Alec Baldwin fans needn't worry that Comcast will soon pull "30 Rock" or other NBC Universal shows off the Web.
The entrance of NBC Universal's office building at 30 Rockefeller Center.
(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET Networks)Comcast managers said Thursday, following the company's announcement it had acquired a controlling stake in NBC Universal, that it will be business as usual at Hulu, the joint venture operated by NBC Universal, News Corp., and Disney.
Ever since rumors of the acquisition began to swirl in September, questions were raised about whether Comcast would try to kill Hulu to discourage cable customers from dropping their subscriptions. Some critics of the deal said Comcast could also limit access of NBC Universal's TV shows and films to other popular distributors, such as Netflix and iTunes. It appears that some of this may happen and some of it may not.
During a conference call, Comcast executives said they anticipate that some content will appear online at Hulu, and other shows will appear on TV Everywhere, the Hulu competitor that Comcast, Time Warner, and other cable companies rolled out last summer.
"Comcast is too deep into their Internet-related investments for me to believe that they are hoping to clamp down on consumer enjoyment of NBC content," said James McQuivey, a digital-entertainment analyst for Forrester Research. "They have spent far too much money buying companies and developing infrastructure to suggest they are going to make it a 'my-way-or-the-highway' distribution scheme. It would be absolutely foolish to buy an expensive property like NBC Universal and then cut the legs off of it."
Hulu's freedom
Okay, so Hulu won't disappear once the acquisition--which still needs government approval--is finalized, but Hulu fans are concerned about how the site will develop. Many had long hoped that the service might one day offer a better selection of full-length feature films and past episodes from hot TV shows. Now, Hulu offers only a smattering of films, and to watch episodes of a TV show from a prior season, a fan must plunk down for a DVD.
Most importantly, Hulu fans want to continue watching without paying subscription fees, which has been discussed publicly by some of Hulu's backers, including Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal CEO.
Free content was the promise that made consumers so giddy about Hulu and YouTube not that long ago. Cable subscribers were thrilled by the possibility that they could watch the best shows and films without having to pay fees. The NBC Universal acquisition is just the latest sign that this dream might be in jeopardy.
Paul Gallant, an analyst at Concept Capital's Washington Research Group told The Washington Post that Comcast could "harm consumer welfare by preventing Internet video from becoming a viable cut-the-chord threat."
"It's a little bit Pollyannish to say 'I can cut cable because everything I want is on the Internet,' because it isn't," McQuivey said.
The big knock on Hulu and other legal video sites is their selection of films and TV shows is still pretty poor. Under Comcast ownership, Hulu will unlikely be unable to change that. More probable is that Comcast will use NBC Universal's content to sweeten its offering to paying subscribers.
"The goal of Comcast is not to make it hard for people to get content," McQuivey said. "The goal of Comcast in the future is to make it really easy to get content and that's what people will pay for.
"In the future, Comcast isn't going to say 'Here's 500 channels delivered to one set-top box,'" he continued. "In the future, they'll say 'Hey, you know that subscription you're paying us every month, that buys you red-carpet access to the best content. No matter what you want to watch we have the license to it. We're going to deliver it to you online, to your game console, to your connected television or Blu-ray player.'"
But what about Netflix and iTunes? Doesn't the Comcast-NBC Universal deal put them in a position of competing with a major supplier?
Is Netflix friend or foe?
Netflix looks less like a DVD-rental business and more like the Web's version of a cable company with each passing day. For more than a year now, Netflix has streamed movies over the Web to anyone who pays the company's subscription fees. CEO Reed Hastings raised the stakes in the competition with cable companies by partnering with set-top box makers and TV manufacturers to create systems that enabled Netflix customers to watch streaming films on their flat screens.
Jumping to the TV set was huge for Netflix. No longer latched to the PC, the company was now threatening cable companies on their home turf. But if content is king, then Netflix was offering only a duke.
