The existing run of the show comprises of 53 episodes that are 22 minutes long each, so you’ll have to set aside around 19-and-a-half hours between now and Sunday to make sure that you’re caught up on all the happenings. The show was originally run from 2003 to 2006 before getting cancelled after three seasons due to low ratings.

However, fans have been dying to see a return of the show, and Netflix stepped in in 2011 to save the day. Season 4 will consist of 15 episodes, which is quite a full season, but beggars certainly can’t be choosers. Plus, Netflix doesn’t have plans to continue Arrested Development past the fourth season, so be sure to savor these 14 episodes while you can.

Alongside the original cast, there are also set to be several guest stars throughout the season, including Ben Stiller, Conan O’Brien, Adam DeVine, and Kristen Wiig. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that the original cast was “extremely difficult” to get together in the first place, so having guest stars is definitely an added treat.

This only a start for Netflix, however. The company plans to launch even more original series in the future, with content boss Ted Sarandos saying that the company wants to double original content in 2014. We’ve already seen several original shows this year, including House of Cards and Hemlock Grove, meaning that we should see an even bigger bevy of shows come next year.

Netflix is wanting to change the way Hollywood views internet content, and they’re even looking to take on HBO to become the supreme when it comes to original ad-free content. Sarandos says that director David Fincher’s roll in House of Cards is changing the way people view internet streaming content, where it’s no longer a bunch B-list web shows, but actual TV series featuring A-list celebs.

House of Cards is a great example of how Netflix is changing the way people view streaming content. The series stars Kevin Spacey, who is best known for his numerous roles in tons of classic films, such as American Beauty, The Usual Suspects, Se7en, and Superman Returns. The first two episodes of the series were directed by David Fincher, who also directed movies like Fight Club, The Social Network, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

This year already, Netflix has released two original series: House of Cards and Hemlock Grove, with several more original shows on the way: Arrested Development and a Hasbro-sponsored children’s show, as well as three more that we know of. That’s seven shows total that we know of, meaning that if Netflix kept their promise and doubled their original content in 2014, we’ll be getting at least 14 shows next year, but Sarandos says that’s merely a goal, not a promise.

Netflix accounts for a third of all traffic that makes its way through the internet, which is something quite impressive, and the service streams more content than YouTube even. Netflix also keeps adding on new users, claiming three million more customers during Q1 2013 to make a total of 37 million users paying for Netflix.

SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter

According to data from Sandvine, Netflix tops the list of “online video downstream sources” for the first half of 2013 (most likely thanks to House of Cards). The Reed Hastings-led company comes in at 32.3% on the list, with YouTube coming in at a distant second at 17.11%. And while other streaming services have claimed to have significant growth, today’s results show otherwise, with Amazon and HBO remaining stagnant for the most part. These two companies are at the bottom of the list with 1.31% and 0.34%, respectively, both of which are drops compared to last year.

Hulu, iTunes, and Facebook also made the list. Hulu, specifically jumped from 1.1% to 2.41% this year, making it the streaming video service to watch out for other than Netflix and YouTube. Granted, these results only track internet traffic on home networks. Things are a bit different when you only track mobile web traffic.

YouTube came out on top in mobile streaming traffic with 27.33%, while Netflix is way at the bottom of the list with just 3.98%, proving that Netflix isn’t all too popular on mobile devices while on the go. Other services to make the mobile streaming list include Google Play, Pandora, and BlackBerry, although they were also down toward the bottom, with Facebook placed toward the top.

In Netflix’s latest quarterly earnings, the company boasted an increase of three million subscribers during the three-month period, which brings the service’s total user base up to 36 million. If the trends continue, Netflix will be a force not to be reckoned with, especially when they consume a third of all internet traffic. The company even went as far as saying that they contribute to the decline in piracy, but BitTorrent doesn’t believe it, saying that Netflix’s claims are fallacious.

VIA: AllThingsD

SOURCE: Sandvine

The audio and subtitle options can now be accessed from within the video player, meaning that you don’t have to return to the main menu in order to adjust these settings. Plus, accessing these options from within the video player while watching a show will bring up catered settings for that particular show, including available languages and surround sound options.

The video player has also been updated to look more like the web and mobile versions, although it keeps some of the same PS3 aesthetic. The video player will now be much more reminiscent of other platforms with Netflix, and PlayStation 3 users should be able to pick up another device without a huge learning curve getting in the way.

Today’s PS3 update also includes improvements for “trickplay” mode, which is that fancy series of screenshots you get when you want to skip ahead or backward in a show. This time around, the screenshots appear much quicker on the screen, allowing users to fast-forward or rewind a show at a much quicker pace than before, although we would still love the option to automatically skip opening credits for a TV show that happens after the cold open, but it seems we’ll still be dreaming about that.

Netflix streaming first hit the PlayStation 3 back in November 2009, and it recently became the number one streaming device for Netflix, where Sony’s gaming console had more Netflix users than any other platform that Netflix in on, including the Xbox 360, so it’s really no surprise that the streaming company is giving extra attention to the PS3.

