The Inquisitr » netflix

A Free Idea For The Movie Industry

Kyle Brady — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:12:03 +0000

Netflix, despite the protestations of movie studios, has done wonders for the industry, resulting in millions of Americans that now watch DVDs on a regular basis who would otherwise probably watch whatever made-for-TV movie was on AMC; however, this revolution has been limited almost strictly to DVD delivery, unless you have a penchant for weird (or old) movies.

Hulu, the television networks’ answer to the Internet, has also flourished, but with an entirely different model: rather than paying a monthly fee for unlimited access, Hulu provides unlimited access to both fresh and archive content in exchange for some pretty hilarious, and comparatively short, commercials. There has admittedly been some network pushback, because Hulu is becoming a victim of its own success – as more people use Hulu, the actual television viewers continue to drop, and networks don’t get the big-ticket revenue they typically could have expected.

But, at the end of the day, both industries have come to realize that they need to adapt, and quickly, in order to survive in any recognizable fashion. TV networks are toying with the idea of different delivery models via Hulu, such as “all content, always” and “only the most recent episodes”, but they’re trying.

Movie studios, however, are not.

Hulu was a joint-venture by industry giants, and was only a success because it was given true independence and freedom – it’s not a service that can likely be replicated by the movie industry, especially since Hulu appears to have somehow gained the love and support of nerds that is a prerequisite for Internet-based success. It is for this very reason that the movie industry should embrace a twofold online-delivery approach: Hulu and Netflix.

Out of a $10 (USD) movie ticket, the studios receive a portion of sales, as well as a fee for the theater actually showing the film – this is an unsustainable model in the modern world of other, cheaper options. If studios could receive $5 per online viewing of new movies, with a larger audience, would they not be happy to comply? The theory is simple: allow Hulu to show New Release movies as soon as they appear in theaters, with a pre-roll ad that results in the needed income-per-viewer, which is honestly no different or more annoying than the twenty minutes of previews and ads moviegoers are currently subjected to.

Furthermore, Netflix’s mass-audience should be leveraged to their providers’ streaming benefit, either through a similar pre-roll advertising model or with an extra monthly subscriber fee to allow Netflix members access to the New Release content via streaming, much like paying for a movie channel on a cable TV plan – but is actually useful.

The music industry was forced to adapt, much to their undying hatred, and they have suffered greatly for it – this is why they continue to try to restrict listeners’ rights while also increasing profits. If the movie studios choose to adapt, much as television networks have been halfheartedly attempting to, they could fare far better in the end than they do even now. The pay-per-stream movie distribution idea, through iTunes or Amazon, was a valiant attempt but has proven to not be of interest to most consumers, likely because of its expense and DRM-related difficulties.

FOX, Lionsgate, and all the others: this idea was free. The next one will cost seven figures – the check can be made out to “Kyle ‘Awesomeguy’ Brady”.

Kyle Brady is a contributing columnist for the Inquisitr, an entrepreneur, and has a future in science fiction. He can be found at his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

Sony PS3 Gets Netflix Streaming Today, If You Ordered Your Free Disc

James Allen Johnson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:41:11 +0000

Netflix Streaming officially arrived on the Sony PS3 today, but only if you already ordered and received your PS3 Netflix disc. The service which was announced a short while back is available with an internet connection and the specialized disc inserted in your system.

The PS3 service is free with a Netflix subscription and allows users to take advantage of the Netflix on demand programming service.

The required blu-ray disc is free upon request and users can sign up for an $8.99 per month Netflix account to take advantage fo the free disc offering. Streaming then occurs via the BD-Live feature which is supported by the PS3 when the disc is utilized. [SlashGear]

Analyst: Netflix to appear on Wii in next 12 months

Chris Greenhough — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:50:39 +0000

You may have already heard, but from (some unspecified day) next month, a Netflix service will be made available on the PS3. It’s probably the story of the day for gamers! And I’m milking it for all it’s worth! Hurrah!

