Learn more about downloading the Grammy Live app here …

Here is how the Grammy Live site describes its new live stream:

Tune in to Music’s Biggest Night like you never have before with an exciting “multi-screen experience” — as you watch the 54th GRAMMY Awards on CBS, keep the GRAMMY Live stream on your mobile device, tablet or computer! Don’t miss a set change with our behind-the-scenes load-in cam! And learn what happens AFTER an artist wins a GRAMMY with our official portrait photographer cam featuring renowned photographer Danny Clinch, live one-on-one interview room and full access to the official TV/radio room.

Following the Grammy Award telecast on CBS you can join the after parties via the app according to the Grammy Live website:

Bask in the aftermath of Music’s Biggest Night as GRAMMY Live gives you a first-class ticket to the hottest after-party in town, the GRAMMY Celebration.

The Grammy mobile app, includes the latest photos, videos, news, trivia and quite a bit more.

Additionally, the Grammy telecast will include tributes to Whitney Houston who died yesterday.

According to Forbes, the new channel will be called the Huffington Post Streaming Network and will kick off with a preview held in AOL’s HQ in New York City on February 2nd.

The new network will structure itself like cable news networks and provide real-time news and discussion. This means that Huffington Post reporters and editors will appear on camera to discuss events as they happen throughout the day. The channel is also prepared to feature on-air editorial meetings and social media integration, to give viewers an up close and personal look into how the news passes through HuffPo and out to consumers.

It’s not going to be a 24-hour news network, according to the sources. Live footage will be cut and re-broadcast to fill some time. But apparently the new HPSN will have more live coverage than competitors like the New York Time and the Wall Street Journal have with their streaming web programming.

To advertisers, video content is becoming a key priority, and that’s the big motivation behind this move. Huffington Post’s newsroom sports over 300 members, so the new project is most definitely feasible.

Can Huffington Post leverage this new channel to compete with traditional cable news outlets? Let us know in the comments.

Hulu posted the results of last year on their blog while offering some hints on what the future will hold for the online television streaming service.

Hulu has grown to be a big boy with a 60 percent increase from last year. They approximately made $420 million in revenue. They are especially proud of their growth in spite of a slow economy in the latter half of 2011. Along those lines, their ad business grew along with their Hulu Plus business.

Speaking of Hulu Plus, the service now boasts 1.5 million paying subscribers. The number continues to grow at a fast clip. They boast that they reached 1.5 million subscribers faster than any other video subscription service. They are also attracting two times the number of subscribers each day compared to last year. They also expect Hulu Plus to make up half of their overall business later this year.

In 2011, Hulu expanded the content available to their customers by quite a lot. Their content offering grew 40 percent over last year. Their Hulu Plus content grew by an astounding 105 percent. They also boast that Hulu Plus is the only online video subscription service that offers current season content from five out of the 6 largest U.S. broadcast networks.

The company introduced apps last year that allowed users to access the service from a variety of devices including the Xbox 360, Kindle Fire, NOOK tablet, Android smartphones, LG, Panasonic and Vizio TVs and Blu-ray players.

The Hulu advertising service led the online advertising market last year with the largest market share. They have served over 1,000 brand advertisers. They also claim to have the most effective video advertising with tools that allow users to decide what ads they see.

These figures as well as having just launched in Japan leave the company feeling pretty giddy. They are being somewhat mum though on what the future holds. They do offer their conviction that digital is the future of television and video content. They also claim that due to their dual revenue stream with Hulu Plus, they are able to pay content providers 50 percent more in licensing fees. They believe this will help them secure more content in 2012. To that end, the company announced that they are investing half a billion dollars in content for 2012.

Are you a Hulu fan? Are you excited about their investment plan for 2012? Let us know in the comments.

Others of note: 51 million viewers per month globally, and 49 million hours of video viewed per month.

As indicated, when the TV numbers hit the wires, the reaction was largely negative, with the main thought being a bad game deserves lower ratings. That is, however, until ESPN got a chance to spin the numbers to their favor. It should be noted, however, that pointing out facts about the BCS Championship viewer ratings isn’t necessarily spin, either.

The title of their related press release demonstrates ESPN’s commitment to a positive light — BCS National Championship: Cable’s Second Biggest Audience of All Time — as does the content:

ESPN’s telecast of the Allstate Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship – Alabama’s 21-0 shutout of LSU — posted a 16.2 fast national household coverage rating, according to Nielsen, representing an average of 16,072,000 households, the second highest of any program in the history in cable television (records go back to 1987). The average of 24,214,000 viewers (P2+) was also second best in cable. It also is ESPN’s second-highest rating of all time.

