Media

Netflix in talks for cable video-streaming app

Netflix shares jumped 7.8 percent to $324.36 on Monday after reports that the video streaming service was in talks with Comcast and other cable companies to bring its app to set-top boxes.

The talks, if successful, would make Netflix much easier to access for TV viewers and could potentially add to the 28.6 million US streaming customers it had as of June 30.

That total was up 26 percent from the year earlier.

Neither Netflix nor Comcast were available for comment Monday.

The negotiations, according to a Wall Street Journal report over the weekend, also include Suddenlink. Bloomberg reported Monday that the Los Gatos, Calif., company was also talking to Time Warner Cable.

Last month, two European cable companies — Sweden’s Com Hem and Virgin Media in Britain — struck deals to allow their customers to access Netflix through Tivo set-top boxes, Reuters reported.

“We would love to reduce the friction to the end consumer, and to be available via the existing device in the home which is the set-top box,” said Netflix CFO David Wells, speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference last month.

“But it’s up to the (pay TV provider) to decide how much a competitor they view us as, or a complement,” Wells added.

In a related development, Sony said it will become the first big Hollywood studio to produce a new TV show for Netflix, underscoring how the TV industry’s elite are starting to view the streaming video service as a launch pad for original series.