Netflix Launches Snazzy New In-Browser Video PLayer

Netflix Wednesday rolled out a much-needed update to its in-browser video player. The new player features a revamped control bar, the ability to browse other episodes during playback, and informative text overlays that pop up when you pause the video for a few seconds.

The new player appears to have some issues with Google Chrome on Mac OS X -- if you try to start the player in Chrome running on OS X, you get a warning pop-up that says the browser is not yet supported. That said, it may still work on your particular machine -- if you click through the warning, you may still be able to get Netflix to run with no issues.

A Netflix representative explained to GigaOM that "Chrome on Mac support is a limitation of Microsoft Silverlight, not Netflix. It works on some Macs but not on others, so we allow it and give users a warning."

The first thing you'll notice when you open up the new Web player is that the picture now hits the edges of the browser window -- you're no longer looking at a little box within your browser. This is because Netflix has moved the control bar onto the picture -- it appears as an overlay when you move your mouse over the video.

The new control bar has a couple of new buttons, including a button that lets you change the language (if applicable) of the video and turn subtitles on or off.

If you're watching a TV show or a series, you can now preview other episodes from within the video. The "preview" gives you an image from the episode, as well as a brief synopsis. You can jump directly to that episode by clicking anywhere within the preview box.

The last major visual change is the lightbox-like text overlay that appears when you pause the video. After the video has been paused for a couple of seconds, the image dims and an informative text overlay pops up with the title of the movie/show you're watching, the rating (if applicable), the season and episode (if applicable), and a brief synopsis. This overlay disappears when you move your mouse over the video.

Netflix's browser app redesign comes after the company updated a few other platforms, including its tablet app and its Xbox 360 app.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Netflix Customer Satisfaction Rebounds

Last year was a year Netflix would like to forget. A series of service bungles had their customers grousing and leaving the service like rats from a sinking ship. Now, however, there are signs that the entertainment distributor has mended its fences with its subscribers and is poised for success in 2012.

A case in point: the most recent e-tailer customer satisfaction numbers from customer experience analytics firm ForeSee.

The company rates customer satisfaction with e-tailers on a scale of 0-100. While Netflix's rating, 81, was four points lower that what it was a year ago, it's two points higher than it was during the holiday season. In other words, it's trending upwards.

Click to EnlargeMore important, it has crossed over the magic 80 point mark, which ForeSee calls the "Threshold of Excellence." Scoring at 80 or above is an indicator of superior customer satisfaction performance.

With its score of 81, Netflix still placed in the top 20 e-retailers, which may surprise some considering the nadir it reached in its relationship with its customers last year when it lost 800,000 subscribers in the calendar quarter ending in September alone.

Improving customer satisfaction and some new strategic deals for greater international distribution of its service has made some Netflix watchers optimistic. "With the positive consumer numbers for the start of 2012, along with recent deals Netflix has made with major media corporations, the company is well-positioned to endure the rocky months ahead to emerge as a highly profitable company by the end of 2012," wrote Chris Frangold at Saving Alpha.

ForeScore, though, was more cautious about Netflix's future, especially since Amazon appears to be interested in invading the entertainment distributor's turf. "That is going to spell even bigger trouble for Netflix," study author Larry Freed, who is also president and CEO of ForeSee, said in a statement.

"The two companies used to vie for number one," he continued. "Now Netflix is floundering just as Amazon is making deeper moves into streaming video and even original programming. Netflix regained some lost ground, but it’s no longer a contender."

Netflix's troubles last year began when it decided to change its pricing plans. It abolished low-priced plans that combined receiving DVDs by mail with streaming video. It replaced them with separate plans for each, which resulted in a 60 percent increase for some subscribers.

The move caused customers to desert Netflix in droves, and the company's stock to nearly halve in value—to $160 from $300—in three months.

Netflix made matters worse by announcing that it was spinning off its DVD-by-mail business as a separate entity called Qwikster. It quickly retreated from that idea and strangled Qwikster in the bud.

Follow freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.

View the original article here

Netflix Boss Blasts Comcast Over Bandwidth Caps, Net Neutrality

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings blasted Comcast alleging unfair implementation of net neutrality principles when it came to bandwidth caps for its Xfinity Internet service.

The Netflix CEO’s attack comes after he said he spent the weekend using video streaming apps, namely Netflix, HBO GO, Xfinity, and Hulu, when he noticed something: “When I watch video on my Xbox from three of these four apps, it counts against my Comcast internet cap. When I watch through Comcast’s Xfinity app, however, it does not count against my Comcast internet cap.”

Hastings posted his beef on Facebook to his 120,000 subscribers. Hastings called for Comcast to “apply caps equally, or not at all.”

