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Tag: Netflix

  • Netflix to release new Indian original film ‘Brij Mohan Amar Rahe’ next week

    Netflix to release new Indian original film ‘Brij Mohan Amar Rahe’ next week

    MUMBAI: Netflix is all set to release a new Indian original film Brij Mohan Amar Rahe on 3 August. This is the first Netflix original from Yoodlee Films. The OTT platform has also released the trailer of the upcoming film.

    The film stars Arjun Mathur, Nidhi Singh, Sheetal Thakur, Manav Vij, Sunny Hinduja, Vijayant Kohli and Yogendra Tikku. The story revolves around the life of 36-year-old Brij Mohan, a hosiery shop owner in a busy Delhi market.

    “We are very proud to have films of the calibre of Brij Mohan Amar Rahe on the service, where millions of film-lovers around the world can discover these strong, captivating stories. We are also thrilled to get our first collaboration with Saregama off the ground, marking another milestone in our commitment towards forging solid relationships with Indian content creators,” Netflix international originals and acquisition director Swati Shetty commented.

    “Netflix is the premium VOD player and it is especially gratifying that the very first two films in our slate have found a home on this platform. It encourages us to continue to make fearless films that will reach out to audiences both domestic and international,” Saregama VP TV & Films Siddharth Anand Kumar said.

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently said advantages are tremendous in India for internet viewing. Its first original film in India Love per Square Foot also did well. The platform is enriching its Indian original bouquet since the beginning of this year.

  • Shonda Rhimes, Netflix announce 8 original shows

    Shonda Rhimes, Netflix announce 8 original shows

    MUMBAI: Netflix and Shondaland have announced the first batch of series developed by Shonda Rhimes. The shows will chiefly be female-powered stories, several of which will be led by female creatives.

    As per a report by CNN, the platform has revealed eight shows in development as part of the company’s $300 million deals with Rhimes and her Shondaland banner.

    “I wanted the new Shondaland to be a place where we expand the types of stories we tell, where my fellow talented creatives could thrive and make their best work and where we as a team come to the office each day filled with excitement. Ted and Cindy and everyone at Netflix have been incredible partners in making that happen. This is Shondaland 2.0,” said Rhimes as quoted by a blog post.

    The projects include the following series (all titles are working titles)

    Untitled Shonda Rhimes Project

    Based on the New York Magazine article-‘How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People’ by Jessica Pressler. Manhattan makes a new friend like no other. But is she the stuff American dreams are made of or is she New York’s biggest con woman? Is it a con if you enjoy being taken?

    Untitled Bridgerton Project

    Based on Julia Quinn’s best-selling series of novels, this smart feminist take on Regency England romance unveils the glittering, wealthy, sexual, painful, funny and sometimes lonely lives of the women and men in London’s high society marriage mart as told through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family.

    The Warmth of Other Suns

    Based on Pulitzer-Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s award-winning book of the same name, this powerful groundbreaking series tracks the decades-long migration of African-Americans fleeing the Jim Crow South in search of a better life in the North and the West between 1916 and 1970.

    National Humanities Medal recipient, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and 2-time Drama Desk winning playwright Anna Deavere Smith (EP) is set to adapt.

    Pico & Sepulveda

    Set in the 1840s against the surreal and sensual backdrop of the then-Mexican state of California, the series tracks the end of an idyllic era there as American forces threaten brutality and war at the border to claim this breathtaking land for its own.

    Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change

    Netflix and Shondaland have acquired the rights to Ellen Pao’s groundbreaking memoir detailing her life and career, including the lawsuit she brought against her former employer that sparked intense media scrutiny, shook Silicon Valley to its boys’ club core and pre-saged the Time’s Up movement.

    The Residence

    Netflix and Shondaland have acquired the rights to Kate Andersen Brower’s brilliant nonfiction book The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House, which offers a vividly accurate insider’s account of White House residence staffers and the upstairs downstairs lives they share with the First Families at one of the most famous homes in history.

