Hasta La Gadget!

Xbox Live Gold customers, get ready for a chucklefest in your living room. Two new apps to tickle the funny bone have just arrived for Microsoft’s console courtesy of Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. We heard rumblings about the latter being added to the roster a while ago, but it looks like that has finally come to fruition. Your kids can enjoy full episodes of their favorite Nick shows, short videos and special animated shorts. The Comedy Central app is a touch more adult-oriented of course, with a focus on the channel’s stand-up offerings. Dubbed “CC: Stand-up,” the app boasts more than 6,000 videos of routines from around 700 comedians. So whether you’re into Aziz Ansari or Spongebob Squarepants, you’ll be able to get your fix via Xbox Live starting today.

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Source: Xbox Wire

In May Netflix let a broad content deal with Viacom (parent company of Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and more) expire and saw many of the network’s shows disappear from its streaming service, but Amazon will not follow its lead. Today the company announced an extension in its own agreement with Viacom that not only keeps the TV shows (over 250 seasons including more than 3,900 episodes) but includes a provision for a “selection” of exclusives. That means Amazon will stream Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. kids shows like Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans, Blues Clues and Victorious, with some available as part of the Kindle FreeTime Unlimited package on its tablets and some heading to Lovefilm in Germany and the UK later this summer. Other shows affected by the deal include current and upcoming ones from MTV and Comedy Central like Workaholics, Key and Peele and Awkward.

For its part, Netflix has also expanded a deal with Disney and is even producing an original kids show of its own to follow up on projects like House of Cards and Arrested Development, but so is Amazon. As competition in the subscription streaming market intensifies expect to see more exclusives as studios play the services against each others to drive prices up — as seen here, if one decides to invest more in original content and deals for specific content there will likely be a cost in other areas.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD, Amazon

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Source: Amazon

Kids have it all these days — tailor–made gadgets, their own little corners in mobile platforms, and of course, loads and loads of content. The latest to hit the wires is the Nick app for the iPad, offering a slew of Nickelodeon programming wrapped in a swipe-driven, tyke-friendly interface. The goodies include animated shorts, videos, games, the ability to mark favorites, plus a smorgasbord of funny interactive elements and a “Do Not Touch” button that promises disruptive fun. Full episodes of the current shows can also be accessed if you’ve subscribed to Nickelodeon’s TV package via any one of eight providers. Seems like a swell way to keep those tech-savvy rug rats occupied between outdoor adventures and some DIY action. The 45MB payload is waiting at the source link, yours for the hard-to-argue cost of free.

Filed under: Tablets, HD

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Source: App Store

Seeing that DirecTV and Viacom can’t even agree on the number of channels that have gone off the air (one says 17, the other 26) as a result of their deal expiring last week, it’s no surprise that the two are continuing to challenge each other’s statements on every element of the negotiations. The latest tiff? DirecTV claims it has “accepted all material terms…including an increase that was more than fair” for the channels that were pulled, but accuses Viacom of trying to force an addition of the Epix channel package at a cost of around half a billion dollars. Viacom, for its part, calls the statement a “complete work of fiction” and accuses DirecTV of creating more obstacles in the way of a compromise. Both point of views are linked below, we figure DirecTV customers will have plenty of time to read them while they’re busy not watching the new episodes of Workaholics and Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta until this is resolved.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

DirecTV and Viacom disagree on their disagreements, standoff continues originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest participants in the carriage dispute dance are DirecTV and Viacom, with the two companies attempting to reach a new agreement before their existing one expires tonight. If they don’t, the network’s 26 channels (MTV, BET, VH1, Spike TV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon etc.) could be cut off at midnight. As usual, each has its own side of the argument with Viacom claiming DirecTV has been underpaying for years, while DirecTV accuses Viacom of seeking an increase that will add up to a billion dollars in a year and is responsible for pulling the channels while negotiations continue. We’re not particularly sympathetic to the plight of either corporate behemoth (or optimistic that any savings will ever reach customer’s pockets) but if you must support one over the other then there’s plenty of propaganda to be found at the links below. This may not be as crucial as Dish Network’s (potentially) Breaking Bad-interrupting tiff with AMC, but if we have to miss an episode of Workaholics or Awkward it’s going to be bad for everyone.

Update: We’ve revised the total channel count from 26 as Viacom stated to 18 — as much as we like HD feeds, we don’t usually count them twice.

[Thanks, AJ]

Continue reading DirecTV vs. Viacom squabble could see MTV, Comedy Central and 16 others go dark at midnight

Filed under: Home Entertainment

DirecTV vs. Viacom squabble could see MTV, Comedy Central and 16 others go dark at midnight originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 08:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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