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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Netflix shares surge on surprise profit

Netflix surprised Wall Street with a surprise profit of 13 cents per share on Wednesday, while analysts expected a loss of the same amount for the fourth quarter.

Shares jumped 34% in extended trading after the earnings announcement. Netflix booked $ 945 million in revenue in the quarter, which also beat analysts' estimates.Investors were pleasantly surprised by the number of new subscribers streaming Americans. Netflix (NFLX) registered 2.05 million in the fourth quarter, above the range of the company predicted last quarter. That brings the total U.S. subscriber additions streaming to 5.48 million by 2012.In total, Netflix now has 27.2 million subscribers in the U.S. streaming and 6.1 million in other global markets. Netflix DVD mail subscriptions continue to decline, from 380,000 in the U.S. to about 8.2 million.The company said its first-quarter earnings could be as high as $ 14 million, but that's just a balance. Nonprofits still be better than consensus estimates: Analysts forecast a loss.Netflix has been working to add new content to subscriber allay concerns that its streaming catalog is stale. It signed an agreement with Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) in December, but new versions of film studies will not be available for another three years.Netflix signed two new agreements this month with CNNMoney parent company Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) for the previous seasons of programs of Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros., including "The West Wing" and Cartoon Network content. On Wednesday, the company also referred to the original series, including Kevin Spacey "House of Cards", another season of "Lilyhammer" and a revival of "Arrested Development."Netflix said it is exploring the possibility of issuing debt to raise capital and fund more original programs."It is very good time to lock in a low cost and long-term capital," CEO Reed Hastings said in a conference call with analysts after earnings. "We would be remiss in not looking at that opportunity."One analyst asked where he thinks Hastings "holes" exist in the catalog of Netflix."Not much more than holes, there is a lot of content that we acquire as we continue to grow," said Hastings. "[But] there is no specific holes. We would like to have more movies, more pre-season television ..."

Saturday, January 19, 2013

'The whole TV experience is changing'

For nearly three decades, the first place viewers could get films to watch at home was the local video shop. Dominated by BlockBuster, these were the libraries where movie buffs could get their education. Today, however, much larger stores are available for anyone to watch almost anything instantly online, on smart TVs and on phones and iPads, and this week BlockBuster slipped barely noticed into administration. It just couldn’t take the tablets.

In a pointed demonstration of what went wrong, TV giant Sky today reveals that its own, new download service will launch this week. With 3million people already using its Sky Go service to watch programmes on tablets and phones, now up to four users for every one of its 11million subscribers will be able to download films and TV to watch wherever and whenever they want thanks to Sky Go Extra. That means the only place you can now download the latest new Hollywood movies, all the Bond films, Harry Potter and countless more TV shows online in the UK is via Sky.

Luke Bradley-Jones, brand director of TV products at Sky, says that it’s commuters and families eager to entertain their children that have driven massive growth in the existing service’s popularity. “We’re adding hundreds of thousands of users a month,” he claims. “And it’s in the last six months that it’s become well known and rapidly adopted.”

Thanks to Sky’s grip on new movie rights, Sky Go Extra immediately puts intense pressure on much-vaunted video-on-demand services such as Netflix and Amazon’s Lovefilm. While Lovefilm may have a huge archive of older films and Netflix specialises in TV, neither has Sky’s catalogue of the latest Hollywood films.

Key to the growing rivalry between such services is the difficulty in getting access to content. Film distribution remains thoroughly stuck in a model that sees new releases first in cinemas, then on aeroplanes, followed by pay-per-view, then subscription and free TV services. Netflix has, for instance, been reduced to bidding for individual titles – as a result it will show The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey first, after it closes in cinemas – but Sky’s catalogue of the newest releases remains far deeper. And while it is hard to see that many people would sign up to Netflix just for The Hobbit, it is also trying to increase its range of unique programmes: the remake of the classic House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey, for instance, will be a Netflix exclusive from February 1.

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