Qwikster: The People Speak! (Unfavorably!)
Someday, the name “Qwikster” may be famous, even beloved–or at least tolerated. For now, even pundits who think that Netflix is doing the right thing by splitting its Internet streaming and...
View ArticleBlockbuster’s New Service Isn’t a Qwikster Killer. At Least Not Yet.
I just attended a press conference hosted by Dish Network and its Blockbuster division, where they announced Blockbuster Movie Pass, a service with discs-by-mail (including Blu-Ray and games at no...
View ArticleRoku Dips Below $50, Adds HBO GO
Roku, which pretty much invented the cheap, easy-to-use Internet TV streaming box, is the sort of scrappy startup which you might have assumed would get steamrolled by mammoth competitors early on....
View ArticleVerizon FiOS Xbox Live TV Deal Is Another Disappointing Half-Measure
Giving people more options is generally a good thing, and the announcement on Tuesday that Verizon would offer a couple dozen FiOS cable TV channels through a new Xbox Live app certainly isn’t a bad...
View ArticleFour Times the TiVo
At the CEDIA home electronics show in Indianapolis, TiVo announced a new TiVo: the Premiere Elite. It’s a high-end upgrade to the company’s current DVR with four (!) tuners, 2TB of storage, THX...
View ArticleNetflix Price Hike: One Plausible Theory
Why did Netflix raise (most of) its prices in July? Weirdly, given all the consternation and CEO Reed Hastings’ mea culpa/rebranding announcement this week, it’s never explained its decision in...
View ArticleSell Netflix to Amazon? That Might Be Crazy Enough to Work
This whole Netflix-Qwikster split had a fair number of people wondering if Reed Hastings had lost his mind. Hastings is no dummy, though, so there’s got to be some sort of method to the perceived...
View ArticleThe Case for Screwing Up Netflix
Marc Randolph, a former Netflix employee–he was a founder and the first CEO–has chimed in on this whole Qwikster mess. He makes a more compelling, coherent case for divvying up the company’s streaming...
View ArticleGoal One for Netflix: Be Normal
Netflix has announced its third-quarter results, and one stat stands out: 800,000 customers left the service its user base shrunk by 800,000 customers overall. Netflix says the defectors were mostly...
View ArticleGoogle TV Lives!
A year ago, the first devices based on Google TV–Logitech’s Revue box and some Sony TVs–debuted. Initial irrational exuberance over for the platform melted away quickly: The software was buggy and...
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