Just like Hulu, Netflix offered cable subscribers a cheaper alternative. Just like Hulu, Netflix's library lacks new and hot titles. Without the best content, the cable companies still hold an advantage over Netflix. Since Netflix is now a direct competitor to Comcast and other cable companies, it will be interesting to see what kind of terms the Web's No. 1 rental store gets from the new NBC Universal?
As for Apple, it's highly unlikely that Comcast will tinker with NBC Universal's arrangement for digital download sales at iTunes. The very public quarrel between the companies over pricing in 2008 is behind them.
In that case, Apple gave NBC Universal more flexibility over pricing. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has shown respect for Hollywood's lucrative practice of giving exclusive film access to certain distribution platforms over specified periods, called "windows." Jobs is also purveyor of the Web's most successful video-download store, so the relationship will likely remain unchanged.
But McQuivey sees a potential problem for Apple should the company decide to broaden its video business.
Apple could become an over-the-top pay TV provider," McQuivey speculated. "Apple should say 'You buy an Apple TV from us and pay $28 a month and we'll give you access to this number of downloads and all of this TV-network content for free. They are one of the few companies that could really create this amazing little business model of mixing Internet downloads with Internet streaming with over-the-air HD broadcast...Lets be honest, Apple users have fairly shared tastes and as a result it would be easier for Apple to serve its customer base this way than it is for, say, Comcast. Comcast has to offer the world, where as Apple only has to offer what's cool."
It should be noted that in every scenario McQuivey discussed, he mentioned price. In his vision of the digital future, Internet distribution looks a lot like cable.
According to McQuivey, "All of these Internet delivery solutions are going to face some kind of reckoning over the next couple of years. It shouldn't come as a surprise that Hulu is going to evolve to include some kind of pay model."
You wouldn't know there's been a slowdown in consumer spending by looking at Amazon.com and Netflix.
Both companies have continued to grab customers at a record pace, leading to higher earnings and sales for their third quarters.
Net income for Amazon jumped 68 percent to $199 million, or 45 cents a share, in the quarter that ended September 30, compared with $118 million, or 27 cents a share, in the prior year's quarter.
Sales rose 28 percent to $5.45 billion versus $4.26 billion in 2008's third quarter, the company said Thursday.
Amazon's stock shot up $23.75, or 25 percent, to $117.29 in Friday trading.
Amazon's two-year stock chart.
(Credit: Yahoo Finance)Amazon attributed its earnings to several key factors.
Chief Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said Thursday in a conference call with reporters that consumers continue to spend at Amazon because of its low prices and large selection. The company noted that it had 98 million customer accounts by the end of the third quarter, 17 percent higher than a year ago.
Worldwide sales from books, CDs, DVDs, and other media grew 17 percent to $2.93 billion, while revenue for electronics and other general merchandise soared 44 percent to $2.36 billion.
Another solid driver for growth was the Amazon e-book reader, Kindle.
"Kindle has become the No. 1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars--not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. The company did not release specific sales figures for the Kindle.
Amazon managed to clobber analysts' expectations. J.P. Morgan had forecast earnings per share of 31 cents on sales of $5 billion. Broadpoint.Gleacher analyst Ben Schachter had been eyeing earnings per share of 33 cents and said that sales were 7 percent higher than he expected.
In a report, J.P. Morgan said Amazon's strong sales growth shows that the company is grabbing significant market share from other e-commerce players, such as eBay.
In his report, Schachter called the results "phenomenal." He noted that Amazon was able to keep its costs in check while gaining market share in virtually every product category. The analyst also said he was "shocked" to hear Bezos' statement that the Kindle has become the company's top-selling item.
For the current quarter, Amazon is looking for sales of $8.13 billion to $9.13 billion, 21 to 36 percent higher than last year's fourth quarter, and racing past analysts' estimates of $8.11 billion.
Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal said in a report that improving e-commerce trends and continued growth for the Kindle, among other factors, could make Amazon the fastest growing large-cap Internet stock.
