Amazon wades into the US video streaming market
Amazon has announced a new partnership with Viacom which allows Amazon Prime members and Kindle Fire owners to stream unlimited television onto their devices.
Extending Amazon's partnership to include streaming puts them ahead of the race against Netflix and the new Verizon and Redbox partnership as the retail giant looks to capitalize on a market wanting more TV on demand.
Verizon and Redbox create new partnership to rival Netflix
Today Verizon and Coinstar's Redbox service have announced their joint venture combining streaming content with physical media rentals.
This new venture will launch the second half of 2012. Though you don't have to be on Verizon to use this product, this combined service will be marketed to Verizon's 109 million wireless and 9 million broadband customers as well as Redbox's 30 million rental customers.
That's what makes this partnership so powerful.
Amazon contemplates competing with Netflix
Netflix was once one of the highest-flying internet media companies around.
That all changed in 2012 when its CEO, Reed Hastings, decided that the days of requesting DVDs by mail were numbered.
The future of his business was streaming. To push consumers into the future, Hastings had to break 'DVDs by mail' and 'streaming' into two separate services, each requiring a different subscription.
Netflix streaming launches in the UK
There was a time when it seemed that Netflix could do no wrong in its home market of the United States.
Widely considered one of the top internet companies, its stock was an analyst favorite and it had the price to prove it.
Then Netflix CEO Reed Hastings messed it all up by trying to push the company to where he thought it needed to go faster than the market was ready to move.
Netflix members streamed 2bn hours of content in Q4 2011
Netflix has announced that its members have streamed 2bn hours of
TV shows and movies in Q4 2011.
With more than 20m global users, this equates to roughly 10 hours of content per person.
Netflix hit the headlines in October last year after losing 800,000 subscribers in the US following the decision to split its postal and online streaming services, so the announcement is good news as it gears up for expansion into the UK and Ireland in Q1 this year.
Netflix bags exclusive rights for new Arrested Development
Much-loved TV show Arrested Development is to release new episodes of the sitcom exclusively via Netflix in early 2013.
The online TV and film streaming service has signed a deal with Fox and Imagine Television that will see episodes developed especially for subscribers in the US.
Netflix enters the U.K. and Ireland as it stumbles in the U.S.
Yesterday, Netflix announced that its aggressive international expansion plans will bring its internet movie and television streaming service to the U.K. and Ireland in early 2012.
The announcement should have been a bright spot for a company which has been flying high for the past several years. But it was overshadowed by a bout of bad news: last quarter, Netflix lost 800,000 subscribers in the U.S.
The Netflix apology: good idea, bad execution
As we've seen time and time again, even the highest-flying companies can be thrust into crisis and controversy in an instant for a variety of reasons.
For BP, it was a massive oil spill. For AirBnB, it was an ugly incident involving theft and vandalism.
And for Netflix, which is in the midst of a crisis today, the cause of its problems was a decision to change its business model.
Netflix fragments its brand in a self-made disaster
It can't be a fun week to be a marketer at Netflix. A year ago Netflix seemed unassailable.
Now its fate may be in the hands of the very Hollywood studios it bested and a 'pot-smoking guy' who owns its new brand on Twitter.
Did Netflix just make a huge multichannel mistake?
With a market cap of over $15bn and a share price of $290, Netflix is one of the internet's highest flying stars. But changes the company is making to its pricing could have it crashing back down to earth.
Yesterday, the company announced that it is offering two separate plans going forward: one for unlimited DVDs by mail, which costs $7.99/month, and one for streaming, which also costs $7.99/month. Currently, Netflix customers can receive both unlimited DVDs and streaming for only $9.99/month.
Not surprisingly, a 60% price increase has sparked an online fury, with angry Netflix customers threatening to drop their Netflix subscriptions.
