Tag: subscription

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter relaunches Blue, won’t review accounts for authenticity

After various delays, Twitter officially relaunched its Blue subscription on Monday, December 12th. As before, Blue offers up a checkmark that appears next to the name of subscribers, although now there are different colours depending on what type of account you have.

When Twitter’s new owner and dude who got booed at a Chapelle show Elon Musk rolled out the first Twitter Blue revamp earlier this year, it cost $9.99/mo and was only available on iOS. This time around, Musk has changed up the pricing for Blue (likely after realizing Apple was taking a chunk and angrily tweeting about it). The service is now available on the web and iOS with different prices. However, at least for the MobileSyrup team, it doesn’t seem to be available on iOS in Canada.

Twitter Blue subscription in Canada

Twitter’s ‘About Blue‘ page says it will cost $8/mo on the web and $11/mo on iOS in the U.S. For me, Twitter Blue is listed at $10/mo CAD on the web, and it doesn’t appear at all in the iOS app. Checking the Android app reveals a message that Blue is only available on the web and iOS “for now.” If Blue on iOS follows the same pricing pattern as Blue on the web, it should cost around $13/mo in Canada once it becomes available.

Beyond the pricing and availability changes, Blue notes that subscribers with a verified phone number will get a checkmark “once approved.” There’s a 90-day delay on new accounts subscribing to Blue, but beyond that, there doesn’t seem to be any other measures in place to prevent abuse of the blue checkmark like what happened the first time the feature rolled out. Twitter’ Blue FAQ page even notes that “accounts that receive the blue checkmark as part of a Twitter Blue subscription will not undergo review to confirm that they meet the active, notable and authentic criteria that was used in the previous [verification] process” (emphasis ours).

Musk also reiterated plans to remove the legacy checkmarks from Twitter accounts, calling the old process to get them “corrupt and nonsensical.” While there were certainly problems with the old system, at least it took the time to establish a baseline of authenticity for verified accounts. I also find the corruption argument funny, given Musk’s plan to prioritize tweets from those who pay for Blue, effectively forcing pay-to-play rules on the whole platform.

Moreover, a Twitter support page spotted by TechCrunch details the new checkmark colours. Blue checkmarks will be for those subscribed to Blue (or legacy verified accounts until Musk gets around to removing those). The support page also notes that Twitter won’t review accounts with the Blue checkmark to make sure they’re authentic.

The new gold checkmark showing up for some people indicates that the account is “an official business account through Twitter Blue for Business.” The page also references grey labels applied to state-affiliated media and government accounts.

However, there isn’t actually a Blue for Business feature available on Twitter yet. As noted by TechCrunch, the gold checkmark is showing up on business accounts that previously had relationships with Twitter and the platform plans to open Blue for Business up to more companies in the future.

Anyway, it’ll be exciting to see how this rollout of Blue blows up in Musk’s face. The last one went over so smoothly. You can read all about the latest Twitter turmoil here.

Source: Twitter, (2) Via: TechCrunch

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Mobile Syrup

New Twitter accounts must wait 90 days before subscribing to Blue

While Twitter’s future certainly seems uncertain, Musk still has plans to relaunch the platform’s Blue subscription with paid verification on November 29th. Now, new details on the ‘About Twitter Blue‘ page (spotted by The Verge) say that new accounts will need to wait 90 days before they can sign up for the service:

“Availability: Twitter Blue is currently available on iOS only in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, with plans to expand. Not all features available on all platforms. Newly created Twitter accounts will not be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue for 90 days. We may also impose waiting periods for new accounts in the future in our discretion without notice.” (emphasis ours)

The new delay comes after Blue opened the floodgates for impersonation on the platform by handing anyone who paid for the subscription a blue checkmark that looks identical to the old verification badge used to mark high-profile accounts as authentic. Nearly everyone could tell adding paid verification was a bad idea, and Twitter even warned Musk, but that didn’t stop him from implementing the change. Twitter suspended the Blue launch within days after rampant impersonation.

