Hacking NetFlix

I'm on Vacation

I'm on vacation from the day job this week, so posting will be lighter than normal. I've taken the family camping on the shores of Connecticut, and the weather has been excellent for July in New England. I apologize if you've tried to reach me but I'm spending most of my time with my family.

In case you're wondering how I'm sending this story from the campfire tonight, I'm using a Sony S710a phone with high-speed Edge service, connected to the PowerBook via Bluetooth. Everything is running on batteries and I have about 4 hours of online time. I have to thank Wanda and Frank, two Cingular employees who went above and beyond the call of duty and helped me get everything working (even when Cingular says they don't support the Mac). It's not as fast as my DSL connection at home, but it's very usable. I'll be posting more information how this works when I get back.

New Releases for July 26th, 2005

Click here to see all the new releases for July 26th, 2005 (270 new movies).

Movies of interest this week include The Upside of Anger, XXX: State of the Union, King's Ransom, Steamboy, Hotel, Third Rock from the Sun: Season 1, Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 2, and Jacques Cousteau: Pacific Explorations Collection.

50 Films to See Before You're 14

Usman sent in this great list of movies you should see before you turn 14. It's missing a few titles, but it's got some great movies on the list that even adults will enjoy.

Once you get through this list you can watch the 1001 Movies to See Before You Die.

DVD Sales Slowing?

Joe tipped me off to a story in The Wall Street Journal Online, Media Firms Can't Rely on DVD Sales:

Analyst Michael Nathanson of Sanford Bernstein predicts that DVD sales will slow, DVD prices will fall and Hollywood studios will suffer. Mr. Nathanson says that the aggregate profit margins at the seven largest studios was 5% in 1999, and grew to 12% in 2003, boosted largely by DVD sales. "I think the cycle of margin increase is probably over," says Mr. Nathanson, who has an "outperform" rating on News Corp. and "market perform" recommendations on Disney, Time Warner and Viacom. Sanford Bernstein has done work for Disney, Time Warner and Viacom.

Movie Gallery Same-Store Revenue Down

Aron is following the Movie Gallery Q2 2005 earnings report:

The same store rental revenue is down 8.7% at Movie Gallery stores, and 8.2% at Hollywood. Further they indicate that rental revenues are down 12% in June. That's pretty enormous. Interestingly, the stock went up today since they had already warned.

Clearly, the rental release slate was poor and contributed, but could Blockbuster's 'no late fees" program be stealing customers? I'd consider that the most plausible theory, if I still rented from stores I'd prefer the BB policy.

Review of Redbox $1 Video Rental Service

Dave Taylor has a Redbox video rental kiosk near his house, and he wrote up a review of the $1 per night DVD rental service, The next evolutionary step in DVD rentals: Redbox. Redbox is owned by McDonald's and and located near select restaurants.

Death of a Blockbuster Store

Line56.com has a story about the The Death of a Blockbuster Store. I remember when Blockbuster came into my area, and small video stores closed down or sold out on the rumor of a Blockbuster store.

New Netflix Commercials

Update: I changed the image from "Children's movie" so the child that was in the original is not visible due to a complaint from the parent. I regret including the image due to the resulting comments, which I could not have forseen. - Mike

Have you seen the new Netflix commercials? The slogan is "There's a movie waiting for you at home," and they have 5 variations on this theme:

"Children's movie"

"Foreign Drama"

"War"

"Period Romance"

"Suspense"

What do you think of the the commercials? How do they compare to the Blockbuster Superbowl commercial?

Netflix Partners with "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire"

Netflix is partnering with Who Wants to be a Millionaire to find movie fans for a February, 2006 week-long special, "Million-Dollar Movie Week."

"Millionaire" and Netflix will be traveling to five cities to find contestants for "Million-Dollar Movie Week." Auditions will be held in San Diego (Monday, July 25), Houston (Wednesday, July 27), Minneapolis (Friday, July 29), Chicago (Monday, August 1) and Miami (Wednesday, August 3). Those who audition will be given the opportunity to win Netflix memberships and other merchandise.

Auditions are from 9am to 4pm and you'll have to pass a multiple-choice test to score an interview with a producer. You can also try out for the regular show and take another test to see if you're Millionaire material. Season 4 will be hosted by Meredith Vieira.

MarketWatch: Netflix is "Stupid Investment of the Week"

Chuck Jaffe of Marketwatch.com named Netflix "Stupid Investment of the Week." His reason seems logical:

To me, the excitement of a stock tip being passed by the barber pole was too reminiscent of the Internet boom, particularly a stock that was facing tremendous competition, trying to manage fast growth without any profitability.

What do you think? Is Netflix a stock to buy, sell or hold?