Netflix has revealed that it will hold a second challenge to improve the movie recommendation systems offered by the service to its customer. The revelation came from chief product officer, Neil Hunt, even before the company has announced the winner of the $1 million prize for the first challenge.
The contest was launched in 2006 by the DVD rental giant, aimed at improving predictions of titles customers might be interested in by 10 percent. Contestants from 186 countries, amounting to 51,000 people, decided to give it a shot. Right now, two teams called BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos and The Ensemble top the leader board with The Ensemble just edging Bellkor’s with 10.10 percent compared to 10.09 percent.
The winner will be announced in late September when Netflix will announce the details of the second competition. “While the first contest has been remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2 will be more challenging, more fun, and even more useful to the field,” Hunt wrote.
Result for: chief product
Netflix has announced that it will finally add subtitles to its video streaming library, however, not until next year.
CEO Reed Hastings says the lack of subtitles has been one of the biggest complaints about the service’s “Watch Instantly” streaming library.
Netflix will finish creating the text files that will “give customers the option of enacting captions on digital titles on devices using Microsoft’s Silverlight components sometime in 2010, adds Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt.
“Captioning is in our development plans but is about a year away,” Hunt finished.
Result for: chief product
Netflix has announced the hiring of former Macrovision Solutions executive Greg Peters in an effort to secure more video-streaming deals.
Peters will become VP of partner product development and report to current Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt.
“Greg’s expertise in all aspects of the product development lifecycle—from vision to design to implementation—will be a significant asset to Netflix and our partners as we push toward our goal of eventually enabling all U.S. households to stream Netflix to their TVs,” Hunt said.
Netflix has gone on a tear recently securing deals with Samsung, TiVo, Microsoft, Disney and Starz, all in an effort to boost their “Watch Instantly” streaming service. The library currently has over 12,000 titles available with another 3000 titles expected by the end of the year.