    Sunshine Scouts

    In this darkly comedic half-hour series, an apocalyptic disaster spares a rag-tag group of teenage girls at sleepaway camp who must then summon their moxie and survival skills to weather the fallout and ensure all that remains of humanity abides by the Sunshine Scout Law.

    Hot Chocolate Nutcracker

    This documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s award-winning re imagining of the classic ballet, The Nutcracker. 

  • Netflix unveils new interface for TV

    Netflix unveils new interface for TV

    MUMBAI: Netflix has unveiled a new design that makes it easier for people to discover stories through the TV. The new interface is called App Menu, which aims to offer simpler and easier browsing using fewer buttons on the remote control.

    Netflix director product innovation Stephen Garcia said, “At Netflix, we are constantly asking ourselves what can we do to make it even easier for our members to spend less time browsing and more time discovering stories they will love. We realise that there so many great stories on the service, and that sometimes our members need a little bit of help figuring out where to start. The new interface was based on rigorous research and testing around how we can make it easier to find titles on TVs, where navigation can feel a bit tougher when you are restricted to just a few buttons on a remote control,” according to AdvancedTelevision.com.

    The new design rolled out to Netflix subscribers around the world from 18 July and is built specifically for the restricted navigation experience when using a TV remote.

    According to Garcia, the new TV interface was designed to make the Netflix experience simpler and more intuitive in a few different ways. “We’ve also made it easier to access titles you’ve saved for later viewing in My List. In our testing of this new interface, we saw that this simpler design helped members find something great to watch.”

    Other than the new side navigation bar, the Netflix interface is largely unchanged and is still tile-based with auto playing trailers and a vertical scrolling design.

    “While this may feel like an obvious update to some, validating that this TV experience was better for our members took extensive research, testing and technology improvements. Along those lines, we will continuously learn from our members and evolve the TV experience so that it gets even more simple, fun and easy to find the stories that make Netflix great,” he added.

  • Netflix sees tremendous advantages for internet viewing in India

    Netflix sees tremendous advantages for internet viewing in India

    MUMBAI: Though Netflix did not deliver an outstanding performance for Q2 2018, its focus on India has surely risen. In the follow-up conference call, India was mentioned 20 times, which is higher than the last nine quarters combined.

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings admitted the challenges in the Indian market. “We’re way behind YouTube, Hotstar. Those are really the leaders on the internet. There’s so much TV viewing, that linear TV that could be internet viewing and the advantages are tremendous in India for internet viewing because you don’t get the ad load that you see that’s so high in all of the other platforms. So, Netflix is having great success getting established, getting our reputation going,” he commented.

    With Raw Stories, Sacred Games, and Ghoul, the company expects to gain good momentum but needs to focus on adding languages and better pricing. “It’s really I think accelerating the brand perception of Netflix as not just an out-of-towner, but someone who is producing content that you care about in every part of the world,” Sarandos commented on local content strategy in the global market. Its first Indian original Sacred Games is doing well while Ghoul is releasing in August.

    “Paid net ads are up compared to year ago and forecast to be up on a year-over-year basis in Q3. The fundamentals have never been stronger. Our viewing is setting year-over-year records. So, we’re feeling very strong about the business,” Hastings said in an earnings call.

    Netflix isn’t worried since it has observed a pattern of unprecedented growth in Q1 followed by flat growth in Q2 and Q3.

    “We started investing our own unscripted programming and have had some really great, out-of-the-box hits with Nailed It and Fastest Cars and Queer Eye, that are doing great with our watchers relative to building an audience. Also, you saw Queer Eye did quite well at the Emmy nominations announced last week. We’re really excited with the progress and the speed to market we’ve been able to do our unscripted shows at really high quality,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

    While the good romantic comedies have gradually disappeared in the last two decades, the internet content king is reviving the old charm with movies like Kissing Booth, Set It Up. The movies have been delivering good viewership, as claimed by the company. Other than this genre, Netflix will have movies with critically acclaimed directors like Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Corona next year.

