The unfortunately inevitable has arrived: Netflix israising its prices(in the US and Canada, for now). Here’s the TL;DR in the US: In Canada, Standard planswill now cost $16.49 CAD (up from $14.99 CAD) and premium plans will cost $20.99 CAD (up from $18.99) — basic plans remain the same up north. The prices are effective immediately for new subscribers, while for existing ones it’ll roll out gradually as they begin their next billing cycles....
Netflix has just released its quarterly financial information, ahead of a 3pm Pacific earnings call. Via itsInvestor Relations page, we can take a look at the latest PDF of what it has sent to shareholders. While the money looks pretty good, there’s some deeper things that might be a bit troubling. Boasting a subscriber gain in the US of 1.8 million in the quarter looks promising. However, the story that’s not told here is the fact that it’s only a 75% growth over the same quarter in 2010....
If you’ve been watching the streaming news lately, you’ll know that the major networks in the USaren’t often very happyto sign on to have their content available on demand. Netflix has held some pretty significant power in this area, and continues to do so with a recent streaming deal inked with CBS. The deal, according toHollywood Reporter, is non-exclusive and will allow Netflix to stream shows such as Medium and Flashpoint, as well as older hits like Cheers and Star Trek....
The past few weeks have been rocky, to say the least, for media-streaming darlingNetflix. First the company announced that it was going to split the DVD rental and streaming plans, effectively doubling the cost if you wished to do both. When the announcement was made that it would happen, the stock took a mild hit. But then the day came and the new pricing went into effect. Netflix started seeing a backlash that was a few steps beyond “that stings” and instead began feeling “this really hurts”....
Stop the presses: Netflix planning to get into games. As per a report fromBloomberg, the company has hiredMike Verdu, a former Electronic Arts and Facebook executive, to spearhead this new project. At Facebook, Verdu worked to bring games to platforms such as Oculus. And at Netflix, as a VP of game development, he’ll try and bring games to screens where we stream Netflix. The report noted that the company plans to introduce games as a programming genre such as movies, documentaries, and stand-ups — and the pilot program will launch sometime next year....
