The wealthiest man in the video game industry has a name you likely haven't heard; he runs a company you probably haven't heard of; he wears a wild beard and, often, the same black polo. 

Yet, Gabe Newell is worth over $4 billion, and the company he founded, Valve Software, is one of the most successful game companies in the world.

Notably, Newell just showed up at No. 134 on 2016's Forbes 400 list, sandwiched between oil and gas tycoons. Unlike his contemporaries, though, Newell made his billions in technology and video games. His career started as one of the original creators of the Windows operating system at Microsoft; he even followed the collegiate path of Microsoft founder Bill Gates in dropping out of Harvard to work in computing.

Using money earned from being an early Microsoft employee, Newell (and former partner Mike Harrington) created Valve Software. The company initially focused on creating traditional, narrative-driven single-player games. Classics like "Half-Life" and "Half-Life 2" came from this era, but what really put Valve on the map was Steam. 

Sound familiar? It should: Steam is, by far, the most widely-used digital storefront online.

It's got nearly 200 million active users around the world, and every time those folks buy a game, Valve takes a cut. (Though that cut is variable, the average is about 30% of each sale.)

Notably, Valve remains a private company. Outside of operating Steam, the Bellevue, Washington-based company also makes some wildly popular games: "DOTA 2" and "Team Fortress 2" are among the most popular games on Steam.

Valve also co-produces the HTC Vive virtual reality headset, and the hardware is powered by — you guessed it — Steam. Like Apple, Valve created an ecosystem that hundreds of millions of people bought in to in Steam; it's the equivalent of Apple's App Store, only for PC and Mac computers. Steam is also far better than Apple's App Store on Mac.

As such, Steam users are fiercely loyal — competing services like EA's Origin and Microsoft's Windows 10 storefront capture a tiny fraction of Steam's massive userbase. That combination of massive numbers and loyalty adds up to a very profitable business — one that turned Newell into a billionaire many times over.

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Amazon is battling Netflix to see who can make the best streaming TV shows, but unlike its rival, Amazon is using the 'pilot' system to determine which shows to make.

While Netflix orders full seasons of shows at a time, Amazon produces one pilot episode, and lets Amazon Prime members comment on which ones they like. Then Amazon decides which shows to order.

That doesn't mean Amazon always gets it right, however. Even beyond pilots Amazon doesn't pick up, the company seems to have a much quicker trigger finger than Netflix, and has killed a few shows after just one season. 

All told, Amazon has canceled five shows, excluding Woody Allen's "Crisis in Six Scenes," which Allen seems to have axed himself (though it did also get panned by critics).

Here are the shows Amazon has killed, along with their critic and audience ratings from Metacritic (arranged by top critic rating):

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'Hand of God': Canceled after 2 seasons

Amazon description: "A psychological drama about a morally-corrupt judge who suffers a breakdown and believes God is compelling him onto a path of vigilante justice."

Critic rating: 44/100

Audience rating: 7.2/10

'Mad Dogs': Canceled after 1 season

Amazon description: "When a group of underachieving 40-something friends gather in Belize to celebrate the early retirement of an old friend, a series of wild events unfold, exposing dark secrets, deception and even murder. Starring Ben Chaplin (The Thin Red Line), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), Billy Zane (Twin Peaks), Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyers Club) and Romany Malco (Weeds). Executive produced by Cris Cole and Shawn Ryan (The Shield)."

Critic rating: 64/100

Audience rating: 7.4/10

'Good Girls Revolt': Canceled after 1 season

Amazon description: "In 1969, while a cultural revolution swept through the free world, there was still one place that refused to change with the times: newsrooms. Good Girls Revolt follows a group of young female researchers at "News of the Week," who ask to be treated fairly. Their revolutionary request sparks convulsive changes and upends marriages, careers, sex lives, love lives, and friendships."

Critic rating: 65/100

Audience rating: 6.4/10

With the Sundance Film Festival kicking off on Thursday, Netflix has given us a tease of one of its anticipated movies that will be showing at the festival.

The trailer for "The Discovery" went online Wednesday and it's as trippy as the movie's synopsis.

Robert Redford plays a physicist who has confirmed the existence of an afterlife, which has led to a spate of suicides. Jason Segel plays Will, Redford's son, and Rooney Mara plays a woman with a troubled past who Will falls for.

With the use of Roy Orbison's song "Only the Lonely," visuals of chilly New England locations, and hints at layers of mystery and violence beyond the setup, the trailer paints the picture of a tender yet deeply unsettling movie.

"The Discovery" will have its world premiere at Sundance and be available on Netflix March 31.

Watch the trailer below:

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Kevin O'Leary, an entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" star, announced his entrance in the race to lead the Conservative Party in Canada.

The "Shark Tank" star, otherwise known as Mr. Wonderful, announced his campaign in a video posted on his Facebook page, after flirting with idea for months.

He spoke about his background as the child of Lebanese and Irish immigrants, and how Canada was the "land of opportunity" for his family. 

"That's the promise of Canada, it always has been," O'Leary said. "We've lost that, it's been squandered. And there's a reason — his name is Justin Trudeau."

"Today, I'm going to do something special for him," O'Leary continued. "I'm going to help him find his real calling in 2019 — cause it's not running Canada. He doesn't know what he's doing."

O'Leary said Trudeau's "feeling of failure" is "permeating everything" in the country. 

"I'm going to be his worst nightmare, but I'm doing it for us — you, me, my kids, yours," O'Leary said. 

