If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer, check before paying for a Disney+ subscription. You might be able to get it for free. Thanks to a new partnership between Disney and Verizon, all existing and new Verizon Wireless customers on unlimited data plans will receive a year of Disney’s new streaming service at no extra charge, saving them $70 on an annual Disney+ subscription.
As reported by Variety, the new deal applies to all Verizon customers with unlimited 4G LTE and 5G data plans, as well as new subscribers to Verizon’s Fios and 5G home internet programs. Once the free yearly subscription has ended, customers will automatically be charged Disney+’s normal $7-a-month fee, although they can cancel their subscription at any time.
Roughly half of Verizon’s existing 100 million wireless customers are eligible for the deal, and if you’re in the market for a new wireless carrier, a free Disney+ subscription isn’t a bad perk. If you’re eligible for the deal, you can sign up at Verizon’s Disney+ page.
Disney+ launches on November 12, and looks to be a big player in the quickly escalating streaming wars. In addition to a huge library of classic (and not-so-classic) Disney shows and movies, Fox programming like The Simpsons, and National Geographic content, Disney+ will also offer original programming based on many of Disney’s popular franchises.
For example, the first of three live-action Star Wars spinoffs slated for Disney+, The Mandalorian, will debut on launch day, just in time to get everyone hyped for the impending release of Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker. In 2020, TV tie-ins to the Marvel Cinematic Universe will begin rolling out on Disney+, starting with the Avengers: Endgame follow-up Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will explore what happens when Steve Rogers’ friend Sam Wilson adopts Captain America’s iconic shield.
Other new series coming to Disney+ include High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, a very meta take on the popular Disney Channel movie, a Lizzie McGuire revival starring an adult Hillary Duff, a short-form Muppets series, and reality programming such as The World According to Jeff Goldblum.
Disney+ is just one of many brand-specific streaming services launching in the next year, which will also see competitors arrive from companies like NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia, and Apple.
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.