More library series are departing Netflix for upstart streamers, leaving the service to increasingly rely on its “Originals.” Bettina Makalintal says that’s ushering in a new problem: “there’s now a glut of mediocre shows that make for nice background noise, but aren’t quite worth anyone’s complete focus.”
Netflix faced Wall Street’s brutal reckoning Thursday with its stock plummeting 10 percent, cleaving $17 billion in value from the streaming company. The hit came after Netflix said Wednesday that it had only added 2.7 million subscribers in its most recent quarter, far shy of the 5 million previously forecasted.
The prison drama was a landmark series of a time when the format and faces of TV were drastically changing.
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Netflix’s 2Q Dud Rattles Investors
The service picked up 2.7 million worldwide subscribers for the April-June period. That’s far below the 5 million subscribers forecast by Netflix. The slowdown worried investors already wondering how Netflix might fare against a new wave of competition coming this fall when both Walt Disney Co. and Apple plan to launch their own video streaming services.
The House Antitrust Subcommittee is holding the second of its two Big Tech hearings this week, hearing from the FAAG in FAANG, lacking only Netflix among the witness list and definitely meeting the criteria for the hearing’s title.
Netflix has named Jackie Lee Joe, the former marketing head of BBC Studios, its new chief marketing officer, the company announced Friday.
Netflix has “won the game” as far as streaming, according to media mogul Barry Diller, but among its soon-to-launch rivals, he said Disney has “the best chance” to apply pressure. Diller made the comments during a CNBC interview Wednesday in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he’s attending Allen & Co.’s annual retreat.
For sitcoms, dramas and reality shows, the jump to streaming was easy. But talk shows? It’s tricky.
The NBC cult favorite will leave Netflix when its current deal with the streamer expires at the end of 2020. NBCUniversal’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer platform will then be the exclusive streaming home for all nine seasons of the comedy starting in 2021.
Netflix is testing a pop-out player so subscribers can watch content on the service while continuing to use other applications. The feature lets users pop out a screen that floats on top of other windows and applications. Users can resize the player by clicking and dragging. Right now, the feature doesn’t support subtitles.
Wolfe Research Managing Director Marci Ryvicker initiated coverage of Netflix on Thursday with an “outperform” rating and a $442 price target, adding that despite fears new streaming video offerings from top programmers could cut into its business, the SVOD pioneer should still dominate.
Netflix is getting its toes wet with video games to expand beyond its roots. On Wednesday, Netflix announced that it would work with developer Next Games to create a third mobile game based on its hit series Stranger Things.That game, expected to be available in 2020, follows the debut of Stranger Things: The Game from 2017. Stranger Things 3: The Game also drops July 4, the same day the third season of the show premieres.
Why was Jeff Franklin removed from his role as showrunner of Fuller House? A studio executive testifies that multiple female writers accused the TV veteran of boasting of orgies, denigrating female directors and expressing the wish that female staffers would get hysterectomies.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge rejects Netflix’s view that Fox’s employment contracts are tainted with illegality.
“Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement.
When the first output deal between Netflix and CW parents CBS and Warner Bros was announced in 2011, it was hailed as groundbreaking and, with its $1 billion windfall, a lifeline that may have helped save the then money-losing upstart network. The pact, re-uped by both sides in 2016 with some modifications, was up again this spring, and it’s not being renewed. The three new CW series — Batwoman, Nancy Drew and Riverdale spinoff Katy Keen— are being shopped for streaming deals individually by their respective studios.
Netflix acquired the StoryBots children’s media brand as the world’s largest streaming service prepares to challenge rival Walt Disney Co.’s kid-friendly online platform scheduled to start in November.
The Obamas say they “couldn’t be more excited” about the projects they’re announcing Tuesday for their Netflix production company. The lineup includes a series about food aimed at preschoolers, a scripted drama about the post-World War II fashion world and a documentary film focused on American factories.
