Netflix

Harris Interactive conducted the poll of nearly 1,500 TV streamers (online U.S. adults who stream TV shows at least once a week) on behalf of Netflix and found that 61% among that group binge regularly — and feel good about it.

When many studios license shows to Netflix they stipulate that the content can’t be distributed in the U.S. through a pay TV operator’s set-top box — but that should change, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers told analysts Tuesday. Netflix “has clearly risen to the level of a must-have” for consumers who want streamed video. And once Netflix can negotiate changes in its contracts “increasingly we’re hearing operators wanting to include Netflix in their distribution” after years of considering it a threat.

A fourth and final season will be available to Netflix subscribers, the streaming service said Friday. Six episodes are planned to give the crime drama a “proper send-off,” Netflix executive Cindy Holland said in a statement.

The makeover of Netflix’s TV menu will start showing up today on televisions that connect to the Internet through recently released Blu-ray disc players, PlayStation and Xbox video game consoles and the Roku 3 set-top box. Netflix’s service will look the same on its applications for mobile devices and its website, as well as on TVs that rely on Apple TV and a variety of other gadgets that stream Internet video.

The streaming service has launched a visually richer interface designed to increase the already-high amount of time subscribers watch its content on their television sets.

The most popular digital services in North Ameria continue to be Netflix and YouTube — by a wide margin, according to Sandvine’s newest Global Internet Phenomena Report. The report shows that video streams from the two services together made up more than half of all peak residential downstream traffic in the month of September. The other big names, Hulu and Amazon, together just account for 3% of all peak downstream traffic during the same time period.

In announcing that it struck a deal with Netflix for four new series based on Marvel Entertainment characters, Disney not only bypassed its broadcast and cable properties, but also Hulu, its co-owned online streaming service that is struggling to compete with Netflix.

The companies call this an “unprecedented deal” and “Marvel’s most ambitious foray yet into live-action TV storytelling.” Disney will provide Neflix with live action series and a miniseries featuring Marvel characters Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage. Netflix will offer at least four, 13-episode series over “multiple years” with a miniseries, The Defenders, that it says “reimagines a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters.”

Netflix is hoping to get on cable set-top boxes to hit aggressive growth targets, but not all U.S. operators are eager to partner up with the popular streaming company.

In a speech hosted by Film Independent, the nonprofit behind the indie film Spirit Awards, Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, said the company could start delivering new movies to its subscribers by doing the same thing it has done with its original TV shows, and becoming a first-run distributor.

Netflix and CBS announced a content-licensing agreement under which all eight seasons of the Showtime drama Dexter will become available for Netflix members in the U.S.

The video service said on Monday that it had surpassed 30 million U.S. subscribers and it reported third-quarter results that beat most expectations.

Netflix Inc. has endured a wild ride on the stock market during the last few years, but investors who have shown the stomach to hold on, including the company’s top executives, are reaping outsize rewards.

Netflix Inc. is in discussions with several U.S. cable television operators about including its streaming video service on their set-top boxes, a source said today. Netflix is in talks with companies including Comcast Corp and Suddenlink Communications, said the person, who is familiar with the discussions.

The chairman of Liberty Media compares the growing sense of bitterness in pay TV to the dysfunction in Washington: There’s so much tension lately between programmers and distributors — especially over pricing — because “like [in] the political system, the moderates have been driven out of the business,” John Malone told an investor gathering.  He said Internet video services led by Netflix have become so popular that they’ve pressured traditional pay TV companies to focus on short-term gains instead of deals that would create long-term value.

Without cable, Netflix doesn’t exist like it does today. If everyone one of the 100 million households in America with a pay-TV subscription dropped cable for Netflix, the company couldn’t support entertaining all of them for just $8 per month.

Nearly half of all TV homes today have the technology to take advantage of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and other over-the-top video-on-demand platforms. TV networks are now challeneged to figure out how to exploit those platforms.

Aziz Ansari’s comedy special Buried Alive will make its debut on Netflix, becoming the biggest stand-up special distributed by that subscription service, which promises even more comedy.

Ted Sarandos took a big gamble on committing to House of Cards without a pilot and releasing all its episodes at once. And he says ratings are irrelevant for a company that neither courts advertisers nor collects fees for cable or satellite TV subscribers.

Netflix continues its march to acquire big theatrical content exclusively for its streaming service — now with a big multi-year deal with The Weinstein Co. Netflix will become the exclusive U.S. pay TV service for first-run films from Weinstein beginning in 2016.

A study done by customer experience research firm ForeSee has found that in the streaming TV and movies category, Apple’s iTunes beat out competitors such as Netflix and HBO Go, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle and Hulu Plus.

It’s a complex task because Netflix has to account for viewers who have different Internet connection speeds, various screen sizes and different technologies running the devices. About 120 variations of code have been programmed into Orange Is The New Black to prepare it to be streamed on Netflix throughout the U.S and 39 other countries. Another set of engineers had to ensure foreign-language subtitles and dubbing were in place and streaming properly.

Netflix has given a good shaking to the settled world of television: it has provided its own series, streamed them over the Internet and made them available all at once everywhere.

Networks looking to capture more dollars from Netflix and Amazon Prime appear to have a lot of runway ahead, according to new research. GfK data shows Netflix users preferred TV content to movies by a 77% to 23% margin.

The Netflix series is the first online show to receive a best drama nomination. The most Emmy nominations, 17, went to American Horror Story: Asylum. Close behind was Game of Thrones with 16 nods, while Saturday Night Live and the Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra earned 15 nominations each, including nods for stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon.

CBS Corp. and Netflix Inc. extended the companies’ multi-year licensing agreement for certain content in the archives of programs CBS owns. Under the extended deal, new titles such as L.A. Complex, 4400 and CSI: NY will be available to Netflix subscribers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The online video service signs a deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television for past seasons of the Zooey Deschanel-led comedy.