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Marc Andreessen says more net neutrality laws are not the answer. Netflix Now Officially Has More Subscribers Than Comcast. Netflix continued to post impressive quarterly financial numbers, ending the first quarter 2011 as the largest subscription video service in North America.

Netflix Now Officially Has More Subscribers Than Comcast

In the first quarter, Netflix added 3.6 million subscribers, ending the period with more than 23.6 million subscribers in total. That was up 69 percent from the 14 million subscribers it had a year ago. To put that in context: Comcast ended 2010 with 22.8 million pay TV subscribers. While it’s always possible the cable company could report subscriber additions in the first quarter, it’s unlikely to do so, given its declines over the last several quarters. Most of Netflix’s customer additions came in the U.S., where it added 3.3 million new users to end at 22.8 million subscribers. Netflix lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers in third quarter. Netflix’s subscriber attrition in the wake of a price hike and separation of its streaming and DVD businesses is even greater than first thought.

Netflix lost 800,000 U.S. subscribers in third quarter

The company ended the quarter with 23.8 million subscribers in the third quarter, which is down 810,000 from the previous quarter. The final numbers were lower than the 24 million subscribers that Netflix had forecast it would end up with halfway through September. Notably, the company was lower on both its streaming and DVD sides of the business. Netflix ended the quarter with 21.45 million streaming customers, compared to the 21.8 million it expected.

It also had 13.93 million DVD subscribers, compared to the 14.2 million forecast. The missed subscriber guidance is just the latest bad news for Netflix, which has disappointed analysts and investors ever since it first announced the price change in July. That angered a lot of customers at first, but the bad news didn’t stop there. Netflix Earnings Up 88% as Competitor Instant Movie Streaming Services Launch. Netflix revealed Monday that its earnings are up 88% compared to this time last year.

Netflix Earnings Up 88% as Competitor Instant Movie Streaming Services Launch

The subscription movie service reported a net income of $60 million on its Q1 report. More than 3 million new subscribers have signed on to Netflix since January, pushing its total number of viewers to 23.6 million — more than those buying Comcast cable alone. (Comcast still has many more subscribers than Netflix does if you count the customers who buy video service alongside voice and Internet.) Netflix's earnings have benefited from a price increase on its hybrid service that took effect with its pure streaming plan in November. Netflix Won't Announce Its 3 Billionth DVD Shipment: "Focus Is Really On Streaming" Netflix just announced its first quarter 2011 earnings and they’re cause for optimism, with earnings at $1.11 a share on revenue of about $719 million, out-performing analysts expectations of $1.08 per share on $704 million in revenue.

Netflix Won't Announce Its 3 Billionth DVD Shipment: "Focus Is Really On Streaming"

The company doubled its profits, at $60.2 million versus $32.3 million at the same time last year. The company is hedging its future on its streaming subscription services, and called its DVD business a “fading differentiator” in its shareholder letter. “DVD was a Booster Rocket, but is not a Differentiator. We believe that DVD will be a fading differentiator given the explosive growth of streaming, and that in order to prosper in streaming we must concentrate on having the best possible streaming service. As a result, we are beginning to treat them separately in many ways.

Netflix Users Are Slashing Their Cable Bills [STUDY] It turns out Netflix is cutting into the revenues of the cable business after all, despite assurances from both Netflix and cable providers to the contrary.

Netflix Users Are Slashing Their Cable Bills [STUDY]

A survey released by The Diffusion Group found that roughly one-third of Netflix users plans to slash part of their cable, satellite or telcoTV bills in the next six months — more than double the number that planned to a year ago. Half of those who say they are likely to downgrade their service plans cite cost as the primary reason. NETFLIX CEO REED HASTINGS: Here's Why We Let Starz Walk Away... Netflix offered $300 million-plus, but Starz wanted higher consumer prices. Starz didn't just want Netflix to pay more money for its content.

Netflix offered $300 million-plus, but Starz wanted higher consumer prices

It wanted Netflix consumers to pay more too. Netflix offered Starz more than $300 million per year to renew their agreement, but the pay cable channel was insistent on so-called tiered pricing, according to people close to the negotiations but not authorized to speak on the record. Tiered pricing would require Netflix subscribers who want movies and television shows from Starz and other premium providers to pay more than the standard $8 per month.

That demand was apparently a key sticking point in talks that fell apart Thursday, meaning the two companies' deal, which began in 2008, will expire at the end of February.

