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Prime Video pulls eerily emotionless AI-generated anime dubs after complaints

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[S]o many talented voice actors, and you can’t even bother to hire a couple to dub a season of a show??????????? absolutely disrespectful.

Naturally, anime voice actors took offense, too. Damian Mills, for instance, said via X that voicing a “notable queer-coded character like Kaworu” in three Evangelion movie dubs for Prime Video (in 2007, 2009, and 2012) “meant a lot, especially being queer myself.”

Mills, who also does voice acting for other anime, including One Piece (Tanaka) and Dragon Ball Super (Frieza) added, “… using AI to replace dub actors on #BananaFish? It’s insulting and I can’t support this. It’s insane to me. What’s worse is Banana Fish is an older property, so there was no urgency to get a dub created.”

Amazon also seems to have rethought its March statement announcing that it would use AI to dub content “that would not have been dubbed otherwise.” For example, in 2017, Sentai Filmworks released an English dub of No Game, No Life: Zero with human voice actors.

Some dubs pulled

On Tuesday, Gizmodo reported that “several of the English language AI dubs for anime such as Banana Fish, No Game No Life: Zero, and more have now been removed.” However, some AI-generated dubs remain as of this writing, including an English dub for the anime series Pet and a Spanish one for Banana Fish, Ars Technica has confirmed.

Amazon hasn’t commented on the AI-generated dubs or why it took some of them down.

All of this comes despite Amazon’s March announcement that the AI-generated dubs would use “human expertise” for “quality control.”

The sloppy dubbing of cherished anime titles reflects a lack of precision in the broader industry as companies seek to leverage generative AI to save time and money. Prime Video has already been criticized for using AI-generated movie summaries and posters this year. And this summer, anime streaming service Crunchyroll blamed bad AI-generated subtitles on an agreement “violation” by a “third-party vendor.”

Prime Video pulls eerily emotionless AI-generated anime dubs after complaints Read More »

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Mad Men’s 4K debut botched by HBO Max streaming episode with visible crewmembers

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Streaming services have a way of reviving love for old shows, and HBO Max is looking to entice old and new fans with this month’s addition of Mad Men. Instead, viewers have been laughing at the problems with the show’s 4K premiere.

Mad Men ran on the AMC channel for seven seasons from 2007 to 2015. The show had a vintage aesthetic, depicting the 1960s advertising industry in New York City.

Last month, HBO Max announced it would modernize the show by debuting a 4K version. The show originally aired in SD and HD resolutions and had not been previously made available in 4K through other means, such as Blu-ray.

However, viewers were quick to spot problems with HBO Max’s 4K Mad Men stream, the most egregious being visible crew members in the background of a scene.

The episode was “Red in the Face” (Season 1, Episode 7), which was reportedly mislabeled. In it, Roger Sterling (John Slattery) throws up oysters. In the 4K version that was streaming on HBO Max, viewers could see someone pumping a vomit hose to make the fake puke flow.

Mad Men’s 4K debut botched by HBO Max streaming episode with visible crewmembers Read More »

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Plex’s crackdown on free remote streaming access starts this week

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Plex has previously emphasized its need to keep up with “rising costs,” which include providing support for many different devices and codecs. It has also said that it needs money to implement new features, including an integration with Common Sense Media, a new “bespoke server management app” for managing server users, and “an open and documented API for server integrations,” including custom metadata agents,” per a March blog post.

In January 2024, TechCrunch reported that Plex was nearing profitability and raised $40 million in funding (Plex raised a $50 million growth equity round in 2021). Theoretically, the new remote access rules can also increase subscription revenue and help Plex’s backers see returns on their investments.

However, Plex’s evolution could isolate long-time users who have relied on Plex as a media server for years and those who aren’t interested in subscriptions, FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels, or renting movies. Plex is unlikely to give up on its streaming business, though. In 2023, Scott Hancock, Plex’s then-VP of marketing, said that Plex had more people using its online streaming service than using its media server features since 2022. For people seeking software packages more squarely focused on media hosting, Plex alternatives, like Jellyfin, increasingly look attractive.

