Last year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was quoted as saying that HBO’s on-demand video service HBO GO was “the competitor we fear most.” The new comedy series, titled Orange is the New Black, centers around the story of a communications executive who has a sordid history with drugs. The initial order is for 13 episodes of the off-color comedy.

In addition to this latest show, Netflix has also managed to score exclusivity for shows like House of Cards, Lilyhammer, and new episodes of the cult hit Arrested Development. After it experienced its first-ever net subscriber loss last year, Netflix has nearly recouped the number of users that were effectively purged after it raised prices and created unnecessary confusion.

[via Bloomberg]

Amazon is still very much the new kid on the block when it comes to streaming. Even though a year of Amazon Prime is cheaper than a year of Netflix, and the volume of movies and TV shows is comparable, it’s tough to compete against the well defined leader in the market. So these new job postings on Amazon.com are pretty interesting. Specifically, the jobs are for Amazon’s “People Production Company.”

One of the listings is for a VP of Series Development, which lists responsibilities like asessing pilot proposals, working with writers and artists, staffing and casting new projects, and supervising series production. This idea of original content is also starting to break out in Netflix, as well as sponsored content on YouTube. Apparently, Amazon paid more than $2.5 million to develop potential pilots in 2011, but nothing made it to distribution. At least not yet.

[via GigaOM]

The cool part about this is that Netflix put every episode online at the same time. That means you can watch the entire series in one sitting if you like it. I’m a little surprised that Netflix did that; I would’ve thought that they would want to keep people coming back each week. As a fan of movies and TV, I do like the thought of being able to watch every episode back to back. The catch is that if the show is good, you have to wait until they make more episodes next season.

Netflix also tapped a few more details about the show that I didn’t know when it was first announced. Actor Steven Van Zandt wrote the series, produced the series, and plays the lead role. Music fans will know Van Zandt from playing in Bruce Springsteen’s band called the E Street Band. Fans of the hit TV show The Sopranos will recognize Van Zandt from that series as well. The difference between Lilyhammer and The Sopranos is big; Lilyhammer is a comedy about a mobster living in the witness relocation program in Norway rather than shooting people in New York.

This could also help with cable broadband customers who are capped on the amount of bandwidth they are allowed to use in a given month. In fact, in Canada, where Netflix streaming is still just beginning to blossom, there are providers that limit users to as low as 2 GB per month, which is hardly enough to stream anything. But if Netflix could reduce the strain by more than 50%, it is pretty much the definition of win-win.

Apparently Latin America is the next international market that Netflix is eyeing, and this partnership will go a long way in making that work. In addition, this can really help ease the strain on mobile users who watch Netflix on a smartphone or tablet and must watch their data usage carefully. Right now this is very much in a testing phase but it could grow into a very significant change for all Netflix users.

[via PaidContent]

Interestingly, the VPPA came about after a Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork, found a list of his video rental records printed in a news publication. Let’s just say they weren’t all Disney flicks, and Bork didn’t receive approval for the nomination. So its origins are about keeping politicians protected from their own personal lives, which is why you can imagine there is some resistance to change.

The House of Representatives passed an amended version of the law last month, giving users the ability to consent to having their information shared. This would make the Netflix Facebook app legal. But on the Senate side of things, there’s a different story. Democrats are poised to block the new law from being enacted because they call it too much of an invasion of privacy. “A one-time check off that has the effect of an all-time surrender of privacy does not seem to me the best course for consumers,” said Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. In other words, these guys don’t get it.

[via Venture Beat]

That expired deal means that Redbox can no longer buy DVDs directly from Warner Bros. at discounted rate, and will instead have to buy DVDs and Blu-ray’s in bulk from retailers such as Walmart. That will cost Redbox more money in the long run and may possibly lead to higher rental prices. The good news for customers is that this means an end to the 28-day delay and proposed 56-day delay before Warner Bros. movies find their way into Redbox kiosks. Warner notes it is still holding out hopes it can come to an agreement with Redbox.