SOURCE: Netflix Blog

Arrested Development aired on the Fox network from 2003 through 2006. The show was so popular that fans have been clamoring for a return of the series or a big-screen movie for years. Neither of those ever happened until Netflix stepped in and announced in 2011 that it would be bringing Arrested Development back to television.

Of course, the caveat was that the new episodes will be available only for Netflix subscribers. Netflix has now put the Arrested Development season four trailer online and it appears that the show picks up pretty much where it left off when it was canceled in 2006. New episodes of Arrested Development are returning with the complete original cast reprising their roles.

One of the best things about Netflix’s original programs is that the streaming company puts every episode online at the same time. That means you can watch the first episode and if you’re interested the entire remainder of the season is available for you to watch all in a row. Netflix says that all 15 episodes of the series that have been made will be available as of May 26.

Each of the episodes runs 30 minutes long and will presumably be commercial free like all of the other content on the streaming network. It’s interesting to see the show return after a seven-year hiatus. I had a few shows from the past that I really liked to watch that were canceled that I’ve wished would return. I know I’m not the only one who has long hoped that Firefly would return to the air. I don’t see that whenever happening with the success of Castle for Nathan Fillion.

SOURCE: Mashable

The five programs that are covered in the licensing agreement include Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Tron: Uprising, Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso, and JoJo’s Circus. All of those shows are very popular with kids, and even some adults. The programming is built around multiple areas of child development.

Disney says that the shows help multiple areas of child development including physical, emotional, social, and cognitive thinking and creative skills. The children’s programming is also intended to help the moral and ethical development of kids who watch.

The programming will be available on the kids section Netflix. Like all other Netflix content, all five of the new Disney programs will be commercial free and included in the Netflix monthly service charge. Netflix has been adding a lot of content over the last several months and more content will be added in the future.

[via Netflix]

Both of these features could be a convenient addition to some users, as it encourages binge-watching while you’re away from home. Of course, watching anything more than an episode of a TV show on your iPhone is enough to make your eyes hurt, so we’re guessing that iPad users will most likely get more use of these new features.

The updated app also improves on its second screen options, as well as comes with the usual slew of bug fixes and performance enhancements. These updates were included in the Android app update that was released yesterday. It wasn’t a big update by any means, but iOS users are now getting the bug fixes from yesterday.

The Netflix app is available for free to download, and it’s compatible on pretty much any mobile device. However, you’ll need to pay $8 per month in order to take advantage of the unlimited streaming. The service’s movie options are bit limited, but you can get access to quite a bit of good TV shows and stream them while on the go.

BitTorrent says that two of Sarandos’ statements are not true, the first being that the BitTorrent application is a synonym for internet piracy, and the second being that BitTorrent traffic drops when Netflix arrives in new markets around the world. BitTorrent says that neither of these statements is true.

BitTorrent says that it’s an excusable mistake to connect internet piracy with BitTorrent, but the company claims that it’s addressing the public’s concern with piracy. However, BitTorrent says that many companies use BitTorrent to “preserve terabytes of data,” including Facebook, Twitter, Blizzard, Eve Online, genetic researchers, and even CERN.

As for the piracy correlation that Sarandos mentioned, BitTorrent says that they are not competing with Netflix, and Netflix shouldn’t have to compete with BitTorrent. The company says that they are “actually finding ways to support companies like [Netflix], content creators, studios, and other rights-holders directly.” BitTorrent went as far as saying that they’re “getting ready to roll out an Alpha program” that they believe could drive more traffic to movie streaming services.

Users working with Google’s Play Movies service are already able to watch movies they’ve purchased through Google’s online store through YouTube while this week’s announcement has them considering a subscription service. Once a user purchases or rents a movie through Google Play, they can play that movie through a web browser using Google’s Movies interface, using the Google Movies app on Android, or through YouTube.

Purchase or rent a movie or television show episode through Google Play and that title is available for watching – as long as you’re logged in – on YouTube. This feature has likely paved the way for Google’s ability to sell subscription services through YouTube in the near future. This week’s report comes from a Financial Times report in which they’ve got a comment direct from YouTube on the possibility of such a service.

“[We are] looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer.” – YouTube

While this upcoming service could bring a model that would be on-par with the type of video offered with traditional cable subscriptions, services like Hulu Plus and Netflix would likely remain safe from impact. With a subscription to a library of titles rather than an always-broadcasting system like what’s suggested for YouTube here, these large-name systems could keep separate.

If on the other hand it happens to be that YouTube opens up subscriptions to channels that serve up collections of movies – that’d be a different story entirely. YouTube’s future service is suggested to be costing users $1.99 USD per channel per month. Thus far there’ve been no substantial confirmations or denials from YouTube or Google about the possibility of this service existing in the near future (other than what you see above).

Sarandos says that there is a correlation between Netflix launching in a certain country and BitTorrent traffic slowing down in that same region. It’s quite easy to see why, as well. Netflix offers unlimited streaming of a large collection of TV shows and movies for only $7.99 per month. Other streaming services, like Spotify and Rdio for music, also offer similar features for a low monthly cost.

Sarandos says that “people are mostly honest,” and a big reason why users illegally download content is because they can’t get it any other way conveniently and cheaply. For instance, you can buy and rent movies and TV shows from a variety of services, but they’re usually caked with DRM, which is a turn-off to any media junkie.