Anyway, the appearance of the popular streaming movie service on the console is a decent victory for Sony, as Netflix was previously available through only one game console: the Xbox 360.

But what about the third player in the race, the best-selling Wii? Fear not, Nintendo fans, because here’s Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter to tell you there’s still hope:

“We believe that the exclusive arrangement limits Netflix’s ability to appear on the ‘dashboard’ for the PS3 or the Wii. We anticipate that a similar arrangement will be announced for the Wii in the next 12 months.”

Pachter regularly makes all sorts of predictions like this – it’s kind of his job – and he’s largely correct, so who knows. On the other hand, we’re still waiting on that high-definition Wii, Michael, sooo …

[Joystiq, via Go Nintendo]

Netflix gives cable television a wake-up call – outside of the US

Steven Hodson — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:43:13 +0000

When I first saw the news from Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb about Netflix being in the process of setting up a streaming movie service for outside of the United States I didn’t really clue in on it at first. Then as I started to think about it from my position as a resident of one of those other countries outside of the U.S. I realized that this could be the largest wake up call that cable television providers could have gotten that the future is coming to them and it isn’t going to be nice.

You see here in Canada companies like Cogeco, Rogers, and Shaw – the big three cable providers in the country – have had the marketplace pretty well to themselves. As with the telco side of the business they have dictated what we can see and how much they want to soak us for in order to watch what they provide.

Now assuming, with crossed fingers, that Netflix is including Canada among the countries that they are talking about streaming movies to the consumer would now have a viable alternative to cable television. No longer do we have to be reliant on cable television to be our sole source of movie entertainment. Depending on what kind of subscriptions and pricing that Netflix goes with I wouldn’t be at all surprise to see it be an almost instant hit with Canadians.

I know myself that if the subscription price was reasonable and I was able to pay for it using PayPal I would sign up right now. Tie that service in with Windows Media Center and I would be one step closer to being able to say good-bye to an overpriced cable service. Not to mention the brownie points I would earn with my wife.

Here’s hoping Netflix is including Canada in their roll-out plans.

Please!

LG Unveils Internet-Enabled, Netflix-Connected TVs

JR — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:37:10 +0000

Netflix has partnered with LG Electronics to create a new line of Internet-enabled, HD video-streaming televisions.

The new TVs, announced Monday, will officially debut at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The sets will offer Ethernet connections built in to both plasma and LCD displays for high-definition content streaming. Users will be able to pick movies directly from an on-screen list without having to use a computer or access their Netflix “queues” of selected titles.

The new models are expected to cost about $300 more than similar televisions without the Internet option.

The move follows LG’s recent creation of the BD300 Internet-enabled Blu-ray player, which also offers users the option to download movies directly from Netflix. Past Netflix deals have made its videos available via the Xbox 360, certain TiVo DVR models, and Blu-ray players made by Samsung. Other electronics manufacturers, including Samsung, have recently come out with Internet-integrated TVs that are connected to other specific media services, including YouTube and Picasa.

Analysts have predicted the number of Internet-enabled televisions to grow massively over the coming years. Only 1 percent of TVs sold in the U.S. were Web-ready in 2008. By 2012, the number is expected to climb to 14 percent. Some accounts, including The Inquisitr’s own Duncan Riley’s, see the trend skyrocketing after that point, perhaps even as high to 100% by the year 2015.

Hey Ladies: Jeff Bezos Knows How to Satisfy

JR — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:11:51 +0000

Looks like Jeff Bezos knows a thing or two about satisfying throngs of eager women. Ones doing their holiday shopping online, anyway.

It turns out the Bezos-led Amazon impressed more than just its own PR department with its strong holiday sales season this month. A new online retail satisfaction study conducted by ForeSee finds Amazon tied for the top spot among customer-ranked shopping experience, matched only by NetFlix.