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Credit: James Duncan Davidson/O'Reilly Media, Inc.He detailed that “if I watch last night’s SNL episode on my Xbox through the Hulu app, it eats up about one gigabyte of my cap, but if I watch that same episode through the Xfinity Xbox app, it doesn’t use up my cap at all. The same device, the same IP address, the same Wi-Fi, the same internet connection, but totally different cap treatment.”

“In what way is this neutral?” he asked. The short answer would be that it’s probably not. By exempting the Xfinity On-Demand TV service for the Xbox 360 from periodic data caps, Comcast is effectively giving an advantage to its own service over others such as Netflix, which count towards your 250GB monthly data cap.

However, Comcast has a strong defense of its own too: since the service is delivered via its own private IP network, and not over the public part of the Internet, the company can go around the net neutrality principles, where all services are equal in the eye of the Internet services provider. On its FAQ pages, Comcast explains: “The Xbox 360 running our XFINITY TV app essentially acts as an additional cable box for your existing cable service, and our data usage threshold does not apply.”

Yet the fact that Comcast doesn’t account Xfinity traffic to your monthly data cap is a boon for consumers. This means that you don’t have to worry how many hours of streaming video you watch until you hit the cap, and then get throttled or have to pay extra -- as long as you watch Xfinity. But companies like Netflix, who do not own the cable to people’s homes, are put at a disadvantage by Comcast’s preferential treatment for its own services (who can blame them?).

This probably won’t be the last time we hear from Hastings on net neutrality, just as this wasn’t the first time. Last month the Netflix CEO took to Facebook, commenting on Comcast’s net neutrality practices regarding the HBO GO app on the Xbox.

Should Comcast count Xfinity on-demand for Xbox towards your monthly data cap? Sound off in the comments.

Follow Daniel Ionescu and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter

View the original article here

Netflix Agrees to Delete Former Users' Video History

If you've ever quit Netflix -- only to come crawling back once you've realized that Hulu only has TV shows and the MPAA is cracking down on other video-streaming sites, you've probably noticed that when you re-signup for Netflix your data is still on the servers. Even if you quit the service over a year ago.

Well, those of you crying privacy foul need worry no more -- Netflix has agreed to delete former users' video history and queue data within one year of their leaving the service. The company agreed to this stipulation in a settlement regarding a class-action privacy lawsuit filed against Netflix last year. The lawsuit accused Netflix of violating the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which makes it illegal for video rental services to disclose viewers' video habits without written consent.

The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of California in March 2011, was settled for $9 million with no admission of wrongdoing. $6.65 million of the settlement money will be paid to various privacy organizations, while $2.25 million will go to the lawyers (of course).

Netflix VP of Corporate Communications for Netflix Steve Swasey provided this statement to Paid Content:

"Netflix has settled a lawsuit related to the company’s compliance with the Video Privacy Protection Act with no admission of wrongdoing. This matter is unrelated to the company’s concerns about the ambiguities contained in the VPPA, which keep Netflix from offering its U.S. members the ability to share their instant watching information with their Facebook friends, an experience Netflix members currently enjoy in 46 other countries."

As you can see from Swasey's statement, this isn't the first time Netflix has had a run-in with the dreaded VPPA. The company has been trying to get its frictionless-sharing Facebook app onto U.S. users' computers, and the VPPA is all that stands in its way.

The VPPA was passed in 1988, after the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was leaked and published. Though Bork's video history was "unremarkable" and contained such titles as "A Day at the Races" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much," the VPPA was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

In 2009, Netflix also found itself at the center of controversy regarding the VPPA when it tried to execute a research contest that involved disclosing demographic and behavioral data of individuals. Though the disclosed data was technically anonymous, it was determined that the data could be used to identify individuals.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Netflix Launches Snazzy New In-Browser Video PLayer

Netflix Wednesday rolled out a much-needed update to its in-browser video player. The new player features a revamped control bar, the ability to browse other episodes during playback, and informative text overlays that pop up when you pause the video for a few seconds.

The new player appears to have some issues with Google Chrome on Mac OS X -- if you try to start the player in Chrome running on OS X, you get a warning pop-up that says the browser is not yet supported. That said, it may still work on your particular machine -- if you click through the warning, you may still be able to get Netflix to run with no issues.

A Netflix representative explained to GigaOM that "Chrome on Mac support is a limitation of Microsoft Silverlight, not Netflix. It works on some Macs but not on others, so we allow it and give users a warning."

The first thing you'll notice when you open up the new Web player is that the picture now hits the edges of the browser window -- you're no longer looking at a little box within your browser. This is because Netflix has moved the control bar onto the picture -- it appears as an overlay when you move your mouse over the video.

The new control bar has a couple of new buttons, including a button that lets you change the language (if applicable) of the video and turn subtitles on or off.

If you're watching a TV show or a series, you can now preview other episodes from within the video. The "preview" gives you an image from the episode, as well as a brief synopsis. You can jump directly to that episode by clicking anywhere within the preview box.

