When Netflix alerted subscribers that it was separating streaming and DVD rentals and increasing subscription rates, suffice to say, people were not happy. Today, two months after the initial announcement, Netflix CEO and Co-founder Reed Hastings “[offered his] sincere apology” to members through email.

“Many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent…” he said. Hastings laced the email with his personal usage of Netflix and empathy with users who are saddened by the changes.

The majority of the email offered members an explanation for the decisions that were made. Hastings stated that DVD by mail and streaming have different costs associated with them and should therefore be separate businesses.

Hastings also informed members that the new name chosen for the DVD by mail business is Quikster because of quick delivery of product. Streaming services will retain the Netflix name.

Quikster.com is the new name of the website for DVD customers but services will remain the same. It is expected to be up and running in a couple of weeks. A new feature the site will offer is a video game upgrade option. Quikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated.

On members’ credit card statements, charges will be separated between the new Quikster and Netflix. Total amounts, however, will be consistent with current billing totals. For those who love the red Netflix envelopes, those are staying, but it will read Quikster instead of Netflix.

Hastings acknowledged that it is going to take time to regain the trust of its members but stated: “Actions speak louder than words. But words help people to understand actions.”

He also directed members to more thorough  information on the Netflix blog.

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Netflix stock dropped almost 9 percent on Friday after an announcement that the company will not renew its deal with Starz Entertainment, which supplies content from Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures, according to the LA Times Blog.

This means that movies from these companies will not be available on the online video site once the agreement expires in February.

Although some on Wall Street are skeptical about Netflix’s future, others feel that Netflix must simply fill the void with different content.

“Netflix now has six months to find content to fill the potential void and we view the lowered valuation as very compelling,” said Ingrid Chung of Goldman Sachs, reports the LA Times Blog.

“We believe Netflix has a clear indication for what content is worth and the fact that it is willing to let Starz expire suggests to us the company is staying disciplined,” said Anthony DiClemente of Barclays Capital.

Others feel that subscirbers will be turned off at the loss of movies such as  “Tangled” and “The Karate Kid.”

“Disney and Sony movies are a cut above the standard Netflix streaming…. Netflix appears to be moving toward lesser-known, older content while raising prices… [which] risks dampening domestic subscriber growth,” Barton Crockett of Lazard Capital Markets said according to the LA Times Blog.

If you are a customer of Netflix, then you would have received an email yesterday that explains that the service will now separate their services into two payment structures. Here is a copy of an email I received:

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $14.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs will be split into 2 distinct plans:

Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month

Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs, 2 out at-a-time (no streaming) for $11.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $19.98 a month ($7.99 + $11.99). You don’t need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

The reaction to this?

Well if you are on Twitter, the trending topic for the past two days has been “Dear #Netflix,” where people from around the world have voiced their displeasure at the 60 percent price increase. Some are quite funny, some sad, while others lament the fact that the streaming service, which is the cheapest option, does not have as good a selection as the DVD’s they offer.

Here are a few dissatisfied customers from twitter:

@ChrisThomas:

Dear @Netflix: Not cool. Sincerely, Me and everyone else who have loyally paid you $ for years. P.S. Please fix it.

@adkalmanack:

Dear #netflix, You can’t double the price of a product without providing more value. Bad business move — #redbox here we come.

With that said, will you continue on with Netflix? Leave your comments below!

Netflix has finally come to an agreement and will start streaming Miramax movies in June. This deal so far is only for U.S. members to watch instantly. No word yet on when and if available to outside the U.S.

This is the very first time that Miramax titles would be available through a digital subscription service, making Netflix the clear winner in this deal.

So what are you getting for your subscription service? Among the many award-winning, fan favorite and commercially successful movies are: “Bad Santa,” “Chasing Amy,” “Cinema Paradiso,” “Clerks,” “Cold Mountain,” “The English Patient,” “From Dusk Till Dawn,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Kill Bill Volumes” I and II, “Muriel’s Wedding,” “The Piano,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Reindeer Games,” “Shakespeare in Love,” and many of the “Halloween,” “Scary Movie,” “Scream” and “Spy Kids” movies.

Is this a deal-maker for you? Share your comments below!

Last month Facebook and Warner Bros. entered into a licensing agreement to stream “The Dark Knight” over the social network, available for rent with credits on the site, to the tune of about $3. Now more films have been added, including two “Harry Potter” films and recent blockbuster “Inception.”

