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Its not just the major social platforms that know how effective an endless scroll of short videos is at hijacking your dopamine system. Disney+ is adding Verts, a selection of short vertical clips you can scroll through to keep your brain chemistry happy when you are in the bathroom so inclined. The company says its a dynamic feed to help users quickly find their next favorite watch, letting you jump straight in to see the full movie or TV show the clip hails from. Not to mention the side benefit of elbowing out those social platforms, many of which use cut-down clips of Disney-owned content anyway. Disney said it would be adding vertical video to its premiere streaming platform back in January, and it also launched Verts on the ESPN app last year. Today, it said the addition of vertical clips drove additional engagement, but neglected to mention by how much. It's worth noting Disney's not an outlier here Netflix announced a similar pivot back in January as well. The company does say, however, that its recommendation engine has an advanced algorithm to ensure the clips are relevant to each user. Naturally, Disney is happy to lean on the century or more of content in its library, but also said Verts could broaden out to include content from creators that reflects our fandoms. Which you could (and should) take as a plan to at least try to put a tank or two on YouTubes front lawn.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-gets-its-own-time-sucking-vertical-video-section-133308487.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
The first season of a TV show is a tricky thing. It has to convince people to watch it and justify the shows existence to the network (or streaming service) execs. It has to deal with actors and writers who may not have fully dialed into the characters and world yet. There are some shows with absolutely stellar first seasons Stranger Things, Veronica Mars and Ted Lasso are a few but many other hit shows stumbled out of the gate, like The Office and Supernatural.Star Trek is not immune to this phenomenon. The Original Series had a decent first season, with classic episodes like The City on the Edge of Forever. But the next four shows all have rather weak beginnings, with even fan-favorite The Next Generation stumbling badly with episodes like Code of Honor. That show picked up in season three, beginning a trend called Growing the Beard, in reference to how Commander Rikers new beard coincided with the uptick in quality.This trend unfortunately continued into the current era, with 2017s Star Trek: Discovery delivering a first season with an overwhelmingly dour tone and a lot of franchise changes that didnt sit well with fans. The show made some tweaks in season two (including a change in setting that involved traveling 900 years into the future), and showed a lot of improvement with season three. Picard also floundered horribly, with an uneven first season that killed off some fan-favorite characters and also turned the title character into an android. Things started looking up after that, with shows like Strange New Worlds all posting strong outings with their first go-arounds. While episodes like A Quality of Mercy and Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach may not make the list of all-time classics, there are no outright stinkers. It seemed like the franchise as a whole was finally finding its footing in this new streaming era.L-R: Tatiana Maslany as Anisha, Sandro Rosta as Caleb, Kerrice Brooks as SAM, Bella Shepard as Genesis, and George Hawkins as Darem in season 1, episode 9, of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+.Michael Gibson/Paramount+That leads us to Starfleet Academy, which debuted in January on Paramount+. Prior to its premiere, the internet was full of people deriding it as CW Trek and declaring that they dont want to watch a show about teenyboppers that wasnt real Star Trek. Now that the show has finished its first season the internet is still full of people complaining. But many folks who were wary of it at the beginning have been pleasantly surprised every day there seems to be multiple posts on various Star Trek subreddits along the lines of Starfleet Academy is actually good?!? I personally didnt enjoy the first episode, but episode two turned me around rather quickly, and it seemed that every week brought new converts.Granted, 10 episodes is a short amount of time to make an impact, but Starfleet Academy did a lot with that number. Four of the episodes are dedicated to the ongoing villainy of Nus Braka, a murderous pirate played with scene-chewing delight by Paul Giamatti. These have all been pretty straightforward adventure stories, which also did a good job of fleshing out not only Braka, but cadet Caleb Mir, whose mother went to prison because of Braka.The emphasis on Caleb in the first episode made it seem like the show would focus on him, much in the way Discovery focused on Michael Burnham, but he took a back seat as the show explored the other characters as well as its setting. Episode two, Beta Test, focused on diplomacy, a long-standing theme of Star Trek, and even shook up the status quo by moving the Federation headquarters from Earth to Betazed. Paul Giamatti as Nus Braka and Holly Hunter as Captain Nahla Ake in season 1, episode 6, of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy streaming on Paramount+.Brooke Palmer/Paramount+Episodes four and five were more personal stories, with Vox in Excelso focusing on soft boy Klingon character Jay-Den as well as the fate of his race in general after hundreds of years, while Series Acclimation Mil also gave us characterization of photonic being Sam along with some heartfelt fan service for the Deep Space Nine fandom. Sam would also shine once more in The Life of the Stars, an episode that dealt with trauma, but also (again) delivered fan service in a way that didnt feel like pandering because of how it was used to develop not just Sam, but also the Doctor, a legacy character from Voyager.Its not that every episode in season one of Starfleet Academy is a masterpiece Vitus Reflux and KoZeine are somewhat weak but none of them are outright bad, making the batting average of the season rather high. That bodes well for word-of-mouth, as it's easier to recommend a show when you don't have to couch it with excuses about how it gets good eventually.It will need that word-of-mouth if it wants to get through a complete four seasons of schooling; season two just finished filming so we're guaranteed at least that, but there's a lot up in the air for not just the show, but the entire franchise. Strange New Worlds season four will debut later this year, and then we have an abbreviated season five to look forward to. But past that, nothing firm is on the horizon: Starfleet Academy hasn't been renewed yet, and projects like the Tawny Newsome-helmed comedy show are still in development with nothing tangible revealed yet. Newsome played Beckett Mariner on Lower Decks and worked in the writers room for Starfleet Academy she's an example of how Paramount has been building up a roster of talent behind the scenes for the franchise who, even when a show is new, understand the universe and, more importantly, how to work together to make good TV. And that's going to be important in the next year or so, as Paramount makes decisions about the future of the franchise in the shadow of the recent Skydance merger and the upcoming Warner Bros. purchase. StarTrek has an uphill battle ahead of it, but at least Starfleet Academys first season has made it an easier climb.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/starfleet-academy-is-the-best-first-season-of-as-star-trek-show-ever-133000267.html?src=rss
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Google has announced that GFiber is merging with Astound Broadband, in an agreement that sees Astounds parent company Stonepeak become the majority owner, with Alphabet retaining a minority stake. No financial specifics were detailed in a press release, but the new combined business will be an independent provider led by GFibers executive team, who Google says will use its "expertise in high-speed fiber innovation to manage the combined network footprint." Astound already serves over one million customers across the US, and by joining forces Google says the two providers will be able to grant better internet access to more communities. GFiber, formerly known as Google Fiber, has been around for nearly 15 years, and currently offers speeds of up to 8Gbps on its $150/month Edge 8 Gig plan. A 20 Gig service was expected to leave early access later in 2026. The fiber broadband service is part of Alphabets "Other Bets" portfolio, which also includes Waymo, Verily, and Wing, a combined segment that recorded an operating loss of $16.8 billion in 2025, CNBC reports. The companys deal with Stonepeak is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q4 of this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/googles-gfiber-internet-business-is-merging-with-astound-broadband-132832086.html?src=rss
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