Netflix

It’s the biggest threat to traditional TV among digital options. Though it has thrived as a subscription service, many buyers see the addition of advertising as inevitable.

Vintage shows and films, from ’60s sitcoms to British TV favorites to Charlie Chaplin movies, are finding a new audience on sites such as Netflix and Hulu.

If Netflix were a Nielsen-rated TV network, the No. 1 streaming service would, within a year, attain a larger 24-hour audience than each of the major broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC — according to Wall Street analyst firm FBR Capital Markets.

Now that we’re three seasons into “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black,” it appears that binge viewing has had its “moment.” When both of these series premiered on Netflix, what truly set them apart, aside from their nervy brilliance, was their presentation: You could watch as many hours as you wanted. But the reality is with a Netflix series, there is no shared experience, which, let’s face it, is one of the great pleasures of watching television. When we get to the climax of the story, we want to talk about it the day after. It’s a kind of celebration.

Netflix shares are reaching such dizzying heights that Chief Executive Reed Hastings must be suffering from altitude sickness. Shares of the streaming video juggernaut hit another record high on Wednesday, climbing climbed 3.7% to $671.10, as investors bet on the company’s continued subscriber growth, overseas expansion and a likely stock split.

LOS GATOS, Calif. (AP) — Netflix will debut in Italy and Portugal in October as the Internet video service accelerates its international expansion. The move into two more European countries […]

“No advertising coming onto Netflix. Period,” CEO Reed Hastings said in a Facebook post. “Just adding relevant cool trailers for other Netflix content you are likely to love.” The post came after reports surfaced that Netflix has begun experimenting with ads before shows, but they are not ads in the traditional sense.

Whatever the outcome of the latest proposed mergers and acquisitions in the media industry, a clear winner has already emerged, and it’s not even a party to any of the deals: Netflix, the streaming television pioneer. To many in the cable and broadband businesses, the invisible hand of Netflix has been apparent in the failed Comcast-Time Warner Cable combination; in likely restrictions on the merger between AT&T and DirecTV; and in the Obama administration’s embrace of net neutrality, to cite just three prominent examples.

Netflix’s power in Washington is growing as it becomes a bigger threat to traditional television. In the capital, the fast-growing company is looking to make sure its business model isn’t threatened by cable and satellite companies — which also provide an increasing share of the public’s Internet service. That leaves potential rivals in control of the pipes that Netflix relies on to transfer its shows to customers.

Netflix continues to have a major impact on TV viewing — its viewing hours, in relation to traditional TV viewing, are now double the number of a year ago. There were 10 billion hours streamed for Netflix against 129.5 billion hours for traditional linear TV viewing in the quarter.

For most of its rapid ascent of the TV business, Netflix Inc. has rented shows. Now it wants to own them. Like a major Hollywood studio or competitor HBO, the company will own many of the 20 or more original shows that debut on its streaming service next year, Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said in an interview. “We’ve continued to expand our creative role on the shows,” Hastings said. “Now we’re taking on ownership and production.”

Netlix CEO Reed Hastings wants to position the company’s original programming “as broad as the human experience.” But intensifying waves of competition and costly global expansion plans may hamper its efforts. Yet Hastings sees some of that competition, especially from HBO, as fueling a Yankees/Red Sox-level rivalry that will spur formidable creativity.

Netflix said Wednesday that it gained 4.9 million subscribers in the first three months of the year, more than any other quarter since the video streaming service’s debut eight years ago. About 2.3 million of the new customers were in the U.S., where Netflix’s subscriber count surpassed 40 million for the first time.

Anne Sweeney, the former co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group, has joined Netflix’s board of directors.

After years of battling traditional players in the television business, the big three streaming services must defend against a variety of new offerings.

Nielsen will begin offering data on viewing by Netflix and Amazon Prime subscribers for the first time starting midyear, CEO Mitch Barns said Tuesday. “That will be the last significant portion of overall television content viewing that we don’t already measure,” Barns said.

The success of The Jinx and Netflix’s push into documentaries has helped fuel a resurgence of interest in non-fiction filmmaking and television programs.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bloodine, Daredevil and the return of Orange is the New Black mean Netflix is still the best spot in rapidly expanding OTT land.

Netflix has acted to subtly reframe the debate in Washington over the FCC’s proposed Title II public utility regulation of the Internet in the name of “net neutrality.” Netflix, known for its innovation in reshaping the entertainment industry, worked to add unprecedented regulations to new net neutrality rules that will cement its power, eliminate its current costs and, in turn, pass those costs onto all Internet users to benefit its bottom line.

Today sees the season three debut of the political drama that launched Netflix’s expansion into original programming two years ago. That was a risky bet that might have toppled the Internet video service had House of Cards flopped and squandered its estimated $100 million investment. Instead, the show was an immediate hit with viewers and critics, giving Netflix the financial clout and creative firepower to further transform how we watch and define “television.”

An internal bug put House of Cards‘ third season up on Netflix just long enough to freak out the entire Internet. It’s gone now.

“The entertainment industry will be driven by the television business and not the movie business,” said Sony Pictures Television President Steve Mosko last night at a Chapman University panel session. TV used to be the industry’s “bastard child,” but it is now a creative mecca. “I think the motion picture business is still a great business, but there’s just so much television being produced — and so much good television being produced.” Execs of AMC and Netflix also appeared on the panel.