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Streaming

Established streaming industry leaders like Netflix and Amazon are facing more competition than ever. Now legacy entertainment giants are in the game with their own subscription services, like Peacock, HBO Max, Paramount Plus, and the Disney Plus / Hulu / ESPN Plus bundle, while Apple TV Plus attacks around the edges. Meanwhile, the rise of ad-supported free platforms like Roku Channel and Pluto TV has attracted enough attention that Plex, YouTube, and Amazon’s Freevee are trying to get a chunk of the action too.

Apple TV’s The Hunt finally has a premiere dateApple TV’s The Hunt finally has a premiere date
Charles Pulliam-Moore
The next iTunes may be vibe-codedThe next iTunes may be vibe-coded
Janko Roettgers
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Youtube
Charles Pulliam-Moore
A dragon queen of the seven kingdoms.

Though HBO still hasn’t announced a firm release date for House of the Dragon’s upcoming third season, there’s a new trailer teasing out Rhaenyra’s plan to make her enemies pay using her squad of newly-tamed dragons. The new season drops some time in June.

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Richard Lawler
YouTube was broken, but now it’s back.

A partial YouTube outage knocked out access to Google’s video service on Tuesday night.

The outage appears to have started just before 8PM ET, but at least on the homepage, it appears to be resolved now. A note on YouTube’s support page says it went down due to problems with the recommendations system. “The issue with our recommendations system has been resolved and all of our platforms (YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids, and TV) are back to normal!

Update: The service is back online.

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Youtube
Stevie Bonifield
‘All Dropout, all the time.’

Starting on February 18th, Dropout fans will be able to drop into a new 24/7, ad-free livestream channel on the comedy-focused streaming service. “Dropout 24/7” will run all of its content, including the TTRPG series Dimension 20, improv comedy shows Game Changer and Make Some Noise, and more, starting with a Dimension 20 marathon.

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Lauren Feiner
The social media addiction trial is delayed — again.

Just after we entered the courtroom, we learned that a juror has been hospitalized. The parties decided to postpone today’s testimony from former Meta employees to see if the juror can return. Regardless, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify tomorrow — either before the original juror, or an alternate.

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Youtube
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Put a hat on that baby.

The latest trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu really highlights how very, very young Grogu still is for one of Yoda’s species, which makes it seem that much more absurd that Din Djarin still hasn’t found his son a helmet to protect that (presumably) soft head.

A Star is born

One night in the audience of Netflix’s most ambitious live show yet.

David Pierce
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Terrence O'Brien
Spotify’s CEO bragged that it’s paying its best developers not to code.

During the company’s Q4 earnings call, Gustav Söderström revealed that Spotify had fully embraced vibe coding. AI is coming for a lot of jobs, and software developer is high on the list of those in danger. Still, it’s shocking that the top devs at Spotify haven’t written any code in 2026. Per Business Insider:

“When I speak to my most senior engineers — the best developers we have — they actually say that they haven’t written a single line of code since December… They actually only generate code and supervise it.” - Spotify CEO Gustav Söderström

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Jay Peters
Disney accuses Bytedance’s new AI video model of infringing on its characters.

In a cease and desist letter, Disney includes examples of the new Seedance 2.0 model making videos featuring characters like Spider-Man and Darth Vader, according to Axios. “ByteDance is hijacking Disney’s characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring those characters,” Disney’s attorney said.

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Twitter
Jay Peters
Twitch is testing pause screen ads.

The platform isn’t the first service to try them.

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Emma Roth
Paramount ups its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, again.

Now, Paramount is offering to cover the $2.8 billion termination fee that Warner Bros. Discovery would owe Netflix for abandoning the $82.7 billion merger agreement. It’s also tossing in a $0.25 per share “ticking fee” that it would pay shareholders for every quarter its deal hasn’t closed beyond December 31st, 2026.

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Youtube
Charles Pulliam-Moore
This isn’t even Tony Tony Chopper’s final form.

