Netflix just made its service less user-friendly when traveling. Netflix announced it no longer supports casting shows from mobile devices to most TVs and streaming devices. Casting will now only work on older Chromecast models without remotes and TVs with Google Cast, regardless of whether you’re on an ad-supported or ad-free Netflix plan.

This is a bad decision, and it will impact users who stream Netflix in hotel rooms, where the hotel often only allows casting and doesn’t let you plug a device into the TV’s HDMI port. Even when you can access the HDMI ports on hotel TVs, the remote is often limited in functionality and won’t let you switch inputs. For this reason, I always throw Samsung, LG, and Vizio remotes in my bag. This change will also affect users who cast to a projector where no native app is available.

Netflix hasn’t said why it is dropping support for casting, but it is an odd approach for a company that says it always thinks about the service from a user standpoint. I can only guess that the motive was to make it harder to share accounts since mobile devices are a loophole around account-sharing restrictions.

Due to AI buildouts, the cost of memory and SSDs is skyrocketing, even for consumer SSDs and gaming hardware. Four months ago, I bought a SanDisk 1TB Portable SSD for $79.39. Today it costs $109.99, although Amazon currently has it on sale for $99. Thanks to buildouts for AI workloads, both DRAM memory used for RAM and NAND memory used for SSDs are in short supply. To put it in context, to support OpenAI’s massive Stargate data center initiative, the company signed deals with Samsung and SK Hynix for 900,000 DRAM wafers per month, which could amount to 40% of current global DRAM output.

According to CyberPowerPC, “global memory (RAM) prices have surged by 500%, and SSD prices have risen by 100%,” forcing them to raise pricing on PC gaming builds. Even though SSDs in AI servers aren’t the same as those in gaming PCs, NAND production for these AI server SSDs can divert from that for consumer SSDs once supply is limited. In September, Western Digital announced HDD price increases and shipping delays of up to 10 weeks, while SanDisk raised NAND pricing and Micron implemented a week-long pricing freeze.

Now, the gaming industry is watching to see if graphics cards are next to see a significant price increase, since the same production facilities that make memory for AI servers and RAM/SSD also produce graphics cards. AMD has already announced small GPU price increases, with more expected.

Netflix’s latest tech blog details how AV1 now powers approximately 30% of all Netflix viewing (on demand), following the launch of AV1 support on Android in 2020. While H.264/AVC remains the primary codec for Netflix viewing, the company expects AV1 to become the top codec very soon. Some other key takeaways from Netflix’s post:

• AV1 sessions use one-third less bandwidth than both AVC and HEVC, resulting in 45% fewer buffering interruptions
• On average, AV1 streaming sessions achieve VMAF scores that are 4.3 points higher than AVC and 0.9 points higher than HEVC sessions
• 85% of Netflix’s HDR catalog (from the perspective of view-hours) has AV1-HDR10+ coverage, and this number is expected to reach 100% in the next couple of months
• The AV1 specification incorporates a unique solution called Film Grain Synthesis (FGS), allowing Netflix to deliver a realistic cinematic film grain experience without the usual data costs
• Netflix is evaluating the use of AV1 in live streaming to deliver high-quality live experiences to large audiences without compromising video quality, and to reduce its delivery costs
• AV1 offers an opportunity to make graphic overlays highly customizable, since layered coding is supported in AV1’s main profile
• Over the past five years (2021–2025), 88% of large-screen devices, including TVs, set-top boxes, and streaming sticks, submitted for Netflix certification have supported AV1, with the vast majority offering full 4K@60fps capability

Netflix says it is excited about the forthcoming release of AV2, announced by the Alliance for Open Media in September, with an expected release at the end of this year.

If you are looking for details on the CDN industry, including marketing sizing, vendors, and trends, do_not_buy any report! I will provide the data to you free of charge. Reports on the market are stealing users’ money by listing “current vendors,” as Limelight, Lumen, StackPath, Verizon, and others that went under years ago, were acquired, or shut down their CDN services. Many also incorrectly list vendors, including Telestream, Citrix, Kaltura, Imperva, Airtel, Brightcove and others that don’t offer any CDN services.

The worst offenders are reports authored and sold by Precedence Research, Grand View Research, Fortune Business Insights, Fact MR, SkyQuest, Avania, IMARC Research, Future Market Insights and Roots Analysis, among others. Many of these reports also misspell vendor names (Cloudfare, Lemelight) or suggest that Verizon is an “emerging market participant” and that Fastly is a “new startup.” The average cost for these reports is $5k, with some costing twice that. Most have no author listed, and those that do list an author also cover markets tied to pharma and automotive. These authors have no understanding of the CDN market.