Another beneficiary of solid customer growth, Netflix also surpassed analysts' expectations for the third quarter.
The company's earnings jumped 48 percent to $30.1 million, or 52 cents a share, versus $20.4 million, or 33 cents a share in the prior year's quarter. Sales grew 24 percent to $423.1 million, compared with $341.3 million in 2008's third quarter.
Overall, analysts had been expecting earnings of 46 cents per share on sales of $420 million.
Growth in subscribers was the key driver for Netflix in the third quarter. The company ended the quarter with around 11.11 million subscribers, a 28 percent jump from the 8.67 million subscribers at the end of 2008's third quarter. Of the current total, 98 percent, or 10.84 million, were paid subscribers, while the remaining 2 percent were free subscribers.
"Our business momentum is strong and our third quarter performance keeps us solidly on course for a record 2009," Netflix co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, said in a statement.
Though most Netflix customers still prefer to get their movies by conventional mail, Internet streaming has gradually taken off. In the third quarter, 42 percent of Netflix subscribers streamed at least 15 minutes of video, compared with only 22 percent in the prior year's quarter.
Customers can stream their Netflix picks not just through the PC but via gadgets like Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has helped attract new customers.
Now Netflix has reportedly struck a deal to add streaming to another device, which Hastings said is already in people's homes. Though the company has been mum about details, analysts believe it may be a video game console made by either Sony or Nintendo.
Netflix shares were up $4.58, or 9 percent, to $54.22 on Friday.
For the fourth quarter, the company believes customer growth and sales will be higher than anticipated three months ago. Netflix now expects to end the current quarter with 12 million to 12.3 million subscribers, up from the prior estimate of 11.6 million to 12 million. That would represent an additional 900,000 to 1.2 million customers.
Fourth-quarter sales are likely to reach $440 million to $446 million, up from the previous estimate of $431 million to $445 million.
However, the company forecasts a downturn in earnings from the third quarter, eyeing fourth-quarter net income of $21 million to $26 million, or 38 cents to 47 cents a share.
Expenses may be one factor affecting current earnings. Hastings said the company expects to spend more on marketing and licensing fees for Internet streaming. Netflix also believes its postal costs will continue to grow, surpassing $600 million next year and $700 million in 2011.
Renowned horror filmmaker Roger Corman is going "boo" on the Internet this Halloween.
Corman and online rental company Netflix are joining forces to frighten online audiences with a trilogy of Internet Webisodes charmingly titled "Splatter."
The first episode rises from the grave on October 29, the second appears on November 6, and the third closes the bloody chapter later in November on, of course, Friday the 13th.
But the trilogy is more than just an online scarefest. Using the interactive power of the Net, viewers will be able to vote on the fate of the characters in each of the three "Splatter" stories.
(Credit:
Netflix)
The episodes will be free for everyone to watch on their computers; no Netflix membership is required. But Netflix members on an unlimited plan will be able to check out "Splatter" on other devices, including Netflix-ready Blu-ray players, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and TiVo DVRs
"Splatter" tells the tale of rock 'n' roller Johnny Splatter, whose sudden death has drawn together his professional hangers-on, eager to see what the star has left them in his will. But Johnny's unexpected return to the living may bring his "friends" more than they bargained for.
Known for such classic '60s horror films as "Little Shop of Horrors," "Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Raven," Corman jumped at the chance to scare up a story that would let the audience join in on the fun.
"When Netflix approached me with this unique idea, I was truly intrigued about creating something that left the ending up to the audience," said Corman in a statement. "Making content for the Web is a natural progression for me, but 'Splatter' is a rare opportunity to involve my horror fans who really love being a part of the process."
To create the Webisodes, Corman recruited other horror film veterans. Filmmaker Joe Dante ("Gremlins," "Twilight Zone: The Move") applied his directing talents to each Webisode, while actor Corey Feldman ("The Goonies," "The Lost Boys") plays the lead role of Johnny Splatter.
