Editor’s Note: Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC)
Publishing Hears Echoes of Netflix Business Model (All Things D)
Offering unlimited television shows and music for a flat monthly fee has worked for Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Spotify AB. Will it work in the book industry? It is a question of intensifying debate in the publishing industry right now, as two digital startups plan launches of rival e-book subscription services this fall. If successful, the new services could pose fresh challenges for brick-and-mortar bookstores already struggling to cope with the growth of e-book sales and low prices of physical books offered online.
Next on Netflix: When to say ‘yes’ to love stories (The Tower Light)
I’m generally not big on sad, romantic movies. Call me heartless, but I’m not interested in sitting through something like “Titanic” when I know everyone will be either sad or dead by the end. (This may have something to do with the fact that every Shakespeare play I was in back in high school was a comedy, where everyone ended up married instead). “The Constant Gardener,” though, is a big exception. This one has all the good stuff— sex, betrayal, conspiracies, revenge and true love. Ralph Fiennes stars as Justin, a British diplomat who falls in love with the feisty human rights activist Tessa (Rachel Weisz).
Life After Netflix: For Original Shows, Streaming Is Just the First Stop (BloombergBusiness)
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and its video-streaming rivals are pouring millions into exclusive original shows in a bid to compete with cable-TV’s edgiest channels—HBO (TWX), AMC (AMCX), Showtime (CBS)—as must-have entertainment services. But while Orange Is the New Black has started its life as a streaming original on Netflix, that won’t be the end of the line for the prison comedy. Television programs are commodities bound to be sold and resold, from international rights to DVD to broadcast syndication.
Data-Mining Boosts Netflix’s Subscriber Base, Showbiz Clout (AdAge)
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) headed into 2012 weighed down by its imprudent decision to split its DVD and streaming units into two separate businesses. The move was quickly reversed, but it still left a bad taste in consumers’ mouths. Since then Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has transformed its image from a distributor like Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) into a personalized service that gives subscribers access to content they want — and some they didn’t even know they wanted.
The Netflix of novels may have arrived (ACT News)
Scott Baker was helping best-selling author Matthew Reilly put together a film trailer for his book Contest when he had an epiphany. The pair had met at a digital video conference in 2004. Baker, who coincidentally had been listening to Contest as he drove to Sydney for the conference, had just written an article on motion capture technology and was already thinking about how the technology could be applied to Reilly’s book.