He compared Trudeau negotiating with President-elect Donald Trump as "Godzilla versus Bambi," in a November interview, after Trump won. 

"I think Trump versus Trudeau is Godzilla versus Bambi," O'Leary told the CBC. "It's going to end very badly. You need someone that can negotiate."

With his announcement, O'Leary enters a crowded field to take over for Stephen Harper — Canada's former prime minister — as the leader of the Conservative Party. There's 13 other candidates, including current and former members of parliament, some of whom have beeen campaigning since last year.

He also waited until the morning after the French-language debate to announce his candidacy, meaning that the reality-TV star wouldn't have to participate. O'Leary doesn't speak French, reports the CBC. 

O'Leary's campaign will have to scramble to make up for lost time, with the Conservative Party's election just five months away on May 27.

Canada's next federal election takes place in 2019. 

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert blasts Trump for taking off his first weekend as president

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We've now hit the home stretch.

With Oscar voting closed and nominations being announced on January 24, it's an excruciating waiting game for those in the running.

Some things have shifted since our last pass at predictions for nominees and winners. "Lion" and "Hidden Figures" have increased their word of mouth while titles like "Silence" and "Jackie" have fizzled in most major categories.

Meanwhile, "La La Land" has only increased its dominance in the Oscar race, after sweeping the Golden Globes.

Below are our final predictions before nominations are announced, and who we think will win Oscar gold:

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Best original score

The nominees will be:

Nicholas Britell, “Moonlight”
Michael Giacchino, “Zootopia”
Justin Hurwitz, “La La Land”
Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka, “Lion”
Mica Levi, “Jackie”

If the Oscars were handed out today, the winner would be: Nicholas Britell's score for "Moonlight" is a perfect accompaniment to the powerful visuals show in the movie.

Best original song

The nominees will be:

“Audition,” “La La Land”
“Runnin',” “Hidden Figures”
“City of Stars,” “La La Land”
“Flicker,” “Audrie & Daisy”
“How Far I’ll Go,” “Moana”

If the Oscars were handed out today, the winner would be: It's really hard to not give this to "City of Stars" for "La La Land." Often this Oscar is handed out to a movie that has a great song by a known recording artist, but if voters choose the song that actually fits to the film it's featured in, this is it.

Best editing

The nominees will be:

Julian Clarke, "Deadpool"
Tom Cross, “La La Land”
Joe Walker, “Arrival”
Joi McMillon, Nat Sanders, “Moonlight”
Jennifer Lame, “Manchester by the Sea”

If the Oscars were handed out today, the winner would be: No movie works without great editing, but one that just doesn't work without a big talent at the helm is "Arrival." If you've seen the movie, we don't have to tell you that the editing makes it fit together just right.

"Will & Grace" is getting another life on NBC.

The network announced an official green light for a 10-episode season of the hit comedy that ran from 1998 to 2006. The new season will air at some point during the upcoming 2017-2018 TV season.

“We’re thrilled that one of the smartest, funniest, and most defining comedies in NBC history is coming back,” NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said in a statement. “This groundbreaking series for everything from gay rights to social and political commentary — all disguised as a high-speed train of witty pop culture — is coming back where it belongs.”

The series starred Eric McCormack and Debra Messing as best friends Will and Grace, respectively. They were joined by their quirky friends, Jack (Sean Hayes) and Karen (Megan Mullally).

In addition to the returning stars, original series creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan will act as showrunners and executive producers. And James Burrows, who directed every episode of the show during its initial eight-year run, is on board to direct and executive produce.  

Talk about a potential return for the series hit a fever pitch in September of last year when the four stars reunited for an election video. It went on to get nearly seven million views on YouTube.

 "Will & Grace" was the highest-rated sitcom on TV from 2001 to 2005. More than 18 million viewers tuned in for its series finale in 2006. Additionally, the show won 16 Emmys.

SEE ALSO: Jerry Seinfeld taking 'Comedians in Cars' and 2 stand-up specials to Netflix

DON'T MISS: The 22 most exciting new shows of 2017 you have to see

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Hulu is preparing to launch a live TV service, which will compete with cable and be priced at "under" $40 per month.

The service will work much like a regular cable or satellite TV package, except that it will be delivered over the internet to your smart TV, phone, tablet, and so on. It will also be "sports-centric," Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins revealed in a new interview with Adweek.

Hulu has already signed up CBS for its upcoming service, which is significant given that competitors like Dish's Sling and AT&T's DirecTV Now still haven't gotten CBS to agree to a deal. And one big reason, according to Hopkins, is because Hulu wants its live offering to nail sports.

Here's what Hopkins said about CBS:

"CBS has the No. 1 network [in ages] 18-54, and they have a lot of really great programming. We're going to make this a sports-centric offering, and if you're going to make that part of your package, you have to have NFL, you have to have the complete March Madness package and all of the other great sports that they have. We thought it would be important to have the big four broadcasters, and CBS certainly rounds that package out for us."

Sports could be a key battleground for Hulu as the streaming TV market heats up, with Google and Amazon rumored to be working on their own packages.

In May of last year, Citi analysts argued that web delivery would "dramatically increase the value of sports content,” as consumers get things like player profiles, game highlights, custom angles, and archival footage. Hulu could capitalize on this if it can be the streaming service that helps define what young cord-cutters want from a sports package.

Hulu has also said that its new service will integrate its existing $7.99-per-month on-demand video library into the mix, at no extra cost, as well as cloud DVR capabilities.

