Streaming | The Verge The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts. 2026-08-16T13:19:41+00:00 https://www.theverge.com/rss/streaming/index.xml https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/verge-rss-large_80b47e.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1 Richard Lawler <![CDATA[Disney D23 2026: Everything announced for Star Wars, Marvel, and more]]> https://www.theverge.com/?post_type=vm_stream&p=980633 2026-08-16T09:19:41-04:00 2026-08-15T10:20:33-04:00 Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy in front of a Star Wars Starfighter logo.
Shawn Levy, Ryan Gosling | Image: The Walt Disney Company/Image Group LA

The annual Disney fan event showed off the cast of Marvel’s X-Men movie, plus a new trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, and our first look at the VisionQuest TV show for Disney Plus. For Star Wars fans, there was a teaser trailer for season two of Ahsoka, plus a special look at Star Wars: Starfighter with an appearance from Ryan Gosling.

Other new announcements included a few updates about Pixar, The Simpsons, Bluey, and others you can find below.

]]> David Pierce <![CDATA[The surprise must-see movie of the summer]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=980428 2026-08-14T22:30:00-04:00 2026-08-15T08:00:00-04:00

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 140, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, welcome, don't forget to hydrate, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I've been reading about Will Ferrell and Fabrizio Romano and Heather Cox Richardson, scrolling and scrolling through Ordinary Abundance, watching Avatar Aang (which is as good as you said it was), finally getting proficient in CapCut, obsessing over the latest scandal unearthed by PTFO, rewatching Tires now that the third season is out, trying Spark's AI tools for solving my inbox (so far… meh), revisiting …

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]]> Charles Pulliam-Moore <![CDATA[The X-Files creator Chris Carter wanted to make a more horrific movie]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=979925 2026-08-14T13:52:11-04:00 2026-08-14T14:00:00-04:00 A man sitting at a desk and a woman leaning down over the man’s shoulder. Both are looking at a computer screen.

The version of The X-Files: I Want to Believe that premiered in 2008 was not exactly the movie co-writer / director Chris Carter intended to make. Carter wanted to bring agents Mulder and Scully back to the big screen with a grisly story about faith and the supernatural. But executives at 20th Century Fox felt that Carter's ideas were too dark, and he was pushed to turn the project into a PG-13 feature. Now, almost two decades after I Want to Believe's theatrical debut, Carter is back with a new director's cut of the film for Hulu that's much closer to his original vision.

"We got to tell a good X-Files story," Carter said of the original …

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]]> Jay Peters <![CDATA[Netflix is closing two game studios]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=979855 2026-08-13T17:11:44-04:00 2026-08-13T16:52:58-04:00 Screenshot from Oxenfree II: Lost Signals featuring a zoomed out shot of three characters on a bridge on a gloomy night.
A screenshot of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals from Night School Studio. | Image: Night School / Netflix

Netflix plans to shut down two of its gaming studios, as reported by Game File and Variety, as it makes a bigger shift toward party games and titles streamed to TVs.

One of the studios being shut down is Night School Studio, creators of the Oxenfree series. Netflix bought Night School in 2021, and it just released a horror experience called Unhinged for TVs and launched a mobile game in 2025 tied to Black Mirror. The other studio that's set to close is Helsinki-based Moonloot Games, which was created in 2022.

Netflix's big push into TV-based games kicked off late last year and was a pivot from a mobile-focused approach that featured presti …

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]]> Emma Roth <![CDATA[Google’s free streaming service now lets you pick shows and movies to watch]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=978152 2026-08-11T14:35:16-04:00 2026-08-11T14:35:16-04:00 An image of Google TV Freeplay

Google TV Freeplay, the company's free, ad-supported streaming service, now supports video on demand. Instead of tuning into Google TV Freeplay's selection of always-on channels, you can now choose from over 10,000 shows and movies to watch whenever you want.