Plex’s crackdown on free remote streaming access starts this week Read More »

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Science-centric streaming service Curiosity Stream is an AI-licensing firm now

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We all know streaming services’ usual tricks for making more money: get more subscribers, charge those subscribers more money, and sell ads. But science streaming service Curiosity Stream is taking a new route that could reshape how streaming companies, especially niche options, try to survive.

Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks launched Curiosity Stream in 2015. The streaming service costs $40 per year, and it doesn’t have commercials.

The streaming business has grown to also include the Curiosity Channel TV channel. CuriosityStream Inc. also makes money through original programming and its Curiosity University educational programming. The firm turned its first positive net income in its fiscal Q1 2025, after about a decade of business.

With its focus on science, history, research, and education, Curiosity Stream will always be a smaller player compared to other streaming services. As of March 2023, Curiosity Stream had 23 million subscribers, a paltry user base compared to Netflix’s 301.6 million (as of January 2025).

Still, in an extremely competitive market, Curiosity Stream’s revenue increased 41 percent year over year in its Q3 2025 earnings announced this month. This was largely due to the licensing of Curiosity Stream’s original programming to train large language models (LLMs).

“Looking at our year-to-date numbers, licensing generated $23.4 million through September, which … is already over half of what our subscription business generated for all of 2024,” Phillip Hayden, Curiosity Stream’s CFO, said during a call with investors this month.

Thus far, Curiosity Stream has completed 18 AI-related fulfillments “across video, audio, and code assets” with nine partners, an October announcement said.

The company expects to make more revenue from IP licensing deals with AI companies than it does from subscriptions by 2027, “possibly earlier,” CEO Clint Stinchcomb said during the earnings call.

Science-centric streaming service Curiosity Stream is an AI-licensing firm now Read More »

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Apple TV execs dismiss introducing an ad tier, buying Warner Bros. Discovery

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Focused on original content

Another obvious way to grow Apple TV is through more subscribers. With talk of Warner Bros. Discovery considering a sale, it’s worth wondering if Apple TV may try to grow through acquisition. But the execs Screen International spoke with seemed focused on building out Apple TV’s library with originals. Cue noted that “at least in the timeframe that we’re thinking about right now, we’re not looking at licensing any content or adding anything to our service.”

“We’re building an all-original services; we’re not building on the back of pre-existing IP or library,” Jamie Erlicht, one of Apple’s heads of worldwide video, said.

More directly, when asked if Apple might buy Warner Bros., A24, or Disney, Cue pointed out that Apple hasn’t historically done “a lot of major acquisitions.”

“We do very small acquisitions in general, not related to Apple TV, so I don’t see that happening because we like what we’re doing,” Cue said.

Since its 2019 debut, some have questioned whether Apple TV is an authentic attempt to improve streaming options for customers, or if Apple TV is a “vanity project,” as Screen International put it, or if the service is merely a tool for getting people to buy other Apple products. Naturally, the interviewed executives claimed that the service is built on a commitment to distributing unique and premium shows and movies.

The interview provided more insight into how Apple TV leadership defines the latter. Zack Van Amburg, one of Apple’s heads of worldwide video, said:

A core tenet of everything Apple does is the notion that humanity needs to be at the center of it, and that’s everything from app design to hardware engineering, to everything in between. We try to think a little more deeply about that.

Our shows and our movies tend to be about the emotional experience, the stakes involved, even when we’re doing a comedy.

Apple TV execs dismiss introducing an ad tier, buying Warner Bros. Discovery Read More »

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Higher prices, simpler streaming expected if HBO Max folds into Paramount+

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If a company acquires any form of HBO, one of its top challenges is expected to be streamlining operations while maintaining HBO’s premium brand. This could be especially difficult under a “more mainstream umbrella like Paramount+,” Alderman noted.

Streaming has already diluted the HBO brand somewhat. Through streaming, HBO is now associated with stuff from DC Comics and Cartoon Network, as well as reality shows, like 90 Day Fiancé and Naked and Afraid. Merging with Paramount+ or even Netflix could expand the HBO umbrella further.

