Probably because all the cool kids run pay-TV services, T-Mobile will acquire Level3 TV, as recounted by Jeff Baumgartner of Multichannel News. T-Mobile said it will “launch a disruptive new TV service in 2018.” With all the other over-the-top services in place, I can’t imagine a niche in which T-Mobile would outperform the incumbents. But I’ve been wrong before.

In a similar vein, Stephanie Prange at Home Media Magazine described the relaunch of Redbox on Demand. It won’t be like the service that it shut down in 2014, instead providing options that remind me a lot of Vudu’s – short-term rentals or digital purchases. Redbox doesn’t have Vudu’s head start, but it’s got plenty of existing kiosk customers. But if your customers already rent new DVDs for less than $2 at kiosks, then how do you pitch the idea that they should stay home and pay $4 to rent the same movies online?

And Bloomberg’s Kyle Stock examines why it’s so hard to find Christmas classic films on streaming services. It’s because they’re not the fresh content that pay services crave and they’re not the long-tail losers that a studio might be willing to license on the cheap. “Of the 25 greatest holiday movies as ranked by American Movie Classics, only five are available for streaming on Amazon.com, Hulu or Netflix this season.” That’s one reason my holiday tradition is the cartoon Christmas Comes But Once a Year. It’s always free at the Internet Archive.