Jason Alexander is asking you to give to the Netflix Relief Fund.
Thanks to Sun Surfer, Someone, eHomeUpgrade, and everyone else for sending this in.
Reader Lynne writes, "The past couple of days my DSL AT&T Internet service for streaming TV and Movies has been very choppy and stuttering, and about every 15 minutes on Netflix it pauses to buffer. Any other AT&T subscribers having similar problems?"
Is anyone having problems with DSL, cable, or any streaming devices?
Gizmodo included Netflix's PR VP Steve Swasey on a list of The Dozen Tech Publicists Who Secretly Control the Media.
Steve is the rare cold drink of water who feels secure enough to occasionally say things like "we blew it" in public. When the company hit its pricing conflagration this year, Swasey was sent out to try to put out the fires, pushing back hard and comparing the new prices to single lattés in the pages of the New York Times.
The Silicon Valley Biz Blog posted an artist's rendering of Netflix's proposed new 5-story headquarters building in San Jose that were submitted by LG Business Park LLC. Monday's Los Gatos Town Council meeting will help determine if Netflix will stay in Los Gatos or have to find a new home.
A Nielsen study of 12,000 Netflix & Hulu customers showed some interesting viewing trends, including the fact that the majority of Netflix subscribers are using game consoles (like the low-resolution Wii) to view Netflix streaming. Unsurprisingly, Netflix customers watched more movies, and Hulu subscribers watched more TV shows.
NewTeeVee reports that Amazon is getting serious about streaming, and in addition to recently adding 2,000 CBS titles, Amazon signed a deal that added another 1,000 NBC Universal titles. This brings the total to 9,000 streaming titles for Amazon, and 20,000 for Netflix (via SF Gate).
We need to keep in mind that streaming is not just a numbers game, but it's also the quality of the shows, and it looks like Amazon is willing to play both games.
In addition to announcing the acquisition of TV app developer Pushbutton, Amazon said that Prime Instant videos are available on more than 300 devices.
Would Amazon be more of a threat to Netflix if they changed the $79 annual fee for Prime to a $7 or $8 monthly fee?
Coinstar CEO Paul Davis informed investors that his company is trying to “roll out the welcome mat” for disgruntled Netflix customers. The company also revealed an interesting ratio: about 20% of Netflix subscribers also use Redbox, while 30% of Redbox customers also use Netflix.
It's hard enough to get into the Sundance Film Festival — more than 10,000 features, documentariesand shorts were submitted for just a few dozen slots in this year's festival. But it's almost equally hard to leave the nation's top gathering for independent film with a distribution deal. Only a handful of Sundance titles receive a meaningful theatrical release.
Determined to break that distribution bottleneck, the Sundance Institute on Wednesday launched an initiative that for the first time packages festival films under the Sundance name and offers them for simultaneous viewing on six of the Internet's biggest video platforms — Apple Inc.'s iTunes,Amazon.com, Hulu, Netflix Inc., Google Inc.'s YouTube and Rainbow Media's SundanceNow.
What a great way to get independent films exposure and revenue.
Netflix announced a deal with CBS to provide movies & TV shows for Canadian & Latin America subscribers.
Beginning in September, and for only $7.99 a month, Netflix members in Canada will be able to enjoy both the current and complete back seasons for CW hit "90210," as well as past seasons of critically lauded fan favorites from SHOWTIME such as "Californication," "Dexter," and "The United States of Tara." Canadian members will also have access to a broad range of CBS library programming, including "Numb3rs," "Sleeper Cell," and "Twin Peaks."
Netflix announced in early July that it would be launching in 43 countries across Mexico, South America and the Caribbean later this year. Under this new deal with CBS, previous seasons of series, including "90210," "Medium," "Nurse Jackie," "Californication" and "Dexter," will be available for Latin American members to watch instantly, as will a broad range of library titles, including the original "Star Trek," "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Charmed," and "Twin Peaks."
As Ryan Lawler from NewTeeVee pointed out, non-US customers will be able to watch Dexter but customers in the US won't because Showtime is afraid of losing cable customers in the US.