During the brief initial run of Blue, Twitter did block accounts made on or after November 9th from signing up for the service, but that didn’t do much to stop existing accounts from buying checkmarks to trick users. The new 90-day delay could help prevent people from making new accounts and buying checkmarks to scam users, but as The Verge notes, there’s nothing stopping scammers from stockpiling free accounts for a few months and then buying checkmarks for them later.

Twitter also has plans for other mitigation efforts, but I don’t see any of them being effective. For example, Musk previously said that Twitter users who change their verified username will temporarily lose their checkmark until Twitter confirms the new name doesn’t violate the terms of service. However, with Twitter’s staff cuts, contract worker purge and mass resignations, it’s not clear who will check changed usernames. Moreover, it still isn’t clear if Twitter will check usernames when people sign up for Blue.

Ultimately, Musk seems committed to the idea of paid blue checkmarks regardless of the potential harm to both Twitter and its user base. As I’ve said before, the issue is less about paying for a blue checkmark and more about what the checkmark means. If there was still a system in place to verify high-profile accounts and designate them as authentic, and if it was separate from the badge users get for paying, it’d be a different story. It’s worth noting Twitter tried to do that with a new grey ‘Official’ badge, but the implementation was clunky, and Musk killed the project before it suddenly returned amid the flood of impersonations.

You can view the ongoing Twitter coverage here.

Source: Twitter Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Elon Musk wants Twitter to charge $20/mo USD for verification

Tesla CEO and now “Chief Twit” Elon Musk wants Twitter to revamp its subscription service ‘Blue’ to include a higher price tag and verification status.

According to internal correspondence and people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Verge, the plan is to raise the cost of Twitter Blue from $4.99 USD to $19.99 USD per month. (In Canada, Twitter nearly doubled the price of Blue to $6.49/mo in July — it’s not clear how much the new, more expensive Blue will cost in Canada, but $19.99 USD is about $27.34 CAD.)

Beyond the price increase, the new Blue subscription would include verification. Currently, verified Twitter users (shown with a blue check mark) must get verification by applying for it. Verification is intended as a tool for authenticating accounts that are of public interest, such as accounts for political leaders, journalists, and celebrities. Under the new verification system tied to Blue, currently verified Twitter users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark.

The Verge also reported that Musk gave Twitter employees an ultimatum: meet his deadline to introduce paid verification or leave the company. Musk reportedly has Twitter employees working late into the night and over the weekend while managers are drawing up lists of people to fire. Employees working on paid verification were given a deadline of November 7th to launch or be fired.

Considering Blue wasn’t worth the cost at $6.49, raising the price significantly and only adding verification as a benefit seems like a poor choice. Moreover, the implementation may harm the verification status if anyone can just pay for a blue check.

Blue’s other features include the ability to edit tweets, as well as access to ad-free articles from some publishers, customizations in the app and more. However, Musk apparently wants to grow subscriptions to become half of Twitter’s overall revenue — forcing people who need a verification badge to pay for it is certainly one way to push that agenda.

Of course, if you’d rather not deal with Twitter under Musk, there are some people who have jumped ship to other platforms like Mastodon — learn more here.

Source: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Apple reportedly still plans to launch hardware subscription service

Apple unveiled a lot at its ‘Far Out’ fall event, from new iPhones to a crazy new Apple Watch designed for extreme sports. Despite all the announcements, there were quite a few things the company didn’t announce — one notable missing item was the company’s long-rumoured hardware subscription.

Apparently, it’s still coming.

According to Bloomberg’s reliable Mark Gurman in the latest Power On newsletter, Apple could launch a hardware subscription as early as this year in a big push to secure automatic, recurring sales:

“The company is indeed still working on a hardware subscription service that will integrate with its Apple One bundles. Apple is actively testing this new service, and I do expect it to launch either later this year or next year.”

That builds on previous information revealed by Bloomberg in March about Apple’s plans for a hardware subscription. Per the details we had before, the subscription will differ from installment programs by charging customers a monthly fee based on the device they choose, and it would allow customers to swap out their phones for new models when Apple releases them.

Moreover, the hardware subscription could tie into Apple’s other subscriptions as part of its Apple One bundle and Apple Care. Those currently exist independently from each other.

