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Netflix to Raise Prices for Blu-ray Subscribers
Tue Apr 22, 2008 at 01:00 PM ETTags: Netflix, High-Def Disc Rentals (all tags)
Citing higher retail and wholesale prices, Netflix plans to implement a "modest monthly premium" for access to Blu-ray titles some time this year.
As confirmed through transcripts of Netflix's first quarter earnings call, President and CEO Reed Hastings made the announcement during the conference call yesterday.
"Purchasing Blu-ray DVDs costs more both at retail and wholesale than standard definition DVDs, and consumers are used to paying more for high-definition content in every other channel, including video rental stores, video-on-demand, and cable channels," Hastings stated. "Because of the higher cost of Blu-ray and the consumer expectations around high-def content, we are planning on implementing a modest monthly premium for access to Blu-ray some time this year."
No information was provided regarding a timeline for the price increase or the amount that might be charged. We'll be sure to keep you posted as we learn more regarding the company's plans for next generation subscribers.
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Netflix To Expand Blu-ray Inventory
Thu Feb 28, 2008 at 03:00 PM ETTags: Netflix, High-Def Retailing, Industry Trends (all tags)
Online rentailer Netflix says it plans to grow its selection of Blu-ray titles by as much as three-fold in the coming year.
Speaking at the Jeffries 4th Annual Internet Conference in New York on Wednesday, Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy said that his company expects to add as many as 1,500 Blu-ray titles to its existing 400 titles this year.
McCarthy went on to say that the company had not yet decided whether the higher price of acquiring Blu-ray discs (vs standard DVD) might lead to a price hike for subscribers.
"It seems apparent that content will cost us more," said McCarthy. "Whether we raise prices will be entirely a function of churn, subscriber acquisition costs and gross margins."
As we've previously reported, earlier this month Neflix announced it would phase out its HD DVD support, saying that although only a small portion of Netflix subscribers had elected to receive high-def discs, a majority of those subscribers had chosen Blu-ray over HD DVD.
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
- Related links:
- Netflix boosts subscriber estimates [Video Business]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Netflix Goes Blu-ray Exclusive (Feb 11, 2008)
HD DVD Group Responds to Netflix, Best Buy News
Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 09:00 AM ETTags: Best Buy, Netflix (all tags)
The HD DVD Promotions Group has issued a statement following a pair of news stories Monday that saw two leading brands in the home entertainment industry endorsing Blu-ray.
The statement (which was first published by CNET late Monday) calls Netflix's decision to exclusively back Blu-ray "unfortunate," while emphasizing that although Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray, the retailer will continue to stock HD DVD.
The complete text of the HD DVD Group's statement follows below:
"We have long held the belief that HD DVD is the best format for consumers based on quality and value, and with more than 1 million HD DVD players on the market, it's unfortunate to see Netflix make the decision to only stock Blu-ray titles going forward. While the Best Buy announcement says they will recommend Blu-ray, at least they will continue to carry HD DVD and offer consumers a choice at retail."
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
- Related links:
- Best Buy kicks HD DVD while it's down [CNET]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Best Buy to Recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD (Feb 11, 2008)
- Netflix Goes Blu-ray Exclusive (Feb 11, 2008)
Netflix Goes Blu-ray Exclusive
Mon Feb 11, 2008 at 12:30 PM ETTags: Netflix, High-Def Disc Rentals (all tags)
Online rentailer Netflix has announced it will drop support of the HD DVD format, and will exclusively stock Blu-ray discs.
Citing the decision by four of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format, Netflix said that it would cease purchasing new HD DVD stock immediately, and that it would phase out existing HD DVD stock by year's end.
As we've previously reported, Netflix was the first major rentailer to support both high-def disc format, stocking HD DVD beginning in April of 2006, and Blu-ray in June of that same year.
"The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "From the Netflix perspective, focusing on one format will enable us to create the best experience for subscribers who want high- definition to be an important part of how they enjoy our service."
The company says that although only a portion of Netflix subscribers have elected to receive high-def discs, a majority of those subscribers have chosen Blu-ray over HD DVD.
(Thanks to all who sent in tips related to this story)
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
- Related links:
- Netflix, Citing a Clear Signal From the Industry, Will Carry High-Def DVDs Only in Blu-ray Format [Press Release]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Netflix Adds Blu-ray to Rental Menu (May 15, 2006)
- Netflix Adds HD DVD Rentals (Mar 13, 2006)
Report: Netflix Users Favor HD DVD
Thu Oct 04, 2007 at 01:11 PM ETTags: Netflix, High-Def Disc Rentals (all tags)
A new report indicates that although only a tiny percentage of Netflix users are high-def early adopters, among them HD DVD appears to be favored over Blu-ray by a factor of more than two-to-one.
According to data released by web metrics site Compete.com (see chart below), out of an average 14 million monthly visitors to Netflix from June-August of 2007, only 48,000 (0.3%) viewed the site's genre pages for either HD DVD or Blu-ray.
Curiously, although those who looked at Blu-ray titles outnumbered those looking at HD-DVD by a factor of 1.8 to 1, among those who set an high-def format as their preferred disc format, HD-DVD was chosen over Blu-ray by a factor of 2.4 to 1.
Based on these numbers, Compete says those who looked at the HD-DVD genre were 4.4 times more likely than Blu-ray browsers to actually set this as their preferred format.
The numbers would appear to contradict recent statements made by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who said in a late August interview that customer demand for both formats at Netflix was "pretty evenly split."
Compete.com estimates US web traffic using a sample group of two million web users.