"Netflix is delighted to be working with such film luminaries as Roger Corman and Joe Dante to bring our instant streaming capabilities to life in a unique and creative way for horror fans across the country," said Leslie Kilgore, chief marketing officer for Netflix, in a statement. "'Splatter' is a celebration of classic horror movies and it gives fans of the genre an exciting way to sample watching instantly at Netflix."
Starting October 29, the Webisodes can be seen at www.netflix.com/splatter.
The Samsung UN46B7000--one of the newly entertained Samsung HDTVs.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)Samsung announced on Wednesday that on-demand video services from Blockbuster and Amazon are coming to some of its home entertainment products.
Blockbuster OnDemand, which allows people to rent or purchase video content on a one-off basis, is now available on some of Samsung's high-definition TVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems.
According to Samsung, the service will be offered on its Series 650 and above LCD and plasma HDTVs, as well as its Series 7000 and above LED HDTVs. Blockbuster OnDemand will be available to owners of the Samsung BD-P1600, BD-P3600, and BD-P4600 Blu-ray players, as well as the company's HT-BD1250, HT-BD3252, HT-BD7200, and HT-BD8200 Blu-ray home theater systems. The company said that the service is available now through a firmware upgrade.
As part of the rollout, Blockbuster OnDemand content can be streamed across multiple Blockbuster-enabled devices in the home. According to the company, users who order a particular movie can start watching it on one Samsung product in their home and continue watching it on another supported Samsung device.
For its part, Blockbuster has had a busy week. On Tuesday, the company announced that its OnDemand service was finally made available on TiVo DVRs. Like the service on TiVo, Samsung equipment owners can expect to pay between $2.99 and $3.99 for movie rentals. Blockbuster charges between $7.99 and $19.99 for film purchases.
As part of the deal, Blockbuster will start selling Samsung Blu-ray players that feature the company's OnDemand service in "thousands of corporate-owned stores and participating franchise stores." Blockbuster also said on Tuesday that it will also start selling TiVo DVRs in its stores.
But Samsung didn't stop there. The company also announced on Wednesday that Amazon Video On Demand will be offered to owners of Samsung LCD and plasma HDTVs that are series 650 and above, and LED HDTVs that are series 7000 and above. To get the service, users will need to download the Amazon Video On Demand widget using their television's Internet@TV content service.
Samsung said that once the user downloads the Amazon Video On Demand widget, they will be able to access Amazon's more than 50,000 movies and television shows. Amazon's widget joins already-available widgets from Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube, and others, the company said.
A growing trend?
The fact that Samsung has added Blockbuster's and Amazon's video services to its HDTVs shouldn't come as a surprise; it's competing in a marketplace where integrated entertainment is becoming the norm.
Earlier this year, LG announced the launch of two broadband-equipped HDTVs--the 47-inch 47LH50 and the 50-inch 50PS80--that feature the company's NetCast Entertainment Access. That service gives users the ability to access Netflix's streaming library of movies and TV shows. Toshiba is also getting in on the trend.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Broadband-connected TiVo DVR subscribers have access to Blockbuster's long-awaited OnDemand rental service, TiVo announced on Tuesday.
The service is available to owners of TiVo Series2 and TiVo Series3 digital-video recorders (including the TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL).
According to the company, users will be able to stream films ranging from new releases to classics. Users will be charged $2.99 for classic hits and $3.99 for new releases. Blockbuster will be adding more films over the coming weeks, including "select HD titles."
As part of the agreement, Blockbuster will also begin selling TiVo DVRs in "thousands" of participating Blockbuster stores around the United States.
Blockbuster OnDemand's arrival on the TiVo (and TiVo's arrival in Blockbuster stores, for that matter) has been a long time coming. The partnership was first announced in March.