The last major visual change is the lightbox-like text overlay that appears when you pause the video. After the video has been paused for a couple of seconds, the image dims and an informative text overlay pops up with the title of the movie/show you're watching, the rating (if applicable), the season and episode (if applicable), and a brief synopsis. This overlay disappears when you move your mouse over the video.

Netflix's browser app redesign comes after the company updated a few other platforms, including its tablet app and its Xbox 360 app.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Netflix Agrees to Delete Former Users' Video History

If you've ever quit Netflix -- only to come crawling back once you've realized that Hulu only has TV shows and the MPAA is cracking down on other video-streaming sites, you've probably noticed that when you re-signup for Netflix your data is still on the servers. Even if you quit the service over a year ago.

Well, those of you crying privacy foul need worry no more -- Netflix has agreed to delete former users' video history and queue data within one year of their leaving the service. The company agreed to this stipulation in a settlement regarding a class-action privacy lawsuit filed against Netflix last year. The lawsuit accused Netflix of violating the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), which makes it illegal for video rental services to disclose viewers' video habits without written consent.

The suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of California in March 2011, was settled for $9 million with no admission of wrongdoing. $6.65 million of the settlement money will be paid to various privacy organizations, while $2.25 million will go to the lawyers (of course).

Netflix VP of Corporate Communications for Netflix Steve Swasey provided this statement to Paid Content:

"Netflix has settled a lawsuit related to the company’s compliance with the Video Privacy Protection Act with no admission of wrongdoing. This matter is unrelated to the company’s concerns about the ambiguities contained in the VPPA, which keep Netflix from offering its U.S. members the ability to share their instant watching information with their Facebook friends, an experience Netflix members currently enjoy in 46 other countries."

As you can see from Swasey's statement, this isn't the first time Netflix has had a run-in with the dreaded VPPA. The company has been trying to get its frictionless-sharing Facebook app onto U.S. users' computers, and the VPPA is all that stands in its way.

The VPPA was passed in 1988, after the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was leaked and published. Though Bork's video history was "unremarkable" and contained such titles as "A Day at the Races" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much," the VPPA was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.

In 2009, Netflix also found itself at the center of controversy regarding the VPPA when it tried to execute a research contest that involved disclosing demographic and behavioral data of individuals. Though the disclosed data was technically anonymous, it was determined that the data could be used to identify individuals.

Follow Sarah on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

View the original article here

Netflix Customer Satisfaction Rebounds

Last year was a year Netflix would like to forget. A series of service bungles had their customers grousing and leaving the service like rats from a sinking ship. Now, however, there are signs that the entertainment distributor has mended its fences with its subscribers and is poised for success in 2012.

A case in point: the most recent e-tailer customer satisfaction numbers from customer experience analytics firm ForeSee.

The company rates customer satisfaction with e-tailers on a scale of 0-100. While Netflix's rating, 81, was four points lower that what it was a year ago, it's two points higher than it was during the holiday season. In other words, it's trending upwards.

Click to EnlargeMore important, it has crossed over the magic 80 point mark, which ForeSee calls the "Threshold of Excellence." Scoring at 80 or above is an indicator of superior customer satisfaction performance.

With its score of 81, Netflix still placed in the top 20 e-retailers, which may surprise some considering the nadir it reached in its relationship with its customers last year when it lost 800,000 subscribers in the calendar quarter ending in September alone.

Improving customer satisfaction and some new strategic deals for greater international distribution of its service has made some Netflix watchers optimistic. "With the positive consumer numbers for the start of 2012, along with recent deals Netflix has made with major media corporations, the company is well-positioned to endure the rocky months ahead to emerge as a highly profitable company by the end of 2012," wrote Chris Frangold at Saving Alpha.

ForeScore, though, was more cautious about Netflix's future, especially since Amazon appears to be interested in invading the entertainment distributor's turf. "That is going to spell even bigger trouble for Netflix," study author Larry Freed, who is also president and CEO of ForeSee, said in a statement.

"The two companies used to vie for number one," he continued. "Now Netflix is floundering just as Amazon is making deeper moves into streaming video and even original programming. Netflix regained some lost ground, but it’s no longer a contender."

Netflix's troubles last year began when it decided to change its pricing plans. It abolished low-priced plans that combined receiving DVDs by mail with streaming video. It replaced them with separate plans for each, which resulted in a 60 percent increase for some subscribers.

The move caused customers to desert Netflix in droves, and the company's stock to nearly halve in value—to $160 from $300—in three months.

Netflix made matters worse by announcing that it was spinning off its DVD-by-mail business as a separate entity called Qwikster. It quickly retreated from that idea and strangled Qwikster in the bud.

Follow freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.

View the original article here