Recently, we ran a piece on Sling TV’s new advertisement spots that mock “Old TV” by personifying broadcast cable providers as adolescent bullies that coerce customers into buying services. The kids torture customers into buying products they don’t need via wedgies, wet willies, and other humiliating strong-arm tactics.
Well, circle up, folks — it looks like we have a good ol’ fashioned playground fight on our hands.
Related: Hilarious New Sling TV Ads Mock ‘Old TV’ in the Cleverest Way Possible
NBC has started blocking Sling TV’s new ads on its owned and operated stations in key markets like San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. Why? Most likely because broadcast cable provider Comcast owns the NBCUniversal. After all, ABC, CBS, FOX, and independently-owned NBC affiliates (aka stations not owned by Comcast) are all letting the campaign run.
While you could argue that Comcast is just fighting fire with fire, you could also argue that the company is responding to accusations of bullying by … well … bullying.
Roger Lynch, CEO of Sling TV is arguing the latter, and he’s doing so very publicly.
“Here’s the irony. The refusal to air our campaign endorses the ads’ central truth: there are traditional pay-TV players that just don’t get it,” wrote Lynch in a recent blog post. “Innovation benefits customers. Sling TV exists because we recognize the need for a new live TV model that’s simple”
The new live TV model he’s talking about is an internet-based, live-streaming option that allows users to eschew bundled broadcast cable for a model that is more limited in terms of content, but far cheaper. Sling TV’s packages start at $20/month sans contract and include a targeted selection of 20+ popular channels (ESPN, A&E, History, TNT, etc.). For an additional monthly fee, subscribers can add HBO and other extras.
While it’s a tad ironic that Sling’s parent company (Dish Network) could easily be lumped together with the rest of the “Old TV” hooligans, Sling TV does provide a great deal more flexibility than traditional cable. All things considered, it’s a step forward for an industry that has been clinging to the past for far too long. And, after all, one might say simply offering such a service as part of its offerings in itself differentiates Dish Network from the other so-called bullies.
To coin an “Old TV” saying, stay tuned for updates.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?