As for Netflix’s commitment to 4K streaming, there isn’t one just yet. Sarandos says that Netflix will wait until 4K evolves into a format where it can be streamed logically, at which point the company may look into it, but for now they’re only keeping their eye on it to see how 4K unfolds over these next few years.

Frankly, the app is a bit overdue. Over the years, Blockbuster has been on the decline, due to the failure to adapt to a changing world, where streaming movies was becoming more popular than physically renting them. The company released mobile apps, but they didn’t include any streaming component, until now.

The iOS version of the app is similar to the Android version, and unlike Netflix, where you pay a monthly fee for unlimited streaming, Blockbuster On Demand has you paying on a per-movie basis. The benefit, though, is that you get access to a lot of movies that you don’t have access to on Netflix, which is a service that has been lacking a good movie selection for some time now.

Plus, the Blockbuster On Demand app streams movies in high definition with support for surround sound, which would seem a bit overkill if you were to watch films on your smartphone, but you could easily hook up your ipad to a stereo system to boost the sound level a bit, given that any speaker will provide better quality than the built-in speaker on the iPad or iPhone.

While this may come as a shock, it’s common business for Netflix to constantly be evaluating its content and remove and add certain movies and TV shows when it feels that it should. The company says that they aim to be a good programmer rather than a broad distributor. As a result, Netflix will only be serving up the most popular pieces of content, rather than everything under the sun.

However, not all hope is lost, as Netflix will also be adding more content at the same time it will be removing content. New shows and movies that the company will be adding on include ParaNorman, The Hunger Games, Safe, Bachelorette, and Mission Impossible 2, as well as a handful of other titles being tacked on.

Netflix’s four-year contract with Starz ended last year, which saw the end of streaming for movies like Scarface, Young Frankenstein, Toy Story 3, and Gangs of New York. However, Netflix recently signed a contract with Disney, which will see a handful of classic childrens’ movies come to the streaming service shortly.

[via CNET]

Along with racking up very impressive quarterly profits, Netflix also added a significant amount of new subscribers putting the company on target to reach 30 million subscribers in the United States this quarter. Netflix also announced a new option for users who have multiple people in the home who like to watch Netflix at the same time. Netflix announced that is also going to be instituting a new $12 per month family plan.

The new streaming family plan will allow users to stream Netflix to up to four devices at the same time within the same home. Currently the standard eight dollar per month plan for Netflix allows two simultaneous streams. However, in my own house of been able to stream to three devices at the same time on occasion without issues. Netflix doesn’t expect a lot of people to jump on the new family plan stating that it expects less than 1% of its members to opt for that plan.

Some analysts have been calling for Netflix to crack down on account sharing. Reports indicate that as many as 10 million people are watching Netflix without paying for it by getting the password from friends or family members. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings isn’t worried about password sharing, he says that Netflix doesn’t believe there is much of that going on. However, Hastings does say that sharing passwords with extended family “[is] not what we would consider appropriate.”

I think there will be a lot of families who will take advantage of the new family streaming plan, particularly since it’s said to use personalized profiles. My daughter loves to watch Netflix and when she watches it’s always movies about dogs or horses. That means when I log on to watch Netflix every single recommendation for me is a kid’s movie based on what she watches. I would pay a few extra dollars per month to be able to watch what I want and get recommendations that are actually geared towards my tastes.

[via Gigaom and PaidContent]

During the quarter, US streaming brought in $639 million in revenue, with international streaming raking in $142 million. The company’s DVD business, while slowly falling off, is still seeing action, with $243 million in revenue. However, that’s down from $254 million during the previous quarter, as well as $320 million during the same time last year.

As for profit, Netflix experienced losses in both operating and net income categories, with a loss of $32 million and $3 million, respectively. The company noted in a letter to shareholders that the loss was due to an “extinguishment of debt” that was connected to a bond refinancing back in February. Without that, the company would’ve netted $19 million.

Netflix brought up the company’s own original series House of Cards, saying that the show gave the streaming company “confidence” in picking up shows that their users would enjoy. However, not as many people took advantage of Netflix’s free trial offer as they were expecting. It turns out only 8,000 people used the free trial offer to watch House of Cards.

The letter to shareholders also mentions a new monthly plan that Netflix is planning to launch soon. To accommodate larger families with multiple devices in the house, Netflix is going to launch a new $11.99-per-month plan that will allow users to stream content on four devices at once, which is up from two on the regular streaming plan. No date has been set, but Netflix says that less than 1% of its user base will take advantage of the new plan.

Pachter isn’t the only analyst who believes that Netflix can generate more money if it made a few changes to its policies. According to Heath Terry, an analyst for Goldman Sachs & Co., a pricing/policy change can increase revenue for Netflix by up to 5 percent per subscriber. Terry also mentions that Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, can offer a variety of different plans, such as charging extra to add new users to a Netflix account.

Hastings has thought about introducing family plans to Netflix, which would allows families to have more than two stream running at the same time. He stated that it would help families save money by not having to purchase separate Netflix accounts. but Hastings doesn’t want to get into any price changes or policy changes with Netflix just yet. He says that Netflix is still recovering from its pricing fiasco back in 2011, when it increased its fees for video-streaming/DVD rentals to $15.98 a month from $9.99.