The big questions going into the launch will be the full channel lineup and technical performance. AT&T's DirecTV Now has been swamped by technical complaints and outages since it launched in late November, and Dish's Sling TV has had its own host of tech problems.

SEE ALSO: 3 reasons Hulu's under-$40-a-month cable TV competitor could be a major hit

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After the success of its first season and its first Reddit AMA session, "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath" ended its season-one run with more answers to Reddit users' questions in Tuesday's episode.

Leah Remini and former Scientology spokesperson Mike Rinder were joined by a few guests, including the author of the groundbreaking book on Scientology, "Going Clear," Lawrence Wright. But before they got to answering questions, Remini wanted to address some unfinished business.

Last week's episode concluded with Remini and Rinder seeking legal counsel and a note that the story would be continued. Remini gave viewers an update.

"We are taking action, trying to take action," Remini said. "And we can't really talk about what we're trying to do, because we actually want to achieve something. So that's what we're doing. So know that there are things going on behind the scenes that we're not talking about, but just know that it's happening."

With that out of the way, here are the four most shocking revelations about Scientology from the show's second Reddit AMA episode:

SEE ALSO: A&E boss says Scientology is harassing her over Leah Remini's TV show

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Remini claims Scientology pressured her into recruiting “King of Queens” costar Kevin James to the church.

“Kevin was very loyal to his religion,” Remini explained. “There’s no in and I was asked that many times.”

In order to bring him into the organization, Remini was asked by other Scientologists if he had any weak places in his life, including a "failed purpose" and "relationship problems."

Remini added, “He even said to me once, ‘Don’t try to get me in your Tom Cruise glare, man.’ There was no in and I didn’t feel right about doing it. I didn’t ever feel right about telling somebody that they were lost and they needed Scientology.”

Scientology allegedly believes homosexuality is a sexual perversion.

Publicly, the church says it has no position on homosexuality. According to Remini and Rinder, that’s not true internally.

Remini explained that the church has “a chart of human evaluation” from founder L. Ron Hubbard that helps Scientologists to discern who they should have in their life. A rank of 1.1 is the lowest on the scale and includes people who need a lot of help, but aren’t worth helping, Remini explained. That rank includes gay people.

“Internally and for Scientologists, the position is there is something very wrong with a deviant behavior that needs to be dealt with with Scientology,” Rinder said of the church’s internal stance on homosexuality.

Remini added, “Meaning as a person gets to the upper levels of Scientology, the ‘gayness’ will be audited out.”

L. Ron Hubbard based the efficacy of Scientology on his claim that he healed himself from war injuries — a claim that's allegedly fabricated.

Lawrence Wright, the author of the best-selling book on Scientology “Going Clear,” says his research found Scientology’s documentation of Hubbard’s injuries and military service to be faked.

Wright’s research into the Navy documents found that Hubbard had no serious injuries, which Wright sees as a major fault in the church’s foundation.

Additionally, Scientology’s claims of Hubbard’s many military service awards and records were found to be false. In response, the church allegedly told Wright that the records were “sheep-dipped” — that the military created a whole set of fake documents to cover up Hubbard’s covert military duties.

“That’s the person that the church has to protect,” Wright said. “With encasing [Hubbard] in this myth, they try to cover the efforts of people like me and others to uncover the truth.”

It’s been a trend for some time, but now it’s official: Americans consume more music through on-demand streaming than digital album and track sales from services like iTunes.

That’s according to a recent report from research firm Nielsen, which said that 2016 was the first year to officially mark the shift to streaming. What’s more, Nielsen says sales of digital albums declined even faster than those of physical albums, as a result of the massive shift to streaming through YouTube, Spotify, and the like.

This chart from Statista shows just how stark the shift was. Year-over-year, Nielsen says audio streams were up 76.4%, while digital album and track sales were both down more than 20%.

SEE ALSO: PC sales in 2016 were the lowest they’ve been in a decade

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Netflix beat huge on its Q4 subscriber growth numbers, both in the US and internationally, trouncing both Wall Street expectations and its own guidance.

The stock popped more than 9% on the news.

Netflix also beat on EPS and revenue, which was up 36% year-over-year.

We will update this post, so refresh this page or click here for the latest.

Here are the key numbers:

• Q4 EPS (GAAP): $0.15, to Wall Street forecasts of $0.13, which were inline with Netflix guidance of $0.13.
• Q4 Revenue: $2.48 billion, to Wall Street estimates of $2.47 billion, up 36% year-over-year.
• Q4 US subscriber growth (net additions): 1.93 million, to Wall Street of forecasts 1.38 million, and Netflix guidance of 1.45 million.
• Q4 international subscriber growth (net additions): 5.12 million, to Wall Street forecasts of 3.78 million, and Netflix guidance of 3.75 million.
• Q1 subscriber growth guidance (domestic): 1.5 million, to Wall Street forecasts of 1.72 million.
• Q1 subscriber growth guidance (international): 3.7 million, to Wall Street forecasts of 3.5 million.

SEE ALSO: Hulu says its under-$40-a-month cable TV competitor will be 'sports-centric'

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After years of waiting, Nintendo finally has a new video game console on the way: the Nintendo Switch.

It's a hybrid console: You can play it at home on your living-room television, or you can take it on the go. Here are the basics:

• It's called Nintendo Switch.
• It's scheduled to launch on March 3, 2017.
• It starts at $299.
• Nintendo has a gaggle of games starring its most popular characters in the works.

There's of course much more to the Switch than that. 