Many of these reports also suggest that the CDN market is in the tens of billions of dollars today, and some suggest that Netflix and YouTube resell their CDNs to other content owners. Nearly all reports I have seen don’t clearly explain or define how public CDNs disclose their revenue to Wall Street, and they use terms like “video” to describe all delivery revenue, which is inaccurate. See my posts at cdnlist.com and cdnmarket.com for market sizing and vendor list, and please get in touch with me if you need any updated data.

I have not seen a single report on the CDN market, issued by any third-party research firm or Wall Street analyst, that is grounded in facts. If you know of one you think is decent, I am happy to review it and provide my feedback. (dan@danrayburn.com)

For those suggesting that Brightcove is no longer in the market or that everyone has been fired since the Bending Spoons acquisition, that’s far from reality. In the eleven months since being acquired by Bending Spoons, Brightcove has added more features, functionality, and focus than standalone Brightcove ever achieved in the same period. Looking inside my Brightcove account, it’s great to see how much has been added and enhanced.

The company just refreshed its website with a clean, modern look, refocusing its messaging on what its platform does and where its sweet spot lies in the market. They also rolled out a vertical video gallery template across their platform, 4K support for live streaming, auto captioning, a new metadata optimizer tool, and the ability to localize videos into over 50 languages directly within the platform.

In the new year, they plan to roll out a new player UX/UI, a native recommendation engine, a modern gallery experience, the ability to do more with interactive video, and what they are calling AI Content Multiplier, which can turn a single piece of content into various clips.

A lot of progress has been made since the acquisition, and that’s the strength of Bending Spoons: knowing how to build and enhance software services at scale with focus, with focus being the keyword. Previously, Brightcove tried to be everything to everyone and built features that weren’t needed by its core customer base. Part of its business had turned into a pro-services show, which is not its strength. It’s good to see Brightcove back to its roots, offering solutions for two use cases in the market: corporate comms/marketing and broadcast/OTT streaming.

Let this sink in. From December 25-27, five NFL games will be played, none of which will be broadcast nationally on TV, during some of the largest viewership windows. Netflix has two games on Christmas, Amazon has one, Peacock has one on the 27th, and the NFL Network has the other. Four games are streaming exclusively across three different platforms. Local NBC affiliates will show the exclusive game on Peacock, and all NFL games will be available OTA.

This shows just how much the NFL is relying on streaming services for distribution and for global reach, something broadcasters can’t provide. Netflix and Amazon have international rights to their Christmas games, except in a few territories, including Canada. All games will also be available internationally via DAZN, the league’s international partner for NFL Game Pass.

Netflix’s streams will not be in HDR, even though CBS is producing the games for Netflix. Peacock will be in HDR, as will Amazon’s, and NBC will produce Amazon’s Xmas game, just as they do for all of the TNF games.

I don’t expect record viewership this year for the NFL Xmas games, when compared to last year, since the 2025 matches aren’t as good. The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders will kick things off at 1:00 PM on Netflix, followed by the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions at 4:00 PM. All but the Lions have been eliminated from the playoffs. Things will switch to Amazon Prime for the final game, which features the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos, but the Chiefs have already been eliminated, and Patrick Mahomes is out due to injury.

Netflix and Amazon have filed appeals with the Lazio Regional Administrative Court in Italy in respect to their CDNs. Last August, Italy’s Communications Regulatory Authority (Agcom) decided to extend the general authorisation requirement, under the Electronic Communications Code, on Netflix and Amazon, stating their CDNs should be regulated as telcos and pay network taxes.

As both Amazon and Netflix rightly point out, private CDN services should not be regulated like telcos, and Netflix states that “there is no legal basis to support it, and it is contrary to European and Italian law.” Agcom lacks a clear understanding of how private CDNs work; otherwise, they would know that CDNs are not electronic communications networks, and Netflix’s CDN does not carry any third-party data.

Agcom argues that CDNs are networks capable of transmitting signals and, therefore, are subject to authorization under the Electronic Communications Code. Netflix states that requiring the company to obtain a telecommunications operator’s license could result in servers being relocated elsewhere, requiring data to be delivered from further away and negatively impacting the viewing experience.

Rumors suggest that Agcom is considering adopting a regulation that takes into account the type of internet service in its decision and whether the EU, with the new Digital Networks Act, intends to move in the same direction.