And with that, Facebook is dipping into the digital media delivery service, but what does Facebook hope to gain here? Netflix is the king here, Hulu is hoping for action, and iTunes will always have the Apple ecosystem to summon users.

Facebook could be a powerful tool for digital media sales: more than films, but encompassing television, apps, and music. After all, consider the social aspect of sharing films, reviews, comments — imagine the ability to watch a film with friends across the site, commenting in real time. When a friend posts or links to media, instant delivery of that medium.

That’s a jump in logical progression. But it’s not to fanciful. And perhaps this is what Facebook is going with here, or perhaps not.

The point is Facebook is putting feelers out. It’s been constantly testing the potential of its expanses, from Facebook games/apps to the recent email/chat/message consolidations.

And now it’s looking at the media industry. Just like its looked at the Facebook phone. Hell, its even threatened to wade into Google’s territory with search.

Which brings us to Google. When Google started leveraging its dominance earlier in the past decade to branch into everything. Just as Google was the behemoth of the previously-unheralded search, Facebook is of social. The possibilities are limitless, and Facebook is exploring.

One of the coolest parts of E3 a few years ago when Microsoft officially unveiled Kinect to the world was the ability to control media like Netflix via motion control —  a feature that has been absent since the peripheral’s launch last November.  Until now.

It was announced this morning at CES that the update would be coming this spring, along with the previously announced Hulu Plus service.

Kinect program manager Ron Forbes demonstrated the tech during a Microsoft’s press event this morning.

Traditional movie renting is on the decline, and video streaming picks up more steam everyday. Yesterday Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the latest video rental chain in recent years to feel the pressure of the digital age. In the wake of the announcement, Netflix’s stock has soared, and today it Netflix announced it’s adding more content to it’s digital streaming library, furthering itself as the future for rented entertainment content.

With a new agreement with NBC Universal, Netflix will bring more of the conglomerate’s library to Netflix streaming than ever before. All past seasons of “The Office, 30 Rock, and Friday Night Lights” will remain on the service, while “Battlestar Galactica, Psych, and Saturday Night Live” will make their debut on the service.

Yesterday, rumors began to circulate the web that soon Netflix will introduce a streaming-only subscription plan. Currently, customers must subscribe to a plan tied to DVD deliver, starting at 8.99 a month, so the digital transition may be complete sooner than people think.

Wii owners who have felt neglected by their lack of Netflix support – available for some time to 360 and PS3 owners – are finally be invited to the party. They will need a disc to upload Netflix software to their Wii unit – and the quality maxes at 480p – but it’s often difficult to stream much better regardless.

Enjoy video on demand Wii owners! Is nice!

Via: G4

Netflix now owns space on all three major home consoles as the company began shipping streaming discs to Wii owners today.

Yours soon.

If you applied for a disc to be sent to you, you should receive an e-mail from the company today alerting you your streaming disc is in the mail and set to arrive this Friday.

Those with a Wii and a desire to stream  non-HD content, head over to the Netflix Wii page and send away for yours. It’s free after all.

Now that the service is on all three consoles, what’s next? Oh yeah, that’s right, the DS!

A recent customer survey from mega video rental service Netflix, points to the possibility of streaming access coming to Nintendo’s DS portable system in the future.

This would be awesome.

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies and & TV episodes on their Nintendo DS,” said the survey. “The selection available to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes.”

“There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership at no additional fee.”

The same thing happened with Netflix for Wii. It was teased in a customer survey and now it’s here.

Interested in watching Netflix on your DS? I already have it on my Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, but hey, more is better, right?

Source: Kotaku

Netlfix, the movie-renting and instant-streaming giant, today announced that the ability to watch everything in “Instant Queue” is inbound for Wii owners, starting this Spring.

Last month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings expressed interest in branching out to all three current-gen consoles, and voila, it happened!

The service, which is already available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners, will be available to anyone with at least a $9 Netflix subscription, an Internet connection, and like the PS3, will require a Netflix disc to be in the drive to access the content.

Finally.

As you know, the Wii isn’t capable of high definition, so don’t expect to see Jim and Pam, and all the pores, if you’re watching an episode of The Office on the Wii. But for standard definition, the Wii should perform just fine.

This means, when Spring rolls around, Netflix will be available on all current-generation consoles. Good job Netflix! Exclusivity is a stickler sometimes anyway.