The only telecast in cable television history with a larger audience was last year’s BCS Championship on ESPN (17,718,000 homes and 27,316,000 people, based on a 17.8 rating), a 22-19 Auburn victory over Oregon decided by a field goal as time expired.

To all the naysayers, downplaying the TV ratings, take that. While the viewer reception of the broadcast can be spun to represent both positive and negative reactions, one place where spin isn’t necessary is when dealing with ESPN’s online audience, otherwise known as the folks who watched the game on their PC, laptop, or other mobile device. As is the case with CBS’ March Madness On Demand, ESPN experienced a ratings increase for their online broadcast of the BCS Championship Game:

Across all WatchESPN platforms – computer, smartphone, tablet, Xbox – the average minute audience for the BCS National Championship game totaled 261,000 people, up 40 percent over last year’s game, and a record for college football on ESPN’s digital platforms. More than 523,000 people watched the game on WatchESPN.com, generating 39.6 million minutes and an average minute audience of 227,000 people, which is up 20 percent compared to last year [Emphasis added]

Not only did ESPN experience a noticeable ratings increase for their BCS Championship online broadcast, their audience for the entire BCS Bowl Game slate showed substantial increase as well, showing a 27 percent increase when compared to last year.

It’s pretty clear there is a sustainable business model for online broadcasts of live sporting events, but yet, the traditional entertainment industry stalwarts, especially those that depend on an viewing audience for success, are still hesitant to embrace online distribution of new content.

Apparently, the only time CBS thinks the idea is worthy is during the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament. Otherwise, you’re stuck with reruns of episodes that have aired at least a day before they are made available online.

Today, they announced that their 20 million streaming subscribers burned through more than 2 billion hours of movies and TV shows in Q4. Using the low estimate, that’s 100 hours of streaming per person during the quarter, or a little over an hour of streaming content a day.

Reed Hastings also announced that Netflix streamed content to 45 different countries during the period.

“In the coming months, Netflix members can enjoy complete seasons of great TV series from all the major networks and most branded cable channels as well as fantastic films like Drive, Hugo, Captain America and Margin Call,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “The more great TV shows and movies Netflix adds, the more people watch.”

He’s right – it’s probably going to come down to content. Not only is the company working hard to secure deals with groups like Disney-ABC, The CW, DreamWorks and Discovery Communications, they will also debut some exclusive programming in 2012. The previously announced David Fincher/Kevin Spacey project House of Cards will start later this year. Netflix also just announced Lilyhammer, a Stevie Van Zandt vehicle set to kick off February 6th.

2011 was a rough year for Netflix, after the price hike and the whole Qwikster debacle. Recent consumer research suggests that they might be weathering the storm, however. In a survey of subscribers, 91% said that they were at least moderately satisfied with Netflix in the month of December. This was only down 1% from the 92% of moderately+ satisfied customers in May.

Netflix added new content to Netflix Instant this year, but also lost a key deal with Starz, which means the Netflix will lose important new releases from Disney and Sony.

And then there was the whole Qwikster mess, you remember, right? That’s the time when Reed Hastings thought it was a good idea to split Netflix’s streaming services and their DVD serives into two entirely separate companies. If you recall, that went over really well terribly.

Netflix’s Q3 earnings report showed that although posting record revenue, Netflix did in fact lose some subscribers as a result of these moves (as they predicted they would). Actually, they lost a lot of subscribers – about 800,000 to be exact.

Some users left Netflix all together, and some just dropped one of the services. It’s no secret that Netflix is trying to move away from physical DVD rentals – so subscriber loss in that department is really part of the plan.

New research by Citigroup suggests that Netflix might be weathering the storm.

As you can see, Netflix subscribers in May reported being “extremely satisfied” with the service at a much higher rate than respondents in December. But December saw an increase in people saying they were “very satisfied” and “moderately satisfied.” All in all, 91% in December said that they were at least moderately satisfied with Netflix, down only 1% from the 92% that answered that way back in May.

Netflix subscribers that stuck around might not be as ecstatic as they were back in May, but it doesn’t look they they are too unhappy to stay.

Here’s another chart from the survey, showing Netflix compared to other streaming video sources:

Not only has Netflix increased its reach in the online video sphere, but most of the others remain stagnant. Folks saying that they watched streaming video on Hulu dipped 4% from May.

Netflix has said that they fully expect to lose more subscribers. Can competitors actually close the gap? Or is Netflix going to weather the storm? Let us know in the comments.

Hulu thinks they have a solution for you, and they are calling it Face Match. It allows viewers to instantly learn about the actors on their favorite TV shows and movies, by simply hovering over their faces with their mouse.

