A leading provider of online movie rental services, Netflix Inc. (NFLX) recently signed an expanded license agreement with General Electric’s (GE) NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution division.
Under the terms of the agreement, Netflix subscribers will be able to watch movies and television shows from NBC television network and NBC Universal’s popular cable channels over the Internet for just $8.99 a month.
As per the agreement, Netflix members will have access to popular television shows such as Saturday Night Life, including its day-after broadcast for the upcoming 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons.
Netflix will also stream all the prior season episodes and the upcoming final season (due in 2011) of the high school football drama Friday Night Lights.
Netflix members can watch every episode (both old and new) of 30 Rock, The Office and Law & Order: SVU over the Internet under the current agreement.
The agreement allows Netflix to stream all the prior seasons of hit show Psych and the drama series In Plain Sight, as well as all the episodes of Monk for the first time over the Internet.
Moreover, Netflix will be able to stream more than 75 prior season episodes of Syfy's Battlestar Galactica, as well as prior seasons of the network's popular series Destination Truth and Eureka to its members.
We believe this partnership with NBC Universal will prove to be beneficial for Netflix over the long term as it plans to expand its streaming portfolio. The partnership is expected to boost Netflix’s customer base in the United States.
Despite being in the nascent stage currently, we believe the online movie and television market will be a fragmented market over the long term, due to low entry barriers and decline in the use of DVD. Post Blockbuster’s bankruptcy filing, the analysts believe that Netflix will
