Tag: House of Cards

T-Mobile Discontinues Cell Phone Contracts & Mainstream Media Discusses The Television Revolution

Linda Reimer

T-Mobile Discontinues Cell Phone Contracts: T-Mobile, the fourth largest cell phone carrier in the United States, just dropped all its contract plans and has moved to a pay-by-the-month becoming the first large carrier in the U.S. to do so. Cell phone users can now transfer their old phones to T-Mobile, or obtain a new phone from T-Mobile and pay a monthly fee for the phone for a certain period of time until the phone is paid off. However, cell phone users will also have the option to pay off their phones early, without penalty, and will be able to switch carriers or obtain new phones whenever they want to as of course there will no longer be a contract to adhere to. Monthly service plans are called “Simple Choice” plans and the entry level package costs $50 per month for unlimited texting and voice and 500 MB of data. Customers can also pay $70 per month for an unlimited texting, talking and data plan.

Here’s a link to a Ars Technica article titled After months of speculation, T-Mobile finally ditches cellphone contracts on the subject:

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/03/after-months-of-speculation-t-mobile-finally-ditches-cellphone-contracts/

And another link to a New York Times article on the subject titled T-Mobile Unveils Aggressive Phone Pricing With No Contracts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/technology/t-mobile-unveils-aggressive-phone-pricing-with-no-contracts.html?_r=0

Mainstream Media Discusses The Television Revolution: I keep talking about the Television Revolution and how more and more people are streaming television shows and movies over the Internet and now mainstream television is beginning to cover this very cool story as it unfolds! More specifically NBC’s Night News offered a news story on Sunday regarding how the Netflix production of the hit Kevin Spacey series House of Cards is very popular. NBC also notes that when Netflix debut the first season of the series for its customers they offered the entire season all at once so eager viewers can have House of Cards marathons and watch the series in either one long weekend sitting or each night over the course of two weeks – basically they can watch all of the series whenever they want to. And that so called “binge” or marathon streaming of shows by television and movie fans is a large facet of the unfolding TV Revolution.

Here’s a link to the NBC video clip titled Netflix Changing TV

http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/51312617#51312617

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Chen, Brian. (2013, March 26). T-Mobile Unveils Aggressive Phone Pricing With No Contracts. The New York Times. Online.

Farivar, Cyrus. (2013, March 25). After months of speculation, T-Mobile finally ditches cellphone contracts: Firm’s new plans start at $50/month for unlimited voice/texting and 500MB data. Ars Technica. Online.

Netflix Changing TV. (2013, March 24). Nightly News. NBC. Online. 

Streaming Video: Giving Viewers What They Want To Watch When They Want To Watch It

Linda Reimer

The streaming and DVD subscription service Netflix has actually produced, and made available for streaming, a television series. Netflix remade the popular BBC series House of Cards. This new version of House of Cards was indeed made by Netflix itself as its first original presentation and it stars Kevin Spacey. And much ado is being made in the press of the fact that Netflix used Big Data*1 to decide to remake this series and to remake it with the actor they chose for the lead role (Kevin Spacey) and the director (David Fincher) they chose to direct the series.  

And although both the fact that the series is Netflix’s first foray into actually creating a new show and that it is the most popular streaming title Netflix has at the moment are very interesting; what I find the most interesting about the new series is that Netflix released the entire first season of the series all at once and viewers seem to really like that fact as they are streaming away and watching all the episodes in one or two sittings.  

And the fact that this option is so popular – that is having an entire season of a series available to stream from the Internet and watch the day it is released is so popular… that fact illustrates to me that the instantaneous availability of streaming video*2 is becoming more popular with mainstream television and movie fans. And that being the case, just maybe we’re a step or two closer to a television viewing model that is truly on demand and lets viewers watch any television shows or movies they want to watch when they want to watch them, via streaming, and on whatever device they want to watch them upon!

And here’s a link to the New York Times article that started my streaming video musings for today – it is titled Giving Viewers What They Want – here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/business/media/for-house-of-cards-using-big-data-to-guarantee-its-popularity.html?ref=technology&_r=0

And on a non-tech FYI note – Tolkien and fantasy fans can now pre-order The Hobbit as the video now has a release date! It will be released on DVD and streaming video on March 19!

Have a great day!

Linda R.

 

 

*1) In this case the term “Big Data” simply means that Netflix took a look at the user data they have on hand to see which television subjects, directors and actors are popular with viewers and used that information to make the decision to remake the series House of Cards and with the director and cast that they chose to use for the production.

 

*2) In the case of the new House of Cards series streaming availability is extra notable because the series is currently only available to Netflix subscribers to stream via the Internet – it has not yet been released on DVD.

 

 

References

 

Carr. David. (2013, February 24). Giving Viewers What They Want. New York Times. Online.