Supposedly, Apple chose not to announce the subscription service at the ‘Far Out’ event to “reduce launch day complexity.” Apple is rumoured to have another event in store later in the fall, possible for iPads and Macs. That could be the perfect time to announce an iPhone subscription service heading into the holiday season.

Source: Bloomberg Via: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Netflix wants to beat Disney+, aims for November 1 ad tier launch

Netflix plans to push forward the launch of its ad-supported subscription tier to early November in a bid to beat Disney+.

The detail comes from the Wall Street Journal, which reported on August 31st that some ad buyers claimed Netflix told them it would launch its ad tier on November 1st. Variety cited industry experts in a September 1st report corroborating the November 1st launch goal, noting the ad-tier would go live in “multiple countries, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Germany.”

A November 1st launch would put Netflix about a month ahead of Disney’s planned December launch for an ad-supported subscription tier. It’s worth noting that Disney has only detailed plans for a U.S. launch — it’s unclear if an ad tier will come to Canada.

“We are still in the early days of deciding how to launch a lower-priced, ad-supported tier and no decisions have been made,” Netflix told Variety in a statement.

Variety also detailed some of Netflix’s reported ad bid expectations. Netflix partnered with Microsoft on ads and reportedly requested ad buys submit initial bids next week. Netflix reportedly sought a “soft $65 CPM” (CPM means cost per thousand views, and $65 USD is about $85 CAD). However, the industry standard is below $20 USD CPM (about $26 CAD).

Additionally, Netflix reportedly wants a $10 million USD (roughly $13.1 million CAD) minimum commitment in annual ad spending from agencies. The streaming giant hopes to secure ad buys by September 30th to meet the November 1st launch date. Interestingly, Netflix reportedly expects to have about 500,000 customers on the ad-supported plan by the end of 2022.

Netflix has tried to keep the details of its ad-supported subscription under wraps, but frequent leaks have provided information and steadily formed a clear picture of the platform. So far, we’ve learned that the company wants to charge $7-$9/mo for the ad tier, it won’t support downloading content for offline viewing, and not all Netflix content will be available on the ad tier. The company also reportedly doesn’t plan to put ads in kids’ programming or on new movies.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Variety Via: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Netflix targets $7-$9 monthly price for ad-supported tier: report

Netflix’s plans to launch a cheaper ad-supported tier have been the subject of much scrutiny over the last few months as information about it trickles out to the public. Now, Bloomberg is reporting the company could target a monthly price between $7 and $9 USD per month.

Bloomberg cited “people familiar with the company’s plans,” noting that Netflix also aimed to show four minutes of commercials per hour for the ad-supported service. Ads would appear before and during some programs but not after. Finally, the company reportedly wants to make smaller deals with advertisers, so it doesn’t overpromise and overwhelm viewers.

To put those numbers in perspective, most cable networks include 10 to 20 minutes of advertising per hour. Moreover, the $7 to $9 USD fee would be about $9.12 to $11.73 CAD per month, although it’s worth keeping in mind that a direct conversion of cost from USD to CAD likely doesn’t account for other factors. Netflix currently charges $9.99, $16.49, and $20.99 CAD per month for its Canadian plans, and $9.99, $15.49, and $19.99 per month USD for its U.S. plans. Ultimately, it’s hard to speculate on Canadian pricing based on rumoured U.S. pricing.

Speaking of speculation, Netflix called the Bloomberg report “all just speculation at this point” in a statement to The Verge. Netflix spokesperson Kumiko Hidaka went on to say that Netflix is “still in the early days of deciding how to launch a lower priced, ad supported tier and no decisions have been made.”

What to expect from the Netflix ad tier

Beyond the occasional bit of information that comes out in a report like Bloomberg’s, Netflix has mostly kept the details of its ad-supported tier under wraps. So far, it’s expected the company will launch the ad tier sometime in the last three months of the year in at least six markets. Netflix is working with Microsoft, which will handle the advertising technology for Netflix.

We also know that the ad tier will lack some shows and features available on Netflix’s other subscriptions. The former is an issue of licensing rights, with Netflix not holding the rights to advertise on some content — that content will not be available on the ad-supported tier. A notable missing feature from the ad tier will be offline downloads.

