If you're fed up with escalating cable bills, fuzzy satellite TV reception, and unresponsive customer service, Google is starting to think inside the box: The world's leading search engine may be ready to launch a broadband television service as early as next year.
Shares of Netflix are down nearly 50% year to date for a variety of reasons: The loss of its popular Starz content, the price hikes, and the infamous Qwikster debacle. But online video is still a hot market. Here's a closer look at three companies that could profit from Netflix's missteps.
It isn't easy being a cable and Internet service provider these days. Consumers are turning to cheaper options, and they're tired of paying for channels they never watch. Networks are demanding more money. Add in performance issues, it's no surprise cable companies and wireless carriers among the country's most hated companies.
Recession-weary Americans trying to save on home entertainment just took another punch in their DVD slots. Blockbuster Express just became the third major distributor to increase its video prices recently -- doubling the fee to rent its semi-new releases to $2 as of Tuesday.
Everything is right in the universe for DIRECTV, given this weekend's successful kickoff of the new pro football season. DIRECTV subscribers know that there are alternatives out there, but that's not going to sway the couch potatoes, all 30 million of them. Not even rival DISH can eclipse our largest entertainment subscription service.
Comcast has a tight grip on Philadelphia sports fans with its SportsNet Philadelphia channel, which has been the exclusive carrier of games from the Phillies, Flyers and 76ers. But now Comcast will have to make the channel available to satellite-TV providers, thanks to FCC-approved terms of its deal for NBC Universal.
Dish Network reached an agreement with Fox on Friday, ending a blackout of some channels and ensuring customers will keep getting the World Series. So far, Cablevision subscribers are still out of luck.
News Corp.'s Fox has pulled its channels off Cablevision after a programming deal expired at midnight Saturday. The move means 3 million viewers in Philadelphia and New York could miss the first game in the National League Championship Series between the Phillies and the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night.
Two months ago, a court ruling sent TiVo's stock soaring. On Friday, a federal appeals court decision had the opposite effect, sending the stock down 40%.
