Netflix posts a $5 million quarterly loss -- its first since 2005 -- even as the company's subscriber base grows to 26 million and CEO Hastings' pay jumps 68 percent to $9.3 million for 2011.
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said Tuesday that he expects to reach a streaming deal with Netflix similar to a recent agreement struck by Comcast and said the telecom giant wants to partner with content companies for an over-the-top, or broadband-only, video service.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco, he said “we would love to partner with content companies” to bring mobile content offers to subscribers of Verizon’s FiOS pay TV service and a wireless broadband service to consumers.
While content licensing agreements for that depend on what content companies want to do, McAdam suggested that big entertainment companies “realize that the pie now grows if they go over the top.” He added: “We are going to work with them and find a model.” So far, he said, content companies have feared to upset the healthy pay TV eco-system, but he signaled confidence that there are ways to launch a new service without hurting existing pay TV offers.
Verizon recently agreed to acquire Intel Media’s online TV start-up OnCue, which has been working on an Internet TV service. The second-largest U.S. phone firm said at the time that the purchase would accelerate the launch of new features for its FiOS service and allow it to offer an online service outside of its coverage area and on mobile devices.
Asked about a recent deal between Netflix and Comcast that connects the streaming video firm access to Comcast’s broadband pipes in return for payments, Mc Adam said that deal sounded “smart,” citing that it would avoid congestion for “the core of the Internet” and “some compensation.”
Said the Verizon boss: “I have spoken to [Netflix CEO] Reed” Hastings live and via email. “I think we will get some sort of arrangement with them as well.”
E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com
Twitter: @georgszalai