That expanded umbrella could allow a company like Paramount to better compete against Netflix, something WBD executives have shied away from. HBO Max is “not everything for everyone in a household,” JB Perrette, WBD’s streaming president and CEO, said this spring.

“What people want from us in a world where they’ve got Netflix and Amazon [Prime Video] are those things that differentiate us,” Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, told The Wall Street Journal in May.

A “stress test” for more streaming mergers

Aside from the impact on HBO Max subscribers, WBD’s merger talks have broad implications. A deal would open the door for much more consolidation in the streaming space, something that experts have been anticipating for some years and that addresses the boom of streaming services. Per Clark, discussions of a Paramount-WBD merger are “less about two studios joining forces and more about a stress test for future M&A.”

If WBD accepts a Paramount bid and that bid clears regulatory hurdles, it would signal that “premium content under fewer umbrellas is back in play,” Clark said.

A Paramount-WBD merger is likely to speed up consolidation among mid-tier players, like NBCUniversal, Lionsgate, and AMC, Alderman said, pointing to these companies’ interest in scaling their streaming businesses and in building differentiated portfolios to counter Netflix and Disney+’s expansive libraries.

If Paramount and WBD don’t merge, Clark expects to see more “piecemeal” strategies, such as rights-sharing, joint venture bundles, and streaming-as-a-service models.

Higher prices, simpler streaming expected if HBO Max folds into Paramount+ Read More »

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YouTube TV’s Disney blackout reminds users that they don’t own what they stream

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“I don’t know (or care) which side is responsible for this, but the DVR is not VOD, it is your recording, and shows recorded before the dispute should be available. This is a hard lesson for us all,” an apparently affected customer wrote on Reddit this week.

For current or former cable subscribers, this experience isn’t new. Carrier disputes have temporarily and permanently killed cable subscribers’ access to many channels over the years. And since the early 2000s, many cable companies have phased out DVRs with local storage in favor of cloud-based DVRs. Since then, cable companies have been able to revoke customers’ access to DVR files if, for example, the customer stopped paying for the channel from which the content was recorded. What we’re seeing with YouTube TV’s DVR feature is one of several ways that streaming services mirror cable companies.

Google exits Movies Anywhere

In a move that appears to be best described as tit for tat, Google has removed content purchased via Google Play and YouTube from Movies Anywhere, a Disney-owned unified platform that lets people access digital video purchases from various distributors, including Amazon Prime Video and Fandango.

In removing users’ content, Google may gain some leverage in its discussions with Disney, which is reportedly seeking a larger carriage fee from YouTube TV. The content removals, however, are just one more pain point of the fragmented streaming landscape customers are already dealing with.

Customers inconvenienced

As of this writing, Google and Disney have yet to reach an agreement. On Monday, Google publicly rejected Disney’s request to restore ABC to YouTube TV for yesterday’s election day, although the company showed a willingness to find a way to quickly bring back ABC and ESPN (“the channels that people want,” per Google). Disney has escalated things by making its content unavailable to rent or purchase from all Google platforms.

Google is trying to appease customers by saying it will give YouTube TV subscribers a $20 credit if Disney “content is unavailable for an extended period of time.” Some people online have reported receiving a $10 credit already.

Regardless of how this saga ends, the immediate effects have inconvenienced customers of both companies. People subscribe to streaming services and rely on digital video purchases and recordings for easy, instant access, which Google and Disney’s disagreement has disrupted. The squabble has also served as another reminder that in the streaming age, you don’t really own anything.

YouTube TV’s Disney blackout reminds users that they don’t own what they stream Read More »

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Disney+ gets HDR10+ via “over 1,000” Hulu titles

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Disney+ has started streaming movies and shows in the HDR10+ format.

Support is somewhat limited for now. Only certain content from Hulu, which The Walt Disney Company acquired in June, is available in HDR10+. In an announcement today, Samsung said that “over 1,000” Hulu titles are available in HDR10+ and that “additional Disney+” content will support HDR10+ “in the future.” Previously, Disney+ only supported the HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR formats.