    While the company has planned to invest $8 billion only in content, it will continue to operate with debt to finance as it remains the most cost-effective source of capital for the company. “Obviously, we’d love to get to that point where we’re organically and self-funding content. We do see a point where we can get there. But until we do, we see debt as the right choice in terms of cost of capital,” Netflix chief financial officer David Wells said. This strategy may pay off well if it can raise the price with the addition of subscribers.

    Going forward, Netflix wants to highly emphasise on products too. From better mobile UI, smart downloads to faster TV experience, everything is being talked about. Along with happy subscribers, it wants to make more people aware of the brand. Despite a worse Q2 result, it will definitely continue to be a good choice for investors.

  • In Q2 earnings call, Netflix’s added focus on India

    In Q2 earnings call, Netflix’s added focus on India

    MUMBAI: Though Netflix did not deliver an outstanding performance for Q2 2018, its focus on India has surely risen. In the follow-up conference call, India was mentioned 20 times, which is higher than the last nine quarters combined.

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings admitted the challenges in the Indian market. “We’re way behind YouTube, Hotstar. Those are really the leaders on the internet. There’s so much TV viewing, that linear TV that could be internet viewing and the advantages are tremendous in India for internet viewing because you don’t get the ad load that you see that’s so high in all of the other platforms. So, Netflix is having great success getting established, getting our reputation going,” he commented.

    With Raw Stories, Sacred Games, and Ghoul, the company expects to gain good momentum but needs to focus on adding languages and better pricing. “It’s really I think accelerating the brand perception of Netflix as not just an out-of-towner, but someone who is producing content that you care about in every part of the world,” Sarandos commented on local content strategy in the global market. Its first Indian original Sacred Games is doing well while Ghoul is releasing in August.

    “Paid net ads are up compared to year ago and forecast to be up on a year-over-year basis in Q3. The fundamentals have never been stronger. Our viewing is setting year-over-year records. So, we’re feeling very strong about the business,” Hastings said in an earnings call.

    Netflix isn’t worried since it has observed a pattern of unprecedented growth in Q1 followed by flat growth in Q2 and Q3.

    “We started investing our own unscripted programming and have had some really great, out-of-the-box hits with Nailed It and Fastest Cars and Queer Eye, that are doing great with our watchers relative to building an audience. Also, you saw Queer Eye did quite well at the Emmy nominations announced last week. We’re really excited with the progress and the speed to market we’ve been able to do our unscripted shows at really high quality,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

    While the good romantic comedies have gradually disappeared in the last two decades, the internet content king is reviving the old charm with movies like Kissing Booth, Set It Up. The movies have been delivering good viewership, as claimed by the company. Other than this genre, Netflix will have movies with critically acclaimed directors like Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Corona next year.

    While the company has planned to invest $8 billion only in content, it will continue to operate with debt to finance as it remains the most cost-effective source of capital for the company. “Obviously, we’d love to get to that point where we’re organically and self-funding content. We do see a point where we can get there. But until we do, we see debt as the right choice in terms of cost of capital,” Netflix chief financial officer David Wells said. This strategy may pay off well if it can raise the price with the addition of subscribers.

    Going forward, Netflix wants to highly emphasise on products too. From better mobile UI, smart downloads to faster TV experience, everything is being talked about. Along with happy subscribers, it wants to make more people aware of the brand. Despite a worse Q2 result, it will definitely continue to be a good choice for investors.

  • Netflix shares sink after it misses Q2 subscriber growth expectations

    Netflix shares sink after it misses Q2 subscriber growth expectations

    MUMBAI: Making some analysts’ prediction true, Netflix could not live up to its second-quarter earnings expectations. The streaming video giant added 5.15 million subscribers worldwide compared to the expectation of 6.2 million new subscribers. Following the result, the company’s stock fell down 14 per cent.

