VideoNuze Posts

The Wall Street Journal has launched its WSJ Live YouTube channel this morning, debuting "Off Duty" a companion video series to the popular lifestyle section in the newspaper's Weekend Journal. The WSJ Live channel is the latest addition to YouTube's 100 original channels strategy. In addition to Off Duty, the WSJ Live channel features NewsHub, Digits and Mean Street, three other on-demand/live video series that are found on the main WSJ.com site and more recently the WSJ Live iPad app.

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Some start-ups go to great lengths for visibility before ever launching a product or landing a customer, whereas others stay completely below the radar until they have big concrete news to share. Squarely in the latter category is eyeIO (never mind the awkward name) an "ultra-low-bandwidth" encoding technology provider that has a bare bones web site, but does have a very high-profile first customer in Netflix. Yesterday, Rodolfo Vargas, eyeIO's CEO and co-founder and Charles Steinberg, another co-founder updated me, though they are still playing things pretty close to the vest.

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There are many exciting things happening in the online video industry, but to my mind, none is more noteworthy than the radical transformation of YouTube. YouTube is shedding its scruffy adolescence and seeking to redefine what entertainment means in the online video era. In fact, with each passing day, it becomes more evident that YouTube is building a parallel universe to the traditional world of cable TV, targeting niches that have long been mined by a multitude of specialty channels. This theme will crystallize as 2012 unfolds.

YouTube's 100 new channels of original online-only content have begun rolling out and will continue to do so throughout the year. For a relatively modest $100 million (by Google's standards!) YouTube is getting first dibs on programming that is laser-targeted at valuable niches. Importantly, it is helping galvanize a community of content creators who have either not been a part of the traditional pay and broadcast TV ecosystem, or are seeking a new, less constrained environment to play in, or both.

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I'm pleased to be joined once again by Colin Dixon, senior partner at The Diffusion Group, for the 118th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for Jan. 27, 2012. In this week's podcast we discuss Netflix's Q4 '11 results, which were released this past Wed. afternoon.

The good news is that the results showed some glimmers of improvement in Netflix's business, but as I explained yesterday's post, net subscribers continued to be adversely affected by last summer's Qwikster and price increase decisions. The group showing the most attrition is the "hybrid" DVD/streaming U.S. subscribers who saw their rates increase by up to 60%. Colin and I dig into why this group is in fact still so vital to Netflix's success, and the risks posed by the company's strategy of pursuing streaming all out.

Colin also shares recent research TDG has done indicating that for those Netflix streaming subscribers retaining the service, satisfaction is running very high. That, combined with Netflix's own announcement that 2 billion hours of streaming content were consumed in Q4 '11, are encouraging indicators that the streaming service is resonating. Still, the big looming question for 2012 is how robust net U.S. subscriber growth will be. Listen in to learn more!

Click here to listen to the podcast (22 minutes, 31 seconds)



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If you're a Netflix follower (and these days, who in the industry isn't?) then this morning you're being greeted by many cheerful headlines regarding the company's Q4 '11 results, released late yesterday. A sampling includes: "Netflix shares surging after a blowout quarter," "Netflix wins over analysts by adding customers," "Netflix recovers subscribers" and "A turnaround at Netflix, as its mail sector shrinks." All of that is contributing to a run-up in Netflix's stock price, based on optimism that the company is back on track, and ready to surge again.

To be fair, given the negative sentiment shrouding Netflix for the last 6 months and dramatically reduced expectations, the results did show some glimmers of a turnaround. But, if you read past the headlines, look closely at the numbers and listen to management's discussion of the results, what emerges for me are the staggering ongoing consequences of last summer's Qwikster/price change fiasco, the continued pursuit of an unnecessary, hyper-aggressive phase-out of its core DVD-by-mail business, murkiness about its international prospects and near-certain intensifying competition in streaming. Given all that, I think it's still way too early to conclude Netflix is back on track, particularly in the U.S.

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Netflix will report its Q4 '11 earnings later today, but whereas I've taken stands in past quarters about subscriber acquisition results, this time around I can only say your guess is as good as mine. Subsequent to last summer's Qwikster and price increase fiascos, Netflix entered a zone of uncertainty about whether and how its subscriber growth in its critical domestic segment will restart.

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