Items tagged with etf
What if you're an up-and-coming mobile carrier, needing to make yourself evident to those who are blitzed with ads from the dominant players? If you're Ting, you create a $100,000 "ETF Payout" fund, and you encourage people to join your network while promising to use some of that fund to pay for their early termination fee. This story is more than a concept; it's true. Starting on 2/1, the Ting $100,000 ETF payoff page will go live. Continuing through the end of the month, Ting will be paying off the early termination fees (ETF) up to $350 per line for anyone that’s ready to ditch their mobile contract and come over to Ting. Ting is a no-contract carrier, so the ETF payment comes in the...
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Some things in the wireless industry are great for consumers. Like, carriers spending billions in order to improve network quality and infrastructure. And offering more and more smartphones nowadays. And making voice minutes cheaper and cheaper to buy. But some things, as you all know, aren't so great. Like Sprint's $10/month surcharge for WiMAX on the EVO 4G, even if you don't live in a 4G area. Or AT&T's lock-down on the iPhone family. Or the fact that no carrier wants to price-cut another when it comes to mobile WWAN data pricing. And now we can add another negative to this growing list: ETF increases. Last November, Verizon Wireless made headlines by becoming the first U.S. wireless operator...
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What might come as a surprise for many people is not that Netflix will cease selling used DVDs, but that Netflix was actually selling used DVDs in the first place. Selling "previously viewed DVDs" (as Netflix calls them--sort of like how used car salesmen sell "previously-owned vehicles"), has been part of the services that Netflix has offered for sometime, with some discs selling for as little as $5.99. But after November 30, Netflix will no longer offer this service, so that it can focus on its "core business" of "delivering great movie rentals to you on DVD by mail and instantly to the computer and TV" as the company recently reported on its blog. Netflix has been making quite a few changes...
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Windows PC owners have been able to enjoy Netflix's Watch Instantly movie and TV streaming service since January 2007. The service even significantly expanded the quantity and quality of its streaming content recently by partnering with CBS Television Network, Disney-ABC Television Group, and Starz Entertainment. But Netflix customers who own Macs have been all but left out in the cold. The Netflix Watch Instantly service currently doesn't work on Macs. The only way a Mac user could use the service would be to use in on a Windows partition running Boot Camp. But this is all about to change, thanks to none other than Microsoft... If you spent any amount of time online this last August, you would...
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Netflix and Samsung Partner to Instantly Stream Movies on Next Generation Blu-ray Disc Players Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray Players Transformed into Gateways that Give Consumers Access to More Than 12,000 Choices of Movies and TV Episodes from Netflix Partnership will Include Streaming to a Range of Home Entertainment Products LOS GATOS, Calif. and RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, and Samsung Electronics America, a market leader and award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, today announced a broad partnership to offer consumers the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes...
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Most of us still watch movies the old fashioned way: on DVD. Okay, maybe watching movies on DVD isn't that old, but for every $10 U.S. consumers spend on movie and TV entertainment, $8 of it goes to purchasing or renting DVDs... Which certainly makes us wish we bought Netflix stock when it first starting trading publicly in 2002. But DVDs won't remain the number one movie and TV source forever. And no, Blu-ray is unlikely to be DVD's ultimate successor either. The future--and it's not a very distant future--of movie and TV consumption is via online streaming. Netflix knows this and it is why the company has been building its film and TV streaming library for the last year and a half. The problem...
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Sometimes a "very, very, very small minority" can have a big impact--especially if that minority is a very, very, very vocal one. A week and a half ago, Netflix announced that it would be killing off its Profiles feature. But following the outpouring of a not-so-silent minority who were less-than thrilled with this decision, Netflix has done an about-face and now reports that Netflix Profiles has been not only been granted a stay of execution, but a full pardon. The following e-mail went out to some Netflix users today:The Netflix Community Blog further reports on this issue by stating:"We were persuaded by the well-reasoned, sincere responses of loyal members who very much value this feature....
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UPDATE: We heard back from Steve Swasey, Vice President, Corporate Communications for Netflix. Swasey explained that a "very, very, very small minority" of Netflix users actually use the Profiles feature. When we commented that he used the word "very" three times, he joked that a few more "very's" might actually be applicable. He would not comment, however, on what the actual percentage is of Netflix users who use Profiles. Swasey also pointed us to today's post on the Netflix Community Blog, where a Netflix product manager added the following salient comments: "Please know that the motivation is solely driven by keeping our service as simple and as easy to use as possible. Too many members found...
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A little over a week ago, Netflix unveiled a set-top box for watching on-demand movies and TV. The content box -- dubbed the "Netflix Player" -- was developed by the ingenious team at Roku.We were curious about the box and how it came to be, so we chatted with Tim Twerdahl, the VP of Consumer Products for Roku. Tim told us a little about the guts of the box, the future of the set-top box, and what he's watching now. Here's what we found out...Hey Tim, what powers the Player?Tim: It's running on Linux and we're using an NXP core processor. I'm not really deep into the tech side of things, but the version of Linux it's running is not off-the-shelf.Is there a storage device in the player?Tim: ...
