Hasta La Gadget!

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced today that they have reached an exclusive agreement with Broadway Video, which brings the entire 38 season archive of Saturday Night Live on Yahoo. As part of this deal, clips from the current season will be available as well. Saturday Night Live is one of the oldest running shows, presented in front of a live audience in New York, the show is watched and loved by millions of people around the world. Saturday Night Live is hosted by all kinds of stars from the showbiz industry, including but not limited to TV and film actors. The show is very well known for its hilarious skits, which have made popular the likes of Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg.

Yahoo will have access to a range of content which will include extras and dress rehearsal footage. The company will have non-exclusive distribution rights to show the content outside of U.S. and Broadway Video will remove SNL archives from streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. The SNL content will be available for streaming across Yahoo sites starting September 1st.

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Netflix posted its Q1 2013 financial data recently and the streaming media company had a very impressive quarter. Netflix made more than $1 billion in revenue during Q1 of 2013. The quarter marked the first time in the company’s history that it had earned $1 billion in revenue. The company expects about $19 million in net income.

Along with racking up very impressive quarterly profits, Netflix also added a significant amount of new subscribers putting the company on target to reach 30 million subscribers in the United States this quarter. Netflix also announced a new option for users who have multiple people in the home who like to watch Netflix at the same time. Netflix announced that is also going to be instituting a new $12 per month family plan.

The new streaming family plan will allow users to stream Netflix to up to four devices at the same time within the same home. Currently the standard eight dollar per month plan for Netflix allows two simultaneous streams. However, in my own house of been able to stream to three devices at the same time on occasion without issues. Netflix doesn’t expect a lot of people to jump on the new family plan stating that it expects less than 1% of its members to opt for that plan.

Some analysts have been calling for Netflix to crack down on account sharing. Reports indicate that as many as 10 million people are watching Netflix without paying for it by getting the password from friends or family members. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings isn’t worried about password sharing, he says that Netflix doesn’t believe there is much of that going on. However, Hastings does say that sharing passwords with extended family “[is] not what we would consider appropriate.”

I think there will be a lot of families who will take advantage of the new family streaming plan, particularly since it’s said to use personalized profiles. My daughter loves to watch Netflix and when she watches it’s always movies about dogs or horses. That means when I log on to watch Netflix every single recommendation for me is a kid’s movie based on what she watches. I would pay a few extra dollars per month to be able to watch what I want and get recommendations that are actually geared towards my tastes.

[via Gigaom and PaidContent]

Password sharing not a problem says Netflix CEO (but adds family plans anyway) is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Netflix has been in the news today as it released its quarterly letter to shareholders, but that’s not the only thing they did today. The Netflix iOS app has been updated, though its not a major revamp, it does bring some subtle design changes as well as an episode selector. Netflix app’s user interface has been slightly improved, users can now flip through content that they have already started watching or would like to watch.

The episode selector feature is only available for Netflix’s iPad app. It allows users to switch episodes within any given series, even if there’s an episode already playing. A handy feature for those who watch a lot of TV shows but can’t seem to remember where they left off the last time they watched. The app update also brings redesigned audio and subtitle selector which will be available to all iOS devices. Accompanying these nifty little updates is the usual slew of bug fixes. This new Netflix iOS app update can now be downloaded absolutely free from the iTunes App Store. The streaming service also announced a new $11.99 family plan that allows four simultaneous streams on separate devices.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Netflix Adding $12 Four Simultaneous Stream Family Plan Soon, Tech Companies Donate Money To Aid China’s Earthquake Affectees,

Oh, hey, Netflix is getting wise, finally. In its quarterly money-talking-numbers session, CEO Reed Hastings let out that Netflix is going to introduce a new $12 per month plan for families that lets them stream four shows at once. The old $8 stream-only plan has a limit of two simultaneous streams. More »

Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Securities, states that around 10 million people are currently using Netflix’s service without paying. He says that if Netflix were to crack down on these people and its account sharing policies, it could generate a ton of more profit. Pachter stated in an interview with Bloomberg that it’s time for Netflix to “change”.

Pachter isn’t the only analyst who believes that Netflix can generate more money if it made a few changes to its policies. According to Heath Terry, an analyst for Goldman Sachs & Co., a pricing/policy change can increase revenue for Netflix by up to 5 percent per subscriber. Terry also mentions that Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, can offer a variety of different plans, such as charging extra to add new users to a Netflix account.

Hastings has thought about introducing family plans to Netflix, which would allows families to have more than two stream running at the same time. He stated that it would help families save money by not having to purchase separate Netflix accounts. but Hastings doesn’t want to get into any price changes or policy changes with Netflix just yet. He says that Netflix is still recovering from its pricing fiasco back in 2011, when it increased its fees for video-streaming/DVD rentals to $15.98 a month from $9.99.

The analysts, however, believe that Netflix can do much better if it offers new account options. Terry states that with new account options, Netflix’s subscriber base can increase to 53 million by 2017, which is 20 million more subscribers than the 33 million the service currently has. Regardless of whether or not account/policy changes would be beneficial to Netflix, Netflix is doing well, with its shares increasing 76% this year, showing that it doesn’t need to implement any changes anytime soon.

[via Bloomberg]

Analysts say Netflix should crack down on account sharing is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.