Warner is pushing for the longer delays in hopes that consumers will either buy the movies at retail or rent them via pay-per-view where Warner makes more money. I hope Redbox doesn’t cave, as long as prices for rentals through Redbox don’t increase significantly; this is the way to force movie studios like Warner Bros. to understand that consumers and companies shouldn’t have to wait for movies.

[via LA Times]

YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar was at the D:Dive Into Media conference and was quoted as saying it is possible that the site might start allowing copyright holders to offer channels that require users to pay a monthly fee. “We’re a media platform want to be biz model than media partners demand,” he said.

Kamangar rolled off some statistics about the video industry as a whole, including online and offline content. He said 20% of revenue comes from the actual sale or rental of a specific title, while 40% comes from advertising and another 40% comes from subscription fees. Clearly YouTube is only engaging in one part of that pie right now, but even so it’s not exactly hurting for revenue. The thought of punching in a credit card to watch a video on YouTube seems almost un-American. It would be interesting to see if Google could pull it off.

[via GigaOM]

The announcement came during this week’s quarterly earnings conference call. The call had an ultimately positive vibe to it, as Netflix managed to gain back 600,000 of the 800,000 subscribers it lost in the previous quarter. The quarter in question was the first time the online company saw a dip in its user base.

The last time Netflix entertained the idea of adding video games to its mix was in October, when CEO Reed Hastings was quoted as saying there were still internal discussions about its viability. But the truth is Gamefly has a very strong stranglehold on that market, and there is already competition from Blockbuster Online, as well as Redbox kiosks. For streaming content, which is the direction Netflix is clearly heading, there’s OnLive, and there’s no way Netflix would invest in the resources necessary to compete in that nascent market. So for now, your remote lives with Netflix and your joystick lives with Gamefly. Those streams will not cross any time soon.

[via USA Today]

Not too long ago Warner Brothers decided that the key to more revenue was to not allow video rental services like Blockbuster and Netflix to access its films for rentals until 56 days after the videos have been on sale in stores. Apparently, even that wasn’t enough to make Warner Bros. feel content with their movie fiefdom.

Warner has now come back and decided that blocking rentals for 56-days isn’t enough. The studio will also be blocking Netflix user’s from adding the movie to their rental queue for 28 days after the movie goes on sale in stores. Adding the movies to the queue is a way for Netflix users to help ensure the movie comes to them as soon as it is available for rental, it doesn’t get the movie before that 56-day douchebag blockade that Warner has already implemented. Warner seems intent on making it hard on people that want to watch the movies it makes for some reason.

[via Venturebeat]

The job posting reads: “Together with our partners, we’ve shipped over 800 different models of Netflix-enabled devices and are planning to keep this momentum going both domestically and internationally.” A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the claim but said that the number “increases all the time.”

Beyond the increase in Netflix-enabled devices, there’s also a shift in usage patterns. Traditionally, Netflix has been used most commonly on game consoles with the PS3 accounting for 30 percent of all traffic last year. But now, other device categories such as tablets and Smart TVs are among the company’s four fastest growing device categories. Reed noted that Apple TV has been especially successful for Netflix.

[via GigaOM]

Netflix has been steering customers towards its streaming-only service since it raised prices for its DVD and streaming plans last summer by as much as 60 percent. Although the company did bleed a good amount of subscribers due to the price hike, it has gained 610,000 new subscribers with 220,000 of them signed up for streaming service, boosting the company’s streaming subscriber count to 21.67 million and its total subscriber count to 24.4 million.

Overall, Netflix had good news to report and investors have been pleased, sending the stock up 10 percent in after-hour trading. However, the company continues to warn of unprofitable quarters to come due to expansion costs and diminishing DVD revenue.

[via AllThingsD]

Regardless, I now have HBO Go. And after using it for the past several days for more hours than I’d like to count, I can say now, with certainty, that HBO Go has a strong chance of becoming the next Netflix.

Now, I’ll freely admit that there are some major differences between HBO Go and Netflix, the most notable being that HBO’s service only offers its own content. What’s more, it’s only available to HBO subscribers, which could stunt its growth a bit.

