Netflix Streaming Goes International in 2010

Foreigners rejoice! No more VPN tunneling and proxy hacks. If Netflix streaming is your bag, you might see it expand to your country in the second half of 2010. Here’s the word:

CEO Reed Hastings unveiled the company’s plans to take its business international next year—albeit streaming-only, not mail-order rentals. “We’re looking to the second half of 2010 to make our streaming offering international,” he said, during the company’s Q309 earnings call. “The plan is to start small in one market, prove out our model, and expand into other countries.”

The article also features some interesting statistics that Netflix has gathered about their customers. Netflix also estimates that postal costs for their operation will weigh in around $600 MILLION. Unreal. Read the full article at PaidContent – Netflix To Take Its Streaming Business International Next Year.

Get Splattered: New Webseries “Splatter” to Debut on Netflix For Free

That’s right, the genius that brought you Gremlins is back with a new webseries called “Splatter“, starring your favorite Goonie Corey Feldman. The series, produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman, will debut for free on Netflix (no account required). The first episode will go up on October 29th, with a second following on November 6th, and then the finale on November 13th (a Friday too, nice). Here’s some more info:

Directed by Joe Dante, “Splatter” is about a musical genius who accumulated as many hit records as he did enemies while climbing up the fame ladder. Johnny Splatter’s sudden death, ruled a suicide, brings a small circle of professional parasites and hangers-on to his Hollywood Hills mansion for the reading of his last will and testament.  But as his “frenmies” come to pick the bones clean, Johnny has returned for a deadly encore long after what they thought was his final curtain.

The Splatter website already has a trailer and some nice bonus features. Go check it out! Thanks to Hacking Netflix again – Netflix To Present Free Webisodes of ‘Splatter’ Starting on October 29th.

Surfing Movies with Jinni – Public Beta Opens with Netflix Support

Hacking Netflix has a short report on hooking up the web 2.0 film content browser Jinni with your Netflix account. Now that the service is open for a public beta, you can try it out. Here’s the word:

I’ve been playing with the beta of Jinni, a movie and TV show recommendation website that integrates nicely with your Netflix account. I’m always looking for new movies and shows to watch, and Jinni takes a different approach, letting you search for movies based on mood or plot.

Looks pretty slick. Makes you wonder if Netflix will gobble them up or try and form their own type of recommendation system. Read the full story at Hacking Netflix – Jinni Recommendation Site Launches Public Beta.

Windows 7 Media Center to Feature Netflix Instant Watch Interface

With the launch of Windows 7 only two days away, many happy Netflix campers will be relieved to know that the media center featured in the operating system has the bases covered. Engadget reports:

Those already upgraded to Windows 7 ahead of Thursday’s launch events (no, we’re not coming to your party) should find a Netflix button parked under the Movies section in Media Center starting today.

[...]

Not seeing it yet? Go to the Tasks –>Settings–>General–>Automatic Download Options and manually start an update there, the new tiles should arrive shortly.

Grab the popcorn and mute your IM account. Read the full article at Engadget, complete with pretty pictures – Windows 7 Media Center’s upgraded Netflix Watch Instantly interface now available.

Nostalgia for Rental Shops: Time Says “Netflix Stinks!”

Netflix has grown so quickly that you can’t be surprised some are still left clinging to the old ways of getting content to your eye balls. A writer for Time is one of them and this is what he has to say:

Beyond the mail delays and the botched orders, the lack of human interaction is the big problem with Netflix and its cyber-ilk. Thanks to the Internet, we can now do nearly everything–working, shopping, moviegoing, social networking, having sex–on one machine at home. We’re becoming a society of shut-ins. We deprive ourselves of exercise, even if it’s just a stroll around the mall, until we’re the shape of those blobby people in WALL•E. And we deny ourselves the random epiphanies of human contact.

Getting movies by mail is, Netflix hopes, just a stage between the Blockbuster era of video stores and the imminent streaming of movies. You can already get 12,000 Netflix titles on your TV (if you have a Blu-ray player or spring for a $100 Netflix box). So, O.K., soon there will be no more waiting for DVDs. But it’ll come at a price. You’ll be what the online corporate culture wants you to be: a passive, inert receptacle for its products.

I don’t really agree with most of it, but if there’s anything to take away from the article it’s that Netflix’s recommendation system could use some more work, and you’re a mindless lump of lard if you embrace simplified, direct, and active choices for accessing the one thing that really matters: content. Full article over at Time.

