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Amazon announced today that it will begin distributing comedy and children's programming directly to the consumer through their video streaming service, Amazon Instant Video. Amazon joining Netflix in the programming business is another step towards the content creation paradigm shift. Standard television ratings are plummeting, as people are looking for new ways to consume media. Amazon's hook is they are opening up submissions to anyone with a five-page treatment and a pilot script, which is everyone under 35 at this point. Once a month, they will choose a project and option it for $55,000, which a contact in the television industry explained, is about what cable networks [...]

Steve Holt! (That was a Steve Holt! of despair.) Justin Grant Wade, the actor who played Steve Holt on Arrested Development, has not been asked to be in the show's return on Netflix or in theaters. Steve Holt! (That was a Steve Holt! of utter astonishment). Wade has launched a campaign to bring back the character, taking to Reddit tonight at 8. Steve Holt! (That's a Steve Holt! of admiration for his shamelessness and ingenuity). Stick in there, buddy. Steve Holt! (Rallying Steve Holt! of encouragement.)

Somewhere, right now, someone is writing lines for all eight major Arrested Development characters to say to each other. Can you even stand it? Or are you literally not able to stand because your body has thrown itself to the floor, wracked with joyful convulsions at the mere thought that the full cast of the series will be back for the new season on Netflix, along with the show's original writers? I will take your silence as a tacit affirmative response to that last question. That's it. Deep breaths.

Louis C.K. explained the reasoning behind his decision to release his new standup special on his website through PayPal, saying that cable channels are unwilling to promote the special if there's nothing in it for them. Netflix and iTunes, on the other hand, require a credit card account in good standing.

…everything in your wallet represents all these contentious relationships with these huge companies. If you want to watch one of my specials on Netflix, they start marketing to you, and you start getting Jeff Dunham ads. You try to read an article about Rwanda and a pop-up comes up for Larry the Cable Guy. "Hey, I [...]

Good news, Bluth fans: Hulu has decided that it wants in on the new Arrested Development miniseries, so it's putting in a bid in an effort to beat out Netflix. If this whole thing was somewhat up in the air before, it looks a lot more likely with a bidding war in place for it. Where do you want to see it end up?

Hola, bonjour, ciao, Shalom, merħba, hello (in a Canadian, British, Irish, Australian, or South African accent), if you understand any of those greetings, you probably won't be able to watch the new Arrested Development episodes on Netflix (also you might be Maltese. If so, where is Malta?) Netflix stated recently that, “the return of Arrested Development exclusively on Netflix will be in the U.S. only.” U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A. This probably means that Netflix only bought a domestic license for the show and some company from every other country will have to figure out how to bring it their people. This might mean more traditional distribution [...]

The worst feeling in the universe may be the desperation of aimlessnessly poking around Netflix Instant trying to find something better than the weird foreign dramas it keeps inexplicably recommending to you. Follow our advice and you'll never have to reluctantly watch The Bicycle Thief ever again. Here are the greatest additions to Netflix Instant from the past month.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Reviews say "This is Hamlet as if it were written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, filmed by Fellini, and performed by Laurel and Hardy." I have to stop writing now so I can go watch this immediately.

Now that Arrested Development is really coming back, interview season has begun! Tony Hale spoke about what he thinks Buster has been up to for the past five years ("Hopefully he has not left his mother’s side") and what state his seal-digested hand is in now (“I want him to go bionic…Maybe he connected with Apple, and there’s some sort of iPod attachment. Maybe he’s got like an iPad as a hand?"). The interviewers neglected to ask him the most important question, though: Why is 2013 so far away?

Hooray! Netflix has bought the rights to IFC's Portlandia and The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret and will make them each available right before their new season's debut. Now let us get on to the wild extrapolations about What This Means For The Future of TV:

As more and more content is streamed online, it's becoming increasingly easy to get familiar with a non-syndicated show if you missed it the first time around. And the more shows people are able to watch, the higher quality shows they'll choose to stick with. And the better-quality shows people watch, the better the shows networks will buy until everything on TV [...]

You've probably already heard this weekend's big news that, in addition to the long-gestating Arrested Development movie, Mitch Hurwitz and company intend to create a 10-episode fourth season of the cult favorite show. Several obstacles stand in the way of these forthcoming projects (the cast's busy schedules, writing the scripts to the new season and the movie, filming what'll amount to six or seven hours worth of new content, etc.), but none of the tasks at hand are more crucial than selecting the right TV network to carry the 10-episode mini-season. While it's hard to imagine any of the Big Four networks are chomping at the bit to [...]

Mitch Hurwitz and the cast of Arrested Development appeared together at a Netflix panel at the National Association of Broadcasters convention yesterday, and they gave up a whole bunch of details on just how this revival is gonna work. Vulture was there and captured all the juicy details.

Firstly, all 10 episodes are going to drop on Netflix streaming on the same day rather than them being released weekly like a traditional TV show. So that's good for the bingers: after this years-long wait, you'll be able to tear through the entire new season in less than five hours. As for what the episodes will actually be like: [...]

The worst feeling in the universe may be the desperation of aimlessnessly poking around Netflix Instant trying to find something better than the weird foreign dramas it keeps inexplicably recommending to you. Follow our advice and you'll never have to reluctantly watch The Bicycle Thief ever again. Here are the greatest additions to Netflix Instant from the past month.

Teen Wolf "Just because its a bout a werewolf, dont let it scare you off. Theres no gore and I dont even think there was any blood." – Netflix review

Duck Soup War, espionage, and the amazing mirror scene make for one of the best Marx brothers [...]

Amid all the excitement of the announcement of Arrested Development's return, there was still a tiny doubting voice inside many of us going "Is this really going to happen? Who's gonna air it? Are you sure you want to wear those shoes with those pants?" Well, Netflix just told that voice to shut up and stick to second-guessing our choices about what to wear and eat for breakfast. Netflix will stream the new Arrested episodes exclusively to members in early 2013, as part of a continued push for more original content. Well played, Netflix. You should be getting a whooole bunch of un-canceled accounts soon.

You know that scene in The Miracle Worker where Helen Keller finally understands sign language and is spinning around and flailing with pure confusion and joy while Anne Bancroft loses her shit? That's where I'm at after reading the news that we might have new Reno 911! episodes in our future, if Netflix has anything to say about it. Vulture reports that the show's producers Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher have been in talks with Netflix about the Reno's possible return, though co-creators Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, and Kerri Kenney-Silver haven't signed haven't signed anything yet. But that's just a formality, right? Because it's coming [...]