    In the domestic market of the US, the company added 670,000 subscribers while in international market it signed up 4.47 million subscribers. For domestic market Wall Street analysts expected 1.23 million net adds and 5.11 million overseas for the period. Now, the fear has risen that the company’s rapid growth is slowing down. Despite missing the expectation in terms of subscriber growth, it beat earnings expectations of $0.79 per share by reporting $0.85 EPS for the quarter.

    “Investors are devastated by Netflix’s Q2 projection that went down in dramatic flames. Now future projections are suspect and that decimates valuation,” private equity firm Patriarch’s CEO Eric Schiffer said as quoted by Reuters.

    “We had a strong but not stellar Q2,” Netflix said in a quarterly letter to shareholders. “This Q2, we over-forecasted global net additions… as acquisition growth was slightly lower than we projected,” the company added. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said median viewing hours was growing but without sharing any specifics.

    Though Netflix is leading the market globally, competitors including Amazon, Hulu, and Apple are also gaining foothold in the market making things tougher for the company. The deal between AT&T and Times Warner is also an indication of increased competition for the platform. Even in India, from where Netflix targets to add a huge number of subscribers, its international rival Amazon and players like Hotstar, Voot, ALTBalaji have strong foothold in the market.

    “We’ve seen this movie of Q2 [subscriber net adds] shortfall before, about two years ago in 2016 — and we never did find the explanation to that, other than there’s some lumpiness in the business,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said adding that the company continued to perform after that also.

  • Analysts express mixed views on Netflix Q2 growth

    Analysts express mixed views on Netflix Q2 growth

    MUMBAI: Given the ferocity of Netflix’s growth, a Forbes report had predicted its impressive Q1 2018 result to continue in Q2 as well. In first quarter 2018, Netflix exceeded user addition forecasts along with a 43 per cent year over year growth. Forbes predicted growth in revenue and subscribers in Q2 too. In addition to that, the report says it could report revenues of around $3.9 billion. The result for Q2 is supposed to release on 16 July.

    The previous quarter’s growth was fuelled by continued strong acquisition trends across the globe. Netflix attributed it to “the growing breadth of our content and the worldwide adoption of internet entertainment.” The international subscriber base of the over-the-top (OTT) platform increased at a rapid pace (42 per cent y-o-y).

    Repeating the same trend in Q2, the report anticipates that the total subscriber base for both international and US streaming services could grow to over 130 million during the quarter. Netflix itself expects 6.2 million global net addition in Q2.On the contrary, Deutsche Bank told the OTT platform could miss Wall Street’s second-quarter subscriber expectations next week. “We don’t see 2Q earnings as a positive catalyst for the stock; in fact, we see some near term downside risk,” said analyst Bryan Kraft as quoted by CNBC.  Following the prediction, company’s stock fell more than four percent Friday.

    Despite that, Swinburne, a strong believer in Netflix’s growth, thinks Netflix is increasing its “competitive moat” against competitors. “On top of the ability to use data to improve its programming and marketing decisions, Netflix now brings to market a content offering that boasts $16 billion in net content value,” Swinburne wrote as quoted by Variety.

    “As a result, other than live sports and news, we see the potential for Netflix to not just take share from other networks or channels, but to represent ‘TV’ for many households,” it added.

    Many of the analysts believe India could be strength for the company in Q2 growth. Netflix is scaling up its business in India and planning more original content after already releasing Sacred Games. However, in the Indian market, Netflix has to face stiff competition from local platforms like Hotstar, Voot, ALTBalaji, along with tough challenge from its international rival Amazon.

    With its $8 billion expense plan for content, it is definitely outperforming Hulu, Amazon in the domestic market.

  • Netflix original ‘Sacred Games’ gets entangled in legalities

    Netflix original ‘Sacred Games’ gets entangled in legalities

    MUMBAI: Even as Netflix’s Sacred Games gets entangled in legal tangle, media reports suggested MIB is mulling content guidelines for web series, as per a report by Republic TV.

