Netflix Closes in on Another Deal, This Time with Miramax and Paramount
posted Sunday Apr 3, 2011 by Nicholas DiMeo
Netflix has been trying to stay in the news a lot recently. The company pretty much does anything and everything right. Netflix also dominates the Internet video streaming market in a time where other companies like Amazon and Zediva are trying to stream some video of their own. Because of the competition, Netflix keeps looking for more companies to strike deals with, like CBS. This week, they are working on bringing Miramax and Paramount to their ever-expanding library and service.
For details on the latest deals and more, click the break.
Netflix is trying to really kill off all competitors with these deals. The deal with Miramax will reportedly bring over 700 movies that would be available in the future for streaming and the deal will be worth over $100 million, spread out over the next five years. As you may or may not know, Miramax was recently purchased from Disney by company Filmyard Holdings for $660 million.
This week also put Netflix on paper with Paramount Pictures in Canada. The agreement will allow movies to be shown on Netflix before they are released to TV.
All of this will eventually trickle its way into Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming feature, which is the most popular option for Netflix subscribers.
Unfortunately, along with the Paramount deal came some bad news. Netflix has now capped bandwidth in Canada, which will lower video quality, due to the enforcement of data caps from Canadian ISPs. Netflix has categorized Canada's new rate of 625 kbps as "good" and customers can also select a "better" quality of 1300 kbps or a "best" quality of 4800 kbps, but of course these customers could suffer usage charges from their ISPs.
Small sad news aside, this still puts Netflix with two more partners that will definitely add to the value of their service. Add that to the fact that their availability is on practically any connected device out there, and you are left with a small percentage of people who wouldn't consider going red.
Do you have a Netflix account? Or will you simply not switch to Internet video streaming? How's that YouTube quality workin' out for ya? Let us know in the comments!