There’s a lot to see in Netflix’s new trailer for the live-action One Piece’s upcoming second season, but the most surprising reveal here is a fresh look at Tony Tony Chopper’s (Mikaela Hoover) Walk Point form that turns him into a much more normal-looking reindeer. The show’s out March 10th.

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Jess Weatherbed
YouTube Music just got an AI playlist maker.

Similar to the Prompted Playlists that Spotify launched in December, YouTube Music premium subscribers on iOS and Android can now use voice or text descriptions to turn ideas, genres, or vibes into personalized playlists.

<em>The AI Playlists feature should appear when you open the “New” menu at the bottom-right of the YouTube Music app.</em>
<em>The AI Playlists feature should appear when you open the “New” menu at the bottom-right of the YouTube Music app.</em>
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The AI Playlists feature should appear when you open the “New” menu at the bottom-right of the YouTube Music app.
Image by YouTube
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Youtube
Antonio G. Di Benedetto
Netflix’s drip feed of new Sesame Street episodes continues March 9th.

The next four episodes of Sesame Street are dropping soon on Netflix and will include a cameo from Miley Cyrus.

Will they also go back to having a Letter and Number of the Day and a proper ending song? I won’t hold my breath, but I’ll still be bitter.

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Dominic Preston
Disney loses Dolby in Europe.

Disney Plus subscribers in a few European countries have spotted that Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and 3D content have disappeared from the service. A Disney statement blames it on “technical challenges,” but FlatpanelsHD points out it may be linked to a patent dispute in Germany.

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Youtube
Richard Lawler
Pixar previews Hoppers.

Just before kickoff, Disney and Pixar previewed their next CG family flick, Hoppers. As we’ve heard and seen in a teaser trailer, this one follows a world where people put their minds into 3D-printed versions of animals to try and live among them. It’s coming to theaters on March 6th, although the YouTube description mentions an early viewing window on February 28th.

Netflix’s Warner Bros. merger puts rival streamers in survival mode

The $82.7 billion deal will force Paramount Plus, Disney Plus, Peacock, Apple TV, and other rivals to make some changes.

Emma Roth
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The Verge
Charles Pulliam-Moore
It’s time to go to Jupiter.

Now that Boys Go to Jupiter is streaming on HBO Max, you should check out our interview with writer / director Julian Glander about the movie and why he feels that open-source software programs like Blender are doing way more to “democratize” art than generative AI.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

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Stevie Bonifield
Disney’s Eragon series is showing signs of life.

Todd Harthan and Todd Helbing have joined the series as co-showrunners and executive producers, along with Marc Webb and Rachel Moore as executive producers, as Variety reports. Author Christopher Paolini will also be executive producing the adaptation of his YA fantasy series at Disney Plus, which is also home to the hit adaptation of Percy Jackson.

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Dominic Preston
Déjà vu.

As expensive bundled packages, premium live sports pricing, and restrictive walled gardens proliferate, customers have turned to TV piracy instead. Now why do I feel like I’ve seen this one before?

NotSoSavvy:

Hey, the exact same problem that drove people to Torrenting comes up again! It’s weird that as soon as watching things legally becomes more of a hassle than watching them illegally, people start watching illegally again. It’s almost like people hate walled gardens and it’s generally in a company’s best interests to have wider, easier distribution they get a smaller cut from than try and make their own Netflix or something.

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

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Jess Weatherbed
Content creators are now driving The Grand Tour.

While Top Gear has spent years trying to replace Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond with mainstream celebrities, Amazon is instead appeasing British broadcasting execs’ obsession with online content creators. The Grand Tour season 7 presenters are viral trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, alongside James Engelsman and Thomas Holland, who run the Throttle House YouTube channel.

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Emma Roth
Even Hulu is getting into podcasts now.

Hulu already offers companion podcasts for some of its shows, but now Deadline reports that it has struck a deal to stream We’re Here to Help — a comedy advice podcast hosted by Jake Johnson and Gareth Reynolds — one day before it appears on other platforms.

Everyone is stealing TV

Fed up with increasing subscription prices, viewers embrace rogue streaming boxes.

Janko Roettgers