Just when I thought Netflix would stop giving Blockbuster a beatdown, the DVD mailing company just signed a deal with major TV production company ABC.  ABC will be streaming shows such as Lost and Grey’s Anatomy on the Netflix website to subscribers.

ABC will air all five seasons of Lost on Netflix.  Netflix will air several seasons of Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, and the Legend of the Seeker.  A couple of ABC’s shows started appearing on Netflix on August 1t, but the rest will be fully available in the next few months.

In Late 2008, Disney’s ABC added several children shows such as Hannah Montana, The Suite Life On Deck, JONAS, and Sonny With A Chance.

Netflix isn’t the only online service that ABC programs are streaming on.  ABC signed a deal with Hulu in late April that gave the TV company 27% ownership.  As part of that agreement, ABC provided some of the latest episodes of their shows on Hulu.

[via Netflix PR]

Netflix is the movie mail rental company that singlehandedly gave Blockbuster a run for its money.  On May 7, Reed Hastings sold 10,000 shares of Netflix at a price of $42.52, instantly giving him access to $425,000.  However he does not want all of that money.

Reed supports the Swedish government model where there is a “50% levy on the ultra-rich.”  The “ultra-rich” includes “hedge fund managers, star athletes, stunning movie stars, venture capitalists, and the chief executives of private companies.”

“The president should take advantage of our success by using our outsized earnings to pay for the needs of our nation,” stated Hastings. “Please tax me more.”  Netflix hit 10 million customers as of 3 months ago.

[via Fool/BusinessInsider]

Netflix Inc. is another company that has joined in on the Facebook Connect bandwagon.  Netflix linked their ratings system to the social network so that when a user rates a movie on the video rental service website, it gets linked to their profile.

This move is slight competition to LivingSocial.  LivingSocial is a Facebook application system where users can vote on music albums, beer, books, iPhone applications, movies, restaurants, ski slopes, TV shows, and video games.

Netflix has over 10 million subscribers.  Netflix is hoping to leverage that user base to connect with Facebook’s 175 million users.  “Movies make for great conversations,” stated Netflix VP of Product Management Gibson Biddle.

Nothing gets music and movie fans going more than when they see their favorite artists and actors win awards for their performances.  This is why award ceremonies like the Grammys and the Academy Awards are such a hit.  Thanks to Netflix, movie buffs can now set up a list of movies that they want to see next in a queue delivered to their door step.  The Oscars.

Apparently the Oscars really got Netflix customers going because they added 2 million movies to their queue during the three hour program.  Slumdog Millionaire was the top added movie out of all of them, but 56,000 different titles were also added.  At Netflix’s low price of starting at $4.99 and their free trial, its hard to go wrong.  You spend more on one cup of coffee than your whole monthly movie subscription after all.

[via Hacking Netflix]

Netflix, Inc. has done it.  The movie mailing company has surpassed the 10 million customer mark.  Since January 1, 600,000 new customers have been added.  Netflix reported 9.4 million subscribers at the end of 2008.  “Ten million subscribers is a symbolic but meaningful achievement for our company,” stated Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and CEO. “From a subscriber standpoint, Netflix is singularly focused on making movie enjoyment easy, and we’ll strive to deliver on that promise in added and improved ways in the years to come.”

Netflix launched around September 1999 and added subscribers at an average annual rate of about 30%.  For 8 straight years, Netflix was rated the number one customer experience on the web by ForeSee Results, an Ann Arbor, Michigan based ratings company.

Blockbuster Inc. is launching a new pilot program to test whether consumers prefer to receive video games through the mail.  The pilot program will be launched during the second quarter as the company continues to struggle with movie rental competition against Netflix.  The games in the mail program will be for consoles such as the Wii, P2, PS3, Xbox, and Xbox 360.

“We already rent more video games than any other company, store-based or online, in the nation, so we know our core customer loves games as well as movies,” stated Bob Barr, VP and General Manager of blockbuster.com. “With this pilot program, we’re laying the groundwork for offering BLOCKBUSTER Total Access customers easy online access to the movies and games they want, through an integrated subscription offering. Plus, according to their plan, they’ll continue to be able to exchange their by-mail rentals both for free in-store movies as well as half-price in-store game rentals. A combination video game and movie online offering — with in-store exchange privileges — is a tremendous value and convenience offering not available through anyone other than Blockbuster.”

Blockbuster currently has about 90,000 movies in their libraries to choose from.  The addition of video games will be available to those who are already subscribing and to new subscribers as an added benefit.  Will this pressure Netflix to do the same?  It’s your move, Netflix.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has released the numbers for their 4th quarter and WOW, are they stellar! Netflix’s 4th quarter profit climbed 45%. Netflix’s growth was driven by low prices and streaming video services.

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Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has hired Gregory K. Peters as the VP of Partner Products.  Peters will be “responsible for bringing to market a range of devices from leading consumer electronics manufacturers that are capable of instantly streaming movies and TV episodes from Netflix directly to consumers’ TVs.”

