Roku has sold 5 million of its video and music streaming set-top boxes since launching in 2008, totaling 8 billion pieces of content streamed. That's an impressive performance for a little black box. 

As more and more reports swirl around the fact that consumers are turning away from traditional TV and cable, Roku claims that 25 percent of its customers use the device as their primary way of viewing television. 

"The milestone is significant, since it indicates that there’s a very real and growing market out there for a device that essentially just acts as a service layer for bringing web-based content to televisions, independent of what TV manufacturers themselves are doing with their own built-in Smart TV services," notes Tech Crunch.Continue reading...

“Netflix will be sold by Easter,” Porter Bibb, managing partner at Mediatech Capital Partners, told Bloomberg News. "I am hearing very serious rumblings from inside Verizon that they are very serious about either Netflix or something similar."

A deal with Verizon would put sorely needed cash in Netflix’s pocket as international expansion is on hold while the company staggers to regain profitability, reeling from a disastrous 2011, which saw a number of mishaps for the video rental/streaming brand.

After hiking subscription rates 60% in July, a customer revolt led to an ill-fated attempt at restructuring their DVD and streaming plans with the planned (then abandoned) launch of Qwikster, which sent nearly one million subscribers into exile; so they un-restructured but still lost close to 800,000 customers.Continue reading...