For instance, one major Nintendo game arrives alongside the console on March 3: "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild." It's gorgeous and massive:

Additionally, the console comes in two flavors — plain grey and neon red/blue:

And, most notably for this piece, Nintendo has a new way of handling online play with Switch — it's called the "Nintendo Switch Online Service." The new service kicks off at the launch of the Switch on March 3, but it won't fully blossom until some point later in 2017 — and when it does, it'll have a monthly subscription fee attached.

That's a first for Nintendo: The company has offered online services before, but it's never charged for them. Nintendo's competition, Sony and Microsoft, have offered paid online services for years now.

Microsoft set the standard for console-based online services with Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 (which it continues to operate successfully on the Xbox One). Sony pushed forward that standard with PlayStation Plus on its PlayStation game consoles, starting with the PlayStation 3.

As such, there are certain expectations associated with paid online services on home game consoles. Sony and Microsoft charge $10/month for their services, and both offer similar benefits:

• The ability to play games online with and against other people.
• The ability to save games "in the cloud" (meaning you can start a game at home, go to your friend Suzie's house, and continue playing wherever you left off).
• Free games, every month, that you keep as long as you remain a paying member. There are also discounts on select titles, which change every month.

But Nintendo is Nintendo, and Nintendo rarely acts according to expectation. The Nintendo Switch Online Service is a testament to that history, albeit not in a positive way. 

Let's start with the services you get with a paid Nintendo Switch Online Service account:

Sounds pretty similar, right? Paying members get access to online gameplay, an online lobby system/voice chat, monthly game downloads, and exclusive deals. 

What's missing from the chart, posted by Nintendo, are asterisks. There are some major caveats in even the simplest claims above. Let's start with that "monthly game download" — Nintendo details it as such:

"Subscribers will get to download and play a Nintendo Entertainment System™ (NES) or Super Nintendo Entertainment System™ (Super NES) game (with newly-added online play) for free for a month."

Sounds pretty good! Who doesn't want access to a free NES or SNES game every month? Here's the catch: You can play that game for a single month, at which point it's removed from your library and costs money once again. Here's how Nintendo America president Reggie Fils-Aime explained it to Wired on January 13:

"Essentially you’ve got access to that game for a period of time, and then after the month there’s a new selection. You’ll have the opportunity to buy it, but [after] that month we’ve moved on to another game."

So, to be clear, you don't get a free game every month. You get time-limited access to games that came out anywhere from 20 to 30 years ago. This is a demo, not a free game. If we're splitting hairs, it's not a "free" game even if you were able to keep it — we're talking about a paid online service, after all. But let's move on.

The next sell point for Nintendo's new online service: "online lobby & voice chat." 

Like the "free" game, a caveat extends to this service as well. Rather than attach a headset/mic combo to the system, voice chat is handled through a smartphone app. More clearly: Voice chat is handled by your phone, not on the Switch itself. "Instead of having some sort of bulky gamer headset, you’ll be able to do it right off your smartphone," Fils-Aime told Wired. "Put in your earbuds that you use for your standard mobile device. We think that's a pretty sweet solution."

Say what you will about that solution (I think it's a bad solution) — the concept of paying a monthly fee to use my phone as a means of voice chat on a game console is illogical at best. Don't I already pay a monthly phone bill so I can use my phone for voice chat (AKA phone calls)? 

In so many words, it doesn't feel like a value add.

Worse, it sounds like a poor way to handle voice chat on a game console. If I'm reaching for my phone to handle group voice chat, why not reach to Skype or Google Hangouts or any other number of solutions that cost nothing? 

Nintendo is also handling friends lists and other stuff like that through its app. That's all fine, but this stuff should be on the console and on an app (the same way that Microsoft and Sony already handle it).

Finally — most crucially — the service won't be ready in time for the Switch's March 3 launch.

Some games have online functionality, and that will work. When "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" launches in late April, that will presumably have online multiplayer. Moreover, it won't cost you anything to use this online functionality. But voice chat? Those "free" games? Even the concept of an online lobby? None of that arrives on the Switch at launch — it's planned for "fall 2017," including an unknown subscription fee.

In many ways, the Nintendo Switch is a step in the right direction for Nintendo. It's a mostly traditional game console with a relatively low price and a slate of good-looking games in the works. It's a simple concept that's easily explained. 

But the way that Nintendo is handling online on Switch has more in common with Nintendo's contemporary blunders than its promising future. With another month-plus until the launch of the Switch, Nintendo has plenty of time to wow us with more information. Maybe all those NES and SNES classics we bought on the Wii and Wii U will continue forward as part of a persistent digital library? Here's hoping.

SEE ALSO: You should wait until holiday 2017 to buy Nintendo's new console — here's why

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"Super Mario Run," the world-famous plumber's first-ever smartphone game, came to the iPhone first, with Android users still waiting their turn. 

But "Fire Emblem Heroes," Nintendo's long-promised and just-announced tactical role-playing game, will be coming first to Android on February 2, with iPhone and iPad versions following soon after. You can "pre-register" for the game at the Google Play app store now.

Like "Super Mario Run," you'll be able to download the game for free. Unlike that game, "Fire Emblem Heroes" is free-to-play, meaning that you can go through the entire game without paying a dime, if you're dedicated — or you can pony up real cash to unlock more powerful characters for your army.

While "Fire Emblem" may lack the worldwide brand recognition of Nintendo's Super Mario franchise, it's tremendously popular in Japan, with 15 games released in the series to date. The first game in the series debuted in 1990 in Japan, but it only came to North America in 2003, with the simply-titled "Fire Emblem" game for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance.