The VP of Partner Products role was created after Netflix decided to bring their services to the XBox 360.  Now Netflix wants customers to be able to stream movies to their own TVs quickly.  Netflix has partnerships with LG, Roku, Microsoft, Samsung, and TiVo.  Peters will be reporting to Netflix Chief Product Officer, Neil Hunt.

Netflix has about 12,000 movies and TV episodes in their library.

“Greg’s expertise in all aspects of the product development lifecycle – from vision to design to implementation – will be a significant asset to Netflix and our partners as we push toward our goal of eventually enabling all U.S. households to stream Netflix to their TVs,” stated Dr. Hunt.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has made a deal with CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS).  The agreement is that Netflix members will be able to watch shows appearing on Disney and CBS the day after they air on TV.  This means if you are a fan of How I Met Your Mother or Hannah Montana and you have access to a Netflix account, you are in luck.  Even though many of the shows already appear on sites like Hulu and CBS.com itself, many of the shows on that site arrive days after the show originally airs. 

The effort by Netflix to make these deals indicates the pressure that the DVD market is in when competing directly against downloads.  Amazon.com recently created a new video site.  The sales of movies on iTunes is increasing at a rapid pace.  And Hulu and Joost are rapidly adding free video content. 

Those paying for monthly subscriptions on Netflix at $8.99 can already play select TV shows and movies at no additional charge.  This move alone was made in order to compete with Blockbuster’s DVD mail order in-store return strength.  Netflix hosts about 12,000 videos to watch online.  “With deals like CBS and Disney, we’re giving subscribers additional reasons to try it,” stated Ted Sarandos, chief content office of Netflix. 

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has suffered several outages over the last week. It was the worst outage that Netflix has had since starting. Of Netflix’s 8.4 million customers, one-third of the shipments were halted due to shiping system issues. Shipments were not made this past Tuesday. Some shipments were made on Wednesday and Thursday, but Netflix has quite a bit of catching up to do.

Credit will be given to customers that suffered from the outage as the company continues to fix the problem.

Many customers did not mind the disruption because Netflix’s supply chain has been very reliable up until now. “Netflix’s service has been impeccable,” stated Cary Miller, a media executive that has been using Netflix for quite some time now. “I probably wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t informed me.”

“This time, the site’s been up but our shipping system is down. It’s worse than it was in March. We’re really backlogged,” stated Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman. Netflix sent out an e-mail to those who were affected by the outage. Below is what the e-mail stated.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. If your DVD shipment is delayed, we will be issuing a credit to your account in the next few days. You don’t need to do anything. The credit will be automatically applied to your next billing statement.”

Related Link:
1. Reuters

As Apple is gearing to introduce new movie services at Macworld, Netflix is preparing itself to face the potential competition.  Netflix is removing the limit for how long users can watch movies online through high-speed connections.  Netflix will introduce this change tomorrow.  Macworld takes place on Tuesday and the media is speculating that Jobs will introduce new movie content via iTunes.

Depending on each subscriber’s plan, Netflix subscribers could watch a certain number of hours online at a time.  For example, subscribers who pay $16.99/month is able to rent 3 movies at a time and can watch 17 hours of streaming movies per month.  This service is called “Watch Instantly.”  But with the new service Netflix is offering, subscribers can watch as much as they want to online. 

One thing that I can appreciate about Netflix is their ability to take on the big players.  Everytime they add a feature, Netflix retaliates.  Blockbuster starts mailing DVDs and gives the ability to return them in the stores; Netflix reduces their prices, adds the online streaming service, and expands their movie selection faster.  Apple makes deals with big movie companies and plans to add movie rental services; Netflix responds by adding the unlimited streaming services.  I’m definetely a happy Netflix customer.

Netflix is also partnering with LG Electronics on an initiative that brings the ability to stream movies from the Internet directly to HDTVs. 

“Internet to the TV is a huge opportunity,” stated Reed Hastings, Netflix’s founder, Chairman, and CEO. “Netflix explored also offering its own Netflix-branded set-top boxes but we concluded that familiar consumer electronics devices from industry leaders like LG Electronics are a better consumer solution for getting the Internet to the TV.”

[Information Source: TradingMarkets.com]

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) pulled the rug out from underneath where Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI) was standing these last couple years. Netflix, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based online movie rental company, boasts 6.3 million subscribers and a library of 70,000 movies.

Based on an e-mail survey I received from Netflix a couple days ago, Netflix is also continuously finding ways to improve their transportation supply-chain. The e-mail survey asked me when I returned The Rundown starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Sean William Scott (a.k.a. “Stifler”).

Dear Amit,
Thank you for your recent return of The Rundown. Please tell us when you mailed back this movie by clicking on the appropriate link below.
* I mailed the movie Thursday, Nov 01, 2007
* I mailed the movie Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
* I mailed the movie Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007
* I mailed the movie Monday, Oct 29, 2007
* I mailed the movie before Monday, Oct 29, 2007

My lazy side appreciates having movies brought to my door. There are three factors that I use to determine where my business goes between Netflix and Blockbuster. Two of them are price and speed. The third reason is the user interface. Netflix’s UI is a lot more friendly because they utilize AJAX-like tools to recommend movies and rate movies.

