Company CEO Reed Hastings tells investors that an exclusive licensing deal with premium cable channel Epix is about to run out … but not to worry, since Netflix doesn’t get that much viewing from the pact, anyway. Read more »
With Netflix returning to narrow profitability, all of its other regions growing, and 1 million subscribers added in the first six months of operation in the U.K and Ireland, CEO Reed Hastings said the time is right to expand into Western Europe. Read more »
The company meets investor revenue expectations, reporting $889 million for the three-month period ending April 30. But its 530,000 net streaming subscriber additions in the U.S. apparently hasn’t impressed investors — shares are down big in after-hours trading. Read more »
Six months following the departure of longtime marketing chief Leslie Kilgore, Netflix turns to an international marketing executive with deep roots in European media/entertainment. This comes, of course, as the company is about to embark on a major expansion of its Western European operations. Read more »
A newly-launched startup called Foundd is taking the algorithmic approach, while its Berlin neighbour Tweek.tv is going for the social angle. But why has no winner emerged in this space already? Read more »
While upgrading Netflix’s stock rating to “neutral” from “sell,” Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible said that slow-moving competition as well as studios’ “addiction” on licensing fees will benefit the subscription streaming service in the near term. As for the long-term, Wible’s still not a believer. Read more »
Research firm Parks Associates finds that nearly one-fifth of premium cable subscribers would consider switching their entertainment dollars to Netflix. And 16 percent of cable/satellite subscribers would consider subscription video-on-demand over their pay TV provider’s VOD service. Read more »
Serving as VP of business development for Netflix since 2008, former DivX executive Bill Holmes is credited with establishing partnerships with Apple, LG, Microsoft, Nintendo, Samsung, Sony and other consumer electronics brands. Read more »
Mark Malkoff recently watched 252 Netflix movies in one single month to figure out how far he could take the company’s unlimited streaming plan. That instantly gained him notoriety as Netflix’s most obsessive user – and an invitation to the company’s campus in Los Gatos, Californa. Read more »
Since the sign-off of its Starz deal in February, Netflix’s streaming service has been largely devoid of new blockbuster movie titles. Can the arrival of top-grossing films like Thor, Transformers 3 and Immortals kickstart Netflix’s sluggish subscriber growth … and stock price? Read more »
Porn is a huge driver of online traffic, and Netflix has been successfully conditioning millions of people to consume online video with an all-you-can-eat subscription. So why hasn’t the adult industry been able to get consumers to pay up for a Netflix for porn? Read more »
Traditional cable is no longer about choice; it’s about access. As an access provider for content, cable has the widest depth of content right now, but it also costs the most. So how long can it keep content and customers? Read more at GigaOM »
Shareholders vote overwhelmingly to change the company’s classified board status, which features various members serving staggered terms of differing lengths, into a standard structure in which members come up for vote every year. While non-binding, the vote could leave Netflix more open to takeover. Read more »
Netflix’s fast-growing subscription VOD business now consumes 44 percent the online movie market compared to just 32.3 percent for Apple’s iTunes, according to research company IHS Screen Digest. This, of course, is a bad sign for studios pushing for higher-margin digital movie sales. Read more »
With around 18 percent of its audience consuming its programs on digital platforms, the CW has emerged as broadcast TV’s most innovative network in terms of tracking and monetizing digital viewers. But without that billion dollars from Netflix, where would it be? Read more »
Amazon’s European subsidiary now has exclusive second pay-TV window rights locked up for three of Hollywood’s six major studios, leaving precious little premium content left over for rival Netflix to acquire when it expands into Western Europe later this year. Read more »
As part of its settlement of a class-action privacy suit, Netflix will “de-couple” information about which movies its former customers rented from their basic identification profiles no more than one year after they leave the service. Read more »
Just what do you call a company that hurts and helps your business at the same time? With Netflix draining ratings for some programs, spiking the performance of others, and all the while increasing broadband sales, Cox Communications’ Patrick Esser came up with the perfect term. Read more »
With TV repeats and original series emerging as important drivers of Netflix’s content mix, the company has made two key executive moves intended to bolster those areas. Cindy Holland will now serve as VP of original content, while Jason Ropell will oversee U.S. TV licensing. Read more »
