Internet, Streaming Service | featured news

Microsoft has been developing designs for a simple set-top device for streaming video and other entertainment options.

Roger Corman's campy B movies, children's shows like "Sesame Street" and "Inspector Gadget," and inspirational monologues by celebrities — these are among the 30 channels that will require a paid monthly subscription on YouTube coming soon.

The Web site this week is expected to announce a plan to let some video makers charge a monthly subscription, according to people with knowledge of the plan.

The Internet company signed a deal for exclusive streaming rights to past episodes of “Saturday Night Live” to gain an edge in a small market for digital video advertising.

Fourteen pilot shows - including Alpha House and Zombieland - are to be put to the public vote on Lovefilm and Amazon.com. Viewers can submit feedback influencing which shows get made into full series. The 14 shows are made by independent production companies and produced by Amazon Studios, the film and series production arm of Amazon.

Hulu has hired Guggenheim Partners to advise on a sale of the company, even as the financial services firm is considering making its own bid for the video streaming service, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Amazon is letting viewers help choose its new lineup of TV shows, scuttling a secretive, wasteful process once reserved for Hollywood taste-makers... There used to be just one way for getting shows on TV. Networks would spend tens of millions of dollars ordering scripts and shooting pilots and then show the fruits of their labor to focus groups. A small group of executives would cherry-pick a few promising shows to put on TV, hoping they'd be a hit with bigger audiences. The process was unscientific, expensive, and often didn't work. It's still how most of the industry operates today.

Former News Corp president Peter Chernin bid around $500 million for Hulu, the online video streaming service he helped create in 2007, according to two sources with knowledge of Hulu's sale process.

If you feel like you haven’t seen Julia Stiles on screen lately, you may just be looking for her in the wrong places—or rather on the wrong screen. Stiles is currently starring in the YouTube series “Blue,” which returned for a second season on March 15.

Disney and News Corp. have begun discussions about resolving uncertainty over online video site Hulu, with one possible outcome being that one or the other sells their stake.