Samsung TVs are the first devices to gain the ability to stream HDR10+ content from Disney+, according to an announcement from Samsung today. The electronics company said that its Samsung Crystal UHD TVs and above from 2018 onward, including its OLED TVs, The Frame TVs, QLED TVs, and Micro RGB TV, support HDR10+.

The Disney+ app on Apple’s tvOS also lists HDR10+, site FlatpanelsHD pointed out.

Hulu started offering some content in HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision in 2021. Now that Disney owns Hulu and has created a unified app with both Disney+ and Hulu content, Disney+ is also able to offer a restricted number of titles in HDR10+.

Today’s announcement also caters to Samsung TV users, since Samsung TVs don’t support Dolby Vision. By offering HDR10+, Disney+ can make itself more appealing to the many home theater enthusiasts who own a TV from Samsung, which is the world’s top-selling TV brand.

Disney+ gets HDR10+ via “over 1,000” Hulu titles Read More »

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Apple TV and Peacock bundle starts at $15/month, available on Oct. 20

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In a rarity for Apple’s streaming service, users will be able to buy bundled subscriptions to Apple TV and Peacock for a discount, starting on October 20.

On its own, the Apple TV streaming service (which was called Apple TV+ until Monday) is $13 per month. NBCUniversal’s Peacock starts at $8/month with ads and $11/month without ads. With the upcoming bundle, people can subscribe to both for a total of $15/month or $20/month, depending on whether Peacock has ads or not (Apple TV never has ads).

People can buy the bundles through either Apple’s or Peacock’s websites and apps.

Apple and NBCUniversal are hoping to drive subscriptions with the bundle. In a statement, Oliver Schusser, Apple’s VP of Apple TV, Apple Music, Sports, and Beats, said that he thinks the bundle will help bring Apple TV content “to more viewers in more places.”

Bundles that combine more than one streaming service for an overall discount have become a popular tool for streaming providers trying to curb cancellations. The idea is that people are less likely to cancel a streaming subscription if it’s tied to another streaming service or product, like cellular service.

Apple, however, has largely been a holdout. It used to offer a bundle with Apple TV for full price, plus Showtime and Paramount+ (then called CBS All Access) for no extra cost. But those add-ons, especially at the time, could be considered more cable-centric compared to the streaming bundle announced today.

Apple will also make select Apple Originals content available to watch with a Peacock subscription. The announcement says:

At launch, Peacock subscribers can enjoy up to three episodes of Stick, Slow Horses, Silo, The Buccaneers, Foundation, Palm Royale, and Prehistoric Planet from Apple TV for free, while Apple TV app users will be able to watch up to three episodes of Law & Order, Bel-Air, Twisted Metal, Love Island Games, Happy’s Place, The Hunting Party, and Real Housewives of Miami from Peacock.

Additionally, people who are subscribed to Apple One’s Family or Premier Plans can get Peacock’s most expensive subscription—which adds offline downloads to the ad-free tier and is typically $17/month—for about $11/month (“a 35 percent discount,” per the announcement). The discount marks the first time that Apple has offered Apple One subscribers a deal for a non-Apple product, suggesting a new willingness from Apple to partner with rivals to help its services business.

Apple TV and Peacock bundle starts at $15/month, available on Oct. 20 Read More »

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DirecTV screensavers will show AI-generated ads with your face in 2026

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According to a March blog post from Glance’s VP of AI, Ian Anderson, Glance’s avatars “analyze customer behavior, preferences, and browsing history to provide tailor-made product recommendations, enhancing engagement and conversion rates.”

In a statement today, Naveen Tewari, Glance’s CEO and founder, said the screensavers will allow people to “instantly select a brand and reimagine themselves in the brand catalog right from their living-room TV itself.”

The DirecTV screensavers will also allow people to make 30-second-long AI-generated videos featuring their avatar, The Verge reported.

In addition to providing an “AI-commerce experience,” DirecTV expects the screensavers to help with “content discovery” and “personalization,” Vikash Sharm, SVP of product marketing at DirecTV, said in a statement.

The screensavers will also be able to show real-time weather and sports scores, Glance said.