All you have to do is hover over that obscure actor’s face and Hulu will pause the video and bring up a box with the actor’s name and some information about them. Right now, the info is brief and links to a larger Wikipedia entry.

To use Face Match, select the config button in the lower right corner of the video player while watching any show or clip. If Hulu Face Match is available for the video you’re watching, there will be an option to turn the feature on. You can also modify your default setting for Hulu Face Match on your personal settings page.

Remember when using Face Match, it might not be perfect – it’s still in Hulu Labs.

Currently, the Hulu content that supports Face Match includes all episodes of Glee, The Office, Wilfred, Modern Family, and Lost.

Try it out below on this episode of Modern Family:

[Note: This writer would never refer to Terry O'Quinn as obscure. How could we ever forget his masterful work in The X-Files: Fight The Future]

Today, the company said that they are bringing streaming services to the UK and Ireland. The move will take place sometime in early 2012, and it appears that the model will resemble the one we see in North America – one monthly subscription fee. Details about the service, such as actual pricing and content have yet to be released.

This marks Netflix’s biggest expansion since they began streaming in Latin America in September of this year. In 2010, Netflix expanded to Canada.

It is important to note that the UK service will only involve streaming video, not DVDs.

In jumping across the pond, Netflix will find its biggest rival to be Lovefilm, a service that provides both streaming video and DVDs. Lovefilm is a big deal in the area, and is oftentimes referred to as the “Netflix of Europe.” Lovefilm was bought by Amazon in January of this year, so the Netflix-Amazon battle for streaming supremacy finds another hotspot.

As I mentioned earlier, Netflix has had a pretty rough couple of months. Recent decisions have impacted both consumer and investor confidence in the company, as they have seen their stock fall quite significantly as of late.

The pricing changes, splitting DVDs away from streaming and charging more for the former, was the first thing to really upset customers. Netflix, and especially CEO Reed Hastings, took a lot of criticism for the move as well as the way they handled it.

Things really took a turn for the worse when Hastings announced that Netflix’s DVD service would be splitting off into its own company, with the truly unfortunate name of Qwikster. That was an absolute PR nightmare, and Hastings was forced to abandon the idea and issue a public apology.

But Netflix has made some strong content acquisitions recently, including Discovery Network shows, DreamWorks animation films, and CW scripted dramas. The events of the past couple of months has no doubt injured the beast, but Netflix continues to offer a service that people want. And although they face competition in Europe, there’s little doubt that this news will be met with excitement in the UK.

They have announced a long-term deal with CBS and Warner Bros. to stream CW scripted series – that includes the hit shows The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, 90210, Supernatural, Nikita, One Tree Hill. The deal also brings new CW shows Ringer, Hart of Dixie and The Secret Circle.

Previous seasons of The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and Nikita will will available right away, on October 15th. Previous seasons of Supernatural and 90210 will hit Netflix in January of 2012. Episodes of series currently airing on the network will be available in the Fall of 2012.

The deal stretches to the 2014-2015 seasons of the shows. And each new season of each show will be available on Netflix the Fall after it airs.

Netflix has made two other significant content acquisitions as of late. Last month they made a deal with Discovery Communications to bring in Discovery Channel content like Man vs. Wild and Deadliest Catch. Netflix also announced a deal with DreamWorks studios, the makers of films like Shrek and Kung Fu Panda, to stream their content. The only drawback to that news is that it wont be available until 2013.

Of course, any and all content acquisitions for Netflix’s streaming service is good for the company, as it is still suffering fallout from a series of big announcements – notably the price hike, and the whole Qwikster debacle.

Luckily, Reed Hastings came to his senses and dropped the whole Qwikster idea, saying that Netflix DVD services and streaming would stay under the same umbrella.

In Qwikster news, it looks like some internet denizens aren’t going to let the failed idea die. Today’s daily deal on Woot.com is a Lenovo laptop and it features a hilarious write-up comparing the product to Netflix’s Chief Operation Officer Andy Rendich. He was supposed to take over as the top guy at Qwikster.

But now Qwikster is no more, and the Woot post compares him to all of those who never got their shot –

Because you’re every kid who was open but didn’t get the ball. You’re every musician who had the chops but couldn’t get airplay. You’re Brando in On The Waterfront, you’re Dave Mustaine, you’re Takeru Kobayashi being dragged away by the cops just before the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. You were there and ready and wanted to go, but someone else took your moment before you could prove yourself.

Content acquisitions like this can do nothing but help Netflix, but it’s apparent that they are still climbing the hill when it comes to winning back their millions of users.