Earnings week seems to arrive just a little bit sooner every fall — or it could just be the nonstop cheering from Big Tech who had a banner quarter thanks to the COVID quarantine turning many of us into a captive audience for their products and services. Here are some headlines from the week that was.
What, you thought your child was just going to indoctrinate themselves to life within the surveillance state? For free? In this economy? Not a chance. Not when Jeff Bezos can ding you for a trio of Benjamins on the way out.
Speaking of Jeff Bezos getting even more wealthy, Amazon made an extra $26 billion in sales during Q3 2020 thanks to our shelter in place rules and everybody embracing delivery for, well, everything.
Oh the woes of Tesla ownership. First the company offered a $2,500 infotainment system upgrade that gave customers access to YouTube, Netflix, Hulu — none of which should be watched while operating a motor vehicle mind you, unless you spring for the $10,000 FSD mode (though it’s being called is a “distant second” to GMC’s SuperCruise) — but had to ditch the existing AM, FM and Sirius functions. Now the company is offering to restore the FM and Sirius capabilities that used to be there with the addition of a new tuner and antenna for the low, low discount price of $500.
Netflix is yet again getting a little more expensive. The company announced last week that its standard plan will now cost $14, a dollar increase, and its premium plan will rise two dollars to $18 a month. I’m old enough to remember when cord cutting actually saved people money.
Under Armour is looking to shed some weight, namely its MyFitnessPal and Endomondo apps. The former is being put up for sale with a $345 million price tag, the latter is simply being shut down, all so that the company can achieve a greater degree of “investment flexibility.”
Streaming services are keen to prevent regulators from censoring their content, and they’re willing to police themselves to ensure that artistic freedom. Variety reports that Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar and 12 other companies have signed a self-regulatory code to stay on the good side of India’s regulators. This includes common approaches to age labels and content descriptions as well as a way to report any violations of the system. Streaming services have to set up complaint departments, internal committees or both to deal with any issues.
The code was created by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (disclaimer: Engadget’s parent brand Verizon Media is a member) and is already in effect.
The Indian government has been hesitant to censor streaming services and would rather they keep themselves in check. This theoretically keeps officials happy — they don’t have to worry as much that parents will inadvertently play inappropriate movies for their kids, or that there will be no way to report a TV show.
Services like Netflix already honor age ratings in other countries. However, it’s rare for these internet-focused outlets to unite on a rating system — they’ve clearly determined that it’s easier to work with each other than to have the government step in.
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