But beyond that, I’m seeing nothing but good things from HBO Go. The service works exceptionally well, and offers all the episodes of all the shows the network has aired in recent years. What’s more, it also includes movies, documentaries, and HBO’s stellar sports series, making it the complete package, in my book.

Would it be nice to have content from other services? Sure. But you know what? HBO’s series lineup is so good, I don’t quite miss access to, say, “The Office” or “How I Met Your Mother.” I’m more than content watching “The Sopranos,” “Entourage,” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

In the coming years, I think HBO, with the right strategy, could make its service far better than Netflix. Time Warner has strong ties with Hollywood studios, automatically putting it ahead of the game against Netflix. And if it can start bringing the service to more devices, including game consoles and set-top boxes — its Achilles heel right now — I could see HBO Go’s adoption skyrocketing.

Whereas Netflix has quickly become a TV-focused service that comes with outdated movies for everyone else, HBO Go has the potential to become the go-to place for movie content. With the right content deals, I just don’t see any way Time Warner won’t be able to add many more films to the service to round out what is already a content-heavy solution.

So, I see nothing but potential for HBO Go. I was skeptical of its value initially, but after getting to try the service out, it’s clear now that my concerns were unwarranted. Are there limitations to its focus that could hold it back from realizing its full potential? Sure. Might HBO try to stick with its current business model and fail to achieve the kind of results it could? Of course.

But if the company plays its cards right, I think there’s a real chance HBO Go becomes a better — and more-desired — destination than Netflix.

This update will bring you improved information banners so you’ll know even more about the things you should be paying attention to instead of reading, and you’ll now get multi-room streaming on top of it all. This is for you rich folks with your TiVo boxes in multiple rooms, of course. This feature was not available for early adopters, but like the rest of the updates, is available for all users now.

You’ll be getting additional updates this spring including a fully refreshed set of apps for YouTube and Netflix, not to mention Parental Controls in your HD menus! The update you’re dealing with right now goes by the code-name 20.2, and if you’re wise, you’ll be able to wait for it to come down on you in due time, hopefully sometime across the weekend hours. Otherwise you can be crafty and try to force the update with TiVo mind magic. Stay safe, folks, just wait for it!

[via TiVo]

If you’ll recall back around those faithful days as early as July, there were some rather disturbing numbers being dropped down. July 12th, for example, as paidContent outlines, had Netflix trading at $291.27 per share the day before the group announced separate charges for its DVD and streaming content, this increasing subscriptions by 60 percent in some cases. Fast forward to just a few days before this post is posted, Friday the 13th of January, and Netflix stocks are sitting at $94.79 a share.

The suit being filed now by investors reads, in part, like so:

“At the beginning of the class period, Netflix was facing increasing competition for streaming business, and content providers were exploring new ways to distribute their content and/or maximize their licensing fees, … Rather than fully disclose the devastating cost increases which were then threatening Netflix’s entire business, the defendants talked about [their] ability to grow.”

We’ll see how this all plays out, and how the additional accusations that Netflix senior management sold stocks when they were still high in 2011 before the plunge, grabbing a significant amount of dough before the outflow, if you know what I mean, will play out as well. Netflix, don’t leave us, how else will I watch Southpark from my Wii?

[via paidContent]

Hulu is reportedly seeking funding to allow it to produce and distribute its own shows. The first original show for Hulu will be one called Battleground, a fake documentary series about a political candidate. The program is scripted, and it will air on February 14. Hulu doesn’t foresee any issues raising the money needed for new shows. Hulu was entertaining offers to sell earlier this year, which never materialized.

The streaming video site has also put off talk of an IPO as well. Another original program for Hulu will be a documentary series called “A Day in the Life.” Hulu has ordered 10 episodes of the show, and it will return in March. Later, this year there will be other documentary programs coming. The new shows will be offered to the free viewers and Hulu Plus subscribers.

[via Bloomberg]

Hulu isn’t naming names, but it’s clear the company thinks it has the edge on streaming rivals. “Our model [of free and paid upselling] allows us to profitably pay content owners approximately 50% more in content licensing fees per subscriber when compared to other similarly priced online subscription services” it claims, announcing that it expects to spend around half a billion dollars on content deals this year.

