Tag archive: reed hastings

Reported first by Reuters today, Verizon Communications is preparing a streaming service that will offer movies and television shows to customers that don't have access or currently subscribe to Verizon FiOS. While no pricing has been released for the proposed streaming package, the source told Reuters that the service would potentially launch during 2012. The programming would be limited to a couple packages of movies similar to the… Read More

As its stock continues to falter, Netflix has announced that it plans to sell stocks and bonds in an attempt to raise $400 million, reports Business Insider. The money will likely be used to pay for the acquisition of new content, which analysts believe is coming at a higher price than previously anticipated. Of the $400 million, half will come from the sale of bonds, which can be converted to stock, to Technology Crossover Ventures, which… Read More

Netflix announced today that it will continue to offer its streaming customers shows from the Disney-ABC Television Group, which includes ABC Studios, Disney Channel and ABC Family. Additional shows from these networks will also be added to the Netflix lineup as part of the renewal deal.  According to the streaming agreement, episodes from the new seasons of shows currently being aired on the Disney-ABC channels will be available to Netflix… Read More

When you've just become the top movie subscription service in the world, you don't raise rates without explanation. That comes off as greedy. And if you're going to apologize for that mistake, try not to announce that you're splitting your company in half and renaming half of it Qwikster. These actions will lead to 800,000 subscribers jumping ship and send your stock price tumbling from more than $300 a share to about… Read More

Netflix announced today its movie and television streaming service will be available to customers in the UK and Ireland early next year. The move is the latest international expansion for Netflix, which has offered streaming services to subscribers in the US and Canada since 2007. Those interested in enrolling in the upcoming service may visit Netflix's website to sign up for an email alert, which will let them know when Netflix is… Read More

Well, that was “qwik:” a scant three weeks after announcing it was spinning off its DVD rental business as the horribly-named Qwikster, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has sent word down from on high: Qwikster will never be born, and Netflix will keep its streaming and DVD rental businesses unified. Customers will continue to be able to manage streaming and DVD rentals from a single account on a single Web site, with unified reviews,… Read More

CEO Reed Hastings turned Netflix into the country's largest movie subscription service, but lately he can't seem to get things right. After publicly announcing plans to spin off Netflix's DVD-by-mail service as a new company called Qwikster, Hastings has completely backpedaled. DVDs will now stay at Netflix.com. The Qwikster.com domain now leads straight to Netflix.  “It is clear that for many of our members two websites… Read More

Recently, we learned that Netflix will soon completely split up its Instant Streaming and DVD-by-mail services. Netflix will continue to be the home for Instant Streaming and a new company called Qwikster, run by the same guys who have been running Netflix DVD rentals for a decade, will handle DVD-by-mail subscriptions. If you're like us, you're wondering what the heck is going on over at Netflix headquarters. While we'll be… Read More

Video streaming and video rental giant Netflix rocked its world for the second time in as many months on Sunday, announcing the company will be spinning off its DVD rental business into an independently-operating new business dubbed Qwikster. Qwikster's CEO will be Andy Rendich, who has served as Netflix's chief service and operations officer. The announcement follows on the heels of a controversial restructuring program that… Read More

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings isn't sorry that his company raised prices on its DVD-by-mail service, but he is sorry that he didn't explain it better. Back in July, Netflix ended its $10-per-month DVD-by-mail + Streaming package for no apparent reason and began charging $8 per month for streaming and $8 per month for DVD-by-mail service. Now we know why: Netflix is completely spinning off its DVD rental service as a new company called… Read More

The rumors that Netflix was heading overseas to Europe seem to be confirmed. Spain will be getting first crack at the streaming and DVD rental service, though there's no confirmation on whether Netflix will be heading to the UK as well. The Spanish expansion was confirmed by Screen Daily in an interview with Pedro Perez, the president of the local producers' association FAPAE. Perez revealed that Netflix was already chumming it up… Read More

Netflix is offering  a new DVD subscription plan for consumers that aren't interested in the Netflix Instant streaming service. Priced identically to the streaming-only plan, users can pay $7.99 a month for unlimited DVD rentals under the new plan. Before this plan was active, Netflix subscribers had a choice of $4.99 a month for one DVD out at a time (up to two a month) or $9.99 a month for one DVD out at a time with access to Netflix… Read More

If Netflix's aim is to lure consumers away from cable companies, it's doing a lousy job of it so far. That's according to Netflix's own CEO Reed Hastings. Hastings, speaking at the All Things Digital conference, admitted that cable is still going strong despite the rise in online streaming options. Hastings was directly asked by a journalist if his company was seeking to “encourage cord cutting.” Hastings… Read More

Netflix wants fresh content and it's willing to pay to get it.  The NY Post reports that Netflix is bypassing TV networks and talking with studios directly about gaining access to new episodes of popular TV shows like Glee. It's even willing to pay for the luxury: somewhere between $70,000 and $100,000 per episode. Now a war is breaking out between streaming companies, studios, and broadcast networks. Studios argue that they own… Read More

Back in 2006, movie rental powerhouse Netflix announced a competition: if someone—or a team of someones—could come up with a way to improve the service's movie recommendation system by 10 percent, they'd wein $1 million. As expected, the competition drew interest from a wide variety of programmers and statisticians—and, naturally, Netflix began to reap the benefits of recommendation improvements investigated by… Read More