Only 15% of Video Downloads are Legal, According to Study

Furthering the sentiment of the slow uptake of VOD for American consumers, a recent study suggests that only 15% of the video content downloaded is legally purchased. Among some of the “solutions” are more versatile forms of DRM and the often cited notion of watermarking content. The dirt:

The majority of those films are likely downloaded and shared through peer-to-peer online sites by a small subset of broadband households. But rather than go after those households with lawsuits, treat them as criminals or lobby legislators for more copyright protection, In-Stat said studios could instead convert them into legal purchasers by making it easier for them and other consumers to watch movies when and where they want.

[...]

He predicts that as consumers become more used to watching content when they want it, more people will fall into the group of heavy users that do use P2P networks to watch shows when they can’t find them legally.

“These represent the next generation of consumers,” Nissen said. “Content holders should be watching these people. If you set up strategies for monetizing online video or video in general, and you satisfy this group, then you’re setting yourself up for long-term success.”

By converting illegal viewers into paying customers, Nissen projects that content holders could generate $1.4 billion in subscription revenue and $1.1 billion in advertising revenue.

Nissen said simply making movies available on Netflix’s streaming service would make it appealing enough for most P2P users, many of whom are already Netflix subscribers, to just watch there rather than use illegal file-sharing networks to get downloads.

But beyond that, the way to satisfy P2P downloaders, Nissen said, is to include watermarks on downloads that note who owns the download and what rights they have. Nissen said the technology is already available to use DRM to let users pay different amounts depending on what they want to do—studios, for example, could charge one price for a simple rental as they do now, more for a permanent download, more if a user wants to watch that download on a TV or mobile device and more if they want to use a clip from a TV show to make a mash-up video for YouTube.

Full report over at VidBiz.

A Peek Behind the Curtain at Netflix

Peep these shots of one of Netflix’s distribution centers. Everybody wore their Netflix t-shirts for photo day!

Nintendo Wii Gets Video Downloads, but Only in Japan (for now)

A new partnership between Fujisoft and Sonic Solutions will see video downloads now available for the console. Check it out:

Sonic Solutions’ Roxio CinemaNow announced today a partnership with Japan’s Fujisoft Inc. to deliver Hollywood movies through the Wii in the Japanese market. Instant-streaming downloads will be available through Fujisoft’s video-on-demand service “Minna no Theater Wii” (Everyone’s Theater Wii), which debuted earlier this year in Japan.

Sonic has signed Paramount Pictures as the first major studio to sell new release and catalog downloads through the service.

Sonic and Fujisoft said they plan to continue to work together to make more content available through the Wii, but didn’t give details on when or where.

That might give some of the people who criticize the Wii as a gimmick more than a console something to chew on. Thanks VidBiz.

[Update] – Also, NetFlix is currently polling their users as to how high demand for their video steaming is for the Nintendo console. Check it out:

A reader participated in one of Netflix’s many customer surveys, and one of the questions asked “…how likely would you or someone in your household be to a Netflix Instant Streaming Disc for the Nintendo Wii (available for free) in order to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your TV?“

Thanks to HackingNetflix for that one.

One Step Closer: LG Ships LCD HDTVs with Netflix Built-In

LG has two new HDTV units that feature Netflix steaming capabilities. The units are the 47 inch LG 47LH50 LCD and the slicker LG 50PS80. Check it out:

LG Electronics said Thursday it has started shipping a pair of flat-panel TVs that are among the first with built-in capability to stream movies from the Netflix online service.

The 47-inch 47LH50 ($2,100 suggested retail) LCD TV and 50-inch plasma 50PS80 ($2,100), which were introduced at International CES, are FullHD 1080p models incorporating Netflix instant-streaming software. The software enables access to the Internet-based movie-rental content without the need of external devices, other than an in-home broadband network.

Two additional models with the feature — a 42-inch 42LH50 LCD TV ($1,700)and 60-inch 60PS80 plasma set ($3,200) — are slated to ship this summer, LG said.

The models include what LG calls NetCast Entertainment Access.

Now all we need is better broadband and access to all services, and we’re set for VOD take over. Thanks to Twice.

Netflix Now Streaming Through Windows Vista

Microsoft has teamed up with Netflix on a new Windows Vista feature dubbed “Netflix in Windows Media”. I’m sure most of you are thinking “well I can already dial into Netflix with my browser, why would I use this crap?” Well, Microsoft has their answer:

The Netflix feature is already available to computers users, via a standard Web browser. The advantage of accessing the feature through Windows Media Center application, according to Microsoft, is that “consumers no longer need to jump from Web site to Web site to find the TV shows, movies, sports and news they want to watch.”

In addition, Netflix in Windows Media Center is designed to work with any WMC-compatible remote control. The Netflix instant watching in Windows Media Center is powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight media-playback platform.

Netflix seems to be making great strides in separating itself from many of the VOD competitors, including iTunes and Amazon. Should be interesting to see what unfolds next. Cheers to Multichannel.