Technology, Streaming Service | featured news

Amazon.com Inc unveiled a new effort to develop original comedy and children's TV shows to distribute over the company's video streaming service.

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) added 1.74 million streaming subscribers in the U.S. during the first quarter but failed to satisfy investors' concerns about the video delivery company's ability to grow its business.

Netflix says it will stream certain movies from The Weinstein Co., including "The Artist," under an exclusive licensing agreement.

Netflix Inc won back Wall Street's affections on Thursday after adding more U.S. subscribers than expected in the fourth quarter, a rebound that prompted analyst upgrades and the company's biggest one-day stock jump in two years. The Los Gatos, California-based company's shares soared 23.5 percent to $117.40 in afternoon trading. Shares had dropped to a year's low of $62.37 on November 30.

Microsoft Corp has put its talks with media companies about an online subscription service for TV shows and movies on hold, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Netflix’s stock rose by about 10% last week before falling lower, driven by rumors about potential acquisition by Verizon. While reports indicated that Verizon may be seriously considering the acquisition at around $4.6 billion, the company denied that it has organized any talks or meetings with Netflix. We think that Netflix will not sell itself at the implied price per share that results from $4.6 billion bid. For details see Verizon Would Have a Tough Time Acquiring Netflix which talks about why an acquisition at stated value is unlikely, be it by Verizon or another potential suitor Amazon. In general, several analysts including Trefis analysts see any acquisition as highly unlikely.

Verizon may not have had much bargaining power with its currently minimal streaming subscriber base, but a partnership will help Verizon leverage Redbox's established relationship with content providers to get more favorable deals. This could lead to less of an impact on gross margins than had it decided to go alone.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says that increased content costs, a precipitous decline in subscribers, and a 'growth at all cost' mentality will continue to hurt Netflix in the future. Read this blog post by Don Reisinger on The Digital Home.

The online music service is allowing third parties to write add-on apps adding functionality to its music player.

Despite recent troubles, Netflix is a major force on the Internet, accounting for 32.7% of peak U.S. downstream traffic, according to a new report.