Whether Blockbuster will enjoy success on the TiVo is up for debate. The company's main competitor, Netflix, is already streaming films and television shows to TiVos for no additional fee beyond the company's unlimited-plan charges. Amazon Video On Demand is also available to TiVo users, and like Blockbuster, it, too, allows them to purchase individual videos, rather than pay a monthly subscription fee.
TiVo owners can also access content from YouTube, as well as films through Jaman and CinemaNow's Disney.
To access Blockbuster OnDemand, users will first need to create a Blockbuster account. Once complete, they can access Blockbuster OnDemand content from the TiVo's video-on-demand menu.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
FeedFliks' motto is "Get your money's worth from Netflix" and it comes with a variety of tracking tools to help you do just that. Josh Lowensohn covered this start-up a little more than a year ago, but since then FeedFliks has taken advantage of Netflix's API to build out an even more impressive set of features. FeedFliks allows you to see how long you have movies checked out, what your cost per movie is, as well as optimize your queue.
FeedFliks shows me that I've been neglecting my Netflix account.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)In its early days, FeedFliks used your Netflix RSS feed to pull its information, but the introduction of the Netflix API allowed it to connect your account with Netflix in order to pull data. This gives the site access to your entire renting history so that it can analyze your watching behavior. One product of the analysis is that it presents you with a pie chart of how long you usually have movies out for and compares it to all of the users who have plugged into FeedFliks. Your cost per movie is also calculated so that you can gauge if a subscription is worth it. FeedFliks is packed with these interesting statistics on your Netflix usage. To try to avoid having a movie out for too long, you can have FeedFliks send you an alert to return it.
The "vital statistics" for my Netflix account.
(Credit: Screenshot by Harrison Hoffman/CNET)One of the most interesting features that FeedFliks has is that it can analyze your queue and tell you which movies should be higher up. It uses Netflix's personalized ratings for you in order to determine what you will likely enjoy the most. If you have a 5 star recommendation buried at number 200, then you probably won't ever get to it. FeedFliks will help bring that to your attention so you can enjoy a killer movie.. Hopefully once Netflix implements its million dollar recommendation algorithm this analysis will be even more helpful and accurate.
Finally, FeedFliks has implemented a sort of advanced search, which is currently something that Netflix lacks. For example, on FeedFliks, you can sort for a comedy, made between 1970 and 1985 that has at least a 3.5-star rating. This could be pretty useful if you're looking for a specific movie that you can't quite put your finger on, or if you're just interested in discovering new ones.
FeedFliks presents a lot of useful statistics relating to your Netflix account. Seeing all of these numbers laid out for you can be very useful in figuring out how to get the most out of your account. I would dub it "Mint.com for Netflix." The functionality is there, so if they work on the presentation of the site some, it would have a legitimate chance of making it as a mainstream service.
Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO
(Credit: Netflix)Although it has no immediate plans to do so, online video rental service Netflix is hoping to bring its video-streaming service to Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Apple's iPhone, CEO Reed Hastings said in a recent interview with Reuters.
Hastings told Reuters that his hope is that Netflix's streaming service will eventually "be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, (and) all the Internet TVs." But as Hastings pointed out, his company has signed a deal with Microsoft to deliver Netflix streaming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in the video game space.
The chances of that changing anytime soon are slim, though Hastings said his company is "working in parallel" to achieve his goal of bringing Netflix streaming to all the aforementioned devices. While Netflix is likely to offer such a service on the iPhone and iPod Touch "over time," he said there is little chance of Netflix video streaming becoming available in the App Store "in the short term."
Despite rumors indicating that a Netflix app is already on its way to the App Store, Hastings would not give a timetable: "(With) movie watching, we are not focused on mobile yet, but (instead) on the TV, on Blu-ray, and on the video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone."
Hastings also chimed in on the recent announcement that Blockbuster might be closing up to 960 retail locations. He told Reuters that the closures "don't really benefit" Netflix.
