Netflix raises prices - a lot

[Jobydrone]

This is EXCELLENT news, particulasrly excited about the entire series of Alias, which is my new obsession.  Glad I don't have to spend hundreds on the DVDs or seek out other more dubious means of acquiring the ability to watch this show.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/disneyabc-now-streaming-all-over-both-netflix-and,64273/

Disney-ABC now streaming all over both Netflix and Amazon

by Sean O'Neal October 31, 2011 Hoping to rebound from its recent troubles, Netflix is doubling down on giving customers more of what they've increasingly turned to the company for: long, rambling emails from Reed Hastings. Also, streaming television content, which Netflix has just significantly re-upped on, extending and even expanding its library of Disney-ABC titles. The revitalized deal allows it to hold onto episodes of shows like Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Brothers And Sisters, Felicity, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, and Ugly Betty, plus ABC Family shows like The Secret Life Of The American Teenager and Disney Channel shows like Phineas And Ferb.

Of course, with the renewing of vows between Netflix and Disney-ABC comes the reminder that theirs is now an open relationship: The studio has also announced a deal with Amazon Prime to carry almost all of those exact same shows. The measure of which service it loves more probably comes down to the slight differences between their respective contracts, with Amazon getting Marvel animated shows like Spider-Man and X-Men Evolution, but Netflix getting Hannah Montana, Army Wives, and—in perhaps its biggest coup—all episodes of Alias, with Netflix now enjoying the rare experience of finding Jennifer Garner comforting. [via Deadline]

[Rico]

Glad to see it's on Amazon streaming too!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Too bad that doesn't include Disney's other stuff like movies, going to lose those forever in a few months.  :(.  But new content is good stuff. 

King

[Jobydrone]

Glad to see it's on Amazon streaming too!

Alias won't be...they're splitting up some of the content...Amazon will be getting the Marvel movies exclusively, while Netflix will be getting Alias and some of the other stuff I guess.

[Bryancd]

Just as I said earlier in this thread, Netflix announced 4th Quarter earnings today and they are looking VERY good. Told you guys.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Netflix Inc reversed a customer slide by adding more than 600,000 new U.S. subscribers in the fourth quarter, and its revenue beat Wall Street expectations, pushing shares up 13 percent.
The video rental company, which revolutionized the home video industry but in 2011 outraged customers with a surprise price hike and a botched attempt to split off its DVD-mail service, posted a 47 percent leap in fourth-quarter revenue to $876 million.
That outpaced an average forecast for $857.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Earnings per share hit 73 cents, beating an average forecast of 55 cents.
B. Riley & Co analyst Eric Wold said Netflix reassured Wall Street it was winning new customers and wasn't hurt by its growing competition. Streaming subscribers were higher than expected and a projected first-quarter net loss amid an international expansion was smaller than many feared, he said.
"That's going to be comforting to people," Wold said.
Netflix lost more than 800,000 U.S. customers in the third quarter of 2011 after an uproar over a price hike and now-aborted plan to rent DVDs under the name Qwikster. The company's share price plummeted from $304 in July to $62 in November.
Shares rose 13 percent to trade above $107 in after-hours trading following the earnings report on Wednesday. They had ended at $95.04, up 2.6 percent, in the regular session on Nasdaq.
In a letter to shareholders, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, a Wall Street darling until the pricing and other missteps last year, stuck to previous forecasts of bumping up margins by about 1 percentage point every quarter as the company shifts customers from its DVD-by-mail service onto instant streaming.
To keep up that momentum, Netflix has been writing hefty checks to acquire more TV shows and movies for its streaming service. On Wednesday, Hastings predicted that while content acquisition costs will continue to increase quarter by quarter, that pace of growth will begin decelerating in 2012.
Netflix still faces a deluge of competition, a tarnished brand, and a costly expansion that will erode bottom lines, at least in the short term.
"They have kind of righted the ship in the near term," Morningstar analyst Michael Corty said. "The question investors need to ask is how are they really going to grow this domestic business, not just this quarter but over the next several years."

[KingIsaacLinksr]

They are going to have to get new content and fast.  Starting to hear rumblings of people leaving due to lack of new/good content. 

As for myself, I'm content with what they are offering.  It has what I want.  JUST DON'T RAISE THE PRICE.

Thanks.

King

[Bryancd]

Yes, that's why they need to be very aggressive in expanding their streaming service globally quickly. If they can become the widely accepted streaming distribution source, they can force the content providers to have no choice but to play ball. Reminds me so much of Apple...

[Rico]

They are still getting less money from me per month now.  And I've used them probably longer than anyone I know.

[Bryancd]

That was the inevitability of their growth plans. Less $ but more streaming customers. It's a sound plan and one that has begun to work, like I said.

[X]

They are still getting less money from me per month now.  And I've used them probably longer than anyone I know.

They are also probably getting less cost in overhead due to the whole need to buy and replace few DVDs.

[Ktrek]

What will happen when they lose their Starz contract next month? What will they do to provide all those streaming customers with content?

Kevin

[Bryancd]

They are still getting less money from me per month now.  And I've used them probably longer than anyone I know.

They are also probably getting less cost in overhead due to the whole need to buy and replace few DVDs.

..and mail them and warehouse them, it was endless cost in a market they needed to move away from for their global expansion plans.

[Bryancd]

What will happen when they lose their Starz contract next month? What will they do to provide all those streaming customers with content?

Kevin

Here's Netflix strategy. As digital contnet delivery expands, they will gain and lose some content. That's going to happen. What they need to do is fast track their growth around the world in the streaming business. They already have the broadest library of streaming content available and they have something none of the competitors have. NAME RECOGNITION. I know people here on the forum know of lots of ways to stream content, but to the average, non-techie consumer, Netflix is ubiquitous with streaming video. They achieved that in the home DVD delivery business and now need to basically do what Apple did with iTunes. They are looking to have their brand to be synonymous with streaming. If they can achieve that, the content providers will have no choice but to put their product on Netflix. Netflix wants to Steve Jobs them.

The only companys right now that could try and compete are HBO and Amazon as they can afford to make streaming a loss leader and pay up for content that Netflix may not want to at this point. But I really don't think Amazon wants to be a streaming video company beyond what they feel can help drive store sales. HBO is their main competition.

[Feathers]

That's certainly a good US view. I'm not sure how it stacks up out here in the rest of the world though (since you said 'growth around the world').

We're it not for this forum, I doubt I'd have heard of them or their recent launch over here.

[Rico]

For streaming, Netflix is hard to beat.  But not everyone has a fast internet connection, or the right gear to use it.  Also believe it or not, some people still like physical discs - they might not even have the Net.  A ways down the road this won't matter as much, but right now it does to a degree.  They also need to streamline this content rights stuff.  I still can't quite grasp why I can stream a movie 3 months old, but not some that are 10 years old.  This is one of the reasons piracy exists.