Meanwhile, Netflix competitor Disney+ is working on its own ad-supported subscription tier, which will launch stateside in December. Dubbed ‘Disney+ Basic,’ the ad-supported tier will cost $7.99 USD per month. That also happens to be the base price for the current Disney+ subscription in the U.S., which will jump to $10.99 USD per month in December. Disney hasn’t said whether the ad tier will come to Canada, but it’s worth noting the Canadian Disney+ is quite different with an $11.99 CAD per month cost and includes content that in the U.S. is available on Hulu.

Source: Bloomberg Via: The Verge

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter thinks users would willingly pay almost double for undo send

Over the last few days, Twitter has emailed customers of its ‘Blue‘ subscription warning of an impending price hike — in Canada, the price is nearly doubling from $3.49/mo to $6.49/mo.

New subscribers will pay the higher price from the start, while existing users won’t see the increase until October. Several countries will see the increase, including the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, although prices differ between them.

Users were quick to criticize Twitter over the price increase, largely over the lack of value for the money. As a quick rundown, here are some of the features you get with Twitter Blue:

  • An ‘undo send’ feature (a.k.a. a band-aid solution for the much-maligned lack of an edit button)
  • Custom icons and navigation bar
  • The ability to set a JPEG you paid way too much for NFT as your profile picture
  • Ad-free articles (within the Twitter Blue Publisher network)
  • A ‘Reader Mode’ for long tweet threads
  • Folders for bookmarked tweets (imagine saving tweets, let alone so many you need to organize them?)
  • Labs for early access to new features (like the aforementioned NFT profile pic)

Not sure about you, but $3.49 seemed like a stretch for most of these features. The only semi-useful feature is ‘undo send,’ and even that’s a tough sell — it’s just a streamlined version of the current solution for fixing tweets, which is tapping the delete button and typing it again.

“At launch, we felt strongly about keeping the cost of the subscription as low as possible while we tested, learned, and gathered feedback. We’ve since refined the vision for this product, conducted significant research, introduced new enhancements with more in development, and as such we are updating pricing,” a Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch in a statement.

Maybe these “in development” enhancements will make the $6.49 price worthwhile, but as is, Blue is a collection of features that arguably should be part of the default Twitter experience. Well, except the NFT profile pics — those alone should cost money because it’s incredibly funny that people would pay for the digital equivalent of having a ‘kick me’ sign taped to their back.

Source: TechCrunch

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Mobile Syrup

Netflix CEO says not all shows will be available on the ad-supported tier

As Netflix continues to lose subscribers, the company has confirmed that its planned ad-supported subscription tier won’t feature all of the content available on the platform.

Per Deadline, Netflix co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos confirmed on a recent earnings call that the content difference, attributing it to licensing issues:

“Today, the vast majority of what people watch on Netflix, we can include in the ad-supported tier. There’s some things that don’t and we’re in conversations with the studios on, but if we launched the product today, members in the ad-tier would have a great experience. We will clear some additional content but certainly not all of it but don’t think it’s a material holdback for the business.”

While a bit of a bummer that some content won’t make it to the cheaper ad tier, it seems like all the Netflix original content will be available. I’d argue that’s the more important thing for the ad tier since Netflix is the only place to get Netflix originals — if that’s what you’re after, then the ad tier may be perfect.

Netflix has been thinking about a lower-cost, ad-supported tier for a while now (if you believe the rumours). Sarandos confirmed it was something the company was looking at back in June, noting the goal was to offer a cheaper subscription for customers who were willing to watch ads and pay less. Later, Netflix confirmed it was working with Microsoft to handle the advertising technology.

All this comes as Netflix continues to lose subscribers. The company reported a loss of 1.3 million between the U.S. and Canada, and in the previous quarter, it lost 200,000 subscribers. The losses come after Netflix repeatedly increased subscription prices in the U.S. and Canada.

In other Netflix news, the company is continuing tests on ways to crack down on password-sharing and get customers to pay for it. The most recent test added a charge for additional households in several countries, including Argentina and Honduras.