The analysts, however, believe that Netflix can do much better if it offers new account options. Terry states that with new account options, Netflix’s subscriber base can increase to 53 million by 2017, which is 20 million more subscribers than the 33 million the service currently has. Regardless of whether or not account/policy changes would be beneficial to Netflix, Netflix is doing well, with its shares increasing 76% this year, showing that it doesn’t need to implement any changes anytime soon.

[via Bloomberg]

Netflix talks about the reality of video plugins, making specific mentions of browsers that don’t support them (Internet Explorer in Metro Mode, for example), as well as the security risk using plugins can pose. Moving to HTML5 from Silverlight will take care of these two issues, and will open up the ability to watch instant video via the service on a wider range of devices and browsers.

For now, Netflix is waiting to make the switch on what it calls three “premium video extensions”: Media Source Extensions, Encrypted Media Extensions, and Web Cryptography API. The company says it is working with industry leaders, and that these initiatives will be the solution to current issues with delivering video in the absense of a plugin like Silverlight.

The first iteration of this has been pushed out for the Samsung ARM-based Chromebook, which takes advantage of the Media Source Extensions and Encrypted Media Extensions in Chrome browser to deliver Silverlight-free video content. According to Netflix, Web Cryptography API isn’t in use on the Chromebook yet, instead being replaced with Netflix’s own Pepper Plugin API. The PPAPI plugin will be swapped out with WebCrypto when it is available via Chrome, at which point HTML5 video testing will start for OS X and Windows.

[via Netflix]

The expanded multi-year content deal between Netflix and Hasbro is for kids programming. The agreement will see to Hasbro Studios shows coming to Netflix including Littlest Pet Shop and Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters. The expanded content partnership adds these two Hasbro Studio shows in addition to several others already available on Netflix.

Other programming from Hasbro Studios available for streaming includes My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Transformers Prime, Transformers Rescue Bots. The content partnership will allow new seasons of each of those shows to be available for streaming via Netflix one month after the season finale airs on The Hub Network.

Netflix has also announced that some of the popular Hasbro programs are now available for Canadian members for the first time. New shows for Canadian members include My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Transformers Prime, Pound Puppies and The Adventures of Chuck & Friends. Canadian viewers will also get access to Transformers Rescue Bots, Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters and Littlest Pet Shop later this year.

[via Netflix]

As the Netflix app is updated for larger resolution displays, it’s apparent that updates are still needed before this iteration of the video environment is up to snuff with the rest of the smart device universe. You’ll still not be able to get HD video on your Windows Phone 8 device, and though it’s not Netflix’ fault, we’re still not at a place where essentially every new Windows Phone 8 device is able to have its picture output to a larger screen via HDMI.

This update will ring in at 2MB as a download to your device this week. Remember that you’re going to need a Netflix account to take full advantage of the app, but you can still make with a trial period if you like. You’ll get addicted real quick.

Have a peek at the Netflix timeline below to see what else this streaming video giant has been bringing to the universe over the past few weeks. The Netflix app has quickly become one of the must-have apps on every mobile platform over the past few years, right along with Hulu and your everyday collection of YouTube-like apps. Stay up to date!

Fans are getting more Arrested Development than they were expecting, too, with Netflix upping the episode count from the last announcement. Back in January, the on-demand media company said there’d be fourteen in this fourth season.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the new season will be a prequel to the Arrested Development movie, and will see one character take center-stage in each episode. A preliminary list of guest stars has also been confirmed, including Ben Stiller, Conan O’Brien, and Kristen Wiig.

However, beyond season four the future looks dim for the hit show. Netflix has already said that there are no plans for a fifth season, partly because, according to CEO Reed Hastings, it is “extremely difficult to get the cast together.”

Arrested Development originally aired on Fox between 2003 and 2006, but was cancelled after poor ratings. Netflix stepped in instead in 2011.

The service costs $9.99 a month to use, which is higher than other video-streaming services, but you are given a 2 week free trial to test it out. You are given a selection of classic TV shows and movies like the original Jericho, Bad Day at Black Rock, Superman and more. The selection is quite small right now, however Warner Bros promises to add a lot more content soon, while also switching out some of its current content.

Right now, only some TV shows and movies are available in 1080p streaming, and you will only be able to watch the videos in 1080p if you have a Roku set-top box. PC and Mac users will not be able to watch either 720p or 1080p videos yet, however the features should be added in the future. Warner Bros also says that 1080p streaming should be coming to more connected devices in the future.

If you’re a classic movie buff, this new streaming service will be a Godsend for you. There are movies and TV shows from Warner Bros, MGM, RKO, and Allied Artists, that should bring to you the nostalgia of the old (very old) days. Warner Archive is very unique, but it will most likely have a hard time appealing to the majority of consumers, most of who are fine with Netflix and its modern selection of media.

[via Warner Archives]

The Blu-ray version is available for pre-order on Amazon as we speak, as is the DVD version, which will cost you $44.99. The show was produced by Media Right Capital and licensed by Netflix for online streaming, but it looks like Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has managed to secure the distribution rights for the physical discs of the show.

