Kelly (now Kelly and Michael), Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, NBA on TNT (I guess I could subscribe to Sling TV), NBA TV (I guess I could subscribe to League Pass), NFL (some games were on the iPad Fox Sports app). And UH Sports.  A good antenna would take care of the first four and most of the NFL games.  [Oh yeah, Lakers and Clippers basketball.  I can watch on my iPad, but participating provider required to access.]

[4/22/15] Noticed there's no FX TV app on the Amazon Fire TV.

[8/14/15] NBC News launches on Fire TV on 6/17/15

Let's make my own chart (see also cnet's chart updated 4/6/16) [my spreadsheet]

App             Roku AppleTV FireTV
Netflix           +      +      +
Hulu Plus         +      +      +
Crackle         yes    yes    yes
youtube         yes    yes    yes
HBO Go            +      +      + 
Showtime          +      +      +
Starz             +      4      +
Amazon Video      +     ap      +
iTunes           no      +     no
Vudu            yes     no     no
Sling TV          +     no      +
Watch ABC         *      *      *
NBC               *      *      *
CBS All Access    +      +      +
Fox Now           *      *      *
FXNow             *      *      *
The CW          yes      ?      ?
USA Now           *      *     no
PBS             yes    yes    yes
History           *      *      *
NatGeo            *      *     no
HGTV              *      4      *
ESPN              *      *      *
Fox Sports Go     *     no      *
NBC Sports Live   *      *      *
NFL               *      *     no
Aol On          yes    yes    yes
Yahoo Screen    yes    yes    yes
CBS News        yes    yes    yes
NBC News        yes     no    yes
ABC News        yes    yes     no
Fox News        yes     no    yes
CNN Go            *      *      *
Bloomberg       yes    yes    yes
CNBC              *      *     no
Fibbage          no     no    yes

+ subscription/pay service
* full access with participating provider
ap - with AirPlay
4 - on 4th generation only