Sony and movie-rental giant Netflix today confirmed swirling rumors, and officially announced streaming movie and TV show access for the PlayStation 3.

Beginning next month, at no additional cost, PS3-owning Netflix subscribers can bask in the glory of the same streaming access Xbox 360 owners have been enjoying for quite some time now.

“As instantly watching movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix becomes an increasingly popular way to enjoy the Netflix service, our goal is to rapidly expand the devices that stream to our members,” said Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings. “As a leading game console and Blu-ray disc player, bringing Netflix to the PS3 system is a real win for both Netflix members and PS3 system owners.”

Initially, PS3 owners wanting to watch Netflix on their systems will have to send away for a Blu-Ray disc, and according to Netflix the disc “leverages Blu-ray’s BD-Live technology to access the Internet and activate the Netflix user interface on the PS3 system, which must be online via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.”

But in the future we’d hope Sony would release some sort of firmware update removing the need for the disc, but until then, we’ll take it! Get your hands on one of the discs today at the PS3 Netflix page.

And no direct word was mentioned concerning the functionality of the service on PS3, only that it’ll allow users to navigate through their “Watch Instantly” queue, a la the Xbox 360 version.

I wonder how Microsoft is taking this loss of exclusivity. Alone in a room crying? What do you think?

Even as one of the few remaining Blockbuster video stores in Boston goes kaput, the company is maneuvering to try and remain a household name.

Blue Blockbuster Express kiosks will be open in more than 100 Tedeschi Food Shops by the end of the month, with kiosks planned in all 188 stores in New England by the end of the year.

It’s amazing that these little kiosks do so well. Redbox kiosks, a common sight at Stop & Shop stores, combined with the mega-popular Netflix service are literally erasing video rental stores from existence. That’s to say nothing for iTunes, illegal downloading, On Demand television and DVR service.

The kiosks will hold a whopping 900 DVDs, ranging from classics to brand new titles. All you do is swipe a credit card. Just like Redbox, it’s a dollar a night.

Xbox 360 owners with a Netflix account have been able to stream a sh*t ton of programming to their consoles exclusively for quite some time now, but according to the Netflix CEO, the Wii and PlayStation 3 markets are next.

Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO,‚  told Reuters “Eventually we want to be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, all the Internet TVs. So we are working in parallel with all of those efforts. Currently our Xbox deal is exclusive and we haven’t characterized it more than that.”

We’ve no idea how long the “exclusive” deal between Netflix and Microsoft will last, but when it’s up it looks like Wii and PS3 owners will finally enjoy the fantastic streaming service.

Sony released the BDP-N460 Networked Blu-Ray disc player last week, a Blu-ray playing, media streaming machine.

The player is capable of typical features like playing Blu-Ray dics and DVDs as well as streaming several kinds of pay and free video content from Sony’s BRAVIA Internet platform, including content from YouTube and Slacker. Late this fall, the player will also get streaming content from Netflix.

“Whether its full HD 1080p or streaming video and audio from the Internet, entertainment comes in so many flavors that consumers want choice,” said Chris Fawcett, vice president of Sony Electronics’ home audio and video business “Leading the entertainment experience, Sony brings the best of both worlds together in one player that offers more content than other stand-alone devices on the market.”

The BDP-N460 is capable of 1080p output and is compatible with the latest audio codecs. It is even BD-LIVE compatible with a broadband Internet connection and external storage.

The device incorporates cross search functionality with the BRAVIA Internet platform, making finding content much easier. It also includes Sony’s Precision Upscale HD, which upscales DVDs to near HD resolutions. The player even prevents damage to discs and itself using Sony’s Precision Drive technology, which helps detect and correct wobbling discs in the drive.

The device is available now, and retails for around $250.

Last Wednesday, YouTube began talks with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Sony Pictures, and Warner Brothers concerning a movie rental service similar to iTunes and Netflix. This would mark the first time ever that the Google owned video site would charge for content. The fee would also be similar to the other video services, charging around $3.99 a rental.

YouTube is also in talks with many other partners in an effort to shore up its offerings of professional grade content, which advertisers prefer.

“We hope to expand on both our great relationship with the movie studios and the selection and types of videos we offer our community,” said YouTube spokesman Chris Dale.

