Netflix is urging the FCC to crack down on broadband usage caps, stating that they unfairly limit consumers' ability to consume streaming video services. Netflix has long has an adversarial relationship with ISPs, and often for good reason. Usage caps on fixed-line networks are specifically designed to protect ISP TV revenues from Netflix competition, allowing an ISP to both complicate and generate additional profit off of the shift away from legacy TV.

Awesome list of Free Movie & TV Show streaming apps.

Ok, it’s no secret that people hate cable. Comcast is far and wide known as the most despised company in America. And the others aren’t far behind. But is anyone surprised? Who doesn’t have a horror story about dealing with their cable company’s customer service (if you don’t have one yourself, go ahead and check out some of these insane ones and learn how much Comcast really cares). Luckily, as cord cutting options continue to grow, people are fighting back. And the cable companies are feeling it. In Q2 of this year alone, Big Cable lost almost a million subscribers.

As the debate over just how much the cable industry has to fear from cord cutting rages on, there’s one common misunderstanding that never seems to disappear. “Cord-Cutting Isn’t a Bargain Anymore,” read one recent headline, claiming consumers who dropped a cable TV subscription wouldn’t save much money. Similar analysis can be found in “Cord-Cutting Is Gonna Suck in 2016,” or “The Myth of TV Cord-Cutting.” What these recent stories—and many more—get wrong is the economics of cutting the cable.

Confirming earlier leaks, Roku this morning unveiled a refreshed and rebranded line of streaming media players, with the intent of plugging every hole in the market.

Doesn't leave house all weekend... No Seriously!

If you’ve felt like Netflix’s US catalog has shrunk dramatically since the company started making its own shows and movies, you’re absolutely right. Since 2012, Netflix’s selection of titles has dropped over 50%, from roughly 11,000 titles to ~5,300, according to streaming blog Exstreamist, which cites multiple former Netflix employees.

YouTube, taking more big swings with its original content, announced series from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions, Dan Harmon and Doug Liman, which will be available exclusively on its YouTube Red subscription service. In addition, YouTube has greenlit a second season of murder mystery series “Escape the Night” from digital influencer Joey Graceffa, who has nearly 9 million subscribers across his two YouTube channels.

California cord cutters may have escaped cable’s annoying commercials, but in some cities, including Pasadena, they won’t escape its tax. The city’s finance department decided Thursday to apply a 9.4 percent tax on “video services” to subscribers of streaming video providers such as Netflix, HBO Go and Hulu. The tax begins Jan. 1. Pasadena won’t be alone either.

Rich “RJ” Rappaport barely remembers the days when he wasn’t busy renting out truckloads of sham guns and fake cocaine. His vast prop warehouse on the outskirts of Atlanta used to see a trickle of local filmmakers, maybe a dozen a month. Now, he sees more than that every day, many of them rushing to equip the massively complicated, big-budget shoots of television’s new golden age.

Let’s face it: We all miss the folks of Hawkins, Indiana. So, thankfully, Stranger Things 2 is about to start production (!) and EW has some exclusive new details on season 2. The Netflix series, created by Ross and Matt Duffer, is adding three new characters, including someone who kind of sounds like the next Eleven. And two of the actors have very important connections to genre films influenced by the Duffers.

Netflix says it will produce a whopping 1,000 hours of original TV shows and movies in 2017, and that's a good thing since people keep watching more and more Netflix. The number of hours of Netflix the average subscriber watches has gone up steadily since 2011, at an average of 16.4% per year. In 2011, using Netflix data, we can estimate that each subscriber watched about 51 minutes of Netflix per day (about 310 hours per year). And while official Netflix data hasn't come out yet for this year, CordCutting.com estimated that for 2016, users are on track to stream 600 hours of content each, on average.

Dave Chappelle has cut a deal with Netflix for three new comedy specials. The projects will mark Chappelle’s first standup TV specials in 12 years, and it marks another aggressive push by Netflix in the standup comedy arena. “Dave Chappelle is a legendary voice in comedy — searing, vital, and now more than ever, essential,” said Lisa Nishimura, Netflix’s VP of original documentary and comedy. “Dave’s three new specials promise to be some of the most anticipated events in comedy.”

It's no joke how much Dave Chappelle is reportedly making on his new comedy special deal with Netflix. According to The New York Post's Page Six column, the comedian is making a total of $60 million for delivering three comedy specials to the streaming company in 2017. "Dave was offered $20 million a special," Page Six's anonymous source said. "Netflix basically has a war chest for this kind of content. Whether it’s a loss or not, Dave Chappelle’s specials will get a lot of press and bring in new subscribers."

You have a lot of options when it comes to broadcasting live video to the Internet. Google, Amazon, Facebook, and others want your content in their ecosystems. But you typically have to choose one because of bandwidth and processing limitations -- unless you use Restream.io.

Netflix, the real superstar in modern entertainment, is certainly putting their money where there mouth is to keep their subscribers happy. A recent report by Exstreamist ran the numbers and found that if Netflix were to sell advertising slots along the lines of traditional broadcast and cable television, they could make over $2 billion dollars in additional annual revenue every year.

Netflix and Canada’s Showcase have picked up a second season of Travelers, their original time-traveling sci-fi series starring Eric McCormack, for premiere in 2017. Production on Season 2 of the Canadian-made drama will start in March in Vancouver. Netflix, which carries Travelers globally except for Canada, will debut Season 2 following the series’ second-season airing on Showcase this fall. McCormack’s schedule already has been set to accommodate both...

The EU is to force Netflix to allow people to watch content libraries from other countries. The European Parliament is finalising legislation that would let people access their online media, like games or films, from their own country. At the moment, doing so is either impossible or very hard, because of restrictions that companies like Netflix put on the use of VPNs and other services. Under the new rules, the parliament will stop content providers from using an IP address as a way of identifying where people are.

Louis C.K.’s next two comedy specials will debut exclusively on Netflix, Variety has learned. The first of the specials, titled “2017” and filmed in Washington, D.C., will premiere April 4 globally on Netflix. C.K. is no stranger to the streaming world; he released his 2011 special “Live from the Beacon Theater” exclusively on his own website for $5, and several of his other specials have been available on Netflix for years — “2017” will merely be the first to debut as a Netflix original.

Netflix, Youtube and Amazon, are the most popular web streaming services. In the 2016 report on global web phenomenon, Sandvine, an analytics firm, shows that Netflix accounts for more than one third of all downstream web traffic in North America. Netflix is followed by Youtube, Amazon Video and a few other streaming services, see below.