The New York Post has reported today that Netflix is prepared to pay up to $100,000 per episode for the ability to stream in-season TV shows, such as current episodes of hits like “Glee” and “The Office.”
If accurate, the move will position Netflix next to Hulu as the premier destination to view TV episodes from current running seasons.
In October, Netflix announced it had signed a deal with NBCU to bring full back catalogs of hit shows like “30 Rock,” “The Office,” and others to the streaming service, as well as a deal that gives Netflix the right to stream “Saturday Night Live” the day after it airs on TV.
Netflix recently began offering a streaming-only service for $8 per month in the U.S., the first time the company has offered a deal that does not include physical media rentals.
The company has spent close to $1 billion on streaming rights over the past years, placing a big bet on the future of streaming.
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Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of News Corp has announced this weekend that the company will launch a new national digital newspaper, one that will offer short, “snappy” stories and be available to tablet and smartphone users.
Says the CEO: “We’ll have young people reading newspapers. It’s a real game changer in the presentation of news.”
Murdoch hopes the new platform will transform the way people read news, especially on tablet devices, which are gaining popularity.
The paper will operate under the guidance of the New York Post, one of News Corp’s most profitable papers.
There is no timetable yet, but analysts anticipate a launch by Christmas.
Since the launch of the Apple iPad tablet in April, advertisers have increasingly looked to digital devices as a way to connect with users that have slowly but surely moved away from print news. Research firm Gartner anticipates 10.5 million tablets will be sold this year.
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According to the New York Post, Facebook is reportedly considering adding music to its popular social networking site, either as streaming to compete with MySpace or as a pay-per-download site such as iTunes.
MySpace recently launched their streaming MySpace Music service and promptly hit 1 billion plays within 3 days.
Facebook would be joining up with either Rhapsody.com, iMeem.com, iLike.com or Lala.com, says the report and also notes that Facebook is in talks with the Big 4 labels.
“Facebook is a serious challenger to MySpace and they would certainly want to do anything that record labels would allow them to do with advertising-supported music,” said Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media. “Advertising-supported revenue would be good for Facebook and certainly free access to recorded music would be good for Facebook members. It would be good for the labels, too. If the MySpace deal is working out well, then the labels would probably want to replicate that on Facebook.”
We will keep you updated with any developments.