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See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
- Related links:
- Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: Does anyone care? [Compete.com Blog]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Netflix: Demand for Blu-ray and HD DVD Evenly Split, But Tiny (Aug 24, 2007)
Netflix: Demand for Blu-ray and HD DVD Evenly Split, But Tiny
Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 02:02 PM ETTags: Netflix, Disc Sales (all tags)
The nation's leading online DVD rental service says demand among its customers for both high-def disc formats is equal, but (no surprise) it pales in comparison to standard-def DVD.
In an interview published today in the San Jose Mercury News, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings says his company is seeing relatively low demand for either next-gen format, but -- in sharp contrast to disc sales figures (which show Blu-ray leading HD DVD by a factor of two) -- neither format is more popular than the other at Netflix.
"We carry all the Blu-ray titles and we carry all the HD DVD, so we're agnostic. And we think the solution in that market is to have the studios publish on both," said Hastings. "(Customer demand) is pretty evenly split between them (but it's) tiny, like a percent or something."
Netflix has allowed its members to add high-def discs on both formats to their rental queue since before their respective launches, starting with HD DVD in March 2006, and followed by Blu-ray in May of that year.
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
- Related links:
- Can Blockbuster be KO'd by Netflix? [San Jose Mercuty News]
- So how's Netflix for online BD/HD rentals? [High-Def Digest Forums]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Netflix Adds Blu-Ray to Rental Menu (May 15, 2006)
- Netflix Adds HD-DVD Rentals (Mar 13, 2006)
- Netflix CEO Urges Studios to Support Both HD DVD, Blu-Ray (Apr 25, 2006)
Netflix Adds Blu-Ray to Rental Menu
Mon May 15, 2006 at 01:01 PM ETTags: High-Def Disc Rentals, Netflix (all tags)
With no fanfare, today Netflix has added the ability for its customers to set
up their accounts to rent Blu-Ray discs. The online rental giant began offering
HD-DVD disc titles to its service in late March.As the weblog Hacking Netflix describes, customers can now access the Blu-Ray option from the "Your Account" page, under "High Definition Account Preferences." Customers can rank their preference of format to Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and DVD in order of "First Choice," "Second Choice" and "Third Choice."
This option comes a little more than one month until the official launch of the Blu-Ray format, with the first ten Blu-Ray disc titles due for release on June 20 from Sony. For a complete list of upcoming Blu-Ray releases, visit our complete Blu-Ray Release Schedule.
- Related links:
- Netflix Adds Blu-Ray Option [Hacking Netflix]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Netflix Adds HD-DVD Rental (Mar 13, 2006)
- Netflix to Rent High-Def DVDs (Feb 24, 2006)
Netflix CEO Urges Studios to Support Both HD-DVD, Blu-Ray
Tue Apr 25, 2006 at 02:21 PM ETTags: High-Def Disc Rentals, Netflix (all tags)
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is reaching out to all of the major Hollywood studios
in an effort to
bring an end to the high-def DVD format war.Video Business reports that during the company's first-quarter earnings conference call Monday, Hastings encouraged the studios to release their movie libraries on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray to make consumers feel comfortable enough to upgrade from standard DVD, or risk leaving both next-gen formats dead in the water.
"Protracted competition will hurt the adoption of high-definition DVD," Hastings reportedly said. "If all studios were to embrace both formats agnostically, consumers would be more comfortable making a format decision based on hardware pricing and features."
He also urged the studios to follow the example set by Warner Home Video and Paramount Home Entertainment, who are supporting both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, which Hastings called a "practical solution" to the high-def DVD stand-off.
Hastings comments come one month after Netflix announced they would offer their customers the option of renting both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles. The service added HD-DVD rentals concurrent with the format's launch last week, and is planning to add Blu-Ray titles when its first disc titles are expected to arrive next month from Sony.
- Related links:
- Hastings Urges End to High-Def War [Video Business]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Netflix Adds HD-DVD Rentals (Mar 13, 2006)
Netflix Adds HD-DVD Rentals
Mon Mar 13, 2006 at 01:49 PM ETTags: Netflix, High-Def Disc Rentals (all tags)
With little fanfare, Netflix has added the ability for its customers
to set
up their accounts to rent HD-DVD discs. The company had announced earlier this year that it was planning to rent both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs this year. As the weblog Hacking Netflix describes in detail, customers can access the setup option from the "Your Account" page, and after adjusting the preferred default format to DVD or HD-DVD, a new column called "Format" appears in their queue.
This news comes on the same day that Warner announced probable delays in its first HD-DVD disc releases, which were originally expected March 28. So while it's great for high-def DVD enthusiasts to have an HD-DVD rental option at Netflix, it will be even greater once there are actually a few titles available to rent. Here's hoping that's soon.
- Related links:
- Netflix Adds HD DVD Rentals [Hacking Netflix]
- Earlier on High-Def Digest:
- Netflix to Rent High-Def DVDs (Feb 24, 2006)
- HD-DVD Outlook Not Good as Warner Cancels Online Orders, Says Delays Likely (Mar 13, 2006)
Netflix to Rent High-Def DVDs
Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 01:02 PM ETTags: Netflix, High-Def Disc Rentals (all tags)
This morning, Netflix, the nation's leading
online DVD rental service, announced they intend to offer HD-DVD discs
to their customers beginning in March. The company also plays to support
the upcoming Blu-Ray format when it is expected to launch sometime later
in 2006.The Netflix announcement is good news for early adopters of either format. Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs are expected to sell at a premium at launch, so a strong rental option will no doubt be a boon for those who want to enjoy their hot new high-def players but not have to pay $40 to own 'Mission: Impossible 2.'
- Related links:
- Netflix Prepares to offer HD-DVD, Blu-Ray Rentals Online [TG Daily]
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