House of Cards officially released to Netflix on February 1, where all 13 episodes became available at once. Each episode is almost an hour long, so you’re looking at well over a full day’s work if you’re up for the task of watching the entire first season in one day. That shouldn’t be too difficult, though, since the show was like a good book: I just couldn’t put it down.

Unfortunately, however, the listing on Amazon doesn’t list any of the bonus material that will come packing with the disc set (another reason that buying the DVD instead of streaming could be beneficial). Hopefully, though, we’ll see the usual stuff, like bloopers, deleted scenes, commentary, etc.

[via High Def Disc News]

Netflix has announced that it has a new science fiction series in the works called Sense8. The science fiction TV series will come in late 2014 from Georgeville Television. The television series marks the first time that the Wachowskis have ventured into the world of television programming.

Most science fiction fans will recognize the Wachowskis from The Matrix trilogy and other movies they have directed. Another important member of the Sense8 team is J. Michael Stracynski, who is the creator of the popular science fiction TV series Babylon 5 as well as other films such as Thor. The first season of the series will have 10 episodes.

At this point Netflix isn’t offering much detail on the science fiction series. Although the official press release says is that Sense8 is “a gripping global tale of minds linked and souls hunted.” I wonder if Netflix will offer all 10 episodes of the first season at the same time as it has for some of its other original programs.

[via Netflix]

Sources have told Business Insider that Spotify is currently looking for partners to fund its video on-demand content. Right now, Spotify, even with its large list of subscribers, is suffering from extremely thin profit margins. It has been negotiating with music labels to lower their royalty fees so that it can both increase its profits and perhaps add a free music streaming service to mobile devices in the future.

While exclusive video on-demand content would help Spotify generate income (and one it doesn’t have to pay royalty fees for), it does seem out of Spotify’s niche. The VOD content would most likely be live concert footage and video interviews with various artists. Nothing is set it stone however. It would make more sense if Spotify finally brought music videos to its music streaming service.

On another note, Spotify is also looking to expand its subscriber base by finally entering into the world of television marketing. Its set to launch its first commercial today during the season 4 premiere of The Voice. This may be the first time that Spotify has ever aired a television ad in the United States. The company had previously shunned the idea of marketing, but now that it’s so successful, it’s decided to change its tune.

[via Business Insider]

The contest opened to entries yesterday, and will last six months ending on September 15 of this year. When the contest closes to entries, a judging panel will select the winners and reveal them on October 16. The lucky winners will be given their awards at AWS Re:Invent in Las Vegas in November, all expenses paid.

As we mentioned, the contest is split into ten categories. Each category will have its own winner who will get $10,000 in cash and $5,000 in AWS credits, as well as a nifty trophy they can place on their respective mantles. You can check out the full list of rules and how to apply at Netflix’s Github here.

Netflix’s CPO Neil Hunt had this to say: “Cloud computing has become a hot topic recently, but the technology is still emerging. No doubt many of the key ideas that will take it to the next level have yet to be conceived, explored, and developed. The Netflix Cloud Prize is designed to improve understanding of what it takes to build native applications for the cloud that take full advantage of the opportunities for scalable computing.”

[via PC Mag]

Netflix uses Facebook to connect you with all of your friends that use Netflix, so once you connect your Netflix account to Facebook and agree to share the content you’re watching, you’ll see two new rows show up on the Netflix homepage, one of which is “Friends’ Favorites,” where you can browse through the movies and shows that your friends enjoy.

The other row is called “Watched By Your Friends,” and it consists of movies and shows that your friends have recently watched. It provides a list of all your Facebook friends who are on Netflix, and you can cycle through individual friends to see what they recently watched. This is an unfiltered list, meaning that it shows all the movies and TV shows that your friends have agreed to share.

Of course, you can control what you share and what you don’t want to share, so if there’s a movie or TV show that you watch, but you don’t want to share it with your friends, you can simply click on the “Don’t Share This” button under each item. Netflix is rolling out the feature over the next couple of days, and the company says that all US members will have access to Netflix social by the end of the week.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Netflix has revealed such information, having released a graph on the performance of top networks back in 2011. That information was harder to sort through, however, and far less appealing to the eye. With the ISP Speed Index, the information has been aggregated in a single location, with easily digestible information and the ability to pull up data for eight countries.

According to Netflix, 33 million customers stream in excess of a billion hours of video every month, providing ample data. Streaming data has been provided for the US, UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Mexico. The US rounds out the list with both the fastest and slowest ISP speeds, while Mexico comes in at the bottom of the list for highest speed, and second from bottom (after the US) in the lowest speed category.

Mexico has the lowest overall speed at 1.65Mbps, however, while Finland has the top overall speed at 2.57Mbps. For the United States, Google Fiber comes in as #1 with 3.35Mbps, while Clearwire comes in last at 1.25Mbps; the average speed is 2.3Mbps. The UK’s speeds are a tad less polarized, with Virgin beating out the rest of its competition at 2.37Mbps, and EVERYTHINGEVERYWHERE coming in last with 1.77Mbps; the average speed is 2.07Mbps.

