Can Netflix and its pathologically modest founder, Reed Hastings, pull it off? Who knows? But it’s going to be fun to watch, starting this month with David Fincher’s $100 million House of Cards.
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“Netflix adopted a ‘poison pill’ defense against a potential acquisition after billionaire investor Carl Icahn disclosed his stake of roughly 10% of the company setting off speculation on the fate of Netflix as a standalone company. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings commented recently that he think it could do better on its own clearly signalling his preference to go on alone.”
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They codenamed the top-secret project ‘Griffin,’ after Tim Robbins’ character from the film ‘The Player.’ After all, that’s what the team was building: The Netflix Player, a black and boxy device, as plain and compact as a necklace case, which subscribers would hook up to their televisions to stream movies and TV shows from the web.”
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It was fun for Jeff Bewkes to tease Netflix a couple years ago. But now he’s happy to take Reed Hastings’s money.
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“Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has threatened a bidding war with UK Broadcaster BSkyB for premium movie rights, and he could have the war chest to back it up — the company also hit the million subscriber mark in the UK only seven months after launching there.”
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In case you missed it while vacationing for July 4th, last week Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted on his Facebook page that Netflix’s streaming exceeded 1 billion hours for June, a new record for the company.
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“If Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has his way, AT&T’s U-verse TV subscribers could suddenly find themselves having to pay usage surcharges if their monthly TV viewing exceeds a certain amount.
That’s because, according to Hastings’ argument, if a broadband provider applies bandwidth-usage caps to Internet-delivered video — like his company’s service — it should be forced to also apply those to its own IP video services under the FCC’s network neutrality principles.”
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“Reed Hastings is mad at Comcast, but he may have good reason. On his Facebook page yesterday, the Netflix CEO claimed that Comcast is giving its subscribers better access to its own video services than rivals like Netflix. He claims that using services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Go will eat into a Comcast Internet subscribers 250GB bandwidth limit; Comcast’s competing Xfinity video service, however, can be used without any penalty.”
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“HBO Go has found itself an unlikely pitchman: Reed Hastings.
The Netflix CEO took to his Facebook page Friday afternoon to complain about the blockade that select cable operators have erected around HBO’s digital platform on Xbox, which just added HBO Go earlier in the week.”
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“Netflix’s chief executive, Reed Hastings, has often compared his company’s Web streaming service to HBO. That comparison is inching closer to reality.
Over the last several weeks, Mr. Hastings and his top lieutenants have met with major cable operators to discuss a way for Netflix to appear on monthly cable bills, according to people who are familiar with the meetings but are not authorized to discuss negotiations publicly.”
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