Nearly One Billion Movies Later, Netflix Approaches Delivery Milestone and Heralds It in New Ad Campaign Launching Tonight

Nearly One Billion Movies Later, Netflix Approaches Delivery Milestone and Heralds It in New Ad Campaign Launching Tonight

LOS GATOS, Calif., Oct. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On the twenty-third of September in 1999, from a small warehouse in San Jose, Calif., the drama "True Crime" went trucking to Tucson. The comedy "Analyze This" was off to Annapolis. And two classic doctors, one named "Doolittle" and the other "Strangelove," prepared to make house calls in St. Louis and Pottstown, PA. Seven years and a lot of DVDs later, the movie subscription service launched that September day approaches a milestone few could have thought possible. Sometime next year, at its current rate, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) will deliver the one billionth movie in its history.

Netflix said that is considering a number of ways to mark the occasion -- ideas are welcome -- and announced that the impending milestone will be the centerpiece of a new national advertising campaign that debuts tonight and underscores for consumers the scale, reliability and rapid adoption of its service. The company today ships approximately one and a half million DVDs a day from 41 distribution centers geographically dispersed across the U.S.

The new ads -- which carry the campaign line "Nearly one billion movies delivered so far. Zero late fees." -- will enjoy an initial network TV run across all day parts on NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox. The commercials will appear on such highly visible shows as "Grey's Anatomy," "Dancing with the Stars," "Ugly Betty," "CSI," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," and "Late Night with David Letterman." Netflix said the new campaign message will also be delivered through network radio and will be integrated into its online communications through ads on leading Web sites like Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, as well as its own site, www.netflix.com.

"The central message we want to convey to consumers is that Netflix offers the easiest, most convenient and most reliable way to enjoy the widest variety of movies," said Neve Savage, the company's vice president of marketing. "We deliver that theme, and our run-up to a billion deliveries, with some entertaining and attention-grabbing production, as well as a touch of humor."

The new TV spots, 30-second and 15-second executions produced by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, use characters from a number of film genres to represent the roughly 1.5 million movies Netflix ships to subscribers in a typical day. In an introductory spot, space troopers, an Elizabethan couple and a headless horseman are seen delivering themselves to homes, apartments and office buildings in an average American town. In other spots, additional characters from children's movies, romantic comedies and westerns are seen inside a Netflix distribution center receiving a pep talk from the facility manager prior to being shipped out. An electronic counter marking the run to one billion shipments is also seen.

At the end of September, Netflix was serving 5.7 million subscribers with a library of 65,000 titles spanning more than 200 genres. The service is widely recognized as among the best and most reliable in Internet commerce and has for three consecutive polls been named the number one Web site for customer satisfaction by the independent researchers ForeSee Results and FGI Research.

About Netflix

Netflix, Inc. is the world's largest online movie rental service, providing more than five million subscribers access to over 65,000 DVD titles. The company offers a variety of subscription plans, starting at $5.99 a month. There are no due dates, no late fees and no shipping fees. DVDs are delivered for free by the USPS from regional distribution centers located throughout the United States. Netflix can reach more than 90 percent of its subscribers with generally one business-day delivery. Netflix offers personalized movie recommendations to its members and has more than one billion movie ratings. Netflix also allows members to share and recommend movies to one another through its Friends(SM) feature. For more information, visit www.netflix.com.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: bhanley@netflix.com

Source: Netflix, Inc.

CONTACT: Bronagh Hanley, +1-408-540-3916 or bhanley@netflix.com, or
Steve Swasey, +1-408-540-3947 or sswasey@netflix.com, both of Netflix, Inc.

Web site: http://www.netflix.com/

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