[via Netflix]

Netflix didn’t say exactly why they weren’t planning on developing an app for Blackberry 10, but sources have told All Things D that its because Blackberry 10 doesn’t have a big enough user base. Without a huge user base like Android, iOS, or even Windows Phone, Netflix wouldn’t receive a lot of returned benefits from its app on Blackberry, so it decided to forgo the developing costs of creating the app.

Things may change in the future when Blackberry 10 starts attracting more and more users. Netflix didn’t say they were never going to work with Blackberry 10. It’s just following Instagram’s footsteps and is waiting the situation out. Though if those two companies partnered up with Blackberry 10, wouldn’t it be enticing enough to attract many users over to the developing platform? Perhaps developing their apps would prove to be a win-win situation.

Even without Netflix and Instagram, Blackberry 10 still has a decent amount of popular apps like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Skype to hold it over. It has a catalog of over 70,000 apps, 40% which is comprised of Android apps, and the list will keep growing. Sooner or later, Netflix and Instagram will join in on the fun. Alex Kinsella, a spokesman for Blackberry, is hoping for the former however. He says, “We hope they choose to bring a Blackberry 10 experience to their customers. We’d love to have them.”

[via All Things D]

After Netflix releases the new season of Arrested Development in May, that’ll be it for the show for the time being, according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who said during an investor conference that season four of Arrested Development would be a “one-off” and “non-repeatable” event for Netflix. No specifics were given, but a spokesperson said it’s “extremely difficult to get the cast together.”

Of course, the difficulty of getting that kind of cast together does seem quite tremendous. The show has a huge cast, some of the actors and actresses of which are big names that have or are currently filming other shows and movies. Arrested Development stars Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Micheal Cera, and more. The show aired for three seasons, but was canceled in 2006 because of low ratings.

Today’s news leads us to Netflix’s newest original series, House of Cards, and makes us wonder what kind of fate it will meet. Will it be a one-off like Arrested Development? Or will the company continue to make several more seasons out of the show? Only time will tell at this point, but Hastings assures us that as one show ends production, another show is just beginning.

[via WSJ]

The app also has a slightly rearranged player as well, including better placement of the play/pause button, as well as the 10-second rewind button, both of which are on the left side at the bottom. We also want to say that the volume slider and playback slider are a little bigger, but that could just be our imagination playing mean tricks on us.

The zoom control being brought back is certainly an interesting change that Netflix decided to change its mind on. They got rid of the feature in past updates, but brought it back this time around. While personally I never use the zoom button, some viewers enjoy switching between fullscreen mode and widescreen mode.

Netflix is a free download and the update is available now in the iTunes App Store. Of course, though, you’ll need a Netflix subscription to enjoy the app, which is $7.99 per month. Back in December, the PlayStation 3 was considered the number one device that Netflix users used, but it’s nice to see the streaming service give attention to other platforms as well with updates.

The show will based off the upcoming animated DreamWorks film Turbo, which is about a snail who gains special superpowers after a freak accident that allow him to travel at high speeds, something we’re sure all snails would be thankful for. However, while the series will be based on the new movie, the title will have a slightly different name: Turbo: F.A.S.T. (Fast Action Stunt Team).

The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, and Michael Pena, and it is opening in theaters on July 19, while the original series on Netflix will debut sometime in December. Netflix’s House of Cards is currently a huge hit, and has officially put Netflix on the map of companies creating great original content. Plus, Netflix is currently after HBO, so we’ll definitely see more original shows from the streaming service in the future.

Netflix has started to cater more towards kids in recent years. Back in December, they announced that they will soon offer Disney movies, starting with new films released in 2016. Plus, the streaming service added a “Just for Kids” section to its interface not too long ago that features programming specifically catered towards kids.

This actually isn’t the first original series that Netflix has released. The streaming service launched Lilyhammer a year ago, and the company has plans to release two more original series, a reboot of Arrested Development and Hemlock Grove from Eli Roth, both of which are planned to be released this year.

House of Cards stars Kevin Spacey who plays a “ruthless and cunning” Congressman in Washington. Spacey is an Oscar award winner and starred in numerous blockbusters over the years, including Superman Returns, Pay It Forward, American Beauty, Se7en, and The Usual Suspects. The 13-episode House of Cards series was also produced by David Fincher, who directed a few episodes as well. He’s known for directing Fight Club, Se7en, and The Social Network.

While it’s not Netflix’s first-ever original series, it was no doubt the most difficult that Netflix has done thus far, working with a budget of $100 million throughout the 13 episodes. However, this won’t be the last original series for Netflix. The company plans to pump out at least five new shows per year to outdo HBO.

Netflix’s new original series House of Cards is debuting this weekend, and it seems Netflix wants as many users as it can get to watch the new show, even if it means unlocking access on Xbox Live. Plus, all episodes of the new show will be available for streaming, so clear all your weekend plans and make sure to tune in if you’re interested.

Furthermore, Hulu’s AdZone on Xbox Live will be completely free this weekend using the Internet Explorer app, as long as you have a Xbox Live Gold membership (you’ll need it to access IE). Since it’s Super Bowl weekend specifically, Hulu is letting users access the Hulu AdZone in order to watch all the commercials from this year’s Super Bowl, as well as commercials from as far back as 2008 that aired during the big game.