"Fire Emblem Heroes" casts you as the commander of a small army, choosing which swordsmen, archers, and mages go into battle with you. While the main series is notorious for its punishing difficulty, where characters who die stay dead for the remainder of your playthrough, "Fire Emblem Heroes" will be a little more forgiving and allow characters to be revived.

Along with "Fire Emblem Heroes," Nintendo also announced "Fire Emblem Echoes," a new game for the Nintendo 3DS portable console, as well as more details of the forthcoming "Fire Emblem Warriors," an action-based spinoff of the series coming to the new Nintendo Switch console as well as the 3DS. 

Based on Nintendo's previously-shared plans, Nintendo's next smartphone game will be based on the company's "Animal Crossing" franchise, which casts the player as a resident in a town full of talking animals.

The fact that "Fire Emblem Heroes" is free-to-play might be encouraging to Wall Street investors, who were disappointed in the apparent difficulty that "Super Mario Run" has had in generating recurring revenue— players buy all the levels once for $9.99, with no other opportunities for ongoing revenue.

Here's the official "Fire Emblem Heroes" trailer:

SEE ALSO: Nintendo is on the brink of something incredible — or total disaster

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NOW WATCH: We got to try Nintendo’s new Switch console — here’s what it was like

HBO is going to let viewers binge-watch its new shows online before they air on TV — at least that's what Netflix thinks. 

On Wednesday, Netflix posted impressive Q4 earnings, smashing its targets for subscriber growth both in the US and internationally. The company painted a rosy vision of the future of its industry.

"In short, it’s becoming an internet TV world," Netflix wrote in a letter to shareholders. "Which presents both challenges and opportunities for Netflix as we strive to earn screen time." And Netflix thinks that at least one old rival, HBO, will adapt to the digital future by making its shows available to binge early.

Netflix's head of content, Ted Sarandos, famously said in 2013 that Netflix's goal was to "become HBO faster than HBO can become us." Netflix, at the time, was pivoting toward producing its own high-quality original shows (like HBO). And Sarandos was implying that HBO would try and move toward global, digital distribution to keep up with Netflix — see initiatives like HBO's "a la carte" streaming service, HBO Now.

But even as their business models inch toward each other, one thing that has continued to separate HBO and Netflix, besides the fact that Netflix spends about 3 times as much money on content, is that HBO releases shows one episode at a time, whereas Netflix drops entire seasons at once. The release of each new "Game of Thrones" episode is an event, especially on social media.

That type of repeated buzz seems like it would be a hard thing to give up, but Netflix thinks HBO will see the light and embrace binge-watching as a business model. "The BBC has become the first major linear network to announce plans to go binge-first with new seasons, favoring internet over linear viewers," Netflix wrote in its letter. "We presume HBO is not far behind the BBC."

In the letter, Netflix links to an article from The Telegraph, which indicates that the BBC will start making full seasons available to binge before they air. "The BBC will make its major Sunday night dramas available in their entirety on iPlayer before screening them on television, under plans that would turn the catch-up service into a rival to BBC One and Two," The Telegraph reports.

HBO, Netflix presumes, is not far behind.

This doesn't necessarily mean Netflix thinks HBO will start dropping full seasons of blockbuster shows like "Game of Thrones" and "Westworld" any time soon. It could be that Netflix thinks specific types of shows will be available to binge on HBO's streaming services, HBO Now and HBO Go.

But even if its only certain shows, changing its release pattern would be a significant step for HBO, and a big vote of confidence for Netflix's model.

That's why you should probably take anything Netflix says on the subject with a grain of salt, as its partly a playful jab at a competitor, tinged with a dose of self-interest, and a big wink. 

SEE ALSO: Netflix crushed its subscriber growth targets, and the stock is soaring

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Each year, The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcases the innovation and technology that is changing the world – and the way companies do business.

At CES 2017, Business Insider spoke with advertising and marketing executives from a variety of industries to discuss their challenges, successes, and strategies for navigating the current digital landscape.

We sat down with Michelle Wilson, the chief revenue and marketing officer of WWE, who explained how new tech is disrupting her business, requiring the professional wrestling entertainment company to think differently about how it produces content on different channels. Its 120-strong digital team is now bigger than its TV production unit.

"When we look five years ago, we were putting out about 750 hours of original content every year, which is a lot," Wilson said. "Fast-forward to today, we're putting out double that, about 1,500 hours of original content that's both long-form for TV, but we're putting out just as much content short-form on YouTube and Snapchat."

Wilson said WWE "love[s]" Snapchat and is working to create original shows for the photo and video-sharing app. WWE is also utilizing Facebook Live to take fans "behind the curtain." Next on the list is virtual reality, an opportunity Wilson thinks is only one to three years away from really taking off.

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Actor Matt Damon traveled to the snowy mountains of Davos, Switzerland to participate in the annual World Economic Forum. He used the event as a platform to tout the efforts of water.org, a charity he co-founded whose mission is to provide millions of people around the world with safe water and sanitation. 

Damon and his colleagues discussed the charity's partnership with beer brand Stella Artois, which has pledged to provide a month's worth of safe water to one person for every bottle or pint sold in participating locations.

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Netflix surprised Wall Street on Wednesday when it reported fourth-quarter earnings and subscriber growth.

In the US, net additions totaled 1.93 million, much better than the consensus forecast among analysts of 1.38 million and Netflix's own prior estimates. Earnings per share were $0.15, two cents above the median forecast.

