Netflix’s share price climbed more than 5% to $310 per share on Tuesday on the news that Virgin Media, which offers pay-TV service in the UK, will make the streaming video service available to customers via an app on TiVo.
To receive Netflix, Virgin Media subscribers still will have to subscribe separately to Netflix, but the deal gives 1.7 million Virgin Media TiVo homes access to the service, starting with a pilot of 40,000 households that launches this week. The service will be available to all Virgin Media subscribers by the end of the year.
While the announcements seems to bode well for Netflix in the very short term, analysts wonder if giving viewers such easy access to the service will convince them to leave their pay-TV provider all together, according to a story in Variety.
“The danger for Virgin Media is that its customers will find Netflix to be a revelation that they would not otherwise have stumbled upon, opening their eyes to a low-cost subscription TV service that satisfies their core entertainment needs,” Ted Hall, senior analyst with Informa Telecoms & Media, told the publication. “Rather than strengthening the appeal of TiVo, the addition of Netflix could in fact do the opposite and encourage customers to cut the cord and settle for a cheaper combination of broadband, Netflix (via other devices) and free-to-air TV.”
TiVo users in the U.S. also have access to Netflix over the TiVo set-top box via an app.
Tuesday’s stock surge is the highest Netflix shares have gone since July 13, 2011, when the price neared $305, just before the company made its short-lived announcement that it was going to split the DVD rental and streaming businesses and increase its prices on both fronts. After the consumer outrage that ensued, the company backed off on that plan, but its stock still hit bottom a year later, with a low of $52.81, according to Deadline.com.
Since then, shares have appreciated 447% due to the company’s successful introduction of original programming and international expansion. Netflix launches in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Sept. 11, according to Variety.
Brief Take: Investors want to see Netflix expanding its distribution; Netflix’s cable-network competitors might not be quite as happy about it, however.
Read More: The Hollywood Reporter.
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