TiVo Brings Netflix to a TV Near You

Both Battleground and Lilyhammer get mixed reviews, as streaming services branch out

(NEWSER) - Online streaming sites Hulu and Netflix both launched original series this week, as both services take baby steps toward competing with regular television, reports Gigaom . A look at each:

• Hulu's Battleground is the more conventional of the two, a 13-episode comedy about a Senate campaign in Wisconsin that started today, with a new 22-minute episode airing each Tuesday. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has solid praise for Battleground, saying it is "a smart, well-written comedy series you might find on a premium cable network." The AP is less kind, however, calling it "a light, watered-down knockoff of The Office," while the New York Daily News comes down somewhere in-between.

New streaming venture announced, but few details given

(NEWSER) - Watch out, Netflix: Verizon and Redbox are teaming up. Verizon announced today it will enter the video streaming business in a joint venture with Coinstar, the parent company of Redbox DVD rental kiosks, Mashable reports. Verizon said the new service, which will also include access to DVD and Blu-ray discs, will be available across the nation later this year. Anyone in the US, even those who are not current Verizon subscribers, will be able to use the subscription service. More»

Revenues, subscribers, and share price all up at online video leader

(NEWSER) - After Netflix's miserable third quarter of 2011—which saw its share price plunge 75% , some 800,000 customers quit , and the Qwikster debacle —the video rental giant reversed much of those losses and posted stronger-than-expected results for the last quarter, reports Reuters . Netflix's revenue jumped 47% to $876 million, about $18 million more than expected, and it added 610,000 customers, helping its share price rebound 13% on the news. More»

Company says that's a 'high mark'

(NEWSER) - Despite the uproar and subscriber exodus over its pricing change, people are still making use of Netflix’s streaming service. And how. The company has announced that it streamed more than 2 billion hours of content to members during the fourth quarter, and while it wouldn’t give specific figures on how that measured up to past quarters, a spokesman tells the Wall Street Journal it’s "a high mark." The company claims about 20 million streaming members around the globe. More»

Could be available sometime next year

(NEWSER) - As if Netflix's year hasn't been tough enough. The streaming movie company may soon face a new rival in the form of a Verizon online video service, Reuters reports. The service would be available to 85 million households outside Verizon's current FIOS broadband and cable markets, and could be ready as soon as next year, insiders say. It may not, however, offer the kind of variety Netflix does: Instead, it could present movie packages along the lines of Starz Play or children's shows from a partner such as Disney. More»