Netflix

Attempting to heal its self-inflicted wounds, Netflix Inc. said it would abandon its controversial plan to separate its DVDs-by-mail business from its online streaming service. The surprise reversal, coming three weeks after the plan was disclosed, follows the company's unpopular 60% price hike in July for subscribers who watch both DVDs and online video. The changes led the Los Gatos, Calif., company to predict it would lose 600,000 U.S. subscribers for the third quarter, instead of gaining as many as 400,000 as it previously forecasted.

"Clueless," "Mission: Impossible III," "Forrest Gump" and several hundred other older films are now available on Amazon.com's Netflix-like subscription video service as part of a new deal with Paramount Pictures. Amazon has been continually beefing up the content in its Prime Instant Video service, which lets users stream unlimited movies and television shows on computers and digitally connected devices.

Like most fresh faces that arrive in Hollywood, Netflix wanted to be a movie star. But now it's learning what many in Tinseltown have known for decades: Movies are sexy, but the real money is in television. Launched in 1997 with a goal of eliminating the drive to the video store, Netflix Inc. became a hit with consumers and helped push the movie rental chain Blockbuster into bankruptcy. By charging customers a small monthly fee for unlimited DVDs by mail, then expanding into Internet streaming in 2007, it amassed almost 25 million subscribers in the U.S. and in 2011 had revenue of $3.2 billion.

BOSTON -- The ratings gains that AMC's drama "Mad Men" is enjoying in its fifth season are directly tied to the popularity of the show on Netflix, a top executive at that company said. "We brought maybe a million viewers to AMC," Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told attendees of the annual National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention here. The season premiere of "Mad Men" drew 3.5 million viewers, which was a new record for the show. Last season, "Mad Men" averaged 2.3 million viewers.

Netflix just got a little sharper for the new iPad. Amid the flurry of upgrades for the higher-resolution Retina display, Netflix released its Version 2.1.1 with Retina-ready artwork, better playback on external screens and fixes for accessibility option VoiceOver. Another revision, 2.1, released earlier this month was for faster switching between apps. With this upgraded screen on the iPad, all you're getting are improved icons and still images for movies and TV shows?

In "Lilyhammer," whose eight parts debut Monday as an exclusive Netflix stream, Steven Van Zandt retrieves his Silvio wig from the "Sopranos" costume box to play Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano, a New York mobster who retreats into witness protection in Lillehammer, Norway. He remembers the town from broadcasts of the 1994 Winter Olympics as a place of "clean air, fresh white snow, gorgeous broads" and figures it will be the last place anyone would think to look for him. You know how that will go. To say that this is the first original series from the video rental giant is not to say that it originated with the company.

Dish Network is aiming to use its new Blockbuster unit to challenge now vulnerable Netflix, but not at the expense of its own satellite television business. The company on Friday unveiled Blockbuster Movie Pass, a service that offers DVDs and video games by mail along with 3,000 movies and television shows available to stream on TV and an additional 1,000 for PCs. It will launch Oct. 1. The service will cost $10 a month, the same price Netflix charged for a combined streaming and DVD service before it unexpectedly raised the price in July, sparking public outrage and the loss of an estimated 400,000 subscribers by the end of September.

America's largest cable operator and largest online video company are heating up the battle for the country's eyeballs. Comcast Corp. unveiled plans Tuesday to launch an online video-on-demand subscription service featuring thousands of TV re-runs and older movies for a flat monthly fee. Netflix Inc., the pioneer of that business, announced a deal to stream movies from Weinstein Co., including the Oscar favorite "The Artist. " The flurry of announcements demonstrates the fervor with which traditional video providers like Comcast and cutting-edge ones like Netflix are seeking to attract and retain consumers who have a growing number of entertainment viewing options.

The movie industry built DVDs into a $20-billion-a-year business with consumers who amassed collections they proudly displayed on shelves in their homes. Now with sales of the discs plummeting, Hollywood's largest studio is looking to replicate that experience in the digital world. Warner Bros. has just launched a beta test of Flixster Collections, a new application to organize, display and purchase movies online. It's the first time a film studio has developed a computer application intended to promote general home entertainment, instead of just its own titles.

It seems like an odd strategy for a company in a mature business with limited growth to buy another with even dimmer prospects. But that's what satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp. did in April when it acquired bankrupt video store chain Blockbuster in a deal valued at $320 million. Purchasing Blockbuster, and embarking on an almost $3-billion spending spree for broadband spectrum, are part of Dish's ambitious plans to turn the company from a pay-television service with about 14 million subscribers into a competitor of Netflix Inc. and a player in wireless communications.