However, 2011 will also go down as the year when Hulu failed to ink a deal, with its owners decided to drop attempts to sell the company after one by one big-name potential bidders dropped out. Instead, Hulu is said to be considering an IPO.

Meanwhile, comScore claims Netflix users are spending twice as much time watching that streaming service instead of Hulu Plus. In November 2011, Netflix users apparently viewed a billion minutes, while Hulu viewers together racked up 480 million minutes.

The entry-level Roku LT supports up to 720p, while the Roku 2 XS increases that to 1080p Full HD.  The Roku 2 XS also comes with casual games support, including Angry Birds, with a bundled motion-controlled game remote, hooked up via Bluetooth, and a MicroSD slot for additional game storage. It also includes a USB port for playing music, videos and photos off of a USB drive.

The Roku LT and the Roku 2 XS are available for pre-order now, priced at £49.99 and £99.99 respectively; they’ll begin shipping at the end of the month. Netflix will set you back £5.99 per month for unlimited streaming access.

Meanwhile, Netflix has a fair few new content deals to announce, fleshing out its film and TV offering. Agreements have been inked with All3Media, the BBC, CBS, Channel 4′s 4oD, Disney UK & Ireland, ITV, Lionsgate UK, MGM, Miramax, Momentum Pictures, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Viacom International Media Networks so far.

There’s also social networking integration, with the ability to link your Facebook account to your Netflix service and have what you’ve been watching automatically shared onto your wall.

Now we’re just waiting for Roku – which has made a name for itself producing affordable Netflix-compatible STBs – to launch its hardware in the UK, something the company has confirmed is on its way. Until then, you can use your Xbox 360, Wii or PS3, select LG Blu-ray players or home theater systems, Samsung smart TV, Philips or WD STB or iOS/Android devices to play content. You can get a month’s free trial here

Netflix announced back in October 2011 that it would be launching a streaming service in the UK and Ireland in early 2012, though declined to specify exactly when that would be. It seems “early” means “very early in January indeed” however, at least for the UK market; Netflix has been busy signing deals with content providers in the intervening months, with MGM, the BBC and others already in the bag.

However, according to the sources, Netflix will imminently announce deals with Sony, Disney, Paramount, ITV and Channel 4, among others, accessing their digital media catalogs for its on-demand service. It’s unclear if the UK launch in the next few days will be accompanied by a similar launch by Roku of a set-top box for the service, something the firm has said is in the pipeline.

[Thanks Tony!]

For Netflix, a Yahoo acquisition could allow management to finally take a reprieve from the barrage of criticism they’ve been facing over the last several months.

From taking heat for raising prices 60 percent on DVD-by-mail and streaming customers to trying to spin-off its rental business before quickly backtracking, Netflix management has done little to make its case that it deserves to be running the company.

Yahoo, meanwhile, seems to have an insatiable desire to acquire a prominent streaming-video provider. Last year, the company was reportedly the first to approach Hulu about acquiring that company before talks broke down. Now that it’s reportedly considering buying Netflix, it appears it has some big plans for streaming video.

But let’s not forget which company is going after Netflix. Yahoo isn’t the online giant that it once was. Sure, it has a major presence on the Web and it has the cash to back up just about any decision it makes, but it’s on the decline. And the chances of it reversing its tailspin anytime soon seems quite unlikely.

Let’s keep in mind that over the last several months, Yahoo has let its CEO go over bad performance, reportedly fielded numerous buyout offers, and all the while, failed to make a deal happen. What’s worse, all the bids that supposedly crossed the board of directors table reportedly did little to maximize the company’s potential.

So, I’m not quite sure how Netflix can change that. It’s a company that, like Yahoo, is on the decline. Yahoo might give it a bit more of an online presence, but in the hardware space, I don’t quite see the upside for Netflix.

