The Netflix Channel – How Many Hours Watched?

Coffee Beans
     The Netflix Channel was released on October 18, 2010 and provided Wii owners with a way to stream Netflix videos without requiring the use of the Wii’s disc drive, as was initially required for the Netflix service on the system.
     On November 22, 2010, basically one month after the Netflix Channel was released for the Wii, Netflix announced a price change to their plans.  Netflix introduced a “No DVDs” streaming only plan for $7.99, but raised the “1 DVD out at a time” with unlimited video streaming plan from $8.99 to $9.99.
     Then, on July 12, 2011 Netflix announced another price increase and plan change; Netflix was separating the streaming video service from the DVDs by mail service, and charging two different prices for each plan.  Netflix members can now get the video streaming only service for $7.99 a month, and the “1 DVD out at a time” plan for $7.99 a month.

     So with all that information aside, how many hours have Wii owners reported watching documentaries, movies, and television shows on the Netflix Channel?  Let’s take a look!

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The Brew
     The Wii’s Netflix Channel now has about 1,149,552 Wii owners that have reported hours of watching videos through the Nintendo Channel, with 371 days possibly reported.
     According to the reported data, Wii Netflix users are watching the Netflix Channel about 3 Hours 32 Minutes per day/session that is reported.
     Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s President, said that more than 3 million Wii systems were using the Netflix service before the Netflix Channel was added last year.  Based on Reggie’s own numbers from last year, and the current number of Wii owners reporting Netflix Channel data; only about 30% of Netflix Wii users are using the Nintendo Channel to their hours, assuming all the original disc based Netflix users downloaded the Netflix Channel.
     As for the money side of things, if all Wii owners that have reported data are still active Netflix members, Netflix is making about $9,184,920 per month from Wii owners.

Caffeinated Thoughts
     The Wii’s Netflix Channel in our house is used nearly daily by Mrs. Coffee.  She uses is to watch cartoons with our oldest son, and she enjoys watching some television series for herself as well.
     I have written about how our son enjoys SpongeBob Squarepants occasionally and shows like Phineas and Ferb, but his all-time favorite as of right now are the Thomas the Train series available on Netflix.

     While we of course were not happy about the Netflix price plan increases, we have stuck with the service for now; though we are debating on canceling just the DVD portion of our service.
     I forgot to capture our reported Netflix Channel data, so I will do that in a bit and put the picture below.  Don’t be shocked when you see how much we have used it in the last year, as I don’t even know, but I am very suspicious the number of hours reported above 500 “Total Hours”.

Our reported Netflix Channel data…

Questions
     Are any of you still using the Wii’s Netflix Channel regularly?  Also, did the recent Netflix price plan increases and changes cause you to change/cancel part of the service?
     Also, are there any television series you would recommend to other Netflix owners that are available on the streaming service?  I would probably recommend the Prison Break season, if you like a suspenseful and real-life setting, with some nice conspiracy elements thrown into the show.

The Netflix Channel is available on all home consoles, so if you don’t own a PlayStation 3, Wii, or Xbox 360, you can see links below for them:
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=coffeew-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B005QWYKOE http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=coffeew-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B003VUO6H4 http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=coffeew-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B003O6JKLC

Netflix Channel – Are Wii Owners Watching It?

Coffee Beans:
     I showed on October 25, just a week after the Netflix Channel released, how many hours Wii owners had reported using the channel during its first week.
     On Monday, November 22, Netflix announced new price changes on their existing unlimited plans, and started offering a new “No DVDs” streaming only plan for $7.99.
     How many hours have Wii owners spent watching movies and television shows through the Netflix Channel, instead of playing video games since the last report?  Let’s take a look!

Approx. Number of Wii Owners Reporting Data:
     The Netflix Channel now has 222,656 Wii owners that have downloaded the channel, and are sharing their Netflix Channel usage through the Wii’s Nintendo Channel.

User Increase Since Last Report:
     The Netflix Channel has seen an increase of about 203,028 Wii owners reporting data, since the October 25 report.

