Hacking NetFlix

Have you Experienced a Lost Netflix DVD Recently?

Janet writes, "I know your site has tackled the subject from time to time, but I was wondering if anyone had ever had a problem with discs being lost when being shipped back to Netflix.  I had that problem for over a year and Netflix ended up canceling my account."

Have you experienced a lost or missing Netflix DVD recently? Anything notable about the experience?

Former Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy Joins Eventbrite's Board

TechCrunch reports that former Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy has joined online ticket seller Eventbrite's board of directors.

McCarthy stepped down from Netflix last December, following “a desire to pursue broader executive opportunities outside the company”.

Eventbrite CEO Kevin Hartz is evidently giddy with excitement about the appointment of McCarthy to the company’s board. Hartz tells me he first met him back in 2003 while he was working on his previous startup, Xoom, and that he’s been trying to get McCarthy involved in companies he’s been working with for over 8 years now. Mission accomplished on that front.

Prior to Netflix, McCarthy served various roles at Music Choice, Credit Suisse First Boston and Booz Allen Hamilton. He also serves on the boards of Chegg, Pandora, and Wealthfront.

Netflix Looking for Cassandra Engineers

Netflix's cloud systems team is looking for experienced Apache Cassandra engineers:

As you may know, Netflix has been expanding its streaming offering throughout the US and the world. We have been successful thanks to our move to Amazon Web Services’ cloud and our adoption of high-availability storage (e.g. NoSQL) solutions. Currently, we are embracing Cassandra and are looking for engineers with a passion for distributed systems.

Netflix New Releases for May 24th, 2011

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

Interesting titles include I Am Number Four, Gnomeo and Juliet, Burning Palms, Anton Chekhov's The Duel, Lemonade Mouth, Forget Me Not, The Big Bang, Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies, Transcendent Man, Rizzoli & Isles, Even the Rain, Brad Meltzer's Decoded, and A Small Act. 

Netflix Adds More Viacom Shows & Seasons to Streaming

Netflix announced on the company blog that they are adding more Viacom shows and episodes to streaming:

From Nickelodeon, now available to watch instantly for the first time is “Yo Gabba Gabba,” as well as additional episodes of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” "True Jackson, VP," “iCarly,” and “Dora the Explorer."

From MTV, new episodes of “Jersey Shore” and “The Hills” are on Netflix as are, for the first time, “The Buried Life” and “The City.” We also have new shows from BET like “American Gangster,” additional episodes of Comedy Central gems like “The Sarah Silverman Program,” and all kinds of fun TV from VH1, Logo and Spike.

Thanks to Keith for sending this in.

Sites Looking to Become the Netflix for Art & Underwear

It's interesting to see what types of companies are using the Netflix business model, and two companies recently caught my eye.

TurningArt, a Netflix-like service for fine art, raised $750k:

Launched in August 2010, TurningArt allows customers to rotate prints of contemporary artists in their home or office for as little as $9.99 per month. Similar to the way you pick movies on your Netflix account, customers can build a queue of artwork they’d like ‘rent’, and TurningArt will then ship that artwork at their preferred frequency.

Manpacks is a subscription service for socks and underwear, and they created the company to "...give men (and the people who love them) more time to build empires, climb mountains, slay dragons... to achieve the goals they aspire to." Be sure to check out 5 things to do with old underwear.

How Netflix Decides What Movies To Pick Up or Revive

TG Daily asked Netflix's Steve Swasey about what Netflix looks for in a movie to pick up or which old movies to revive. 

But what's the criteria for a movie to get added to the list, and where do they find what movies audiences demand?

As for the criteria for adding a movie to Netflix, Swasey says they won't add a movie to the streaming catalog unless it reaches a certain level of queue demand.

"We're very scientific about it. If you're an independent filmmaker, and have contacted Netflix with your movie, we have to see that it's a seriously marketed film... You've entered it in film festivals, you have a website supporting it, there's critical buzz, one or any of these factors have to be available for us to add it to the site."

Hulu PLus Launching on TiVo with 6 Month Free Trial

Dave Zatz discovered that Hulu Plus is finally hitting the TiVo platform and offering a 6-month trial.

If these marketing materials spotted at Best Buy today are any indication, it looks like the long wait for Hulu Plus on TiVo is nearing an end. Not to mention, the referenced tivo.com/huluplusoffer link is live. Based on what little we can see of the screenshots, Hulu’s UI appears similar to what they offer on other platforms… like the Roku or PS3. More interestingly, and unlike the weak Xbox-Hulu launch promotion, new TiVo Premiere owners will be treated to a generous six free months of video streaming.

If The World Was Really Ending Tomorrow, What Movie Would Be Your Last?

I highly doubt that the world will end tomorrow, but if it was, what movie would be the last one you would want to see?

More Hints About the Next Countries Netflix Plans to Invade and Timing

BusinessInsider cites job postings as hints as to the next countries Netflix plans to invade after the successful Canadian launch. The first, Director, Global Marketing Communications, sets a timeframe for expansion into other countries:

In Q3 2010, Netflix began international expansion with the launch of a streaming-only Netflix service in Canada. Early Canadian results are encouraging, and Netflix is tracking to be profitable in Canada late in 2011. If we continue to gain confidence in a large return on our Canadian investment, and we have confidence in the financial return on further geographic expansion, then we will look to grow beyond the U.S. and Canada in the second half of 2011. Our overarching objectives are to continue to delight our American and Canadian members, grow our member base in the U.S. and Canada and to do the same around the world 

The second, Senior Online Marketing, International, notes that they are looking for people fluent in the following languages: "Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), and Spanish (Latin American and European)."