Netflix

Netflix I personally believe that the backlash will die down in time, as it tends to do with other controversial redesigns (see Facebook, which is closing in on 700 million users). Still, a lot of those upset with the Netflix redesign are saying they’re going to quit the service. Empty threats? Some of them maybe. For others, probably not. Either way, it doesn’t seem to be phasing the company too much.In an Entertainment Weekly article, Steve Swasey, vice president of corporate communicates at Netflix is quoted as saying.While Time Warner’s HBO has made its HBO Go service available in cooperation with TV distributors to help retain customers longer-term, Viacom has been among cable network owners that have raised concerns over cable operators’ attempts to make channels available via their iPad apps without additional payments to the network owners.


Netflix may not always be mentioned outright at the Cable Show, but it is likely to shape some of the messages at the event. “Netflix as a competitive VOD provider will face tougher competition from the cable operators who will highlight their amount of VOD content and who will try to get more content availability,” Joyce said.The Cable Show kicks off Tuesday morning with a welcome from convention co-chairs David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications, and Kent, followed by a speech from recently named Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, the brother of WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel.

Despite its rhetorical positioning, both Netflix and PayTV operators have long been aware that there will come a point at which its services are not only dilutive to regular TV viewing, but antithetical to PayTV subscription levels," Greeson said. "The question for realistic observers has been not if this will occur but when. According to our latest research, that time is upon us.The continuing bleak economy is also contributing to viewers' tendency to abandon pay TV. Of those Netflix streamers who say that they're likely to downgrade their pay TV services in the next six months, nearly half cited "cost of service" and "need to save money" as a reason for doing so, compared to 34 percent who cite their increasing consumption of video via the web.

Netflix