SANTA (AND TURBO) TO ARRIVE ON NETFLIX’S CLOUD

While kids’ DVDs have always been popular gift items at Christmas, Netflix intends to bypass the chimney and the tree to deliver a new DreamWorks Animation series directly to kids’ tablets or TV sets on Christmas eve. Five episodes of the all-new Turbo FAST, produced exclusively for Netflix, will be available via the streaming service on Dec. 24, with additional episodes to become available “in coming months.” In a statement DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg said, “We’ve long said that Netflix is revolutionizing the television industry and now we are thrilled to officially be a part of it.” In the meantime, several analysts continue to question where the money will come to pay for Netflix’s costly foray into original programming and its efforts to expand overseas. Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who has frequently warned that Netflix’s stock is strikingly overvalued and is headed for a wreck unless it can materially boost its earnings, has said in a note to clients that a subscription price hike appears inevitable. However, he said, if that were to happen, content providers — principally Hollywood’s major film studios — would simply raise their license fees. “We think that Netflix’s current content deals reflect minimums, and believe that if Netflix were to increase prices, content costs would rise in lockstep,” he wrote.