Again, both Netflix and Hulu’s AdZone (not Hulu Plus) will be available for free. You’ll still need a separate Netflix subscription in order to access the service, but Hulu AdZone will be completely free (even if you don’t have a Hulu Plus subscription) for Xbox Live Gold members. Happy watching!

Of course, there were plenty of other headlines to cover throughout the day, with Dropbox announcing a new feature called Documents Preview. Speaking of Dropbox, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer had some not-so-nice things to say about the service today. Zynga’s chief game designer has left the company after four years, while Twitter has improved photo and video viewing in its website interface. Nintendo slashed its Wii U sales predictions today, and the white Nexus 4 took some time to pose for the camera once again.

A trio of Galaxy Tab user agent profile worked their way into the spotlight today, and Toyota has recalled 1.1 million vehicles. Rovio was spotted teasing its new “Escape from Hoth” update to Angry Birds Star Wars, and Netflix is planning at least five new shows a year to compete with HBO. A giant asteroid will be zooming past the Earth on February 15, while Apple has secured a trademark for the layout and design of its stores.

Qualcomm shared quarterly earnings today, as did Facebook, Electronic Arts, and Lenovo. IBM’s Watson will soon be heading off to his first university, while a new trailer for INJUSTICE: Gods Among Us dropped today. Foursquare delivered a bunch of different Best of Foursquare lists today, while Ticketmaster has announced that it will be ditching CAPTCHA. Finally tonight, Cory Gunther spends some quality time with 2014 KIA Forte, Chris Burns delivers his review of the Acer Iconia W510, and Chris Davies asks if RIM even realizes what went wrong with its business. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

GQ posted up a profile of the company, where they talked with Sarandos about the future of Netflix and where its headed. Sarandos has $300 million in his budget that’s set aside for original content, which has already brought in three new original projects: House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and Arrested Development.

What’s perhaps the most interesting thing that Sarandos said during the interview, was that the goal of Netflix “is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” Sarandos says that Netflix is able to pump out original content in a more timely manner since they commit to a full season of a new show, rather than create a pilot and see where it goes from there, a concept that’s rare in the television business.

Netflix’s hefty goal of beating out HBO means that we should be seeing a lot of great stuff from the streaming service this year and beyond, and all that really remains is to see if Netflix customers buy into the new original content, but as long as Netflix doesn’t pull another Quikster, we think they’ll be fine.

[via GQ]

Netflix shared its results for Q4 2012 today, posting a profit of $8 million for the quarter, while Google’s stock was given a nice little boost on the heels of yesterday’s financial report. Samsung has overtaken Apple as the largest chip customer in the world, and we got word that Vice President Joe Biden will discuss gun violence in a Google+ hangout tomorrow. If new rumors are to be believed, then the HTC M7 might be getting a reveal on February 19, and we caught a glimpse of canned Netflix hardware today.

Google said today that government requests for data went up in 2012, while it seems the search giant’s iOS apps grew their market share by quite a bit last year. Three people have been charged in the “Gozi” computer virus, and comScore says that Facebook finished 2012 as the number one app. The Opportunity rover will soon be beginning its 10th year on the surface of Mars, and Kim Dotcom told the world that his new site MEGA will “take encryption to the mainstream.” The Verizon Nokia Lumia 822 and DROID RAZR HD have been given some new colors just in time for Valentine’s Day, and we found out that Call of Duty and Medal of Honor have been banned in Pakistan because don’t shed a very good light on the country.

MLB At Bat will be on BlackBerry 10 sometime before the baseball season kicks off, and GameStick has added a new tier to its crowdfunding campaign for indie developers. An open multiplayer beta for Crysis 3 will be kicking off next week, and Hyundai has introduced a new, inexpensive tablet that comes packing a quad-core Exynos processor. The Nokia Drive+ Beta is now available for everyone using a Windows Phone 8 device and living in the US, UK, or Canada, while the Speaker Trio system from Bem Wireless is now shipping for $299. Finally tonight, I explain why Nintendo is on the right track with the Wii U, while Chris Burns tells us why Apple and Samsung are putting their competition on notice with their one-brand manufacturing. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

Netflix had previously expected around 26 to 27 million US streaming subscribers, so the company’s goal was easily met, and as or international users overall, this time last year saw a rise of 1.9 million users during Q4 2011, so the service is certainly gaining steam, and from what Netflix has planned for this year, we think that steam will keep up for a while.

2012 was a big year for Netflix, and 2013 looks to be even bigger. The company plans to roll out two TV shows exclusive to Netflix: House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, and an Arrested Development reboot, starring most of the original cast, including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, and Will Arnett.

The company has also been continuously working on getting studios signed on to stream their movies and TV shows on Netflix. Just recently, they signed on Turner, Warner Bros., and even Disney. And along with the extra content that Netflix will provide starting this year, you can guarantee that their catalog will only continue to grow.

This project you’re about to see essentially amounts to a significant number of years of research and development by Netflix, all done for a single device then known as the Netflix Player. As Fast Company hears it from a set of unnamed “high-level sources”, the Netflix Player had taken more than one form over its development history. At one point the box was going to be a DVD player that was also able to download movies to a hard drive – this was before streaming video was made a reality with the oncoming wave of power known as YouTube took hold.

