Reed Hastings Archives - Page 6 of 6

Netflix CEO on Current and Upcoming Original Programming

By emeadows
February 28, 2013

According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, original programming is important to the streaming service, but not yet critically important. At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Monday, he delicately touted the success of “House of Cards,” but downplayed the short-term success the series will have on the service. It seems he wants investors focused on the licensed library as the core of the company. Continue reading Netflix CEO on Current and Upcoming Original Programming

Numbers Are In: Survey Says Netflix Leads to Cord-Cutting

By emeadows
February 22, 2013

According to a survey conducted by financial services firm Cowen & Co., about 23 percent of Netflix subscribers say they have canceled their premium TV service after opting to pay for broadband access to stream TV over the Internet — signifying a direct tie to cord-cutting. Among the 1,200 respondents, 46 percent said they have access to Netflix, while 28 percent are paying for the SVOD service. Continue reading Numbers Are In: Survey Says Netflix Leads to Cord-Cutting

Netflix Strives to Revolutionize the TV Viewing Experience

By David Tobia
February 7, 2013

Reed Hastings once led Netflix as an effective distributor of movies and TV shows through the U.S. Postal Service, but always envisioned the company becoming the premier provider of streaming video content. Now the CEO hopes to stay ahead of the competition by positioning Netflix to take on HBO as a provider of premium video content. Hastings’ move is undoubtedly risky, but he sees it as a necessary step towards the future of television. Continue reading Netflix Strives to Revolutionize the TV Viewing Experience

Netflix Markets its Original Content Without a TV Network

By emeadows
January 29, 2013

“TV networks may have plenty of flaws, but one thing they’re really good at is promoting other TV shows,” writes AllThingsD. But what about Netflix? The streaming service does not have experience promoting its own shows and does not have advertising support from TV networks. How will it advertise new shows like “House of Cards” (to launch in February) and “Arrested Development” (due in May)? Continue reading Netflix Markets its Original Content Without a TV Network

CEO Explains Netflix Will Abandon Qwikster Plans Prior to Launch

By Rob Scott
October 11, 2011

Netflix has announced it will drop its controversial plan to split its streaming and DVD businesses, taking recent public outcry (and negative Wall Street reaction) into consideration.
“This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster,” wrote CEO Reed Hastings on the company blog and via email to subscribers. Hastings also explained that the company is “now done with price changes.”
Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, told an industry crowd at MIPCOM in early October that he was “very convinced” the proposed split was “good for the long-term health of the business. And the long-term clarity of the brand.” Hastings had also been quoted as saying the split would be necessary for improving the services in moving forward. “But,” added Sarandos, “we also hear our customers, and we want to make sure we react to that.”
Netflix’s stock was up 6.8 percent yesterday following the announcement, giving it a market value of $6.57 billion.

Netflix CEO Admits Mistake: Will Reed Hastings Regain Your Trust?

By Rob Scott
September 19, 2011

On Friday, ETCentric provided an update to recent stock activity based on the negative customer reaction to Netflix splitting its services. The company cut its domestic subscriber forecast by 1 million, suggesting it no longer expects growth for its U.S. customer base this quarter. “News of the 4 percent cut in its subscriber outlook knocked 16 percent off Netflix’s share price, sending the stock to its lowest levels in 2011,” reported The Wall Street Journal. “Netflix, though, continued to defend its recent pricing change.”
Shortly after, ETCentric staffer Phil Lelyveld submitted a paidContent report that put the stock decline at nearly 19 percent and suggested “the honeymoon period with Netflix may be over.” The article includes a compelling visual that illustrates consumer viewing habits. According to Phil: “The most interesting part of this story is the chart. The chart breaks down how consumers acquire the movies that they watch, and how often they acquire them.”
Yesterday, Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings responded to his subscribers via a blog post, that started with “I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation.” ETCentric staffer Dennis Kuba was quick to publish the news: “Hastings explains his reasoning for a decision to create separate DVD and streaming businesses and websites. His customers react negatively to his blog posting (see more than 600 comments following Hastings’ post).”
“We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service,” writes Hastings on the Netflix blog. “So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently.”
According to Hastings, the new DVD business will be named “Qwikster” and will add a video game upgrade when it launches in a few weeks.
“A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated,” he explains. “So if you subscribe to both services, and if you need to change your credit card or email address, you would need to do it in two places. Similarly, if you rate or review a movie on Qwikster, it doesn’t show up on Netflix, and vice-versa.”
Hastings concluded: “Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust. We know it will not be overnight. Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Predicts a Gigabit to Homes by 2021

By Rob Scott
May 4, 2011

At this week’s Wired Business Conference in New York, Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings discussed his company’s growing success and its reliance on the evolution of bandwidth-related technologies. Netflix recently announced its first quarter earnings (up 88 percent with revenues at $719 million). The subscription-based rental service added 3.6 million new customers during the quarter, double the growth from one year ago.

Hastings indicated that streaming was always the goal of Netflix, but the technology was not ready when they launched the subscription service in 1999. Based on number of hours viewed, the Netflix streaming option surpassed its DVDs for the first time in Q4 2010. This is due to a larger selection of streaming content and improved bandwidth to subscribers.

Hastings has been waiting for this moment. “We took out our spreadsheets and we figured we’d get 14 megabits/second to the home by 2012, which turns out is about what we will get,” he explained. When asked about the next ten years he added, “If you drag it out to 2021, we will all have a gigabit to the home.”

Hastings was also careful to point out that he does not see Netflix streaming as a competitor to cable, which is why his service focuses on older movies as opposed to new releases, sports, or news (although Netflix is experimenting with original programming). “It would start an Armageddon battle, and we would not emerge alive from that battle. So we are concentrating on our niche,” he said.

Related Wall Street Journal article: “Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Swears He’s Not Going to Kill HBO: ‘We Compete Like Football and Baseball'” (5/6/11)

Related ReadWriteWeb article: “Netflix Letter to Shareholders Shows It Couldn’t Care Less About DVDs” (4/25/11)

Related TechCrunch article: “Netflix Earnings Up 88 Percent, Adds 3.6 Million Subscribers” (4/25/11)

Related Home Media Magazine article: “Marvel Superheroes Stream on Netflix” (4/29/11)