Despite a vexing ratings slump at its children's network Nickelodeon, Viacom Inc.'s second-quarter profit soared 56%. The strong earnings were produced by higher fees from pay-television operators and lower expenses at the media company's Paramount Pictures movie studio. For the quarter ended March 31, Viacom earned $585 million, or $1.07 a share, up from $376 million, or 63 cents, a year earlier. Revenue grew 2% to $3.33 billion. "Across our divisions we sharpened our focus on execution and efficiency while continuing to invest in programming," Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman told analysts in a Thursday morning conference call.

Netflix Inc. reported its first net loss since 2005 during the first quarter and raised investors' concerns about its future subscriber growth, sending its shares tumbling in after-hours trading. The Los Gatos, Calif., video subscription company reported a net loss of $5 million on revenue of $870 million in the first three months of 2012, compared with a profit of $68 million on $789 million in revenue during the same period last year. Netflix's losses were caused by its rapidly expanding international operation, which sucked $103 million out of the company's bottom line.

Left limping by years of declining print sales, the magazine industry is hoping a new plan for tablet users will give it legs to leap into digital profits. Five of the largest magazine publishers —Time Inc., Condé Nast, Hearst Corp., News Corp. and Meredith Corp. — jointly released a tablet computer application Wednesday that offers owners of Android-based tablets unlimited access to 32 of the nation's most popular glossy titles for $14.99 a month. Publishers compare the new plan to the all-access model that Netflix Inc. gives to movie subscribers.

Consumers will watch more movies online than on DVDs in 2012 for the first time, but will spend far less doing so, according to a new report. The number of movies rented or bought online from outlets such as Netflix and iTunes will grow 135% this year to 3.4 billion, according to IHS Screen Digest. But the research firm said people will spend only $1.72 billion on digital movies, compared with $11.1 billion on DVDs and Blu-ray discs. In total, online stores and services will account for 57% of movie consumption in 2012, but only 12% of spending.

Netflix just got a little sharper for the new iPad. Amid the flurry of upgrades for the higher-resolution Retina display, Netflix released its Version 2.1.1 with Retina-ready artwork, better playback on external screens and fixes for accessibility option VoiceOver. Another revision, 2.1, released earlier this month was for faster switching between apps. With this upgraded screen on the iPad, all you're getting are improved icons and still images for movies and TV shows?

It was on a smoking patio in Echo Park that an older woman named Annie shattered my illusions about finding a suitable boyfriend in my 30s. "Tell them, 'If you don't have jack, don't call back,'" she said, while I fiddled guiltily with an American Spirit (I had "quit" two weeks earlier). I nodded, thinking I understood. "J.A.C.," she said again, holding up three fingers. "Job, apartment or car. " Had it come to this? Was my baseline for dating in Los Angeles really a guy's possession of J.A.C.?

Once fleet and ephemeral, defined as much by time and season as strawberries or sweet corn once were, television is undergoing a similar transformation in genetics and packaging that is neatly summed up by the Netflix new original series "Lilyhammer. " That Netflix got into the original programming business was to be expected — eventually, you have to actually make something. That the entertainment company would premiere all eight of its episodes at once was in its own way not surprising either.

Netflix has attracted more than 20 million subscribers, more than 20,000 movies and television shows for its online service, and more than its share of headaches in Hollywood. There's one thing it has yet to attract: competition. Netflix is the only company that streams a large selection of movies and TV shows online for a monthly fee. That will probably change. Retail giants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Amazon.com Inc., and Best Buy Co., Internet television provider Hulu, and satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp.

America's largest cable operator and largest online video company are heating up the battle for the country's eyeballs. Comcast Corp. unveiled plans Tuesday to launch an online video-on-demand subscription service featuring thousands of TV re-runs and older movies for a flat monthly fee. Netflix Inc., the pioneer of that business, announced a deal to stream movies from Weinstein Co., including the Oscar favorite "The Artist. " The flurry of announcements demonstrates the fervor with which traditional video providers like Comcast and cutting-edge ones like Netflix are seeking to attract and retain consumers who have a growing number of entertainment viewing options.

Redbox is hooking up with Verizon Communications Inc. as part of a major step forward to compete with Netflix Inc. in both the digital and physical worlds. The company famous for its ubiquitous red DVD rentals kiosks announced Monday that it would form a joint venture with telecom giant Verizon to create an online movie subscription service. Redbox also agreed to spend up to $100 million to acquire the Blockbuster-branded DVD kiosks operated by NCR Corp., its largest competitor in that business, adding about 9,000 machines to its existing base of 35,400.