Sandvine report confirms: video makes bandwidth hogs of us all
Video has long been the driving force behind our growth in broadband traffic. The latest Sandvine report shows us that’s still the case and offers clues on how ISPs may cope. Read more »
Netflix makes changes to public API after “Streamageddon” backlash
Figuring out which titles are going expire soon on Netflix just got a lot harder: The company changed its public API Monday night to prevent this information from popping up on third-party websites. Read more at paidContent »
How Reed Hastings’ busy 2005 winter vacation led Netflix to embrace big data
Netflix CEO thought he could do a better job at developing a recommendation algorithm than his engineers. He failed – and the episode shaped the way the company has looked at data ever since. Read more »
Fox sees “healthy growth” of home video market, thanks to digital downloads
News Corp COO Chase Carey spoke about Fox’s digital strategy in an earnings call Wednesday afternoon. The company saw strong growth in home video, thanks to digital downloads. Carey also acknowledged that Hulu will have to adapt in coming years to compete with Netflix. Read more at paidContent »
How Snapchat made a leap of faith by building atop Google cloud services
As more companies build their businesses on cloud infrastructure, it’s important to not only understand the technical decisions behind their architecture, but also the economic ones. That’s one of the topics we’ll explore at Structure. Read more »
You gotta watch this House of Cards spoof for the White House Correspondents’ dinner
Have you been watching House of Cards? Then make sure to catch this spoof, created for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and starring key D.C. insiders. Read more »
Eucalyptus supports Netflix tools to prove its Amazon cloud compatibility
Eucalyptus wants to be the most compatible of AWS-compatible private clouds and says its support of Netflix OSS tools proves it is just that. Read more »
Carriots is building a PaaS for the internet of things
Carriots, a Madrid startup, wants to build a PaaS for the internet of things. Is this the right model to help spur more hardware development, or should companies build out their own infrastructure? Read more »
The future of TV, according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings
TV is fundamentally changing from a linear delivery model to a world in which apps compete with each other, and Netflix is spending billions to be part of that future. Read more at paidContent »
Netflix CEO: password sharing is not a big deal
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings doesn’t really think that many people are sharing their accounts with extended family members. His remarks came in response to an estimate that 10 million people watch Netflix without paying for it. Read more »
The House of Cards effect: Netflix tops $1B in Q1 revenue, near 30M U.S. subscribers
photo: Netflix
Netflix made more than $1 billion in revenue for the first time in its corporate history last quarter. The company also used its Q1 results to announce a new $12 family plan. Read more at paidContent »
Zombies vs. Lazarus: The digital resurrection of canceled television
It’s now common practice for canceled shows to find their way to fans via digital means, but there’s a big difference between uploading unaired episodes and truly coming back to life. Read more at paidContent »
How to hire data scientists and get hired as one
photo: Shutterstock / Sergey Nivens
Data scientist might be the sexiest job of the 21st century, but it’s hardly an easy gig to land. Here is some advice from practitioners at Netflix, Orbitz and Hortonworks on how get hired and even do the hiring. Read more »
Netflix users watched more than four billion hours of video in Q1
photo: Netflix
Netflix streamed more than four billion hours of movies and TV shows to its members in the first quarter of this year. Read more at paidContent »
US TV cord cutter households will reach 4.7 million (4.7%) by year-end 2013
— Convergence Consulting Group
Netflix job offers hint at further international expansion: are India, Europe or Korea next?
