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Time Warner Views Netflix as a Fading Star
The New York Times ^ | December 12, 2010 | Tim Arango

Posted on 12/14/2010 6:26:14 AM PST by Gondring

For the past year, executives at big media companies have watched Netflix with growing resentment — for its success in delivering movies and television shows via the Internet, for its stock price nearly quadrupling, for its chief executive being named businessperson of the year by Fortune magazine.

Now many of the companies that make the shows and movies that Netflix delivers to mailboxes, computer screens and televisions — companies whose stocks have not enjoyed the same frothy rise, and whose chief executives have not won the same accolades — are pushing back, arguing that the company is overhyped, and vowing to charge much more to license their content.

“It’s a little bit like, is the Albanian army going to take over the world?” said Jeffrey L. Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, in an interview last week. “I don’t think so.”

[...]

If Netflix is to renew the Starz pact — and thus keep a steady flow of Hollywood movies — it will probably pay many times the current $25 million a year. Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG research, estimated a new deal could cost Netflix more than $250 million a year. Mr. Bewkes suggested a new deal may not be reached, because Netflix’s subscription streaming service, which costs about $8 a month, isn’t high enough for the company to pay top dollar for movies.

[...]

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: cabletv; netflix; reedhastings; tv
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1 posted on 12/14/2010 6:26:16 AM PST by Gondring
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To: Gondring

Netflix relies on poaching assets of other companies. At some point it will end....


2 posted on 12/14/2010 6:28:24 AM PST by misterrob (Thug Life....now showing at a White House near you....)
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To: Gondring
Disruptive technologies are good for consumers, bad for the ruling class.
3 posted on 12/14/2010 6:28:25 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (DEFCON I ALERT: The federal cancer has metastasized. All personnel report to their battle stations.)
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To: Gondring

Apparently the US is the only market in which NetFlix delivers movies through the mail. All of their other markets are direct-to-TV downloads.

I wish NetFlix would do away with the mailers and just let us get new movies over the web. Otherwise, my mailers just sit on the counter until one of us goes through the mail.


4 posted on 12/14/2010 6:28:55 AM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Gondring

I think we like Netflix enough that we would pay more. Especially if it means pi$$ing of Time Warner and their ilk.


5 posted on 12/14/2010 6:29:12 AM PST by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur)
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To: Gondring

Go ahead and kill the goose laying the golden eggs Hollywood.

I pay for content now, happily. You make it difficult to live stream movies at a decent price and I will find ways to do it for free.


6 posted on 12/14/2010 6:30:23 AM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send the GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism.)
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To: Gondring

When was the last time AOL/Time/Warner got anything right in the past decade or so?


7 posted on 12/14/2010 6:32:40 AM PST by paulycy (Demand Constitutionality. Save America From Bankruptcy.)
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To: misterrob
Netflix relies on poaching assets of other companies. At some point it will end....

How is Netflix any different from a box store with respect to rentals? If Netflix has agreements, and is living up to the agreements, and if it is operating within the law, then what is the issue?

I think Netflix has an excellent business model. Provide the consumer with what he or she wants and sit back and enjoy profits.

How, exactly, are they poaching assets?

8 posted on 12/14/2010 6:32:53 AM PST by IYAS9YAS (Liberalism can be summed up thusly: someone craps their pants and we all have to wear diapers)
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To: Gondring
Netflix probably views Time Warner similarly.

I remember in the early 80s, the president of Sears [then the biggest retailer] gave his view of fledgeling Walmart slowing growing: “Who do they think they are? Sears? hahaha.” A few years later, Walmart grew beyond Sears.

I read a comment recently that Netflix has more subscribers than Time Warner. hmmm.

9 posted on 12/14/2010 6:33:48 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: misterrob
Netflix relies on poaching assets of other companies. At some point it will end....

Yes...it got great deals on initial contracts and has scooped the market, but once those end, the market price point will be higher than now.

