Netflix Doubles Down: Boosts 2009 Streaming Spending by 33%

Netflix will increase spending on the young video streaming operations this year, to the tune of 33% or $100 million clams. Clearly, Netflix can see the future.

Netflix will increase spending on its video-streaming operations this year by about a third, as the company widens its inventory of digital titles while likely arranging for more components to be able to play them on TVs, according to an analyst’s report released yesterday.

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Netflix, which doesn’t disclose what it spends on streaming operations, has been augmenting its by-mail service with its video-streaming product. The company has reached agreements to make its digital titles available for streaming through components such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 videogame console, TiVo digital video recorders and Blu-ray Disc players from Samsung and LG Electronics.

Netflix, which has estimated that subscribers for its DVD delivery service will peak between 2013 and 2018, pegs its digital inventory at more than 12,000 titles, though blog HackingNetflix.com said today that the number might be closer to 15,000.

Netflix said in late February that it’s likely to add a video-streaming-only option for subscribers as it shifts more of its resources toward digital content delivery, though it hasn’t given a timeframe for such an option.

As the costs come down and the library widens, Netflix may be poised to take the lead in the furious race to the finish line for the big players in VOD right now. Full story on Video Biz.