YouTube-Pay For 4K; Dish & Sling Drop Disney Channels; Stadia-RIP; TikTok Live Shopping

How about another fee to pay? Now, YouTube is asking users to subscribe to Premium to watch 4K videos. Engadget.com reports that Premium does eliminate ads, and gets you background playback and new features, but some users on Reddit and Twitter have posted that they are being dinged to watch in 4K now. It’s not clear if this is a test, or a full rollout, but it will set you back $12 a month for YouTube Premium if you want to watch in 4K.

Dish and Sling TV have dropped channels after failing to get a deal made before a contract expired. According to theverge.com, Disney Channel, ESPN, FX, Freeform, National Geographic, and some local ABC networks are no longer available. Dish is claiming that Disney had demanded a $1 billion fee increase and ‘walked away from the negotiation table.’ For its part, Disney says Dish “declined to reach a fair, market-based agreement.” 

**Update- At least some service has been restored today. Channels were off last night. The sides have apparently resumed trying to make a deal.

Google has struggled to get any kind of real traction for its Stadia gaming system. Now, it looks like they are finally throwing in the towel. 9to5google.com says they have released a final 6 games for the Stadia Pro subscribers before closing the Stadia Store to the public. The plug-pulling caught not only subscribers by surprise…some game publishers said they had no idea, and even some of Google’s own Stadia employees didn’t know about the closure until about 30 minutes before the public announcement. 

TikTok is launching live shopping in the US, in partnership with TalkShopLive. Financial Times reports that TalkShop will provide the tech and support for live streams hosted by influencers, brands, and retailers that want to sell their products on the app. TikTok Shop launched in Britain last year, and has been available in more than a half dozen Asian countries.