Hacking NetFlix

Netflix New Releases for March 1st, 2011

Click here for the full list of new releases this week.

Interesting titles include Conviction, Faster, Never Let Me Go, A Marine Story, My Girlfriend's Back, A Beautiful Life, S.W.A.T.: Fire Fight, Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, and Walking on Water.

Streaming releases of the past week included Fish Tank, Road, Movie, Daybreakers, Strange Days, Hellboy, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven: The Complete Series, Roast of William Shatner: Uncensored, Last Train Home, Climate of Change, and See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary.

Netflix Announces 30% of Titles are Subtitled; 80% by the end of 2011

Netflix's Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt announced that Netflix has captioned 30% of streaming titles, and will have 80% by the end of the year.

In the US, more than 3,500 TV episodes and movies have subtitles available, representing about 30% of viewing. (This is in addition to the subtitles already available “burned in” to the picture for all non-English content.) More subtitles are being added every week, and we expect to get to 80% viewing coverage by the end of 2011 (with similar goals for Canada).

Netflix has also added a page on the Netflix website that lists movies and TV shows with captions.

In the comments of the story several readers dispute the 30% claim, and an annoyed customer is trying to get a class-action lawsuit against Netflix for failing to provide captions.

Fast Company has picked up the story, citing advocate Mike Chapman's count and Netflix's:

So what's up with the discrepancies between Chapman's and Netflix's data? Netflix says 3,500 titles have subtitles; Chapman says 736. Further complicating the matter, the page Netflix links to lists 722 titles. (We've reached out to Netflix to comment, and will update when they do.)

Off the bat, we can pinpoint one reason why Netflix's number is higher: Chapman counts a TV series with multiple episodes subtitled as a single entry; Netflix apparently counts each individual episode. At my request, Chapman calculated the figure if each episode were treated as an individual title, and he got 3,668.

Netflix Needs a Better Way to Handle New Streaming Episodes

When a new episode of a series like Spartacus: Gods of the Arena is added, they display a "disc only" message, when it should say "coming soon." 

While we're on the subject of current TV seasons, I'd love for Netflix to notify me when there is a new episode of a show in my queue, like Hulu does.

The Onion: Netflix Opening "Convenient New Physical Locations"

The Onion ("America's Finest News Source") reports that Netflix will be opening "convenient new physical locations."

Officials at Netflix announced Thursday that the company has finally reached its long-term goal of constructing a chain of easily accessible stores. "Having actual physical locations was always our ultimate intent, and we are proud to provide our customers with the convenient option of driving to a nearby Netflix store and renting any available movie for just $3.99 per title," said Netflix spokesman Henry Regis, adding that the ease of physically walking through aisles and picking out DVDs will more than make up for the stores' minimized selection of titles. "We will also be implementing late fees to help ensure films are returned on time—that way no one misses a chance to rent the hottest new releases." Regis confirmed that the new physical locations will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and include easy after-hours drop-off boxes.

Thanks to Chris for sending this in.

Netflix Hiring Lobbyists in Canada to Fight Usage-based Pricing

Bloomberg reports that Netflix has hired lobbyists in Canada to help fight usage-based Internet pricing.

While Netflix’s growth in Canada outpaces that in the U.S., the imposition of per-use billing would threaten to slow the expansion and is something “we’re definitely worried about,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings told analysts last month. He said Canadians who have Internet service with download limits may not understand how their plans work and their reaction after receiving a couple of bills “is potentially a significant negative for Netflix.”

Subrata Bhattacharjee, a Toronto-based competition lawyer with Heenan Blaikie LLP, and Lynne Hamilton of GCI Group Inc. have also been hired to lobby for Netflix, Swasey said. 

Netflix Expands Captions and Subtitles to More Devices & Adds Special Section

Reader Mike has put together a site that lists 799 Netflix streaming titles with subtitles at the Ncmacasl blog, and reports that subtitles are now available on Windows, Mac, Wii, PS3, Boxee, and Google TV.

Netflix also added a new way to find movies and TV shows with subtitles. Look for the "Captions and Subtitles" link at the bottom of the Netflix website.

It looks like Netflix is finally rolling out captions for more titles and to more devices, as promised.

Clicker Compares Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and iTunes Content

Clicker, the online video guide, had early access to the Amazon Prime Video service and has already added the Amazon movies and TV shows. On the Clicker blog Guillermo put together a comparison of the offerings from Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and iTunes (subscription, PPV and free shows).

You can view a full-size version of this chart by clicking here.

via paidContent.

Amazon Prime News Wipes Billions from Netflix's Market Cap

Wall Street reacted negatively to the Amazon Prime news, and investors wiped almost $2 billion from Netflix on the news (Netflix was worth $13 billion on Valentine's Day). 

Dan Rayburn at the Business of Online Video points out that Amazon is a serious competitor to Netflix and might be able to get to 10 million paying subscribers this year:

While Amazon has not publicly said how many Prime members they have, analysts on Wall Street all seem to agree that there are about 10M Prime members. Of those, it is estimated that 60% are paying members. If that's true, and it sounds rational, Amazon brings in $474M a year in revenue from Prime subscriptions.

If Amazon could add 5M paying Prime members this year, they would generate nearly a billion dollars in revenue from about 10M Prime members. That's a lot of money they can then use to license content and Amazon would very quickly be at half of Netflix's subscriber count. While some of the money from Prime would have to go to offset the cost of shipping physical goods, numbers I have heard suggest that Amazon's Prime members buy more than 4x more goods than non Prime members.

Rayburn also points out that Amazon is a CDN, a strategic advantage that can save them millions in delivery costs, has a business with deep pockets that can afford to buy content on par with Netflix, and sells and rents digital copies of movies and TV shows.

Unlike Blockbuster and Wal-Mart, Amazon is a worthy foe that can and will give Netflix a serious fight. 

Infographic Shows How Netflix Destroyed Blockbuster

I'm a big fan of infographics, and Online MBA Programs has put together data that explains How Netflix Destroyed Blockbuster. This is only a small section of the chart:

You can view the entire infographic online.

Thanks to Casey for sending this in.

TechCrunch Interviews Roku Founder Anthony Wood

TechCrunch TV interviewed Roku founder Anthony Wood about the invention of the PVR, Roku as a cable-TV "killer", competing with Apple, and his thoughts about social TV. The full set of videos is available on TechCrunch, but here is Wood talking about how Roku competes with cable TV:

Roku has sold more than 1 million Roku players, streamed more than 1 billion titles, and Roku customers watch more than 11 hours per week. About 33% of Roku customers have cut back or cancelled their cable TV, and since they're early adopters, this could be the beginning of big change for cable companies.