'Arrested Development' Is Back On Netflix on 2013

Someone quick! Order some Skip's Scramble and put it on not-so-sturdy table, the Bluths are back!  The online streaming and rental company Netflix has announced that it's bringing back Mitch Hurwitz created Arrested Development, possibly as early in 2013.  Huzzah!

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Netflix Prices Rise. What Has This World Come To?

If you are subscribed to Netflix, depending on your plan, you might get pissed from this little piece of news.  Today, Netflix decided to raise the price of unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail (1 DVD at a time) from $10.88 to $15.98. That means that starting today, Netflix will no longer bundle the streaming service with the DVDs by mail and will sell them separately starting at $7.99 each;  one DVD by mail is $7.99 a month and two DVDs by mail is $11.99 a month. 

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Will NetFlix Remain an Independent?

Will its massive growth take NetFlix out of the realm of the independents and into the arms of a huge corporation? Certainly it's in a better market position than chief rival Blockbuster, and as it continues to widen its lead in that competition, NetFlix could capture the attention of an even larger company and sell for billions.

An interesting article at Yahoo! Finance (actually a Motley Fool piece featured on Yahoo!) makes the case that because NetFlix has performed so well over the past couple years where Blockbuster has not, closing over 500 US stores last year, and because it was ahead of the curve in the online streaming arena, the chance to buy NetFlix may be too good for one corporate entity to pass up.

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28-Day NetFlix Embargo for Warner Bros. Movies

NetFlix and Warner Bros. have agreed to a new deal whereby the home video rental titan will wait 28 days to make any of the studio's films available to consumers. With news this week that RedBox almost hit $1 billion in revenue in 2009, you might think NetFlix would have doubts about this kind of arrangement, but Warner Bros. already has the same time frame in place with that retailer, too.

As for the potential lost revenue, the chief content officer for NetFlix says this is a win-win. "This deal uniquely works for Netflix because our subscribers are desensitized to street dates and more interested in being matched to the perfect movie," Ted Sarandos told The Los Angeles Times. "Some subscribers will so passionately want to see it in the first 28 days they may go out and buy it, just as some people want to see Avatar so badly they pay to watch it in 3-D."

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Netflix Looking to Expand Online Rentals

An interesting little item at Product-Reviews.net reveals that Netflix is exploring the acquisition of content licenses to combat about the only crack in the company's armor. DVD sales are dipping and that could lead to a big drop in DVD rentals. And you know which company would be harmed by sluggish DVD rentals.

The thought process behind the content licenses is that Netflix could be moving toward a future in online movie pimping, which would be a natural fit for the name of the company, don't you think? According to Product-Reviews, Netflix rents about 500,000,000 movies a year, but if DVD rentals do indeed topple, rolling out a back-up plan that would be cheaper for the company and the consumer might overtake the existing model in no time.

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