How do you fight gods? With other gods, obviously. Based on Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed novel of the same name, the new Starz new drama American Gods follows recently-released and widowed prisoner Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) as he travels with the mysterious Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) across the country. The two of them have one mission: Gather a team of old gods to battle with a new crop of gods who have begun incorporating themselves into American life.
The highly anticipated series is currently airing on Starz at 9 p.m. PT on Sundays, but that doesn’t mean you need cable to watch. Times have changed, and a record number of people have cut the cord and cancelled their premium cable subscriptions. Like HBO and Showtime, Starz now allows fans to subscribe directly to the network via a standalone subscription service. Starz is also included in a few live TV streaming services. Some options let you watch episodes earlier than you can on TV, while others let you watch on multiple devices at once, and all of them are considerably cheaper than cable. Here’s what you need to know.
Starz recently began offering its extensive library of movies and TV shows to non-cable subscribers with a standalone streaming app, a mere year after HBO launched the aptly titled HBO Now. For $9 a month, you can now watch Shadow’s fantastical adventures with the gods in all their gory, crystal-clear glory. One of the most attractive caveats of the app is the ability to download episodes for offline viewing, allowing you to watch virtually anywhere.
The Starz app also lets you watch American Gods episodes in advance of their televised airing. The network releases episodes at midnight on the Sunday they are set to premiere, nearly a full day before their televised airtime. So if you wake up on Sunday morning itching for some mythological battles, then the Starz app is perfect for satiating your hunger. The app allows you to stream video from one account on four different devices, more than any other streaming option available for American Gods. Below are the devices currently supported.
Amazon Prime Video has begun offering add-on channels, including HBO and Starz, the latter of which is available at the same price as the standalone Starz app, at $9 per month. As with the Starz app, those who’ve subscribed to Starz via Amazon Prime Video get early access to new episodes of American Gods. You can also stream up to three videos from the same account, but you can only stream the same video to one device, so you’ll have to share a device if, say, you and your roommates get the AG hankering at the same time. Below are the devices currently compatible with Amazon Prime Video and, by extension, Starz.
Dish Network’s live TV streaming service Sling TV, which now offers 30 live cable channels like CNN and ESPN for as low as $20 a month, has also begun bundling in premium channels like Starz. For that same $9 a month mentioned above, you can add Starz and watch the latest American Gods episodes live or on-demand.
The cost to watch Shadow dismantle unsavory gods on Sling TV will vary, however, depending on which package you get: Sling Orange or Sling Blue. Sling Orange costs $20 a month, but you can only stream to one device at a time, while Sling Blue lets you stream to three devices simultaneously, and get access to 15 additional channels for $25 per month. One thing you probably won’t have to worry about is how you’ll stream Sling TV, however, as the ubiquitous service is available on a litany of devices. See below for the full list.
Sling TV may have been the first to offer a-la-carte live television en masse, but several others are currently jockeying for position, including DirecTV Now. The service offers 100 channels for a mere $35 a month, and offers incentives like a year of free HBO. Lucky for American Gods fans, Starz was added to the DirecTV Now offerings a few months before the show’s premiere. The cheapest DirecTV Now package will land you 60 channels for $35 a month, and Starz can be added on for an additional $8 a month (a $1 savings each month). You will only be able to stream to two devices simultaneously, but if you’re an AT&T customer, you can stream to your heart’s content it counting toward your data limit. DirecTV Now is available on fewer devices than most of its competitors at present, however. See the full list below.
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?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.