Average & Total Video Hours Reported:
     The Netflix Channel’s “Total Hours” have increased by 4,082,396 hours, since the last report, and it now has 4,132,554 Total Hours reported.
     The total average time “Per person” is 18 Hours, 33 Minutes, while the average time per session on the Netflix Channel is just over 3 Hours 5 Minutes.

Sales Info:
     Just based off the Netflix Channel’s reported users, and assuming each Wii owner is just on the new $7.99 streaming only price plan; Netflix is making at least $1,779,021 per month, from Wii owners.
     We already know Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime said there were more than 3 million Wii owners using the Netflix service when it was disc based, so based on that alone, they were making more than $27,000,000 a month from Wii owners($324,000,000 a year!).

Thoughts:
     The reported Netflix Channel data is really impressive for a new channel on the Wii.  I think the reported user data shows the Netflix Channel is being used often by Wii owners; and the total number of hours reported and number of Wii owners reporting data is a lot higher than I expected, just 50 days after the Netflix Channel’s release.

     We are still using our Netflix service, ever since we started our “Free 30-day trial”…I guess that’s what trials are meant to do.

     We have the Netflix Channel on our Wii, as well as our PS3.  Being that I record a lot of footage from the Wii each week, the PS3 has become default Netflix player in the house.

Questions:

     Have any of you, like myself, started a Netflix membership after giving their “30-day Free Trial” a try?

     If anybody doesn’t have a console, and you are interested in getting one for Netflix use, you can see the consoles on Amazon.com linked below:

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=coffeew-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0045FEEAS&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=coffeew-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B003VUO6H4&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=coffeew-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=B0047Y9BGE&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr 

Wii’s Netflix Channel Hours Debut

Coffee Beans:
     Last Monday, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said that “…more than 3 million Wii systems have already connected to Netflix…“.
     The 3 million Wii systems, that had connected to Netflix at that time, were using a Netflix disc, that had to be in the Wii’s game disc slot.  Last Monday, a brand new Netflix Channel became available for download through the Wii’s Shop Channel, for free, as long as you have a monthly Netflix membership.

     According to the Nintendo Channel data, how many Wii owners ditched the Netflix disc, for the new Netflix Channel since last week; and how much has the channel been used?  Let’s take a look…

Approx. Number of Users Reporting Data:
     The new Netflix Channel has 19,628 Wii owners that downloaded it AND are sharing their Netflix Channel usage through the Nintendo Channel.


Thoughts:
     I received an email from Netflix about 2 weeks ago, letting me know I could try the service out for a free 30-day trial.  I knew we had family coming to visit, so I signed up for the trial, and requested to receive the Netflix discs for my Wii and PS3.  On Thursday, October 14, I received my discs in the mail, and installed the Wii disc first.  I was hoping the Netflix service would work well, and that we would get some good use out of it when our family was visiting.
     Well, the first night we used the Netflix service on the Wii, I was really impressed with it.  The Wii pointer functionality works really well, and the use of the d-pad is nice as well.  However, the one odd thing I found about the Netflix disc service on the Wii, was there was no “search” function for movies or shows.  I even hopped on a message board, and saw somebody had mentioned a new Netflix disc was going to be released with a “search” function, so that had me hopeful.
     I had no idea that just 4 days after receiving our Netflix discs, the Netflix Channel was going to be available for download.  The new Netflix Channel not only eliminates the need for the disc, but it also added the “search” function I was hoping for.

     If you haven’t seen the new Netflix Channel in action on the Wii, here’s a video I just recorded of it, and of my attempt to use the “search” function to find Saved by the Bell episodes:
http://www.youtube.com/v/aFhkhjE_IXE?fs=1&hl=en_US

     The Netflix Channel had data usage debut only one week after it was available for download, which is really well for something off of the Wii’s Shop Channel.
     While the total of Wii owners reporting the Netflix Channel data is just a little over half of one percent of the overall Wii Netflix users, I expect to see that number increase steadily over the next few months.

Questions:
     Are any of you using Netflix on the Wii?  If so, have you downloaded the new Netflix Channel, and what do you think about it?