Netflix Now Boasts More Subscribers Than Showtime, Starz, HBO Next?

Netflix added 3.1 million subscriptions during the fourth quarter of 2010, and now has more than 20 million subscribers. That's more than the total subscribers of premium channels Starz and Showtime, which have 17.3 million and 18.2 million subscribers, respectively.

What that means is that Netflix is competing with the premium cable channels, not basic cable (ad-supported channels such as ESPN).

Netflix now estimates it will expand to as many as 22.8 million subscribers in the coming quarter, a possible uptick of 14 percent. Meanwhile, the subscriber base for HBO, which ended its last quarter with 28.55 million subscribers, fell to its lowest levels in four years, and dropped 1.9 percent from the last quarter.

Netflix may someday more directly threaten basic cable service. For the moment, it seems to be doing just fine cannibalizing premium TV networks. In response, cable and other networks will have to start cannibalizing their own premium channels as well, since video-on-demand essentially replicates the Netflix streaming service.

Netflix Now Boasts More Subscribers Than Showtime, Starz, HBO Next? | Fast Company

Netflix Beats, Worry Grows (Insert "Apple" and You Know the Story)

Netflix Really Becomes "Net Flicks"

The issue now is whether Netflix has put so much distance between itself and others that the others cannot catch up.

The iPadification of the Web

Design on the Web needs a reboot — and the iPad may provide the push publishers need to toggle the switch. But will smarter-looking online offerings save old media?

Creators of Web content have poured considerable effort into reinventing their websites as top-down, gorgeously designed experiences for Apple’s tablet and other mobile devices, in the hope that what they give away on the Web might turn into something their audience will pay for as an app.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/29/ipadification-of-the-web/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Venturebeat+%28VentureBeat%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Shift in Thinking About Broadband Devices and Usage?

Some observers have less faith in consumer common sense than others do. Some might argue that consumers will not accept reasonable policies and plans related to broadband access for their devices. Up to this point, some might simply point to growing usage, and argue that dire consequences will result if there are any changes in pricing that reflect usage to some significant degree. Others might argue that consumers and providers are rational, and that both are capable of changing usage patterns in ways that provide the value users want, and yet also allow providers the ability to recoup their investments.

Customers are rational, are capable of understanding the consequences of behavior, and so will change their behavior. "Contrary to the popular view, tiered pricing, whereby subscribers pay for the bandwidth they consume, will not signal the death of the mobile Internet," argues Yankee Group analyst Declan Longergan.

Service providers and consumers will learn to live with bandwidth and devices in ways that satisfy their needs, without bankrupting carriers or slowing innovation. "In the same way that the notion of eco-friendly consumption behavior has gradually entered the public consciousness, so too will the idea of network-friendly (and unfriendly) mobile devices," says Lonergan. Service providers and the most sophisticated end-users will pay more attention to which devices make most efficient use of limited network resources and monthly data allowances, and will change. Over time, so will most other people.

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Google and Facebook "Competition" is About Ad Revenue

Google's real competition isn't other search engines like Microsoft's Bing or Yahoo, some would argue.

Nor does Facebook currently face much of a threat from other social-networking sites.

But what some would say now is happening is a struggle between Google and Facebook over user attention, which is related to the matter of advertising attractiveness and hence, revenue.

Common Sense: Will Google Survive Facebook? - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Targeted Advertising Faces Headwinds

Will the future of online advertising be highly targeted or not? It increasingly seems it will only be partly so. Facing presure from the Federal Trade Commission, both Google and Mozilla (Firefox browser) have introduced ways to opt out of behavioral advertising, which allows ads to be targeted.

Google's solution is an extension for its Chrome web browser that lets users proactively block certain advertisers from serving them behavioral ads. Mozilla's approach would bundle a "do not track" feature with its browser, but require websites and ad networks to agree to recognize such requests from Firefox users.

Microsoft has previously announced its own plans for letting users opt out of such ads as well. Those moves, plus any additional FTC rules, are going to limit the extent to which targeted ads can be delivered.

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