Netflix's performance drove its stock higher in after-hours trading. On Thursday, it hit an all-time high of $143.45, up by 6%, in the first few minutes of trading.

The streaming service is making a major push outside the US and investing heavily in original content that works for audiences everywhere.

"We are in no rush to push margins up too quickly, as we want to ensure we are investing aggressively enough to continue to lead internet TV around the world," the company said in its earnings letter.

Below are some analysts' reactions to the earnings results and their ratings of the stock.

Jefferies: BEARISH

Rating: Underperform

Price target: $95 (from $80)

Comment: "While the international subscriber growth will drive the stock higher, we note cash burn remains above expectations, with fixed cost leverage elusive," said John Janedis.

Credit Suisse: NEUTRAL

Rating: Neutral

Price target: $143

Comment: "For the longer term, Netflix will be looking to show a greater balance between growth and profitability — which to us validates the long-term investment thesis for its international and newer cohorts to follow along the margin expansion trajectory of the US," said Stephen Ju and Christopher Ford.

Macquarie: NEUTRAL

Rating: Neutral

Price target: $130

Comment: "We remain cautious on some items we have discussed at length in previous notes, namely rising content and other costs, and concurrent FCF [free cash flow] burn in the face of rising competition, but subs are what drives this stock and for now the sub additions are covering these," said Tim Nollen. "As such, we are upgrading the stock from underperform to neutral."

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Declining television audiences for five of the six top teams in the English Premier League paint an unnerving picture about the health of live sports on TV — and the medium more generally.

Bloomberg reports that only league leaders Chelsea are drawing more viewers this year, while audiences for Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, and Manchester United matches have shrunk. Overall, the average live TV audience midway through the world's most-followed sports league's season is down 11% year-on-year for the first half of the season. 

The Premier League's woes are an ominous sign for the future of TV. During the 2014-15 season, the league was broadcasted in 730 million homes, where it reached 3 billion people. But declining viewership since then shows sports' weakening power to prop up traditional TV. Indeed, compared with the 2010-11 season, EPL audiences are down 22% per game this year. The fact competition among top clubs is currently fierce – with just three points (or one win) separating the second- and fifth-place teams – should compound this anxiety further.

The biggest US sports leagues are far from immune. The NFL saw its average audience decline by 8% from the 2015 season, according to Nielsen statistics cited byThe Wall Street Journal. Audiences were especially hard to come by in the first half of the season. Until the first week of November, the NFL’s audience fell 14% short compared to the same period last year, with television executives pointing to the constant coverage of the US election as the key driver of this slide.

Over the last few years, there’s been much talk about the “death of TV.” However, television is not dying so much as it's evolving: extending beyond the traditional television screen and broadening to include programming from new sources accessed in new ways.

It's strikingly evident that more consumers are shifting their media time away from live TV, while opting for services that allow them to watch what they want, when they want. Indeed, we are seeing a migration toward original digital video such as YouTube Originals, SVOD services such as Netflix, and live streaming on social platforms.

However, not all is lost for legacy media companies. Amid this rapidly shifting TV landscape, traditional media companies are making moves across a number of different fronts — trying out new distribution channels, creating new types of programming aimed at a mobile-first audience, and partnering with innovate digital media companies. In addition, cable providers have begun offering alternatives for consumers who may no longer be willing to pay for a full TV package.

Dylan Mortensen, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, has compiled a detailed report on the future of TV that looks at how TV viewer, subscriber, and advertising trends are shifting, and where and what audiences are watching as they turn away from traditional TV. 

Here are some key points from the report:

• Increased competition from digital services like Netflix and Hulu as well as new hardware to access content are shifting consumers' attention away from live TV programming.
• Across the board, the numbers for live TV are bad. US adults are watching traditional TV on average 18 minutes fewer per day versus two years ago, a drop of 6%. In keeping with this, cable subscriptions are down, and TV ad revenue is stagnant.
• People are consuming more media content than ever before, but how they're doing so is changing. Half of US TV households now subscribe to SVOD services, like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, and viewing of original digital video content is on the rise.
• Legacy TV companies are recognizing these shifts and beginning to pivot their business models to keep pace with the changes. They are launching branded apps and sites to move their programming beyond the TV glass, distributing on social platforms to reach massive, young audiences, and forming partnerships with digital media brands to create new content.
• The TV ad industry is also taking a cue from digital. Programmatic TV ad buying represented just 4% (or $2.5 billion) of US TV ad budgets in 2015 but is expected to grow to 17% ($10 billion) by 2019. Meanwhile, networks are also developing branded TV content, similar to publishers' push into sponsored content.

In full, the report: 

• Outlines the shift in consumer viewing habits, specifically the younger generation.
• Explores the rise of subscription streaming services and the importance of original digital video content.
• Breaks down ways in which legacy media companies are shifting their content and advertising strategies.
• And Discusses new technology that will more effectively measure audiences across screens and platforms. 

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. » START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. »BUY THE REPORT

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This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

I’ve owned the fourth-generation Apple TV for over a year now. But while the hardware is capable for streaming all your favorite shows and movies, the software — and the overall experience — is muddy, confusing, and, well, bad.

Positives

The Apple TV isn’t ALL bad:

- The new remote control has a microphone, which is very useful. You can ask Siri to rewind, fast forward, or search for stuff to watch. You can even use it to enter passwords, which is a huge time-saver.

- The user interface, which has hardly changed since the very first Apple TV boxes, is still simple and intuitive: Apps are arranged in a grid, but thanks to the new App Store in the latest hardware, you can download more apps to add to your grid. You can even organize your apps into folders now, like you do on your iPhone or iPad.