A natural progression

Turning to ad-centric screensavers may frustrate customers who didn’t expect ads when they bought into Gemini devices for their streaming capabilities.

However, DirecTV has an expanding advertising business that has included experimenting with ad types, such as ads that show when people hit pause. As far as offensive ads go, screensaver ads can be considered less intrusive, since they typically show only when someone isn’t actively viewing their TV. Gemini screensavers can also be disabled.

It has become increasingly important for DirecTV to diversify revenue beyond satellite and Internet subscriptions. DirecTV had over 20 million subscribers in 2015; in 2024, streaming business publication Next TV, citing an anonymous source “close to the company,” reported that the AT&T-owned firm was down to about 11 million subscribers.

Simultaneously, the streaming industry—including streaming services and streaming software—has been increasingly relying on advertising to boost revenue. For some streaming service providers, increasing revenue through ads is starting to eclipse the pressure to do so through subscriber counts. Considering DirecTV’s declining viewership and growing interest in streaming, finding more ways to sell ads seems like a natural progression.

With legacy pay TV providers already dealing with dwindling subscriptions, introducing new types of ads risks making DirecTV less appealing as well.

And it’s likely that things won’t end there.

“This, we can integrate across different places within the television,” Glance COO Mansi Jain told The Verge. “We are starting with the screensaver, but tomorrow… we can integrate it in the launcher of the TV.”

DirecTV screensavers will show AI-generated ads with your face in 2026 Read More »

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Apple’s streaming service gets harder to tell apart from its streaming app, box

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Apple has lightly rebranded its video-on-demand streaming service. The Netflix rival that has brought us critically acclaimed shows and movies like Slow Horses and The Lost Bus has gone from Apple TV+ to Apple TV.

Apple announced the name change today in a press release that was primarily about the film F1: The Movie coming to its streaming service on December 12. Unlike previous announcements, however, today’s release referred to the streaming service as Apple TV, instead of Apple TV+. The announcement reads:

Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity.

Apple didn’t specify how its streaming service’s “identity” has changed at all. As of this writing, accessing Apple’s streaming service via a browser or smart TV app still shows the original Apple TV+ branding.

Similar to rival streaming service HBO Max’s recent re-rebrand, or ESPN+ becoming ESPN, this rebrand is rather mild. Still, the change makes Apple’s streaming service slightly harder to differentiate from Apple’s streaming app, which is also named Apple TV, and its streaming boxes, which Apple officially called Apple TVs until 2015, when their official names started including the max resolution that they support (such as: Apple TV 4K). You can have one or two of those offerings without needing the others (although watching Apple’s streaming service on streaming hardware does require Apple’s streaming app).

Apple’s streaming service gets harder to tell apart from its streaming app, box Read More »

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HBO Max subscribers lose access to CNN livestream on November 17

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HBO Max subscribers will no longer be able to watch CNN from the streaming platform as of November 17, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) informed customers today.

After this date, HBO Max subscribers will still be able to watch some CNN content, including shows and documentaries, on demand.

The CNN Max livestream for HBO Max launched as an open beta in September 2023. Since then, it has featured live programming from CNN’s US arm and CNN International, as well as content made specifically for HBO Max.

WBD is pulling HBO Max’s CNN channel as it prepares to launch a standalone CNN streaming service, inevitably introducing more fragmentation to the burgeoning streaming industry. The streaming service is supposed to launch this fall and provide access to original CNN programing and journalism, including “a selection of live channels, catch-up features, and video-on-demand programming,” a May announcement said.

In a statement today, Alex MacCallum, EVP of digital products and services for CNN, said:

CNN has benefitted tremendously from its two years of offering a live 24/7 feed of news to HBO Max customers. We learned from HBO Max’s large base of subscribers what people want and enjoy the most from CNN, and with the launch of our own new streaming subscription offering coming later this fall, we look forward to building off that and growing our audience with this unique, new offering.

WBD will sell subscriptions to CNN’s new streaming service as part of an “All Access” subscription that will include the ability to read paywalled articles on CNN’s website.

HBO Max subscribers lose access to CNN livestream on November 17 Read More »