Just out of curiosity, is the communications guy who just resigned the guy who would normally be answering a question like this for people? Not implying it's the reason he quit, just that a move like this needs a viable explanation from the company, but I don't see one. My thought - nf got tired of driving traffic to Feedfliks and Instantwatch and their ilk without being compensated for said traffic. I've said several times in the past on this blog I always thought it was stupid nf made me go to a different website to get info they could have easily given me themselves. Maybe nf will start listing all the expiration dates themselves now like Hulu does? (It physically hurts me to be an optiimist but that's the only explanation that makes a lick of sense.) Until then, nf continues it's string of boneheaded moves. Guess we'll be watching the stock price fall more today?

"a $79 annual service that gives you free shipping" How does somebody write that with a straight face? Spending over $24.99 gets you "free shipping", $79 gets you 2 day shipping AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. I've tried to cut the cord but I can' t. Funny thing, we don't watch tv shows per se, but I like the noise and news and sports on in the background. I'm currently getting basic at a discount w/ my cable modem and VOIP, don't know what I will do when the deal is over though.

I have cable. Basic $15 a month digital cable, so I'm guessing I would be excluded. They already have Hulu and Hulu+ divisions, now they want to throw cable/non-cable subscribers divisions on top of that, so 4 sets of show availability? Way to simplify things. I almost signed up for Hulu+ yesterday to watch Grimm in HD on my PS3, the first show I've watched that is Hulu+ available. But to my surprise only the first 14 episodes are available on Hulu+ (1-14), not the last 5 (15-19). What the heck is wrong w/ these people?!?! http://www.hulu.com/grimm

This is the show that was canceled but then renewed b/c people sent truckloads of nuts. It's practically the godfather of viewer activism that makes a difference. I'ld say it has a loyal fanbase for nf to grab onto.

My simple understanding of this - if anyone is interested - is that nf was priced as a "growth" stock which was seeing 50% growth year after year and the stock was priced accordingly, (apparently people like paying lots of money for growth stocks) - but now "growth' is forecast at 18% year over year, meaning nf isn't growing nearly as fast, making it just a plain old company, so nobody wants to pay as much for it's stock. In other words - nf is nearing saturation, so the stock shouldn't get any higher. Makes sense to me.

"performed as well as a hit show like Breaking Bad did on a cost basis" What the heck does that even mean? I didn't like the first 2 episodes of Lilyhammer but it's gotten better. I have the last 2 episodes left and am starting to look forward to next season. But it wouldn't make me sign up for nf, keep nf, or recommend nf to others on the basis of that 1 show. I really have no idea how they can monetize 1 show or compare it to any other show on any other network. "they were focused on growth for the foreseeable future, so they would not offer additional levels." So he didn't rule out tiers entirely, only for the foreseeable future? The man who announced Qwikster w/ game rentals has a "foreseeable future" of about 2 weeks. BTW - down $16 / 16% after hours to an $85 stock price, which are probably the numbers most people will be talking about tomorrow morning. PS - I really like nf, you should see what I write about companies I don't like ;-)

I think that first sentence is missing the word "simultaneously" or the phrase "at the same time". Sorry to be a grammar hound but it just doesn't read right. And speaking of Lilyhammer, I've watched the first 5 episodes now - watching 1 per week - and it picked up around episode 3 or 4 and I'm actually looking forward to the rest of the season now. May even watch season 2 depending on how the rest go.

I said this last time but I still don't see this as a "net neutrality" issue. As long as they offer everything the customer wants and don't play favorites with their own data I still see this as a customer service more than a disservice. Whether the Comcast data is free or not you are still going to go over the cap watching nf, so it's an unmitigated freebie. An example of a disservice is a gas station advertising a BIG sign w/ $3.89 gas but when you get to the pump it's $4.89 for credit cards, a full $1 more per gallon, yet somehow that's legal and not false advertising.

Thanks CYNIC, I stand corrected. I don't think I've been on an Amazon website w/o being logged in since forever. Seems kind of stupid on their part to throw that 17k number out there when anybody who is logged in - and again I am NOT currently a Prime member - would see the 1751 movies and 1476 tv shows without any real effort. So stupid ad, but nice of them to make the real numbers easily accessible. I don't think nf has anything like that, though pretty much everything else they have IS better.

Not to defend Amazon, but is that 17,000 number for Prime or for their total streaming library? I've tried Prime twice and it is very limited but they do have a much larger On Demand catalouge. Amazon promotes Prime using the word "thousands" but I didn't see 17k anywhere. Amazon Instant video shows 50,066 movies and 8,970 tv shows. Prime lowers that to 1751 movies and 1476 tv shows. These numbers are right out there for anyone to see on the top of the left hand column. So unless anyone has Amazon marketing literature w/ the 17k number to call them on this all seems a waste of time.

I must be reading this wrong b/c to me it sounds like a good thing if you're a Comcast customer. As in it's good to have Xfinity and not eat up your cap watching stuff on your Xbox. Sounds like Reed inn't complaining b/c he's a Comcast customer, it sounds like he's whining b/c he owns nf and Comcast is giving itself preferential treatment. But he knows that makes him sound like a money grubbing overpaid whiny CEO so he's pretending to be an outraged Comcast customer. Are any other current Comcast customers complaining about Comcast giving them a way to stay under the cap?