At the end of the day, though, I think it’s the Netflix user that loses the most in this scenario. I can’t find a single instance in recent years where Yahoo has acquired a company and actually improved the experience of using its products. Too often, the online company acquires a firm, lets it operate as-is for a little while, and then tries too hard to integrate it into its services, thus damaging its market appeal. To think that wouldn’t happen with Netflix would be a mistake.

Suffice it to say I just don’t think Yahoo buying Netflix is a good idea for any party. Yahoo would find itself with a streaming company that has lost its footing. Netflix would find itself with an online firm that has forgotten what it takes to be successful on the Web. And users would lose Netflix as they know it today.

Leave Netflix alone, Yahoo. It’s better for all of us.

It used to be that if you wanted to rent a movie from Warner and many of the other major studios, you might have to wait as long as a month before you could get your hands on it. There was a 28-day delay between the launch of the film on DVD, and it coming to kiosks. Warner has made a new deal with Netflix, Redbox, and Blockbuster that will double that delay to 56 days.

The longer delay is all in the name of propping up sagging DVD sales. The sad part is you can bet since the three movie rental/streaming firms accepted the deal other studios will follow suit. After 56 days, I’m not going to rent a movie that I haven’t seen, it’s off my radar completely and the only flicks I buy are kid’s movies that my kids will watch repeatedly. I for one sincerely hope that Warner Brothers sees the profits fall even more. If it wants to spur DVD sales, make your movies cheaper and put them on the market faster, not slower for rentals. They don’t seem to understand that renting or streaming is the only way many of us watch their films.

[via AllThingsD]

Although Munster has a mixed track record, particularly on his usual beat of Apple predictions – he’s been shouting about the Apple television for a couple of years now – the suggestion of potential Netflix interest has had a healthy reaction in the streaming media company’s share price. Stock leapt on Wednesday, by over 11-percent, after Neftlix announced its users had watched more than 2bn hours of content in Q4 2011.

Previous acquisition rumors had pegged Verizon as a potential suitor to Netflix, something the carrier moved to dismiss in December. The streaming firm had struggled in 2011, after an aborted attempt to split away its DVD business as “Qwikster” and price increases drove customers away.

Netflix now intends to invest in its own original content, with the first show premiering next month. That’s arguably something Yahoo! might want to get involved in, making its own portal a destination with content viewers can’t see elsewhere.

[via PC Mag]

That way, Roku can provide the Streaming Stick remote-free, instead relying on the TV’s own remote for navigation. The flash-drive scale stick contains a processor, memory and software, along with the wireless connection, and offers access to the same 400+ channels of content to the existing external set-top boxes in the company’s range.

Best Buy own-brand Insignia will be among the first to offer the Roku Streaming stick, bundling it with a new line-up of MHL-compliant TVs later in the year. Roku is also hoping to get the dongle into bundles from other manufacturers, though it will also be sold direct to consumers as a peripheral.

No word on pricing at this stage, but given the Roku LT is a mere $50, we’re guessing the Streaming Stick will undercut that.

The show will be a Netflix original and will only be offered on the streaming site. The show stars The Sopranos actor Steven Van Zandt. The first season will see eight episodes air, and two seasons are reportedly ordered right now. The series follows Van Zandt as he enters witness protection after turning on his mob boss in New York and moves to Lillehammer in Norway in witness protection.

The Lilyhammer name of the show comes from the way the lead character says the name. You can check out the show trailer below and see for yourself what it is all about. The guy apparently starts his mob ways back up in Norway. Netflix is also working on two more original shows, including bringing new episodes of Arrested Development back.

[via Techcrunch]

ComScore has announced that people are spending twice as much time on Netflix compared to Hulu. Even when the price hike happened for Netflix, it was still well above the time spent on Hulu. Netflix uses in November spent a billion minutes total viewing the site. Hulu viewers together racked up 480 million minutes.

Apparently, some of the issue that resulted in the vast difference in users between the sites has to do with the mix of free and paying subscribers that Hulu has whereas Netflix was always a pay service. I think it’s more basic than that. Netflix has spent big time on content that people actually want to watch whereas Hulu is still mostly only good for catching up on shows you miss and didn’t DVR. Which service do you like better?

