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Netflix Inc's fourth-quarter revenue outpaced Wall Street's expectations as the video rental website reversed subscriber losses to sign up more than 600,000 new U.S. customers in the period, pushing its shares up 12 percent.

Netflix on Wednesday announced fourth quarter earnings of $40.7 million, or 73 cents a share, beating out Wall Street expectations of 55 cents a share.

The companies expected to see active trade Wednesday are: Apple, Boeing, CA, Xerox, Automatic Data Processing, Netflix, General Dynamics, SanDisk Corp, Hess Corp, Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Laboratories, ConocoPhillips and Murphy Oil Corp.

That the likes of George Clooney and Brad Pitt have received Oscar nominations for the Best Actor in a Leading Role trophy at the 84th Annual Academy Awards is no surprise. The surprise of the category is Mexican actor Demian Bichir. The 48-year-old actor has been acting since he was 14.

The company struggles to make a profit from subscribers moving online for content, and is still recovering from its ill-fated plan to split its online streaming and DVD-by-mail service.

Netflix Inc probably would like nothing better than to put 2011 behind it. But 2012 may be no walk in the park either.

LOS ANGELES - Netflix Inc will kick off an external search for a chief marketing officer in coming months, replacing Leslie Kilgore, who ends her 12-year run in February to join the board as a non-executive director.

Netflix's stock has suffered a much-publicized nosedive in recent months, and now a group of shareholders is hitting the subscription service with a class action suit.

Hulu, the popular online video service, has taken another step to becoming a full-fledged alternative to cable television by commissioning its first scripted original TV show to go live next month.

Verizon Communications Inc is pushing hard to move its FiOS TV service beyond the set-top box and onto the latest gadgets - from TVs and tablets to gaming consoles - to fend off competition from online video services such as Netflix Inc, Amazon Inc and Apple's Inc iTunes.

YouTube , which transmitted 800 million videos last year, expects growth to skyrocket in coming years with more specialty channels backed by advertising, VP for global content Robert Kyncil said at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The combination of lightweight operating systems, low-power processors, and near-ubiquitous high speed broadband will empower the disruption of the living room paradigm in 2012, says an analyst.

Crisis somewhat averted.

Microsoft Corp has put its talks with media companies about an online subscription service for TV shows and movies on hold, according to people familiar with the discussions.

YouTube is looking to increase viewership on its online video service by making the service available on an array of connected devices and by adding new content, according to a top executive for the Google Inc unit.

YouTube is looking to increase viewership on its online video service by making the service available on an array of connected devices and by adding new content, according to a top executive for the Google Inc unit.

Whitney Tilson told CNBC that he expected the stock of the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company to continue on its upward trajectory, and he also said Netflix is in prime position for a takeover.

Netflix launched in Britain and Ireland on Monday, taking on BSkyB's premium drama and movies offerings and prompting Amazon-owned rival Lovefilm to offer a new cut-price service.

For the past year, studios have been flirting with stretching out the delays on when Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster can rent new releases, but it looks like Warner Bros. is going to be the first to take the plunge.

In the constant game of thrones that is the Silicon Valley tech giants' battle for dominance, 2012 could be the year that Microsoft comes back from exile.

When Downton Abbey was announced as the winner of all those awards -- six, out of 11 nominations -- at last year's Emmy ceremony, most viewers were probably wondering a) what Downton Abbey was and b) if someone had left an extra w out of the title.

Hulu Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime are great for streaming content, so here's how to choose which is best for you. As broadband gets cheaper and more plentiful, more and more people are cutting the cord and canceling their cable subscriptions. That's because all that broadband capability is allowing for a revolution in streaming content online, specifically, streaming videos

The move by Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner, doubles the current 28-day delay on DVD rentals.

Stocks rose in the first week of this year, even though news that the U.S. jobless rate neared a three-year low did not whet interest in equities on Friday.

Stocks were on track to post gains for the first week of 2012 on Friday as signs of a sustainable economic recovery overshadowed lingering concerns about the euro zone's debt crisis.

European film subscription service Lovefilm has signed deals to give its members access to past BBC and ITV television shows including Doctor Who and Prime Suspect, it said ahead of an expected imminent launch of rival Netflix in Britain.

Corporate America's worst nightmare lives in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, loves browsing in flea markets and has a lop-eared brown and white pet rabbit named Crackers.

Roku has unveiled the streaming stick, which is as tiny as a USB flash drive, on Wednesday, with all the functionality of set-top box, including Wi-Fi, processor, and memory. This device will be showcased at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2012 in Las Vegas next week.

Nevertheless, Netflix shares are down significantly from the 52-week high of $304.79.