The ForeSee report indicates Amazon and NetFlix are the only two retailers with scores over 80 (out of a possible 100). Amazon grew slightly from its previous year score, while NetFlix dropped a couple of points. Both came in at 84.

Here’s the full retailer ranking, as calculated by ForeSee:

Netflix to stream movies and TV episodes to Tivo

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:47:20 +0000

TiVo Inc. and Netflix, Inc. are teaming up to provide Netflix and TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL subscribers with the ability to have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs.

The agreement provides Netflix with an important new technology partner to instantly stream a growing library of more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes directly from Netflix to the TV.

The services will be offered for free starting December.

Netflix: Faulty Hardware Took Us Down

JR — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:16:29 +0000

Netflix says a piece of hardware is to blame for its recent shipping outage.

The company’s head of IT operations says a “key faulty hardware component” caused its distribution system to crash two weeks ago today — and to further confound things, he says it “reported no detectable errors.” That’s what had engineers so baffled at the beginning. No details about the specifics of the hardware are being released.

Many customers didn’t receive DVDs for several days as a result of the glitch. Netflix was able to get its systems partially up fairly quickly, though, and now reports being back up to full-speed with its processing.

Netflix

Netflix the Latest to Drink the Fail Juice

JR — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:15:08 +0000

Netflix is struggling with some serious issues this week, confirming a full-on “shipping and distribution outage” to CNBC’s Jim Goldman.

The online movie service shipped no DVDs Tuesday or today and shipped only a few Wednesday, the company has revealed. Worse, though, a spokesperson indicated that engineers have no idea what’s causing the problem or what they need to do to resolve it.

“Our engineers continue to work around the clock to restore normal operations,” a blog posting from today says. “We’re as frustrated about this as you are.”

Subscribers, needless to say, aren’t happy. The company’s blog is building up a rapidly increasing queue of scathing comments.

“It has been over a week since I was notified of anything and no information makes me angry. Funny, you are never late taking payments,” one user wrote anonymously.

“The reps on the phone are rude,” another comment reads.

Netflix representatives say they are e-mailing apologies to all affected users. Many of the posters on the message boards, however, say they have not received such messages.

The site’s streaming-based services do not appear to be affected.

You may remember that Netflix suffered problems with its web site this past March, when an extended period of downtime delayed its DVD shipping. The site also had issues last year with an 18-hour outage. This one, though, is described as by far the worst the company has ever seen.

Microsoft & Netflix Team Up For New Xbox Streaming Service

JR — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:56:15 +0000

Microsoft’s getting in the game of Internet-to-television movie downloads. A new partnership with Netflix will bring streaming movie and show capabilities to TVs via the Xbox 360 gaming system.

The service will be offered only to users who pay for an Xbox LIVE Gold membership and also have a Netflix membership. If you fall into both those categories, you’ll be able to watch the content “for free,” says Microsoft (heavy emphasis on the quotation marks there).

Netflix plans to offer 10,000 titles on the service — which, one might argue, could actually compete in a way with its own Roku Netflix Player launched in May. The Roku streams Netflix content from the Internet to your TV over a Wi-Fi or cable connection.

Netflix

Roku

Cable Company Looking At Web-TV Technology

JR — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:31:43 +0000

Time Warner Cable is developing new technology to get into the television-based web game.

CEO Glenn Britt tells Reuters his company is building a new wireless cable modem that’ll let customers hook their whole homes up to the net. He describes it as equipment that will “allow you to network everything in your house.”

“Within a relatively short time … it’s going to be very easy to get Internet TV on your big screen TV,” he explained to Reuters at a conference in New York today.

Britt didn’t elaborate as to exactly how the network would work or when it’d be launched.

Time Warner Cable won’t be the first company trying to bring the net to the tube. Netflix released its Roku Netflix Player earlier this month. The box lets you watch video content from Netflix on your television via a Wi-Fi or cable connection. Apple has a similar service with its Apple TV, letting you rent movies and stream other online content through your TV.