Source: Deadline Via: 9to5Mac

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Mobile Syrup

Here are the trailers from Netflix Geeked Week’s Series Showcase

Netflix’s Geeked Week started today with its Series Showcase that started today. The event showed trailers for new shows and continuing shows like The Sandman, Resident Evil, Sweet Tooth, Manifest and more.

Tomorrow Netflix will have its Film Showcase starting at 12pm ET. You can check out the full Netflix Geeked Week Schedule, here. 

Here are the trailers below:

Wednesday Addams – Coming Soon

Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities – 2022

The Midnight Club – October 7th, 2022

The Imperfects – Coming Soon

Sweet Tooth Season 2 Wrap Up – Coming Soon

Locke and Key Season 3 – August 10th, 2022

Fate: The Winx Saga Season 2 – Coming Soon

Warrior Nun Season 2 – This Winter

Manifest Season 4 – Coming Soon

Vikings: Valhalla Season 1 (Bloopers)

All of us are dead: Season 2

One Piece: Set Sneak Peek

Resident Evil – July 14th, 2022

1899 – Coming Soon

The Sandman – August 5th

First Kill – June 10th

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Mobile Syrup

Sony unveils new PlayStation Plus subscription coming in June

Following rumours that Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) would roll out a new PlayStation game subscription, the company has done just that.

Announced via a tweet and blog post on March 29th, the new subscription will be a combination of Sony’s existing PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now services. It will still be called PlayStation Plus, but will have three price tiers with different benefits.

The new PlayStation Plus subscription will launch in Asia in June, followed by North America, Europe, and the rest of the world. The company plans to have most PlayStation Network regions live with the new Plus subscription by the end of the first half of 2022. Moreover, SIE will no longer offer PlayStation Now as a standalone service after the launch.

PlayStation Plus Essential

The first tier of the new subscription, ‘PlayStation Plus Essential,’ is effectively the same as the current PlayStation Plus subscription. That means it includes online multiplayer access, two monthly downloadable games, discounts, and cloud storage for saved games.

The pricing for Plus Essential will be the same as the current PlayStation Plus plan, at $9.99 USD monthly / $24.99 USD quarterly / $59.99 USD yearly.

Sony only shared pricing for U.S., Europe, U.K., and Japan in its blog post, but the current PlayStation Plus costs $11.99 monthly / $29.99 quarterly / $69.99 yearly in Canada. Plus Essential should cost the same.

MobileSyrup has reached out to Sony about Canadian pricing and will update this story accordingly.

PlayStation Plus Extra

The next tier is ‘PlayStation Plus Extra.’ It provides the same benefits of Plus Essential along with a catalogue of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games that PlayStation owners can download and play. Sony says the 400 titles include “blockbuster hits” from the PlayStation Studios catalogue and from third-party partners. However, it’s not clear if subscribers will get day-one access to new titles from Sony.

U.S pricing for Plus Extra is $14.99 monthly / $39.99 quarterly / $99.99 yearly.

PlayStation Plus Premium

The third and final tier is ‘PlayStation Plus Premium.’ It includes everything in the previous two tiers along with up to 340 more games with PS3 titles available via cloud streaming and a catalogue of “beloved classic games” from the original PlayStation, PS2, and PSP available both through streaming and download options.

Plus Premium will also offer cloud streaming access for original PlayStation, PS2, PSP, and PS4 titles offered in the Extra and Premium tiers where PlayStation Now is currently available. Customers can stream games using either PS4 or PS5 consoles or on PC. For markets that don’t have cloud streaming, Sony will instead offer PlayStation Plus Deluxe at a lower price with similar features, but no cloud streaming.

Finally, Plus Premium will include time-limited game trials so customers can try select games before buying them.

U.S. pricing for Plus Premium is $17.99 monthly / $49.99 quarterly / $119.99 yearly.

Other details

Sony said that there are “more details to come” about specific titles available on the new Plus service. Moreover, the company mentioned in a blog post that it plans to include titles like Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Miles Morales, Mortal Kombat 11, and Returnal at launch.

When the new Plus launches, Sony will automatically transition PlayStation Now subscribers to the new Plus Premium tier with no increase to their current subscription fees at launch.

You can learn more about the new PlayStation Plus here.

Source: Sony