[via TechCrunch]

The streaming movie and TV show provider announced back in October that it would be launching a UK and Ireland service come early 2012. Exact timescales haven’t been confirmed, but the company has been busy signing deals with content owners such as MGM ahead of its launch.

BBC content will be available on connected TVs, tablets, game consoles, computers and phones, as well as using standalone STBs such as the Roku range also expected to land in the UK next year. The BBC already offers UK users iPlayer access on smart TVs and mobile devices, for streaming catch-up access to recent shows, but back-catalog content is limited.

And although I still feel that way, it’s quickly becoming clear that in a year, Netflix won’t be Netflix. The streaming company will be part of a much larger firm that will use it as a key component in a move to expand a home-entertainment empire.

Some might be surprised to hear that Netflix might be acquired. They might say that the company will turn things around next year, and as its stock price starts to rise, any potential suitor will back off for fear of paying too much for the service.

But I see things differently. I think Netflix’s ill-fated decision earlier this year to spin off its DVD business into a new company, called Qwikster, was designed to make its streaming service more attractive to buyers. And although Qwikster didn’t work out, I think Reed Hastings and his executive team are still trying to find a way to sell off the streaming business to the highest bidder.

Over the last several months, we’ve seen the soft underbelly at Netflix. We now see a company that doesn’t quite know how to handle relationships with content providers, and a management team that has lost all sense of what consumers really want in their streaming and rental services. What’s worse, we see a company that’s trying to stay the course, while just about everyone around it knows status quo won’t work.

At some point in the next few months, I think we’ll see Netflix’s executive staff finally raise the white flag as Starz takes its content elsewhere, content costs explode, and company revenue stays the same. Netflix will know at that point that it will need to raise the price of its streaming offering, but it won’t want to do it for fear of losing more customers and watching its corporate value slide. The only choice, then, is to sell to the highest bidder.

Of course, that doesn’t solve the problem of its DVD-by-mail business. Unfortunately for Netflix, that’s a significant liability. Although many people still rent DVDs, the by-mail idea is starting to give way to Redbox’s kiosk strategy. And few companies, if any, would want to get caught up in paying for a by-mail service.

So, Netflix will have to make some tough choices in the months to come. Should it follow through on a spin-off plan? Should it try to find a buyer for its DVD-by-mail business first? Should it close the entire service down?

It’s tough to say. But if nothing else, Netflix will realize that it needs to prepare its business for a sale. And the company that gives it the most cash will walk out the winner.

Now the question is, what company will buy Netflix?

One should note that *not everybody had the same problems as I did when using Netflix on the iPad up until now, but based on the feedback I’ve received in my search for a cure, I certainly wasn’t the only one. It should speak to your sense of excellence then to hear that I’ve been paying for Netflix this whole year because streaming videos and television shows through this Netflix app, down through the converter cord for the iPad to HDMI and into my HDTV is oh so simple and awesome enough to dismiss the errors I ran into. Now there’s nothing holding Netflix back. New to this update outside of some obvious bugs:

1. Netflix now available in Latin America for iPhone and iPad
2. New iPad UI for all regions – US, Canada, Latin America – requires upgrade to iOS 5
3. Addressed stability issues
4. For support questions please contact us at mobilesupport@netflix.com

Netflix now shows off twice as many videos in one shot as the old interface did, and pulling the rows back and forth show off the vastness of your instant collection. We’ll see how long this version lasts before the arachnids come back to claim what is theirs. Let us know if the download worked out alright for you and if your new interface is more or less stable than the last!

Although the details are still unclear, Reuters’ sources claim that the service is expected to have a narrow scope of offerings, focused mainly on a package of movies similar to Liberty Media’s Starz Play and Viacom’s Epix or children’s programming such as from partners Walt Disney or Viacom.

Verizon has been wanting to explore providing a service to those customers seeking to “cut the cord” from traditional cable services and is said to have been in discussion with program providers over the last two years.

However, the move could impact both Verizon’s current relationships with cable TV partners such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks, as its service may directly compete. Similarly, program providers may also risk their existing relationships with the cable operators.

