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Independent film makers would like the Silicon Valley giants to start investing in their films.

Netflix Inc. is raising the prices of some of its subscription plans and is shifting its focus to streaming video as more members move to the Internet to watch movies and...

Netflix’s marketing costs increased 39% to $81 million in the latest quarter from $58.5 million in Q3 2009 [1]. Netflix continues to win new subscribers despite competing with a host of other online and offline video services offered by players like Apple, Amazon, Google, Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

Netflix cannot afford to reduce the number of titles it acquires due to the competitive environment.

Netflix and NBC Universal have struck a deal to load the streaming video site with tons of content from both NBC and its family of cable networks, including all 35 seasons of Saturday Night Live, and new episodes of the sketch comedy show the day after air.Saturday Night Live just aired its season premiere last night, but were not seeing the episode on Netflix. Apparently the deal hasnt been executed just yet.The day-after premiere episodes will continue through 2012, but neither Netflix nor NBC specified how long the other content deals will last.

Blockbuster Inc., once the dominant movie rental company in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, reeling from mounting losses, rising debt and competitors that have better catered to Americans changed media habits.

Amazon.com Inc has approached media companies with a proposal for a subscription service that gives users unlimited access to some television shows and movies over the Internet in a bid to rival Netflix Inc, two people familiar with the talks said on Tuesday.

In a sign that online streaming is coming to the forefront in Hollywood, films from Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will appear on Netflix's streaming service just three months after they appear on pay television.

Here's something different from the world of online dating. "Wings," a Facebook app from a company called Triangulate, pulls in data from your account and analyzes and uses what it finds to populate your dating profile page. You can also opt to let Wings access data from your other social and media accounts on Netflix, Twitter, Pandora or Foursquare. It was built around the concept that actions speak louder than words.

Technical strength and lousy sentiment spell upside potential for Amazon and Netflix.