TV streaming

Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company has bought a $1 billion stake in Major League Baseball’s streaming platform and will use it to launch a new ESPN-branded channel that will not siphon off signature programs or major sports from the cable-based ESPN services. “We view this as a complementary service.”

The quick cash of licensing shows to services like Netflix may not be worth it. It could further hasten the public’s move away from traditional TV and cable networks and toward video-streaming platforms.

The NPD group says get ready for an explosion in the connected TV device market. The big growth is being fueled by two factors: more streaming devices in the marketplace and consumers being more likely to use them.

Amazon is getting ready to unveil its TV streaming device next week. Journalists are invited to a press event in New York next Wednesday.

Harris Interactive conducted the poll of nearly 1,500 TV streamers (online U.S. adults who stream TV shows at least once a week) on behalf of Netflix and found that 61% among that group binge regularly — and feel good about it.

Comcast Corp. plans to start selling movies for download and streaming through the cable operator’s set-top boxes and its Xfinity TV website, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The effort will offer a new path for Hollywood studios to generate revenue from films after they leave theaters. For Comcast subscribers, it provides a way to purchase movies they can watch anytime on through a TV, computer or mobile devices.

Aereo has been beset by a legal onslaught from broadcast networks. But even if it wins that fight, it still has to overcome more-pedestrian issues, like making sure it can pay for the electricity it needs, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. While each of the company’s tiny antennas only use five to six watts of power, it quickly adds up. For example, if the company were to hit its goal of 350,000 subscribers in New York, it would need nearly 2 megawatts of power, which could cost about $2 million per year. WSJ subscribers can read the full story here.

The company says it “is not developing or pursuing a direct-to-consumer offering. Any discussion or speculation to the contrary is simply inaccurate.”

Discovery Communications is at work on an Internet streaming service that could charge cable subscribers a small fee to gain access to hours of documentaries and reality shows, executive chairman and founder John Hendricks said Tuesday.

Rather than fighting cord-cutting and unbundling and making a weak effort with TV Everywhere, the top brass should be looking at putting their full broadcast TV channels online — with no restrictions. Not only does the data show that huge audiences are streaming video online, the broadcast channels are missing a unique chance to use their live channels on the internet to take their business to the next level. Here are three game-changing benefits TV content producers and broadcasters could realize by finally putting live channels online:

While the other Big Four broadcast networks are working on plans to let their affiliates stream a combination of network and local content to smartphones and other wireless devices, CBS looks to be lagging behind.

In case its name left any doubt, online video startup Aereokiller hopes to offer a service to rival Barry Diller’s Aereo. So it’s somewhat ironic that Aereo is shaping up as Aereokiller’s biggest unwitting booster in court. But whether Aereo is happy about this or not, the company’s recent win in a federal appellate court in New York is providing fodder to Aereokiller in its battle to resume operations in California.

A federal appeals court in New York today turned down a request by broadcasters for an injunction against Aereo, the Internet service that streams broadcast TV stations without compensation. In a 2-to-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that Aereo’s streams of TV shows to individual subscribers did not constitute “public performances,” and thus the broadcasters’ copyright infringement lawsuits against the service “are not likely to prevail on the merits.”

Not too long ago, TV viewers had three programming options: satellite, cable — or the good ol’ antenna if you just wanted to watch free broadcast channels and DVDs. But the world has been changing, thanks to the massive expansion of streaming content from the Web that you can see on a TV, desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone.

Contrary to prognostications about TV dying a slow death as tweens and younger children become hypnotized by YouTube, a new study suggests that consumers’ devotion to TV programming remains strong — even though more of them are watching it online or on tablets.

In a unusual legal twist, broadcasters may now have two shots at killing Aereo, the controversial TV streaming service recently launched by media mogul Barry Diller. Alki David, the provocative media entrepreneur who recently launched an Aereo-like streaming TV service called BarryDriller.com, may have unintentionally just done broadcasters a huge favor in their fight to stop both online video services.

The CW has moved more aggressively than many other networks to put all its shows on the Web. It is walking a fine line, according to the Wall Street Journal, trying to get bigger online while not alienating its broadcast affiliates. Wall Street Journal subscribers can read the story here.

Viewers who watch primetime television days later are becoming an essential factor in determining a show’s popularity.

An online television company has come up with a way to stream local television stations to paying subscribers on the Internet, potentially forming a new cord-cutting threat for cable and satellite distributors. The new company, called Aereo, held a news conference on Tuesday in Manhattan to demonstrate its service, which will go on sale on March 14. The service will cost subscribers $12 a month and will work only in New York City.

Following the lead of its rival HBO, the Showtime network is beginning to broaden an Internet service to let its subscribers to stream hundreds of television episodes and feature films both in and out of the home.