The more big companies like Showtime and HBO talk about not letting their stuff be on nf, the better nf looks and the worse they look. It makes the entire "tiered nf" conversation a non-starter (no one above me has even mentioned it yet), which I think is good for nf brass as well. nf gets to shout out - "hey, we're getting you everything AVAILABLE to us, and at a really good price". That said, if I were Showtime or HBO I woudln't put my stuff on nf. I would offer HBO Go for $20 to the masses though. It's called cutting out the middle-men. Maybe when the US gets to ubiquitous braodband HBO doesn't need cable. I think people often forget that part, cable needs HBO to get high-paying subscribers but HBO still needs cable to reach the masses.

I only watched the 1st episode, not a huge fan, but I'm hoping it was time well spent as build up for the show to start proper. I watched the first 2 episodes of Weeds and loved the first comedic episode but the 2nd was so dramatic I said forget it. As for the subtitles, I thought it was weird as he seemed to understand everything everybody was saying anyway so just have them speak english. I like subtitles in my films - watched Shaolin on Sat., that would have lost all intensity dubbed - but they do seem unnecessary here. Maybe just occasionally in the background if the old guy with the gun ever gets to speak.

$100 million for how many boxes? Wouldn't it have been more cost prudent for Redbox just to let the BB kiosks fade away? My supermarket still has a DVDXpress kiosk. I'm assuming there are others, so no "monopoly" yet.

I don't see how the guy is "dumb" at all. If you were to ask 1 million random people in the US and Canada how much it would cost to watch 4 movies on their laptop using a wireless card, even if you gave them multiple choice, A) $48 B) $725 C) $1,200 D) $10,000 nobody who isn't dumb is going to say $10,000. Can anybody anywhere on the planet, even people who work at Sasktel, really tell me with a strait face that it would cost me $10,000 to watch 4 movies? The guy isn't dumb, anybody who thinks it's ok to charge anybody $10,000 to stream 4 movies is a ferakin' lunatic.

Thanks for the "End of Feb." comments, I'll watch what I can. Any thoughts on how nf will handle it? Just pull the entire page or put up a warning for each film? Glad to hear Lilyhammer was "better than expected". That's saying alot for almost anything on streaming. Maybe less so after Starz Play goes away.

Having it split into 6 parts makes me hopeful that they added slow boring details cut for a theatrical release that will actually help the story. The extended LoTR versions didn't add anything exciting but a few characters made appearances and others got fleshed out. I am concerned that each of 6 parts is 93 minutes long so the breaks won't be at appropriate times if I want to watch 1 part at a time.

Way too short on details. Will it be an app, a box, require FIOS or Verizon wireless, will streaming and DVD rentals be separate or one plan? I wonder if they even know what they are going to offer "in the second half of 2012". Microsoft talked about offering streaming but then when they found out how expensive it would be to get content they decided against it. Oh, and Verizon is evil.

So how was Lilyhammer Siam? You probably watched 2 episodes between your posts ;-) Or are you going to watch all 6 and give us a thorough review? nf should advertise the Justin Beiber addition on FB and get some 'tween girl subscribers. So, anybody have an actual real date for Starz Play going away? The last time I asked on here I was told Jan. 31st but obviously that didn't happen.

@Gran - if they order them w/ Prime from Amazon they can get it the day it comes out. Actually they might not even need Prime. Or Amazon. I've read that headline 4 times now and it still sounds like nonsense. That chart that reads: Redbox - NEtflix - Rental Stores. Anybody know where all the other kiosks - BB, DVDXpress etc. and other rental websites would fit in? And libraries. My library lends a ton of DVDs.

apc - I think that might have happened in the "old" days of tv programing, when shows ran 24 episodes over 10 months, Sept. to June. Now, even though shows usually run once a week, the calendar is all over the place, and a lot of people get their tv viewing on DVD or DVR or streaming, so once a week is not a good way to launch to a new tv program. That said, I would have gone with 1 episode per day myself, with either the first 2 or last 2 on the same night to run for 7 days. I'll probably watch this, but no more than 1 or 2 episodes per day. And if it sucks I'll stop watching.

One of the good things about Amazon naming it's "shipping" program "Prime" is that it could mean anything. My guess is Amazon would just offer "Prime Video" on a monthly basis, $5.99 as previously mentioned. No reason for them to offer a discount to current Prime subscribers, they are already getting it, this is just a way to bring in people who are more comfortable paying $6 per month than $79 per year (buy 11 months get 1 free says the calculator, so nearly the same price).

It's simply all about growth going forward. nf has been around for about 10 years renting DVDs. DVD players have been around for that long. Anybody who ever wanted DVDs shipped by nf has already done so and therefore no new subscribers for DVD nf. Streaming is still fairly new, and there are still a few people who don't own a tablet, handheld console, smartphone or "smart" tv. But many of them will, and then they'll get subscribe to streaming nf, b/c that is what people do when they get a new device. And even if the cable companies don't get broadband to every household, I've noticed the cell phone companies moving to 4G and wi-fi hotspots. Streaming nf has greater growth potential than DVD, end of story.

Tvaddic - 2-3 titles a day would be about 14-21 titles per weekly email, that IS a list, but nothing I would consider long. And it would be a LOT quicker to peruse 1 20 titles long email per week than to constantly peruse the nf website wondering whats new. Groggie - doesn't it seem weird to you that we have to go to a DIFFERENT website to get the information that nf should have readily available and easily usable? I come to this site to get all the info about nf the company and it's competitors, the nf site should tell me what's streaming new and what is going away, I shouldn't have to go to another site. And if FREE Hulu can send me emails listing new shows I migth want to watch, I think nf should at least be able to compete with them. thanks to both of you for the replies though.