Such a program would be quite a change for YouTube. We think this is due to pressure from investors who see that the cost of supplying video to users all over the world still isn’t bringing in its equivalent in advertising revenue.

YouTube became successful because it allowed people to share their own personal “LOL” with the world “" for free! Considering that there are plenty of other and more well established places to stream movies, most offering better quality or lower prices at this point, and YouTube is a late entrant into the game.

Popular DVD and streaming rental house Netflix issued a public apology today and is offering a credit for those affected by a serious service interrupt on Sunday.

Users logging into the Netflix application on their Xbox 360′s were treated to a fail boat excursion to the land of misery as they were not able to load their TV shows/movies/documentaries via streaming access which elicited the following mea culpa from the company:

“Last night, you may have had trouble instantly watching movies or TV episodes via your Xbox due to technical issues.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. If you were unable to instantly watch a movie or TV episode last night via your Xbox…”

The company goes on to offer a 3% credit applied towards your next billing statement that must be redeemed within the next 7 days.

If you didn’t receive the apologetic email from Netflix and suffered a lack of streaming availability this past weekend, call 1-866-923-0898 to speak with a (hopefully) competent Netflix person.

In yet another motion that proves that media companies are completely out of touch with their customers, movie studio Warner Brothers is going to embargo DVD-by-mail outfit Netflix and DVD renting kiosk Redbox from renting new movies to customers for 28 days. This embargo is similar to the 30-day window imposed last week by Twentieth Century Fox, and the 45 day window imposed last year by Universal.

Apparently the movie studios are worried about rentals undercutting the much more profitable DVD sale business. While Mitch Lowe, CEO of Redbox, stated in an interview with the LA Times that he was convinced that Redbox has no effect on DVD sales, our bet “" backed up by nothing more than anecdotal evidence “" is that people who rent movies through Netflix and Redbox more than likely purchase more DVDs than others who don’t, in much the similar way that people who illegally download music purchase the most songs in the iTunes store and from Amazon MP3.

In any case, Redbox isn’t taking this laying down. The company is in the midst of a legal battle with Universal and filed suit against Fox last week. Should the trend continue, Warner Brothers is probably going to get served with a lawsuit of its own soon as well.

We should also mention that not every studio is as thick headed as the aforementioned; Walt Disney and Paramount haven’t really taken a stand on the issue and so are still supplying their movies. Moreover, Lions Gate and Sony have signed deals with Redbox worth hundreds of millions of dollars guaranteeing the availability of their movies on time.

One day, we hope that media companies will realize that consumers want their paid movies and music on demand and under our control. With how little the studios have trudged forward technologically at this point, it’s no surprise that streaming movie catalogues are so crippled, but we still find it unfathomable that our physical DVD rental catalogues should suffer the same fate.

We never realize how much effort we put into our digital lives. Think about how many times you tweet about your horrible public transportation experience, update your Facebook status to tell everyone about your appearance in the Boston Globe, Tumble about that sweet volcano picture you found, or blogged about your teenage anxiety. Ok, so the vast amount of data you’re creating on the Internet may not add up to much of substance, but to you, it’s a very personal history of what you’ve done, where you went, and on some level, who you are. And what happens if that data disappears?

Sure, backups will protect you, right? Technical errors in this day and age are at least uncommon due to redundant servers and offsite backups, but they’re still not unheard of. Delicious competitor Ma.gnolia experienced a massive database corruption last February, and users forever lost all of their saved links overnight. On the other hand, human error ended up labeling every site on Google’s searches “" even their own homepage “" as potentially malicious. Can you imagine if an earthquake were to tear though Netflix’s California data center erased your history there, forcing you to go though and rate the thousand movies you’ve seen over the last few years and rebuild your carefully curated queue ?

What would happen if your blog were to disappear overnight? We have a blog that we used to attend to daily in high school, and while we’ve certainly moved past it, it’s always fun to go back and remember the times when we would post horrible pictures of our friends as an “idiot of the week.” To borrow the analogy of our forever techno-geek crush Gina Trapani, the potential loss of an online blog is almost akin to someone burning your diary.

But on top of accidental loss, there’s the planned destruction of your digital data. Remember a few years ago when your Facebook wall was a highly editable wiki? And then do you remember when it disappeared overnight? We know we wish we could go back in time and look at it one last time, but alas, it is gone forever. Or what if you use an online backup service that decides to shutter its doors? You could very well be out of luck.