    Media reports also stated that the health ministry is upset that web series on OTT platforms don’t run the scroll relating to dangers of tobacco and alcohol when such substances are shown being consumed by characters. Such messages appear in films and most TV serials.

    Within a few days of its release, Netflix’s first Indian original Sacred Games has got into legal trouble. According to a Press Trust of India report, the Delhi High Court will hear a plea against the series on 16 July which sought removal of certain scenes. Some of its content has been claimed as inappropriate and derogatory in nature.

    The division bench, comprising Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar before whom the matter came up, said it would go through the petition and CD. The allegation against the series is that certain scenes and dialogues in the show defame former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

    The show allegedly “incorrectly depicts historical events of the country like Bofors case, Shah Bano case, Babri Masjid case and communal riots”. Petitioner advocate Nikhil Bhalla filed the plea through advocate Shashank Garg.

    The petitioners have asked through the plea to direct Netflix and the producer of the show Phantom Films to remove the alleged scenes as well as centre to ensure the act.

    Netflix finally started streaming its much-hyped first Indian original series last week starring Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte.

  • Netflix dethrones HBO’s 17-year reign at Emmys with 112 nominations

    Netflix dethrones HBO’s 17-year reign at Emmys with 112 nominations

    MUMBAI: HBO needs to guard its territory. The New York based network has been holding the position of the most nominated network for the last 17 years at the prestigious Emmy Award. Netflix, the new content king, has dethroned HBO this year with 112 nominations.

    The 70th annual Primetime Emmy awards is to be held on Monday, 17 September. Last time, the streaming giant scored 91 awards. High-profile projects including The Crown, Stranger Things, Godless and GLOW added big to the list each with ten or more than ten nominations.

    “We are particularly enthused to see the breadth of our programming celebrated with nominations spread across 40 new and returning titles which showcase our varied and expansive slate—comedies, dramas, movies, limited series, documentary, variety, animation, and reality,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said.

    However, HBO is also not far behind Netflix with 108 nominations with Game of Thrones leading the way for the network. “HBO is very pleased with its 108 nominations, especially the wide range over so many categories,” the network also said in a statement. But it’s a real challenge for networks to keep pace with Netflix’s spending on content. The streaming giant has planned to spend $8 billion this year, focusing highly on originals.

    Other streaming platforms including Hulu, Amazon have also gathered a good number of nominations with 27 and 22 respectively. Critically acclaimed The Handmaid’s Tale has worked as the game changer for Hulu and Amazon is indebted to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

    “If you look at Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon and you add together their nominations at 161, and you add four platforms called networks together and you have 159, I think you see where things are headed. And Apple isn’t even in the game yet,” executive producer of The Handmaid’s Tale Warren Littlefield said.

  • Downloading on Netflix Just Got Smarter

    Downloading on Netflix Just Got Smarter

    MUMBAI: Since we launched the Download feature in 2016, one thing has been clear — members love downloading and enjoying Netflix on the go. Whether they are commuting, traveling or just in a place with pricey or spotty internet access, the download feature makes it possible for our members to take their stories with them wherever they go.

    Today, we are excited to introduce Smart Downloads. Now, when you finish watching a downloaded episode, Smart Downloads will delete it, and then automatically download the next episode. You watch, we do the work.

    We know how annoying it can be to go through all your apps and delete files you no longer need; we also understand that when it comes to Netflix, the faster you can get to the next episode you want to watch, the better. Whether it is smart downloading or viewing a mobile preview, we realize the best part of Netflix is connecting with the stories you will love in an easier and more fun way.

    We also want to emphasize that giving consumers more control over their entertainment experience is at the heart of everything we do, and members can choose when they want to use Smart Downloads. There are more details on how to use the Smart Downloads feature here and we hope you enjoy it! Smart Downloads is initially available on Android phones and tablets.