photo: kcp4911
Netflix won’t expand to another international market until the end of this or early next year, but the company is already looking for help to translate its site – giving us some interesting clues. Read more at paidContent »
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken & Co. start streaming on Netflix
Fans of edgy animated fare just got a few more reasons to binge as Netflix has started to add cult classics from Adult Swim and Cartoon Network to its catalog. Read more at paidContent »
Content for cord cutters is going to get harder to find, industry executive predicts
photo: Shutterstock user Vlue
The TV industry knows that broadband changes its business, but it can’t adapt quickly. That’s why the CEO of Conviva expects cord cutters to suffer higher fees and less content in the short term. Read more »
3 shades of latency: How Netflix built a data architecture around timeliness
Netflix computes information in different ways, depending on how soon the data needs to get served up to customers or evaluated internally. The nuanced approach extends to Facebook, LinkedIn and other webscale companies. Read more »
We can’t let the Internet of Things become the Tyranny of Things
The Internet of Things isn’t just some futuristic concept — it already exists. But often badly. For it to succeed, it will need an economy supported by developers who can rely on open standards and APIs. Read more »
Netflix fronts $100K for best cloud ideas
photo: Flickr/401(K) 2012
Netflix wants to hear about your great cloud computing ideas and is willing to pay for the privilege. Read more »
Netflix goes social, turns on Facebook integration for U.S. subscribers
Netflix rolled out its Facebook integration for U.S. subscribers Wednesday, offering them an easy way to see what they friends are watching on the service. Read more »
Press Play: Netflix arrives on the $249 Samsung Chromebook
Nearly five months after it launched, Samsung’s $249 Chromebook gets Netflix. We knew this was coming but the surprising thing is that Microsoft helped out. Read more »
Netflix launches global ISP speed index website
Google Fiber is the world’s fastest ISP… for Netflix viewing, anyway: Netflix is now aggregating all of its ISP speed data on one website. Read more »
Video recommendation engine Fanhattan expands from iOS to the web
Fanhattan, which is like a TV Guide for iPad, has launched out a beta web version with new discovery and recommendation features. On the web, it offers more content recommendations from more providers — 29 on the web, compared to 16 on iOS. Read more »
Sony Entertainment CEO: DVRs and Netflix have made TV better
The rise of long-form TV dramas is often attributed to networks like HBO and Showtime, but Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton believes it’s a direct result of Netflix and digital video recorders. Read more »
Netflix to launch original kids’ series with DreamWorks this December
Netflix is partnering with DreamWorks to release its first original children’s show this December. Netflix will also add new DreamWorks films to its streaming lineup. Read more at paidContent »
House Of Cards, one week later: Spoiler alerts and the DVD question
The first season of House of Cards is full of intrigue and plot twists — but the drama it’s created for the television industry is almost as compelling. Read more at paidContent »
Netflix to developers: More monkeys to come
If you like Chaos Monkey or any of its Simian Army pals, Netflix has some more stuff for you to check out. Here’s a sneak peek. Read more »
Binge-viewing Netflix’s House of Cards: I just had a very long day of drama
Netflix’s got a unique approach to distributing its original content: Post all the episodes at once, then encourage the audience to mainline it. But what’s the actual experience of binge-viewing like? This reporter boldly investigates. Read more at paidContent »
Sorry, Netflix and Hulu: Amazon gets exclusive streaming rights to Downton Abbey
Amazon announced Friday that by the end of 2013, Prime Instant Video will be the only paid streaming service to offer episodes of Downton Abbey. Hulu Plus and Netflix will lose access. Read more at paidContent »
Cord Cutters: A first look at Netflix’s House Of Cards
photo: Netflix
Netflix is about to launch the first season of its original drama House Of Cards. It’s like a premium cable drama – but available to cord cutters. Read more »
You might also like … to know how online recommendations work
photo: Shutterstock / Ivelin Radkov
In order to recommend new events for its members, online event-management company Eventbrite must build what it calls “implicit social graphs.” It’s just one of many approaches to figuring out what content users want to see. Read more »
It may well be the most important document ever to come out of the Valley.
— Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg about Netflix's famous "company culture" deck.
AWS launches transcoding service a week after Microsoft goes after media biz
Amazon has hopped into the video transcoding business with it’s new Elastic Transcoder service, joining Microsoft, Encoding.com and others as providers of such a service. Read more »
Netflix will launch personalized profiles some time this year
Personalized profiles are coming to Netflix this year, according to CEO Reed Hastings – but the company is still testing this kind of personalization to make it simple enough. Read more »
Netflix ends year on a high note, calls House of Cards “defining moment for Internet TV”
Netflix did better than many expected in its Q4, and the company is already gearing up for another big moment: The release of its scripted series House of Cards next month. Read more at paidContent »
Google removes obstacle for Netflix (and more) on Samsung Chromebooks
I was enamored with Samsung’s newest Chromebook except for one key aspect: It couldn’t run some of the same apps as my older Chrome OS device. Google just fixed this with new support for ARM chips. Read more »
The story behind DIAL: How Netflix and YouTube want to take on AirPlay
Watch out, AirPlay: Netflix and YouTube are working on an open second screen protocol, and they’ve already secured support from key CE makers and content platforms. Read more »
It’s on: Time Warner Cable alleges that Netflix discriminates against its customers
Time Warner Cable wants Netflix’s 3-D movies – but not its Open Connect CDN. That’s why the cable provider is now alleging discrimination. Read more »
