Netflix

What's dragging down Netflix U.S. subscriber growth?

Netflix hasn't recovered from the nightmare of last summer.

That's what all the signs add up to and that's a better scenario for the company than some of the other possibilities. Netflix reported second-quarter earnings today and said the number of U.S. subscribers shrunk by 320,000, the first drop since the disastrous third quarter of last year when the company lost 810,000 customers.

Back then, consumers were responding to highly unpopular moves by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. They were angered when he raised prices a year ago this month and nearly spun off the … Read more

Netflix Earnings: investors worry about Netflix subscriber growth

Now we know why Netflix CEO Reed Hastings may have recently played up the number of viewing hours customers were devoting to his service.

Netflix said today that it may not meet its goal of adding 7 million new subscribers in the United States this year. The Web's top video rental service added 530,000 domestic streaming subscriptions in the quarter but reported a decline of 850,000 U.S. subscriptions to its DVD service.

While that means the total number of Netflix's net U.S. subscriptions shrunk by 320,000, the company still managed to increase the … Read more

Netflix earnings today: Moving past last year's Apocaflix

Netflix gets down to reporting some real metrics after the close of trading today, when the Web's top video-rental service is scheduled to issue second quarter earnings.

CEO Reed Hastings caused a stir earlier this month by posting to his Facebook page a note about how Netflix subscribers watched more than 1 billion hours of video via the service. But some analysts have noted that it's difficult to know what that means for Netflix's overall business. A much better measure of the company's health is how many subscribers signed up during the quarter ended June 30. … Read more

Three Web services worth paying for

People who know me know I don't like paying for anything. If there's a free (or at least cheaper) alternative, you can bet I'll take it. I am, after all, a cheapskate.

That said, there are a handful of Web services I consider to be great values -- so great, in fact, that I actually don't mind paying for them. Well, OK, I'd rather get them for free, but they don't make me cringe the way I do when paying for, say, phone service and cable TV.

My three worth-the-money picks:

1. Followupthen

I'… Read more

Amazon's streaming exclusive on 'Fringe' won't last long

Amazon managers announced today that they have cut an "exclusive" deal for TV shows, such as "Fringe" and "West Wing."

But there are exclusive deals and then there are exclusive deals.

Amazon's licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Television for a menu of shows that also includes "Dark Blue," "Alcatraz," and "The Whole Truth," is exclusive only through the remainder of the summer, according to one of Amazon's representatives. These types of licensing deals have typically covered longer terms, though my film-industry sources say it's not … Read more

Amazon Prime licenses 'West Wing,' other Warner Bros. shows

Managers of Amazon's Prime video service just got their hands on the critically acclaimed "West Wing" as well as other shows from Warner Bros. Television.

Amazon said today that the licensing deal with Warner also includes such shows as "Dark Blue," "Fringe," Alcatraz," and "The Whole Truth."

An Amazon spokeswoman said that it will offer "West Wing" and "Fringe" exclusively to Prime customers through the summer, and that later they will be available for viewing to non Prime members on Amazon Instant video.

These shows, which … Read more

Netflix movie streaming takes back stage to TV

Netflix users' taste for movies versus TV are changing. According to data released by Nielsen today, users who were most likely to stream movies dropped by 6 percent from last year, while those who preferred streaming TV rose by 8 percent.

Still, overall, the video streaming service's users like to watch movies -- 47 percent of users are currently most likely to stream movies while 19 percent will stream TV. The remaining users watch both movies and TV equally.

Netflix seems to be paying attention to these numbers as it launches its own original content TV shows. In February, … Read more

Booyah for Ouya gaming console

The world is out for your wallet, but we'll never raise our prices. That's a Wednesday Update promise!

It's been a year since Netflix got itself in a mess with a bungled price-hike announcement, followed by the Qwikster embarrassment. I sat down with colleague Greg Sandoval to discuss his report on what went wrong at the once-beloved tech company. You can read his story and catch our full interview here: The inside story of Netflix's price-hike train wreck.

Games on Amazon's Kindle Fire will be adding achievements, leaderboards and the ability to save game progress … Read more

Is 'Netflix-for-magazines' app Next Issue worth the money?

I'm a magazine junkie. I grew up reading titles like Games, Omni, and Starlog, then moved on to every computer magazine I could get my hands on. (Show of hands: Who remembers Amiga World? PC/Computing?)

Eventually I started writing for them, and even went so far as to start my own magazine: Tap, a PalmPilot enthusiast rag that later became Handheld Computing. Good times.

Needless to say, it was with great interest that I learned of Next Issue, a Netflix-style magazine service that's now available for Android and iPad.

Although a growing number of magazines offer their … Read more