- Multimedia loads and buffers quickly, and it all looks great, which is pretty close to a cable TV experience in terms of image quality and responsiveness.

Of course, Apple should be nailing the Apple TV experience in these respects. If Apple released a giant box that didn’t play your multimedia quickly and well, or was confusing to use, it would be an abject failure.

Also worth noting: The Apple TV does these things well, but so do most other set-top boxes — and few of them cost as much as the Apple TV, at $150 and $200 for 32GB and 64GB of storage, respectively (32GB is more than enough space). For the same features, you might as well save your money and buy a Fire TV, or a Chromecast, or one of many Roku devices. 

Negatives

Despite the few important things the Apple TV does right, there are just too many things it does wrong

- The remote control. From the design to the touchpad to the buttons themselves, Apple’s “Siri” remote for the fourth-generation Apple TV might be the worst piece of hardware Apple has ever produced.

- The remote itself is tiny and slick, therefore extremely easy to lose— in a couch cushion, or anywhere else for that matter.

- The remote’s touchpad is overly sensitive, which means it’ll turn on your Apple TV if you just graze it accidentally (or, y’know, your couch cushion turns it on).

- You can’t pick up the remote in the dark and know its orientation, since the buttons and layout are near-symmetrical from every angle — as a result, I’ve had countless occasions where I try pausing a show or movie only to return to the main menu, because I pressed the wrong button. Yes, that is technically my fault, but it’s Apple’s design.

- If you don’t like the “Siri” remote, you can use Apple’s Apple TV app — but you shouldn’t. Apple previously made a “Remote” app to control your Apple TV, but the new “Apple TV Remote” app lacks so many of those important features — things like volume controls, and settings within the app. And while the app connects to the TV just fine, sometimes pressing buttons just doesn’t work — and there’s no way to troubleshoot from within the app. Again, it’s hard to imagine this getting through Apple’s design lab, but it did!

- Apple’s new “TV” app is not at all useful. Not to be confused with the remote app, Apple's new "TV" app scans the apps you use (Netflix, HBO Now, etc.) and immediately adds the shows and movies you’re watching — and others you might like — into one app. Sounds clever, right? But like so many other aspects of the Apple TV, the concept is better than the execution. I don’t like using the app: It doesn’t source content from all the apps I use, so it really isn’t a complete solution; my partner and I prefer visiting each app and browsing our selections there. Honestly, if Apple wanted to suggest shows you’re watching or other shows you might like, I’d rather those things be advertised in the carousel at the top of the main menu, which is also relatively useless in its current incarnation.

- The App Store is a mess to navigate. The App Store has hardly changed at all since 2008; and yet, Apple made zero adjustments when deciding to launch a store on the Apple TV in 2015. It’s the same old thing: A giant grid organized by what’s being downloaded the most, what’s selling the most, and what Apple “editors” recommend. But there is zero personalization to it; it’s amazing that in 2017, Apple still doesn’t recommend certain apps based on apps you’ve already downloaded.

Where does Apple go from here?

It’s naive to think the Apple TV is at the top of Apple’s priority list — the company has so many issues with so many other products, and the Apple TV is probably in that “good enough” category. Sure, it has its flaws, but it’s still functional.

That said, Apple shouldn’t be striving for “good enough.”

At one point, the Apple TV sounded like one of the most ambitious Apple projects in the company's history. For years, Apple reportedly wanted to revolutionize TV like it had with music via the iPod and iTunes; the company held discussions with networks like 21st Century Fox, CBS and Disney to license their programming for a live TV service that would be delivered over the internet. But those talks stalled, and while other internet-TV options are taking off — like Sling TV, DirecTV Now, and Hulu's upcoming service, to name a few — Apple's own project appears to be nowhere in sight.

Yet, even without a live TV service, Apple still considers the Apple TV to be "the future of television." At the unveiling of the latest Apple TV, CEO Tim Cook proclaimed "the future of TV is apps." The company believes additions of Siri and the App Store will unlock the true potential of the television.

But that hasn’t happened yet. And both Siri and the App Store need vast improvements before they can reach their full potential on the TV.

In 2017, the Apple TV is still the same old box as it was for years: It still plays your multimedia, and it’s added some features like Siri to make the experience better, but other newer features, like the touchpad on the remote control, have created more problems than solutions.

It would be great to see Apple release a fifth-generation Apple TV later this year. I’d cross my fingers for a redesigned remote, a redesigned App Store for the TV, and a redesigned TV app, above all. Heck, I'll hold out hope that Apple can make its live TV ambitions happen, too. Whether or not that happens, though, is up in the air; Apple will neither confirm nor deny that a new TV product is coming, and considering all the other Apple products that desperately need attention, like iTunes or the ailing Mac line — not to mention the futuristic products allegedly in the works, like its self-driving car tech and its augmented-reality glasses — I’m not feeling terribly optimistic about the Apple TV.

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Animal-rights supporters are up in arms over a video appearing to show the harsh treatment of a dog on the set of the coming movie "A Dog's Purpose."

On Wednesday, TMZ posted a video it said was taken on the set of the film that appears to show an animal trainer pushing a struggling dog into a pool.

The animal-rights organization PETA asked the public to boycott the movie later on Wednesday, claiming that a dog had to be rescued from drowning during the shooting of the movie. It also said it had investigated the company that provided animals for the movie, Birds & Animals Unlimited.

