When Netflix Watch Now goes down, the whole nation goes down, not just a single pay-TV service or one of its operating regions.
Tuesday night during prime-time, Netflix went down for four hours, leaving it totally unusable by its online subscribers, who were forced to watch traditional TV.
Late in the night Wednesday, Netflix said via Twitter, “RESOLVED: The Web site and devices are back up and running. Thanks again for your patience while we worked to get this fixed!”
Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company had an unanticipated and rare technical problem that has been fixed. No details were provided nor was there any mention of hacking.
Netflix subsequently e-mailed its subscribers to offer a 3% credit, typically 27 cents, for the outage.
This is the second time that Netflix has gone dark during the last six months. Surely the company will implement a better backup for delivering video to the home.
Some content producers are getting edgy about how Netflix’ success is impacting theirs, especially now that Netflix has announced it will get at least one show produced specifically for its airing.
CBS’ Showtime, starting this summer, will no longer provide to Netflix streaming rights to series that it is currently airing such as “Dexter” and “Californication.” They will be offered only on Showtime’s online service.
Shows from series that are no longer airing will still be available for streaming by Netflix. They include “The Tudors” and “Sleeper Cell.”
Consumers who want to see recent Showtime programs online must pay for the channel, according to Showtime. It said it makes current and past seasons of original series available to authenticated subscribers via its TV Everywhere service Showtime Anytime.
Netflix, not wanting to endanger the revised Showtime contract, played nice. It said it has “a great relationship with CBS licensing content from all of its channels, including Showtime” and would continue to negotiate for more movies and shows.
Moves like Showtime’s make it easy to see why Netflix feels it must develop original content. Its 20-million (and rapidly increasing) subscribers demand must-see entertainment, if not from the likes of Showtime, then from its own efforts. Consumers order the service ojn a month-to-month basis.
Showtime’s parent CBS has an existing $200-million deal with Netflix to distribute shows from series that are no longer airing such as “Frasier,” “Cheers,” “Twin Peaks” and “The Twilight Zone.”
Time Warner’s HBO is Netflix’ biggest detractor. It does not provide any of its shows to Netflix for streaming. Perhaps it realized early-on that Netflix could become its major competitor.
However, the Starz and Epix premium channels provide movies and original programs to Netflix, at least for now.
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