10 posted on 12/14/2010 6:34:33 AM PST by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: IYAS9YAS
How is Netflix any different from a box store with respect to rentals?

Netflix is making money.

If Netflix has agreements, and is living up to the agreements, and if it is operating within the law, then what is the issue?

Agreements are not forever. They have to be renewed and everyone wants a piece of the pie.

11 posted on 12/14/2010 6:35:15 AM PST by SeeSac
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To: Gondring

Cable Company crybabies.

The only thing worse than calling your cell phone carrier is calling the cable company. They should try focusing on
improving their customer service instead if bitc#ing about their competitors.


12 posted on 12/14/2010 6:35:20 AM PST by NeverForgetBataan (To the German Commander: ..........................NUTS !)
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To: misterrob
Netflix relies on poaching assets of other companies. At some point it will end....

Libraries rely on poaching assets of other companies. At some point they will end....
13 posted on 12/14/2010 6:36:15 AM PST by aruanan
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To: Gondring

Their stock price seems to a little on the exuberant side..

I use Netflix on a Roku device and love it. The Roku also has an Amazon channel which we use on the occasion where we really want to see a specific movie.

One loophole Netflix needs to close is that up to 5 households can share one subscription.


14 posted on 12/14/2010 6:37:49 AM PST by IamConservative (Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day. - Truman)
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To: Gondring

But doesn’t the streaming version of netflix not allow you to view the special features they put on the disks like audio commentaries and deleted scenes? That’s why I still like the mail service.


15 posted on 12/14/2010 6:37:55 AM PST by tellw
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To: paulycy; allmendream
Bingo! (to you both)
16 posted on 12/14/2010 6:39:52 AM PST by Waryone (RINOs, Elites, and Socialists - on the endangered list, soon to become extinct.)
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To: IYAS9YAS
"How, exactly, are they poaching assets?"

I'm sure an Internet Service Provider would have a thing or two to say about that.

17 posted on 12/14/2010 6:40:04 AM PST by KoRn (Department of Homeland Security, Certified - "Right Wing Extremist")
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To: misterrob
Netflix relies on poaching assets of other companies. At some point it will end....

I disagree with your first comment (they're not poaching assets just because they're making bank), and agree with the second (cable companies missed the first streaming boat and are trying to get it back into the harbor so that they can launch theirs). I've never cared for Time Warner, but good gosh I love Netflix.

18 posted on 12/14/2010 6:40:30 AM PST by AnnaZ (I keep 2 magnums in my desk.One's a gun and I keep it loaded.Other's a bottle and it keeps me loaded)
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To: Blueflag
I think we like Netflix enough that we would pay more. Especially if it means pi$$ing of Time Warner and their ilk.

I am of like mind...and very much for the same reasons. I'm at $8 per month now, and would gladly accept a price increase to $12/month. I wonder tho at where my "tipping" point would be with Netflix?? $15/mo? $20/mo? $39.95/mo. When would the cost be "too much to pay"?

At any rate, I will not let my Netflix go until such time as I can obtain cable/satellite service "al a carte". In the meantime, I have my digital "rabbit ears", my 44" HDTV, six free TV channels (for news and such), and Netflix for whatever movies I want to watch.
OK...on occasion I hook up to Hulu for something, but that's pretty rare.

Fie on T/W and their ilk!

19 posted on 12/14/2010 6:41:08 AM PST by Logic n' Reason (You can roll a turd in powered sugar; that don't make it a jelly donut)
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To: misterrob

“Netflix relies on poaching assets of other companies. At some point it will end.... “

Time Warner’s price is too high, and their service sucks eggs through a straw. My son uses the internet for all his content. Hulu, Netflix, etc. He just got a digital antenna for live news.

Time Warner is on thin ice.


20 posted on 12/14/2010 6:44:22 AM PST by brownsfan (D - swift death of the republic, R - lingering death for the republic.)
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