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A set-top box that delivers streaming video from Netflix is now a reality. The Netflix Player is made by Roku, and retails for about $100. If you've got access to a broadband connection, have a Netflix rental account, and own a Roku box and some cables, you're good to go. Just not "go everywhere," yet. Setup is simple, and--if you've got a solid broadband connection--picture quality is acceptable and streaming performance was almost entirely lag-free. Those looking for the HD video quality and polished interface of Apple TV and Vudu will be disappointed. The Netflix Player is strictly barebones--you're not intended to do anything more than just dive in and watch the movies and TV shows...
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Call this a rumor, but a particularly cool one.Netflix may consider extending its Watch Instantly movie streaming feature to game consoles, says one customer presented with a survey by the company. Polling its subscriber base, the rental outlet asks households if they would like to watch both movies and TV shows through either the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360 and suggests a custom software implementation that would allow the feature.No confirmation yet, and only one report of this survey, which makes this report very questionable yet. It would indeed be a cool feature, however....
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Start the funeral dirge, if you haven't already. Yet another nail in the coffin, as Netflix today announced it will only carry Blu-ray, phasing out HD-DVD titles by "roughly" the end of the year."The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points...
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Apple is expected to announce a movie rental service at Macworld. Hoping to reduce some of the impact, Netflix is going to expand its streaming movie service. Formerly users could only watch a limited number of hours based on their subscription tier, but beginning Monday, all but the lowest tier will have unlimited access to streaming video.The Associated Press has learned the change will become effective Monday, on the eve of Apple's widely anticipated move into the movie rental industry. Although Apple hasn't confirmed anything yet, Chief Executive Steve Jobs is expected to make it official during a presentation Tuesday in San Francisco.Netflix is gearing up for the increased competition by...
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Netflix is making deals with electronics makers to allow their rental service customers to (eventually) stream high-definition video directly to their televisions. Netflix has been tinkering with the idea of offering their own set-top box, but seem to be abandoning that idea in favor of working with established manufacturers of televisions and various set-top boxes. LG Electronics might be the first manufacturer to join up with Netflix, by integrating the player into a future version of their hybrid HD DVD/Blu-ray player.The partnership will extend a novel feature from Netflix, announced a year ago, that allows paying subscribers to watch any of 6,000 movies and television shows on its Web site...
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The US Postal service has allegedly delivered an ultimatum to Netflix: Change your envelopes or pay $0.17 a piece. While 17 pennies doesn't seem like a lot on the surface, that could impact their operating income/customer by as much as a reported 67%!“Not surprisingly, it sounds as if Netflix will bite the bullet and redesign the problematic mailer if the USPS is serious about the charges, so feel free to keep an eye out for a design change in the not-too-distant future.”The whole issue boils down to Netflix's use of “nonmachinable” packaging, which the USPS estimates has cost them $41.9 million in additional labor over the past 2 years. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night,...
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Netflix has recently lowered their prices for 3 DVDs to $16.99, and for a select few (million) customers, they’re trying a lower price point of $15.99 to see where the ‘sweet spot’ is.These price cuts come on the heels of Blockbuster acquiring Movielink earlier this month, a move that many claim will be a major part of Blockbuster’s strategy to compete with the well entrenched Netflix. “Hey, keep those price reductions coming, Netflix! Pretty soon, they'll be giving them away. We have a price war on our hands between Netflix and Blockbuster, folks, and it looks like we movie buffs will be the winners.” It seems that a major price war is starting up, and that’s nothing but good for consumers....
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While buying on the Internet is a) easy, b) fast, c) frequently less expensive, it can also be frustrating, particularly when there is a customer service issue or a return to be made. Granted, some companies such as Amazon.com make returns easy, by making the entire process of a return as easy as the buying process, and even providing free return shipping if the error is theirs. However, sometimes you really, really need to communicate with a human. Email, while faster than snail-mail, is simply too slow for these types of issues. This problem has even led to the creation of some websites that post "hidden" customer service numbers.Netflix, after experiencing its first decline in subscribers...
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Online video rental service Netflix noticed that their big rival for your rental dollar, Blockbuster, was wooing away their customers with lower prices. So Netflix is lowering the cost of two of their most popular subscription plans to match Blockbuster's prices. With the reductions announced Sunday, Netflix will charge $16.99 per month for subscribers who keep up to three DVDs at a time with no limit on how frequently the discs are mailed back in return for another movie. The price to keep one DVD at a time will fall to $8.99 per month. The price cuts, which take effect Tuesday, match Blockbuster's fees for similar online services. Earlier this year, Netflix...
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According to the Financial Times, Apple is preparing to offer a video-on-demand download service that will offer prime content from Hollywood's major movie studios -- and at a price point and length of rental that could make tumbleweeds blow through your local video rental store and mail order rental houses. A film would cost $2.99 for a 30-day rental. Its digital rights-management software would allow films to be moved from a computer to at least one other device such as the video iPod or iPhone. The software would prevent movies being copied. One studio executive said the service would “compete against cable companies and anyone else offering VOD into the home”....
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Netflix video rental has grown into a very big business, shipping 1.5 million DVDs a day to its subscribers. Along the way, it's spawned a luxuriant undergrowth of hackers of its service. Netflix has established a sort of symbiotic relationship with them, and takes the good (fanatical interest in the business, good ideas for features) along with the bad (gaming the service, plain stealing). Not all hacks require loads of technology know-how: One user discovered that he could view his Netflix queue through his Bank of America portfolio page, an easy-to-set-up aggregator for bank and e-mail accounts that BOA offers free to its account holders....
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