When Blockbuster released their third quarter financial results a couple days ago, shareholders of the company may have questioned how sustainable the company’s current business model is.

Jim Keyes, Blockbuster’s Chairman and CEO responded by providing a glass half-full perspective of the situation:

During each month this quarter, over 20 million customers around the world used the BLOCKBUSTER(R) brand to satisfy their needs for media entertainment, and that customer base presents us with a tremendous opportunity.

Keyes added:

Our goal is to continue to increase our membership base by providing even more ways for customers to get the entertainment they want through our stores, through the mail and through new technologies.

In my opinion, to increase membership, you do not close 526 stores in one year alone and do not pull the plug on the Total Access program. You increase membership by function as good as Netflix’s, reduce prices, and give a further incentive for its current members to stay. Another potential form of revenue that I have not seen Netflix or Blockbuster use is advertising.

Digital advertising companies are now backed with billions of dollars from companies as big as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and AOL. These companies must be anxious to find ways to get access to businesses that have large memberships. Will their a public outcry if ads show up on Blockbuster and Netflix’s homepages, not likely. Even if ads show up briefly before a streaming movie, I highly doubt that users would complain too much.

As a happy Netflix customer that doesn’t want to see Blockbuster forced to shut-down, those are my two cents. As a movie rental consumer, I want to continue to have my options.

Information Source:
[1] CNET News.com: Say goodbye to Blockbuster

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)[1] is rumored to be considering an acquisition of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)[2].  Yesterday, Netflix share prices gained $1.06 (5%) to $22.45.  Netflix’s shares have been struggling due to intensity of rivalry from other mail movie distributors such as Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI)[3].  Brian Bolan, a Jackson Securities[4] analyst heard about the speculation of the buyout from industry contacts.

In regards to Amazon, Bolan stated “They’ve got excess currency, if you will. Netflix, on  the other hand, has been facing stiff competition from Blockbuster and everyone  else, so they’ve seen their stock go lower.”

From a supply-chain management point-of-view, the potential synergy between Netflix and Amazon.com makes total sense.  Amazon has an online video streaming service called Unbox and Netflix has a similar service called Instant Movies Online.  If Amazon.com were to acquire Netflix, they would gain Netflix’s subscribers and add be able to add more to the movie inventory.

The founder of Netflix is Reed Hastings and he serves on the Board for Microsoft as well.  Jeff Bezos also interacts with Microsoft often as his company, Amazon.com is based in Seattle, Washington.  As more information is disbursed about the potential acquisition, Pulse 2.0 will write about it.  Keep checking back often.

[1] Amazon.com
[2] Netflix.com
[3] Blockbuster.com
[4] JacksonSecurities.com

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Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) started its subscription service in 1999 and reached a million subscribers faster than America Online. Their model was simply successful. Eight years, 5.7 million members, and 75000 titles later both Wal-Mart and Blockbuster received a wake-up call that in terms of video rental, they may not have the most streamlined supply chain.

On December 20, 2006, TechCrunch wrote about how “Blockbuster changed the service in a way that can really hurt Netflix. Movies received by mail can be returned directly at any Blockbuster store. You get a free rental on the spot, and Blockbuster still sends out the next movie in your queue. And yesterday they announced that the monthly coupon for a free rental can be used for movies OR video games.”

Early this year, NetFlix then announced that its customers would have access to streaming movies and television shows including Steve Carell’s The Office and tv/movie studios wanted in on the new Netflix model including NBC, Sony, Fox, Paramount, Warner, and New Line Cinema.  Amazon created Unbox to compete with Google and iTunes streaming video also. Netflix followed and now Blockbuster wants in as evidenced by its reported talks with buying Movielink (formerly known as Moviefly), a streaming tv/movie website. For how much? Possibly under $50 mill in cash and stock according to PaidContent.

What exactly is Movielink, LLC? Movielink is a private venture between Paramont, Sony, Universal Studios, and Warner Brothers. Information regarding how many movies that have been streamed on Movielink or how many customers is a mystery to me, but obviously its worth a pretty penny to Blockbuster. As more information fleshes out, I’ll ensure to report it.

The online DVD rental service provider, Netflix has been actively searching for talent that can develop tools that improve upon Netflix’s current recommendation system. This system improvement is a response to increasing a competitive edge against Blockbuster and various other movie downloading services. Here is a [link] to the Netflix Prize homepage.

Netflix currently has 5.2 million customers and is looking into increasing their customer base by improving their movie recommendation services through this competition. In order for the software engineer to walk away with $1 million, he or she must be able to improve the current system by 10%.

Reed Hastings, the Netflix Chairman stated “Right now, we’re driving the Model T version of what is possible. We want to build a Ferrari and establishing the Netflix Prize is a first step.” However, Dennis McAlpine, an industry analyst in the field of entertainment proclaimed this prize competition as a “marketing gimmick.” “I’m a little surprised because their current system already works so well and the (customer) satisfaction level is pretty high,” stated McAlpine.

For the developers to create their tools, Netflix is releasing 100 million movie ratings from 500,000 Netflix users. For confidentialty, all the users’ personal information was removed.