Likewise, Twitter’s system is set up only to hold 3200 tweets per user. Come tweet number 3201, and tweet numero uno is gone forever, and no amount of searching or API hacking will bring it back. In era of near infinite email storage, the fact that Twitter keeps only the equivalent of 3200 text messages is, quite frankly, absurd. We send and receive twice that every month, and our iPhone happily keeps track of every single one. Luckily, with some command line-fu, you can back up your Tweets if it’s that important to you, but in the case of your Facebook history, and many other sites, that’s mostly gone forever.

Either way, until site developers allow us a simple way to backup the data we’ve imputed to a website, the moral of this story is backup, backup, backup. Obviously you know to keep your Time Machine updates frequent or just to copy your files to an external every now and then, but now, you need to make sure to add your online data to that list as well, lest you lose something infinitely more personal to you than the pdf of your tax return from last year.

If you can’t beat “Ëœem, join “Ëœem! So goes the mantra of the group BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos, an international coalition of four previous teams, whose combined efforts to develop a new movie suggesting algorithm for Netflix have finally scored high enough to claim the prize.

Netflix uses a movie rating algorithm called Cinematch to predict what users will rate movies, based on their previous rental and rating history. This tool is crucial to the Netflix experience, which keeps users happy by suggesting new movies for them to rent and enjoy. Users then continue renting movies, and Netflix continues making money “" it’s win-win.

The Netflix Prize is very similar to the X-Prize, which offered‚ $10 million for the first private group to build and launch an aircraft that could leave the atmosphere, or the Archon X-Prize, which offers the same amount to the first group who can sequence an entire human genome for under $1,000.

Netflix started the Netflix Prize program in November 2006, offering a cash prize to anyone who could better their Cinematch by 10%. Hundreds of groups have signed on, and have posted their scores on the page for the Netflix Prize. While many of the groups have been flirting with the 10% goal, until now none have scored sufficiently high enough. In interviews, some group members have expressed that the task might prove impossible.

Sensing this, PragmaticTheory and BellKor in BigChaos combined their efforts, and have posted a combined algoithm which represents a 10.05% improvement, which, pending verification, should prove sufficient enough to clinch the prize. When and if Netflix will incorporate the group’s method ‚ into (or instead of) Cinematch is still up in the air. Still, this is an exciting time for movie lovers everywhere.

Updated 4:06PM: Corrected prize money amount. Thanks Shawn!

LOS ANGELES — Microsoft wants to prove that the Xbox 360 can last. In doing so, it is, intentionally or unintentionally, revolutionizing the console system. Starting this fall, the 360 is no longer just a machine for gaming. It is an entertainment system.

“The same question has been asked a thousand times in a thousand different ways,” said Microsoft senior Vice President Don Mattrick. “Can we deliver to our fiercely loyal fans and at the same time continue to transform the industry by delivering for everyone? The answer is yes we can.”

In conjunction with new partners NBC, Universal, MGM International, Constantin and Netflix, the Xbox 360 now will have a library of over 10,000 on demand movies and television shows.

That’s not to mention the countless other partners Microsoft has, such as Disney, Warner, ABC and MTV.

Consumers have spent more than $48 billion this past year on videogames, Mattrick said. That is more than the amount they have spent on movies both on DVD and in the box office and in music.

While games are fast becoming the number one driver of entertainment spending, the Xbox 360 is dominating its position as the best-selling video game console as having sold more than 2.7 billion in the last year. That’s significantly more than the 1.1 billion Wiis sold or the 0.9 billion Playstation 3s sold.

This year Microsoft gives consumers even more reasons to buy their system.

“Finding the games you want and the entertainment you want when you want it means movies, TV shows and music from [our] partners,” said Mattrick.

The Xbox 360 now has the world’s largest amount of on demand movies and television shows; more than any cable or satellite provider.

Microsoft’s partnership with Netflix only intensifies that fact. Now Netflix subscribers who own 360s can access Netflix’s library of films through their gaming system and watch movies instantly at their homes. Even when they don’t have their friends over, Xbox owners can share the movie they rented with their friends using the new Live Party mode available through the 360′s new interface. This partnership more than doubles Microsoft’s current selection of movies and TV shows.

With the Xbox’s new functionalities, it seems that the only reason to actually visit a video rental store is to rent a videogame. Maybe there will come a point in time where videogames can be rented via their console as well.