By Ian Hollidae, 2025/12/03

I've been trying to put the recent Netflix decision to drop support for casting videos from users phones to connected TV's (CTVs) into perspective. After doing some searching, there seems to be conflicting data regarding how people watch television. Some reports claim that smartphone and tablets are the primary method for streaming content. YouTube itself says that more people than ever watch their service on CTVs. Several of Google's AI summaries says there is no official data regarding how many people cast to TV's. Right.

I'm guessing Netflix has enough coverage through pre-installed TV apps that supporting phone casting no longer makes sense. That might open the door to charging for the casting feature down the line. You have to wonder what kind of push back that might generate. But seeing how this news has only caused a moderate response, it may not be too big a deal.

For now, this is clearly a Netflix thing. If other streamers follow, we could certainly call it the latest change in the market.

Tags: Streaming