The update introduces titles like Lady Bird, Seventeen Again, and Hell's Kitchen, according to Google's announcement. The company has also expanded its live TV lineup to include more than 300 channels dedicated to news, sports, reality TV, true crime, and more. Some of these new channels include World of Love Island, Yahoo! Sports Network, Bloomberg TV Plus, and The Martha Stewart Chan …

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]]> Emma Roth <![CDATA[YouTube is making it harder to earn money on YouTube]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=977474 2026-08-11T05:19:51-04:00 2026-08-10T13:26:46-04:00 Illustration of a YouTube logo with geometric background

Starting February 1st, 2027, creators who want to monetize their channel through YouTube's Partner Program (YPP) will need at least 1,000 subscribers and either 8,000 qualified watch hours over the past year, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. That's a sizeable jump from YouTube's current requirement of 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 watch hours in the past year, or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days. Creators will also need to maintain 10 million Shorts views over 90 days to earn money from the Shorts Creators Pool, though falling below this threshold won't result in removal from YPP.

Ad …

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]]> Charles Pulliam-Moore <![CDATA[Watching Roku’s AI channel is like eating from a trough]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=976939 2026-08-07T14:59:46-04:00 2026-08-07T14:59:46-04:00 An AI-generated illustration of a man in a suit holding up a purple pocket watch.

The appeal of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels has always been the way they make it easier to (re)discover classic films and series. But Roku's latest experiment in the FAST space has less to do with traditionally produced entertainment and is entirely focused on giving viewers access to a constant source of AI-generated content.

This week, Roku added four new channels to its library of streamable programming. Along with dedicated feeds for old episodes of Mad TV, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and a variety of Black sitcoms, the platform also debuted a 24/7 stream filled with projects from Colin Petrie-Norris' AI startup, …

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]]> Jay Peters <![CDATA[Disney Plus tries a new AI-powered search]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=976881 2026-08-07T13:53:44-04:00 2026-08-07T13:53:44-04:00
Disney’s AI tools for Disney Plus and ESPN.

Disney is testing a new AI-powered tool for Disney Plus that uses a natural language search, a voice query, or a suggested prompt to create a customized row of show and movie recommendations.

Disney Plus, like other streaming services, can recommend shows to watch based on your viewing history. But the company says this new tool, which is "a limited beta experiment" that's in testing with a "small group of select subscribers," is intended to recommend content that "fits the moment."

A screenshot of Disney's AI-powered search experiment.

The feature is the latest in a broader push to offer AI-powered recommendation tools that help you find something to watch among massive catalogs of streaming …

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]]> Emma Roth <![CDATA[Disney says it’s ‘exploring’ adding a free tier to Disney Plus]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=975543 2026-08-05T09:52:11-04:00 2026-08-05T09:44:14-04:00 The Disney Plus logo in the middle of orange and beige circular shapes.

Disney is looking into launching a free streaming option. When asked about Disney's plans for free, ad-supported streaming during an earnings call on Wednesday, Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro confirmed the company is "exploring a free product for consumers."

D'Amaro added that a free tier will help drive growth and expand the streaming service's reach "to a customer segment that's more price sensitive." Though D'Amaro said that there's "nothing specific to announce today," he noted that a free tier is "definitely something that we're considering."

In July, Business Insider reported that Disney's chief product and technology officer, Adam Smith, b …

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]]> Jess Weatherbed <![CDATA[Disney gives TikTok creators official access to Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar characters]]> https://www.theverge.com/?p=975520 2026-08-05T07:38:49-04:00 2026-08-05T07:38:49-04:00 A screenshot from Toy Story 5.

Disney is introducing fan-created TikTok content to its Disney Plus app in its latest attempt to break into short-form creator videos. The Walt Disney Company announced today that it's partnering with TikTok to bring "an expansive collection of thoughtfully curated Disney-centric fan-created content" to the Verts video feed it launched on Disney Plus earlier this year, providing creators with access to assets from "hundreds" of movies and TV shows.

The partnership will be piloted in the US "in the coming months," according to Disney, with plans to launch in other markets later. Videos from TikTok creators who opt-in to the program will be h …

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