I came to that realization recently when I started accessing content on Amazon’s Prime Instant Video. I watched a few television shows, checked out a couple movies I hadn’t seen in a long time, and realized something: for $79 per year, I was getting an experience that matches what I get from Netflix for about $96 per year.

[Image credit: Roo Reynolds]

So, I have to ask: Why do we have Netflix?

Looking around the entertainment space, it seems that many content providers agree. Starz, for example, is likely going to pull its content from Netflix at the beginning of March after the companies couldn’t come to a new agreement. HBO has been one of the most desired content providers for Netflix users, but that company has balked at the idea of offering its content on the service, saying that such a deal wouldn’t make sound financial sense.

Now, many believe that Netflix will need to pay much more just to get the same content it currently offers. And with a major cash shortfall that forced the company to raise $400 million in November just to keep things going, it’s quite possible that the company could have some trouble offering the same level of service it does now.

But Amazon is different. Although its Instant Video service doesn’t have as much content as Netflix, and it too lacks key shows and movies, the e-retail giant has the cash to manage its streaming service. What’s more, its relationship with content providers seems to be much stronger, which should only help it enter into key agreements.

I should note that I don’t have anything against Netflix. I just don’t see how multiple companies can succeed in the streaming space over time. Content providers will start entering into exclusive agreements, streaming companies will establish greater barriers to entry, and in the process, consumers will lose. Rather than get all the content we want on one service, we’ll be forced to pay for multiple offerings to do so.

Granted, it’s not so different from what we’re experiencing now, but how much longer do we really want to go through this?

The time has come for one content provider to rule them all. And as much as I have enjoyed using Netflix over the years (and still do), it’s quickly becoming the weak link. Amazon, on the other hand, is well on its way to becoming the streaming leader. So, why not embrace that and see Amazon destroy (or at the very least, acquire) Netflix?

A federal judge yesterday dismissed a class action suit against Netflix. The allegations claimed that the price fixing resulted in Netflix subscribers paying more for DVDs between 2005 and 2010. Walmart had announced that it was setting aside $27 million to pay the class. It was assume that Netflix would be paying out as well.

The crux of the case was that the deal allegedly resulted in Walmart deciding to leave the DVD rental business. The judge presiding over the case was US district Judge Phyllis Hamilton and she said that Walmart leaving the DVD online rental business and an alleged agreement was not enough for an automatic antitrust violation.

[via PaidContent]

However, there’ll be region-specific channels on offer, as Netflix secures deals with Canadian and UK providers. There are also casual games on offer on the US models, such as Angry Birds, which is also likely to transition into the newly supported regions.

Pricing and specific availability hasn’t been confirmed, but Netflix recently launched its cheapest model to-date, the $49 Roku LT. That will now get a special remote with custom Netflix, Pandora and Crackle buttons, in the US at least, though we imagine services will be queuing up to get dedicated shortcuts of their own elsewhere.

[via GigaOm]

The new design places the focus on the titles in the catalog and is much more immersive according to Netflix. The new interface for the app shows twice as many movies and other content as the old version did. That makes it easier to find content you want to see at a glance.

The new app is also more touch enabled with the ability to swipe through rows of content for more shows and larger show artwork. If you grab this app today, let us know what you think. The redesign looks pretty good to me.

The new deal will start in early 2012 when Netflix launches in the UK and Ireland. Netflix gets some interesting streaming flicks from the deal that will be on its service exclusively. The movies include The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, Zookeeper, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, and 21 Jump Street. Other MGM catalog titles will come with the launch in the UK as well.

Viewers will be able to see MGM catalog titles with classics like Fargo and the Usual Suspects among others. This is good news for UK fans of streaming media that have been waiting for a long time for Netflix to hit the UK. MGM distribution partners will also offer films on the service.

It’s unclear whether existing owners will be able to buy the new remote control, or if they’ll have to satisfy themselves with the menu option. It will be bundled with Roku’s most recent – and cheapest – STB, the Roku LT, announced last month and offering streaming access to Netflix, Pandora and other services for just $49.

