Our weekly news brief summarizes cord-cutter news from around the Web. In this week's round-up: Viacom content leaves Hulu, why Apple TV is failing, free HBO on Sling this weekend, T-Mobile may try to disrupt the pay-TV industry, and more.
- Why has Apple TV failed to fulfill its promise to revolutionize television? A report from Bloomberg cites a number of reasons, including price, failure to work out streaming deals with content providers, software less ambitious than originally planned, and Apple's "addiction to fat margins."
- In his Cord-Cutter Confidential column on TechHive, Jared Newman takes a look at how TV networks are responding to the cord-cutting movement, and he warns that "the responses aren’t always consumer friendly."
- Do you use more than one set-top box to get your TV content? If so, keep an eye onCaavo, a master box to run all other boxes, including Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and a cable box. Jefferson Graham of USA TODAY writes that "the idea is to plug the Caavo into one HDMI port on the TV, and put all the boxes into the 8 HDMI ports on the back of the unit."
- Sling TV users can watch HBO for free this weekend as part of Sling's 2nd Birthday celebration. All Sling Orange and Sling Blue customers will receive free access to live and on-demand content from HBO through Monday, Feb. 20. No action is needed to get the free preview - HBO will show up in your Sling TV menu.
- Viacom is removing its content from Hulu following the expiration of a licensing agreement between the two. Programming gone or leaving soon includes popular Comedy Central shows like "Tosh.0" and "The Daily Show" along with shows from MTV and Logo. Variety reports that Viacom CEO Bob Bakish stated during last week's earnings call that "SVOD is not going to be a significant part of our affiliate revenue" going forward, and the Bakish previously said his goal is to "reinforce the pay TV ecosystem."
- STARZ Play is dropping support for Xbox 360. According to a screenshot posted by a reddit user, as of February 27 Xbox users will need an Xbox One to watch the new STARZ app that combines ENCORE Play and STARZ Play.
- Ars Technica reports that Cox has been order to pay $8 million in fees on top of $25 million jury verdict for violating DMCA. The fees and verdict are the result of a lawsuit filed against Cox by music publishers BMG and Round Hill Music, accusing Cox of not doing enough to stop piracy by its customers.
- Can T-Mobile disrupt the pay-TV industry? CEO John Legere thinks that the nation's third largest mobile network can do so according to a report by Fierce Wireless, which speculates that "T-Mobile may be looking to merge with a video distributor or forge a partnership with a TV provider looking to elbow its way into the wireless market."
- Multichannel News reports that "Comcast maintained the top spot in Netflix's monthly ISP Speed Index for January 2017 in the U.S." Comcast's average Netflix speed was 3.83 Mbps. However, there isn't a big difference between Cox and number 10 AT&T U-Verse, which had a speed of 3.51 Mbps.