"PETA is calling on dog lovers to boycott the film in order to send the message that dogs and other animals should be treated humanely, not as movie props," PETA senior vice president Lisa Lange said in a statement on Wednesday. "PETA's investigation at BAU revealed that animals are denied veterinary care, forced to sleep outdoors in the cold without bedding for warmth, made to live in filthy conditions, and more."

"A Dog's Purpose," which is scheduled to arrive in theaters January 27, is based on the best-selling book of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron. It tells the story of a dog that reincarnates many times and of the people whose lives he enriches. It stars Dennis Quaid, Peggy Lipton, and Britt Robertson. Josh Gad plays the voice of the dog.

As the video went viral, people involved in the movie have reacted with surprise and regret over what's depicted in it.

Gad said he was "shaken and sad" about the footage in a statement posted on Twitter late on Wednesday.

Gavin Polone, who produced the movie and is an outspoken animal-rights activist, said he was "horrified" by the video.

"The first thing I asked was, 'Is the dog OK?'" Polone said, according to Deadline. "He's fine. But if I had seen that, I would have stopped it in a minute. People have to be held responsible for this. It was someone's job to watch out for this kind of thing. Why didn't they? This is something I've written about before, whether it be circus animals or animals on set."

American Humane, the organization responsible for upholding animal-treatment standards on movie sets, including that of "A Dog's Purpose," released a statement saying it was "disturbed and concerned by the footage." It also said the scene should have been stopped once the dog resisted being pushed into the pool.

"We are placing the safety representative who was on the set on administrative leave immediately and are bringing in an independent third party to conduct an investigation into this matter," American Humane said in the statement.

Amblin, one of the studios that produced the film, defended its treatment of the dog seen in the video and of the other animals on the set of "A Dog's Purpose" in a statement on Wednesday:

"Amblin production team followed rigorous protocols to foster an ethical and safe environment for the animals. While we continue to review the circumstances shown in the edited footage, Amblin is confident that great care and concern was shown for the German Shepherd Hercules, as well as for all of the other dogs featured throughout the production of the film. There were several days of rehearsal of the water scenes to ensure Hercules was comfortable with all of the stunts. On the day of the shoot, ‪Hercules did not want to perform the stunt portrayed on the tape so the Amblin production team did not proceed with filming that shot. Hercules is happy and healthy."

Watch the video in question from TMZ below:

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When Nintendo launched the Wii U game console in 2012, many people thought it was little more than an add-on for the tremendously successful Wii game console. The gimmick with the Wii U was its tablet-like gamepad, which many took for a Wii peripheral — a new type of gamepad you could use with your Wii. 

That wasn't the case, of course. They're two distinct game consoles.

The original Wii was a runaway success — it's the Japanese company's most successful home console, selling over 100 million units. 

The Wii U, on the other hand, was a major flop — it's Nintendo's least successful home console, selling around 13 million units. 

Nintendo's next console, the Switch, is on the verge of launching — it arrives on March 3 for $299. To call it an "important" product launch for Nintendo would be dramatically underselling the situation.

The company's last console was a flop, and it came on the heels of a tremendous success. Worse, when it comes to game consoles, flops can take years to play out. The Wii U launched in 2012, sold poorly for years, and is being replaced around 4.5 years later. That's years of struggling through weak hardware sale numbers, developing games that have a hard limit on sales potential because of struggling hardware sales, all while dumping research and development money into what comes next.

Frankly speaking, Nintendo really needs the Switch to do well.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has a few reasons he believes it will. The first is a direct response to the Wii U's main failing: messaging. 

As Fils-Aime told GameSpot in a recent interview, the Nintendo Switch has "clarity of the consumer proposition" on its side. In human speak: It's much easier to explain why someone should buy a Switch.

The Switch is a home console; the Switch is a portable console; the Switch is both a home console and a portable console. Games are nearly identical on both. Easy!

In the case of the Wii U, that was not the case. It's a tablet and a console, where you could do things on the tablet and...wait, why am I using a tablet while looking at a television? And I can't bring this thing with me, you say? I have to be near the physical console to use the tablet? Is the tablet a peripheral for the Wii I already own? Confusing!

"Nintendo Switch is a home console you can play anywhere, with anyone. Clear. Compelling," Fils-Aime told GameSpot.

And he's not wrong — the Switch is genuinely more straightforward than Nintendo's last console. It's the company's most traditional console in years, in fact. 

So, what's Nintendo's second reason for believing in the Switch? As James Carville might say, "It's the games, stupid."

And it's not just about having a ton of games at launch, but about creating a "steady pacing of content," according to Fils-Aime in an interview with CNET. Fils-Aime says Nintendo will deliver on this, though you're forgiven for having doubts — Nintendo is notorious for relying too heavily on first-party games that don't come out with enough frequency. 

And, looking at 2017, that seems to be the case with the Switch as well. "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" will launch alongside the console on March 3. The next major first-party game from Nintendo comes on April 28, with the re-release of "Mario Kart 8" — albeit with new content and all the previously released add-on content included. After that? "Splatoon 2" is scheduled for "summer," and "Super Mario Odyssey" is said to arrive in "holiday 2017." 

Not exactly what we'd call a "steady pacing of content," but Nintendo has plenty of space to announce more games. If nothing else, we expect Nintendo to announce more games at the game industry's annual trade show, E3, in June. 

All that said, Nintendo's logic is sound. A regular cadence of game releases — better yet: good games — would go a long way in keeping people interested in the Nintendo Switch. What will actually happen remains to be seen.

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