New business model & pricing plan

Netflix To Enter Original Programming With Mega Deal For David Fincher-Kevin Spacey Series ‘House Of Cards’ The Poll Results Are In: You're Totally Binge-Watching House of Cards. Yesterday, we ran a poll on Wired.com asking you, the readers, to weigh in about how you’re watching House of Cards, the new self-produced series that debuted on Netflix last Friday by making its complete 13-episode series available at once.

The Poll Results Are In: You're Totally Binge-Watching House of Cards

Initial traffic analytics seemed to suggest that many viewers were binge-watching the series and consuming as much of it as possible, as quickly as possible. Now the results are in: That’s absolutely what you’re doing. Click to Open Overlay Gallery With over 1,900 Wired.com readers responding, the above graph represents how far people had got into the series, by episode. Binge-watching makes TV better. Netflix recently premiered the entire first season of "House of Cards," a political thriller with Kevin Spacey.

Binge-watching makes TV better

Aaron Riccio: Many people are binge-watching TV series, devouring seasons in a sittingTrend challenges "appointment" TV, he says, and providers are adaptingRiccio: Lengthy doses place narrative demands on programmersAs viewers move away from "appointment" TV, networks will adapt, improve shows, he says. Analysis: Why Netflix must rethink binge viewing. When “House of Cards” bows Friday, Netflix will find out whether a big-budget original scripted series can be launched outside the traditional TV ecosystem.

Analysis: Why Netflix must rethink binge viewing

Netflix's House of Cards Offers an Uneven But Promising Look at TV's Future. It’s hard to imagine the happiness at Netflix when they realized that House of Cards — the company’s much-heralded premiere of self-produced original programming – would debut its complete 13-episode run on the same week that the U.S.

Netflix's House of Cards Offers an Uneven But Promising Look at TV's Future

Senate held a hearing to confirm John Kerry as Secretary of State. After all, the updated American version of the 1990s BBC political drama launches with Kevin Spacey’s character, Congressman Frank Underwood, learning he won’t be nominated for that very position, a devastating insult that inspires his secret campaign to undermine the newly elected administration he pretends to serve. The show, it seemed, couldn’t be any more topical. The problem for this new House of Cards is that despite this timely coincidence, the content of the show often feels curiously old-fashioned, especially in the context of its innovative format.

How does the show demonstrate that Underwood is ruthless and a man to be reckoned with? What shines most, though, is the direction. Avec « House of Cards », le diffuseur Netflix fait trembler la télé. Netflix criticizes new Internet billing by bits - Post Tech. Posted at 12:35 PM ET, 07/08/2011 Jul 08, 2011 04:35 PM EDT TheWashingtonPost Netflix said Friday that moves by Internet service providers to charge users by the amount of data they use could end up costing consumers more. In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Netflix General Counsel David Hyman, wrote that new data tiers by ISPs such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon don’t reflect how much it costs to actually increase bandwidth on networks. The Internet service providers argue they have to switch from flat-rate monthly data fees to tiered, or usage-based pricing, models to pay for network upgrades and prevent consumers from congestion that would lead to sluggish Internet use.

Netflix Is On A Hiring Spree For Big Europe Push. Launches in UK, Ireland Today. Amazon Just Made A Deal That Could Crush Netflix. Netflix vs. Amazon Instant Video: Who streams supreme? The natural evolution of the video rental store was the ability to watch content digitally for a set number of days. Amazon Instant Video started out as exactly this kind of service, but had grown into a much larger video distribution system, one that seeks to compete with the 800-pound gorilla of the streaming video world: Netflix. Pricing and content The two services also offer fairly different content.

Amazon focuses heavily on movies that have already been released to DVD for a while. Netflix offers a lot of older television shows as well, and has recently started offering some television shows the day after they air on broadcast TV. Once Film-Focused, Netflix Shifts to TV Shows. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings joins Facebook's Board of Directors. Facebook Names Reed Hastings to Its Board of Directors PALO ALTO, Calif. – June 23 – Facebook® announced today that Reed Hastings, chairman and chief executive officer of Netflix Inc., has joined the company's board of directors.

Senate Democrats don’t like the idea of a Netflix Facebook app. Streaming video service Netflix recently appealed to a panel of U.S. senators to update an old law that forbids the company from launching a Facebook application within the country. The antiquated law, the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), prohibits companies like Netflix from sharing a person’s movie-rental history. The law was passed in 1988 after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental records were published in a news publication. At the time, the law seemed to make sense because a person’s video rental history does have the potential to affect public opinion about that person — especially when running for public office or being nominated for a public position.

Technology has moved on since 1988, however, and people are more willing to share information about what they’re watching now. L'épouvantail Netflix, coup de fouet pour l'audiovisuel français - Les Echos.