Netflix is hoping to renew its deal with Starz Entertainment to
offer streaming video of movies but "we can live without it if we have
to," CEO Reed Hastings said at an investment conference Wednesday.
"They
have content, we have money," said Hastings, speaking at the Barclays
Capital 2010 Global Technology Conference in San Francisco. "Unless
we're idiots we ought to be able to find some way to make it work over
the next couple years."
However, he added, "there's no one piece
of content that is essential for us." One year ago, Netflix said no
single content provider represented more than 20% of Netflix's
streaming-video viewing, Hastings said, and since then the company has
expanded its content.
Starz in October 2008 announced a three-year streaming deal with Netflix,
reported to be worth in the range of $20 million to $30 million, which
runs through 2011. The deal gave Netflix the ability to stream movies
from Walt Disney Co. and Sony Pictures Entertainment, among other
content.