We’re waiting on images of what the new Roku remote will look like, so for the moment we’ll just have to use our imaginations. Updates when the pictures arrive.

Update: Image of the remote has arrived, and as you’d expect it has a big Pandora button on there. However, there’s also a dedicated Netflix button and a dedicated Crackle button too.

Netflix already had an agreement in place with Disney-ABC, which saw the company offering streaming access to shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Ugly Betty and Hannah Montana. This new deal extends that back-catalog access, as well as adding new Disney and ABC shows to the line-up. These will include Private Practice, Brothers and Sisters, Switched at Birth, Secret Lives of the American Teenager, Make It or Break It, Phineas and Ferb, Shake It Up, Pair of Kings and Kick Buttowski.

Amazon’s new contract, meanwhile, will also see Marvel animated shows on offer, though the exact titles are yet to be confirmed. Amazon Prime members will be able to stream them to their Kindle Fire tablets, which will begin shipping midway through next month, as well as to PCs, Macs, and TVs with the relevant hardware.

Other than Netflix, the top four largest internet services in North America combined account for 64.4% of all network traffic online. Those services include Netflix, HTTP, YouTube, and BitTorrent. VentureBeat reports that the video streaming service portion of Netflix alone consumes 28% of all bandwidth used across the US.

Along with some details on the bandwidth consumed by Netflix also comes the note that internet traffic is rapidly shifting from desktop devices like PCs to web connected devices like the set top box, game consoles, smartphones, and tablets. Today only 45% of internet traffic is delivered via fix networks to notebooks and desktops. The rest of the traffic is from mobile devices over wireless networks.

[via VentureBeat]

As for the greater-than-expected subscriber loss, Netflix believes many customers had been turned off by the price increases earlier in the year. Losses were expected, to some extent – Netflix had downgraded its expectations to 21.8m streaming-only subscribers and 14.2m DVD subscribers – but the actual figures announced, of 21.5m streaming and 13.4m DVD, still surprised the market.

In a letter to Netflix shareholders [pdf link], CEO Reed Hastings admitted that the push into the UK and Ireland will be followed by a fallow period on expansion, as the company attempts to recoup its financial stability. Only 7-percent of new subscribers opt for a DVD package, Hastings also revealed.

Meanwhile, Netflix is “yet to decide whether or not to offer video game discs” but Hastings reckons “the decision will have little financial impact either way” in Q4 2011. Something definitely not on the cards, for the US anyway, is Facebook integration, with laws preventing Netflix from allowing subscribers to share their viewing history automatically on the social network.

Actual revenue reached $822 million, up 49 percent year-over-year, while profit hit $62 million, up 63 percent from the same period last year. However, the company projects to be hit with a loss of between $60 to $70 million in Q1 of 2012 due to its expansion into the UK and Ireland.

Partly due to the price hike, Netflix lost 800,000 subscribers last quarter in the US, leaving it with 23.8 million subscribers, of which 21.5 million subscribed to streaming and 13.4 million subscribed to DVD rentals. The company noted that only seven percent of new Netflix streaming customers chose the DVD option.

Netflix is set to lose Starz content, but Hastings downplays this, saying that Starz only accounted for six percent of actual viewing time on Netflix. Hastings also claimed that neither Amazon Prime nor Hulu Plus were threats as one has less content and the other only shows recent TV content.

[via TechCrunch]

In an attempt to better differentiate between legacy physical media rentals and the new digital content delivery, Netflix planned to spin off the disc-based business under the new name Qwikster. Subscribers to both types of service would be billed separately and forced to manage their rental queues and accounts on two separate sites. However, user uproar caused Netflix to backtrack on the Qwikster scheme.

DVD rentals won’t even make it to the UK and Ireland in Netflix’s new system; instead, the company will focus entirely on streamed content. Pricing and supported devices, as well as a specific launch date, will be announced closer to the service going live, Netflix has said.

The company will face competition from Amazon-owned LoveFilm, which already offers streamed TV and movie content, along with start-up VDIO. Google is believed to be looking at a subscription-based streaming service for European markets as well.