Netflix's focus, Hastings, said, is on streaming video and maintaining a big catalog of available titles. Blockbuster, he said, "competes on doing the inexpensive new releases." He said Redbox would be the company that would benefit most from the closure of Blockbuster stores.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
After inking a deal with Samsung last month to deliver movies directly to your home, Blockbuster announced on Tuesday that its OnDemand service is also coming to your mobile phone.
Blockbuster OnDemand, to be available on "select" Motorola mobile phones, will provide users with access to "thousands" of films, the company said in a statement. Users of the upcoming application, whose release date is yet to be announced, will also be able to choose films for home delivery or reserve titles for in-store pickup.
According to Blockbuster, the Motorola deal is yet another element in its strategy of providing consumers with options to get its movies anywhere, at any time.
For its part, Motorola believes that offering Blockbuster movies on its handsets will help it regain some of its appeal. The company once sat atop the mobile-phone industry. Today, it's a shadow of its former self. And it's trying desperately to regain some market share.
That might be coming through Android-based devices. Motorola has already signed on to deliver Android phones. Blockbuster's app might become a component in that strategy. But by competing with the iPhone and its many multimedia capabilities, Motorola and Blockbuster will be facing an uphill battle.
... Read moreDon Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
(Credit:
Roku)
In its bid to put together a roster of compelling content, Roku has just acquired an ace.
Starting Tuesday, the set-top box--known to many as "the Netflix box"--will begin streaming Major League Baseball games. As with the current Netflix arrangement, you have to be a subscriber to the service, in this case MLB.com Premium, to access the content that normally would be available only on a PC or iPhone.
And while this is a boon to baseball fans, it's an even more important development for Roku. MLB.tv Premium is the first live content available on Roku's device, and by bringing that from the PC to the TV, the 50-person Saratoga, Calif., company is beginning to differentiate itself from similar consumer electronics products.
Roku currently has access to the Netflix Watch Instantly queue, as well as Amazon Video on Demand, which allows for rental and purchase of movies. More recently, Roku added content from Blip.TV and MediaFly, two content aggregators, for videos and podcasts.
MLB.tv will work the same way. It will be accessed via a new pane that can be reached via the small remote. Once a customer's account is synced, any live, out-of-market (as in, not your home team) game across the league can be seen, with the choice of both the home and away team's local broadcast feed. Games up to one week old are available in the archive, and previews appear of each team's scheduled games up to a week in advance. ... Read more
Four seasons of "Lost" are already available.
(Credit: Netflix/screenshot by John P. Falcone)Several of ABC's top shows will soon be available to watch via Netflix's "Watch Instantly" online streaming service. The first four seasons of "Lost" are already available, and they'll be joined in September by "Desperate Housewives" (seasons four and five), "Grey's Anatomy" (season five), and "Legend of the Seeker" (seasons one and two). The deal builds on an earlier agreement to make Disney Channel content available on Netflix (ABC is a division of Disney.)
While most of these programs are already available for viewing online on ABC's Web site, the Netflix deal allows them to be watched on TV screens via a large and growing number of Netflix-compatible home video devices, including many Blu-ray players and home theater systems, some Internet-enabled TVs, the Xbox 360, and the $99 Roku Digital Media Player. The ABC content joins programs from rival networks, including Fox, NBC, and CBS, that have long been available on Netflix. (Disclosure: CNET is a division of CBS Interactive.) The online video streaming--available at no extra charge for Netflix subscribers on the $9 per month or higher rental tier--currently offers approximately 12,000 movies and TV shows.
As far as I'm concerned, this seems like another feather in the cap for Netflix. These sort of serialized dramas are perfect fodder for sequential online viewing. (The final season of "Lost" starts early in 2010, and Netflix subscribers who want to catch up--or start from scratch--can do so at no extra charge.) What's interesting to me is that ABC's making this move, which could potentially lower demand for sales of the same episodes on DVD and iTunes. One wonders how Disney board member Steve Jobs feels about it.
What do you think: Are you excited to see these ABC shows hitting Netflix, or does it just highlight some favorite shows of yours that still remain unavailable?
