Netflix flexes muscle

[Dr Mordrid]

First, IMDB is reporting that Netflix streaming is the #2 movie "channel" behind HBO and ahead of Showtime & Starz -

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni7230616/

Second, HBO's contract for first-play of Warner Brothers films is up in 2014, and Netflix has made it clear that they are going to enter a bidding war to get it for themselves.

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/netflixs-sarandos-we-will-bid-aggressively-against-hbo-warner-movies-24211

Third, Netflix's contract to stream Starz programming is up soon and they've made moves that indicate they want to renew, but analysts are saying they may just buy the Starz Network outright from its holding company, Liberty Media.

Yeah - Netflix has the cash, and then some. Their stock price has rocketed to >$200/share at todays close, up 400% in the last 12 months, and their market capitalization is now over $11 billion and climbing - about 70% of NASA's budget

[Jessterw]

Netflix is being extremely aggressive in their promotion of streaming movies and TV shows and in positioning themselves as "the" source for it.

I was actually a little surprised they so openly taunted the broadband providers with their recent graphs of network performance amongst the operators. They've essentially said that they are going to fight for consumers to have access to well performing "fat pipes" and they'll promote those networks that provide good service. It's all entirely self-serving, but it may prove to be the incentive (or at least more of it) that the operators need to improve their networks instead of gouging their customers for imaginary scarcity.

It'll probably piss most of them off too.

I'd love to see Netflix buy Starz, if only so we could get that programming in HD instead of the often sub-DVD quality it streams in now.


Sadly, I can't watch Netflix tonight on my Xbox as there seems to be some sort of issue with streaming to the device at the moment (everything else works).

[Elie]

Netflix entered the Canadian market with a less than stellar list of movies/TV shows. I almost subscribed until friends told me not too. It's only $8.99 a month but the selection was really poor.


Maybe in the future, not now.

[gt40]

Netflix entered the Canadian market with a less than stellar list of movies/TV shows. I almost subscribed until friends told me not too. It's only $8.99 a month but the selection was really poor.


Maybe in the future, not now.

And now the crtc has approved usage based billing - meaning over frequent use of services like netflix will cost users more for internet use.

[Jessterw]

Netflix entered the Canadian market with a less than stellar list of movies/TV shows. I almost subscribed until friends told me not too. It's only $8.99 a month but the selection was really poor.


Maybe in the future, not now.

Availability of streaming titles here in the US wasn't great either initially, but it has gotten progressively better over time. Still, I'm not sure I would go for the streaming only option at this point (which is all Canada has), because there are still too many titles that the studios hold back for months or years, if not indefinitely.

[Evildead666]

And now the crtc has approved usage based billing - meaning over frequent use of services like netflix will cost users more for internet use.

That will have the one and only consequence of a lot of people using someone elses internet.
Either a business network, or local neighbours.
Will be waaaaaaaaay to much hassle to police, and who does the policing ? ISP or Police ?
And then who pays for the extra manhours ?

Will not work.

[Jammrock]

It's really getting to the point where all you need is a fat internet pipe and some sort of streaming device, whether integrated, settop or PC based, to watch TV and movies. Too bad the US has really crappy home speeds and streaming rates.

[Dr Mordrid]

We've had pretty good pictures since our service went north of 2500 kbps. Now we're at 8000 kbps and can stream to 3 devices easily. 12000 hits soon.

[UtwigMU]

The company that tried Netflix business model (without streaming, just mail dvds) went under few months ago. ISPs and cable internet providers are offering streaming services with some success.

Otherwise with 10/10 I can download most movies under 15 minutes. Before I had 20/20 and movie downloaded in 7 minutes was just ridiculous.

[Dr Mordrid]

Netflix has posted US & Canadian ISP vs. performance data on their tech blog -

http://techblog.netflix.com/2011/01/netflix-performance-on-top-isp-networks.html