The video you see above is the Netflix-made self-motivational video made back when the product was ramping up towards finality. In it you’ll see some LOST references because of the ultra-popularity of the series at the time, and more than a couple of oddities meant to be humorous (and here obviously often racist, as it were,) as the team meets up with Foxconn to discuss manufacturing practices. Back then Anthony Wood (current Roku CEO) was the Netflix Internet TV lead and head of Project Griffin (Netflix Player), and he had the following to say this week:

“We were getting so close to shipping the hardware, and Reed decides, ‘I changed my mind–I don’t want to do hardware anymore. If we ship our own hardware, it could be viewed as competitive.’ It was totally the right decision. Licensing has been hugely successful for Netflix. It would’ve created tension with partners, and increasingly decisions would come up where Netflix would have to decide, ‘Should we make decisions based on what’s best for licensing, or what’s best for our own hardware?’” – Wood

And as you all well know by now, Netflix is still around – and with a force that’s undeniable in the market for both streaming video and movies in general. Roku is also a company that’s still doing relatively well with new bits of hardware and software updates coming on quite regularly. If it meant competing with the rest of the companies that’d been creation similar box devices at that time as well as companies readying their own smart TVs (futuristic at that time as well), or having Netflix exist as software on all of them, there really was only one decision to be made.

What would you have done, readers? Would you have made it clear that Netflix wants to work with everyone by staying the course with software only, or would you have risked creating a box of your own (not unlike what Amazon does with their Kindle devices) still trying to convince 3rd party manufacturers to work with your software (like the Kindle apps do today as well)? Let us know what you’re thinking!

That way, rather than forcing users to open up an app on their phone or tablet, and on their smart TV or STB-enabled TV, and then make sure they’re paired together, it should be a one-button process. That’s pretty much what AirPlay does – automatically locating other AirPlay gadgets on the same network – but whereas Apple’s system is limited to the company’s own hardware, DIAL is being offered up freely.

Unlike AirPlay, however, DIAL doesn’t include any screen-sharing abilities; instead, that functionality will be left up to the app developers themselves to initiate, should they want to. Instead, it’s being positioned as broader than that, in the expectation that more developers will jump onboard if it’s more flexible.

What DIAL can do that AirPlay can’t, meanwhile, is prompt smart TV users to download and install relevant apps if they’re available, to unlock new features, as well as open up web apps on internet-connected sets. Chrome support may also be added, allowing the browser on your laptop to open up apps on your TV.

All well and good, but compatibility is the key to success, and there DIAL has something of an advantage already. According to Netflix, current-gen Google TV hardware already has support for DIAL, and there’s some support in 2012-range Samsung and LG sets; Sony is also expected to get onboard, since it and Samsung were apparently instrumental in testing DIAL during its development.

Netflix will be allowing DIAL adoptees to use the phrase “based on DIAL” in their branding, though will be licensing out use of the logo itself separately. There’ll also be a mandatory registry - which currently includes Pandora, Hulu, the BBC, Flingo, and more – for “first screen” apps (i.e. those shown on your TV) with DIAL support.

[via GigaOm]

“We believe it is wrong for Netflix to withhold any content formats from our subscribers and the subscribers of many other ISPs” the ISP continued. “Time Warner Cable’s network is more than capable of delivering this content to Netflix subscribers today.”

The contention is around Netflix’s insistance that, if ISPs want to serve up its more bandwidth-demanding content like higher-resolution Super HD or 3D, they need to also opt into the (free) Open Connect scheme. That puts a direct pipe between Netflix and ISP, by co-locating a caching server – storing copies of the most frequently-viewed media – on site with the ISP’s own hardware.

Such a scheme saves Netflix on bandwidth costs. Super HD content, for instance, requires a 5Mbps connection; a current list of Open Connect-participating ISPs is here.

“Open Connect provides Netflix data at no cost to the location the ISP desires and doesn’t seek preferential treatment” CCO Jonathan Friedland told We hope TimeWarner will join the many major ISPs around the world who are participating in Open Connect to reduce costs, minimize congestion and improve data delivery to enhance the consumer experience.”

It’s uncertain whether the ISP will settle for complaining about Netflix’s policies, or if there’s a lawsuit in the offing.

[via GigaOm]

Netflix’s exclusive Arrested Development production won’t air until later this May, so while eager fans are waiting for the show’s return, they’ll be able to catch up on shows like Adventure Time, Ben 10, the Green Lantern animated series, Robot Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and TNT’s Dallas, which will join Netflix in January 2014, while the rest will come on March 30.

This licensing agreement comes just one week after Netflix announced an earlier deal, which focused primarily on live-action shows, and it appears that Netflix and Warner Bros. are becoming increasingly friendly with one another, which is both good for the two companies involved, as well as the consumers.

With the ever-increasing back catalog of TV shows, Netflix is becoming a dominant figure in the streaming media realm, hosting not only TV shows, but a respectable collection of movies as well. And every time the service makes another deal with a content provider, it becomes more and more tempting to cut the cable cord.

[via Deadline]