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Netflix Reaches 20 Million Subscribers, Looking To Compete With HBO For Content

While much of the focus surrounding the world of film directly set upon the shoulders of Park City, Utah and the Sundance Film Festival, the giant elephant in the crowded room that is the world of film and video rentals has made quite a splash as well.

First, Deadline is reporting that the company is looking to outbid HBO for the rights to WB films that are currently going to the latter’s iconic cable channel.   HBO’s current deal with Time Warner runs until 2014, so any sort of Netflix deal wouldn’t have any repercussions until at least three years from now, but it would be no smaller a coup for the subscription based giant.   This would be a huge addition to their backlog, and would be another huge notch in the ever growing belt that Netflix is wrapping around it’s glutinous waist.

This news comes almost hand in hand with the company announcing their fourth quarter financial results, and the company is, to no one’s shock, up once again in nearly every category. Ranging from gross profits to the operating expenses, the company seems to be flowing on a wave of success that, after looking at the company’s financial statements for the past two years, seems to be going on for over 24 months, including the milestone that was recently hit, of topping 20 million subscribers. This increase continues to shock those who have been stating that the company should be feeling a bit of pain from the ever growing cost of spending that Netflix has felt when trying to expand their streaming slate, and while that may still in fact happen, it doesn’t look like it will be slowing them down any time soon.

Finally, the company has released their letter to shareholders, and a few interesting concepts popped up during that very letter.

Apparently, their relatively recently started Canadian service should be profitable in Q3, with nearly a million subscribers estimated for Q1 in the country.   Also, interesting to note, nearly one third of new subscribers are choosing the streaming only plan, with most going for the one disc at a time service. Finally, the biggest note, is that the Starz deal runs out this time next year, so it will be interesting to see what’s going to happen on that front.   For more information, head over to Hacking Netflix.

What do you think?

Source: Deadline / Netflix / Hacking Netflix

Joshua Brunsting

Josh is a critic, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, a wrestling nerd, a hip-hop head, a father, a cinephile and a man looking to make his stamp on the world, one word at a time.