Cord Cutting

Editor’s note: WRALTechWire’s “Bulldog” is named after the old newspaper tradition of a “bulldog edition” for providing a quick and early look at news. We recently chose to relaunch the Bulldog as a way to incorporate local and other technology and life science news in our daily reports in a concise way so that we can provide more news to our readers. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – In our Bulldog blog’s tech and life science news update: Google’s X team meets with FDA amid medical device talk; Raleigh-based WebAssign adds exec; Twitter shares fall again; Islet Sciences bolsters board; Apple, Samsung...

Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) has won over consumers and Hollywood with its mix of TV reruns, old movies and original shows, all for $7.99-a-month with liberal policies that let family and friends share one account. Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings may now be able to squeeze more profit from his 33.3 million customers by tightening up those policies or boosting prices. As many as 10 million people are watching the online video service without paying, according to Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Securities analyst in Los Angeles. Netflix’s options include limiting the number of people or computers that could share one...

Netflix’s (Nasdaq: NFLX) rollercoaster ride on Wall Street surged to new heights Thursday. The company’s stock climbed $43.60 to close at $146.86 as investors celebrated a fourth-quarter earnings report highlighted by accelerated growth in Netflix’s Internet video service. The 42 percent increase in Netflix’s market value marked the stock’s biggest single-day gain since Netflix went public more than a decade ago when investors were still shunning Internet businesses in the wake of the dot-com bust. Most investors were spurning Netflix again less than five months ago when billionaire Carl Icahn decided to go against the grain and buy 5.54...

The latest in technology news with IBM, NetApp, Sprint and more making news: The government of New Zealand plans to launch a formal inquiry into IBM and the handling of a health services contract that ZDnet reports was “bungled.” Read the details here. DVD kiosk operator Redbox is launching a challenge to Netflix’s streaming-video supremacy. Later this month, Redbox will offer an unlimited streaming-video plan that includes movies from Warner Bros. and pay TV channel Epix, along with four nights of physical DVD rentals, for $8 a month, or $9 a month if customers want Blu-ray discs, The AP reports. Read...

Netflix Inc.’s deal with Walt Disney Co. to stream new releases, including those from Pixar and Marvel, signals online viewing has become mainstream and poses a major threat to traditional pay TV. Starting in 2016, Netflix gains exclusive U.S. TV rights to movies from Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, according to a statement yesterday. That gives the Los Gatos, California-based video service new films in a time frame historically reserved for premium channels like Liberty Media Corp.’s Starz, as soon as seven months after theaters. The accord underscores the shift away from a decades-old model in which studios...

Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox and Verizon Communications Inc., providing details of their challenge to Netflix Inc., will offer subscription streaming, movie sales and rentals by Christmas, along with DVDs from the local kiosk. Redbox Instant by Verizon, now being tested in the homes of about 500 Verizon employees, initially will focus solely on newer movies that have been available for sale and rental, Eric Bruno, Verizon’s vice president of strategy and planning for consumer and mass business markets, said Friday in an interview. Redbox Instant, 65 percent owned by Verizon, will challenge Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. for the growing number...

Netflix says its second-quarter earnings plunged 91 percent amid a slowdown in subscriber growth. The financial deterioration reported Tuesday follows a rare loss for Netflix during the opening three months of the year. In the latest quarter, Netflix Inc. added 1.1 million worldwide subscribers to its service that streams unlimited video over TVs and other Internet-connected devices for $8 per month. The second-quarter subscriber gains were in line with management predictions, but analysts had hoped for more. They were well below the nearly 2 million customers picked up at the same time last year. Netflix earned $6.2 million, or...