Google has announced that the most popular video sharing site on the planet, YouTube, will now offer full-length, current episodes of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) programming.
The new deal will include current episodes of Friday Night Smackdown, WWE NXT, WWE Superstars, and ECW.
Additionally, there will be more footage from Monday Night Raw, classic matches, and interview videos with “WWE Superstars and Divas like John Cena, Chris Jericho and Alicia Fox.”
The WWE’s official YouTube channel is here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WWEFanNation
YouTube’s new deal should help it compete with “catch-up” programming services like Hulu, since the WWE will be making brand new episodes available within 24 hours of its broadcast day.
Result for: monday night
On Monday night, DirecTV began sending out a firmware update for their HD DVRs. Within hours, complaints were trickling in that the software update was making the set-tops unresponsive.
Today, the provider posted a note on their website in an effort to help users get back access to their boxes.
“If your set top box is not responding to either your remote control or front panel button input please be advised that you will need to do the following to resolve the issue,” reads the opening statement.
Continued: “Just flip the door down on the front of your set top box and press the red button. Be patient as the box may take up to one minute to respond to this reset. Let the system reboot until either a picture or grey screen appears on your TV. Then press the red button again, which will reboot your system a second time. This should resolve the issue.”
The provider did not offer a timetable for a real fix, or why the glitch occurred.
Result for: monday night
On Monday night it appears that users trying to record NBC TV shows using Microsoft Vista’s Media Center were unable to, the reason being that NBC sent off a broadcast flag that in turn activated Media Center’s built in DRM copy protection measures, and stopped recordings of over-the-air and cable broadcasts.
Both NBC and Microsoft stated that they have no explanation for the issue and noted that DirecTV and TiVo DVR users did not report any issues.
The two TV shows in question were the new “American Gladiator” and “Medium” episodes. Users received the following message when trying to record the shows. “Recording cancelled. [TV show] cannot be recorded. Restrictions set by the broadcaster and/or originator of the content prohibit recording of this program.”
All that seems to come out of this situation is the proof that Vista’s Media Center does indeed have built in DRM that can be triggered by broadcasters at any point, restricting the recording of content at will.