Netflix isn’t satisfied with Comcast’s announcement that the broadband provider is going to raise its bandwidth cap from 250GB to 300GB per month. The real issue, the video service said, is Comcast’s unwillingness to count its own Xfinity.tv service as part of that cap. Read more »
Speaking at an investor event in Boston Wednesday, Netflix CFO David Wells said online viewing of Nickelodeon content probably has very little to do with the double-digit ratings drops on the linear Viacom channel. He compared the ongoing discussion to the “global warming debate.” Read more »
Expansion into the Southern Hemisphere is proving more costly and time-consuming than Netflix anticipated. But the company has made another significant content investment in the region, bringing 24, Glee, How I Met Your Mother and other Fox TV shows and movies to Latin America. Read more »
DirecTV continued to reap the benefits of Latin American expansion in Q1, increasing revenue in the region by 33 percent while providing a role model for other subscription-based media companies like Netflix who are also endeavoring the expense of southern infiltration. Still, investors remain unimpressed. Read more »
Speaking to investors during Dish Network’s Q1 conference call Monday, Dish chairman Charlie Ergen said the reason his company hasn’t reached a carriage renewal agreement with AMC stems from the fact that the cable programmer has “devalued” its content through its streaming deals. Read more »
A new deal between independent e-bookstore Diesel eBooks and rewards points company Koinz Media lets people redeem their bank and hotel rewards points and airline miles for e-books. But Kindle e-reader owners won’t benefit. Read more »
Despite a research report that ties stark ratings drops on Viacom’s flagship kids channel to viewing of its shows on Netflix, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman still insists the declines result from a complicated series of factors that have very little to do with streaming. Read more »
With chief James Dolan mentioning unspecified software investments during Cablevision’s first-quarter earnings report Thursday morning, BTIG Research analyst Richard Greenfield believes the company is on the cusp of announcing a subscription video-on-demand service similar to Comcast’s Streampix. Read more »
Hulu should require viewers to have a cable subscription, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes suggested in an investor call following the company’s Q1 2012 earnings report this morning. “We think Hulu authenticating makes sense,” Bewkes said. “We think Hulu is heading in the right direction now.” Read more »
With initiatives like TV Everywhere and broadband usage caps, is the cable industry biting the hands of the streaming video companies that are driving its most vibrant prospect for growth? Why the cable industry might consider enabling Netflix and YouTube, not hindering them. Read more »
Has the long-moribund home entertainment sector finally started to turn the corner? Significant growth from subscription streaming and Blu-ray rentals and sales give the industry its second up quarter out of the last three, according to studio-funded research firm the Digital Entertainment Group. Read more »
While its longtime DVD-rental rival, Netflix has signaled its eventual retreat from the disc business, kiosk operator Redbox seems more than happy to take on any physical-media customers Netflix wants to cut loose. Read more »
As government strives to keep up with the broadband age, the Senate held a hearing covering the future of television, but midway through I realized that the Senate has it all wrong. The future of TV isn’t found in deregulation, it’s found on the Internet. Read more at GigaOM »
Netflix has formed its own political action committee called Flixpac, and my sources indicate that the biggest issues it plans to tackle will be how to let folks share their movies on social networks and the more nuanced issues of broadband competition and network neutrality. Read more at GigaOM »
Faced with a maturing market for satellite TV services in the U.S., DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) is pinning its future growth needs on the Latin Amer… Read more »
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) is eager to steer its core business away from mere movie rentals to an operation that resembles, to some degree, premiu… Read more »
Mike Lang has resigned as CEO of Miramax effective immediately, according to the film company. Lang, a former News Corp. (NSDQ: NWS) exec i… Read more »
The UK inquiry in to whether Sky Movies’ exclusive first-run subscription VOD deals with six major Hollywood major studios is anti-competiti… Read more »
In 2010, people couldn’t say enough good things about Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) — it was the darling of the digital entertainment world. Then la… Read more »
Barry Diller’s latest investment in media disruption hasn’t even launched yet and it’s already in court. That’s part of the appeal of Aereo… Read more »
Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX), which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to compete with premium cable channels like HBO and Showtime in the… Read more »
