The internet business is a pretty tricky thing to keep one’s thumb on. Especially when you are in charge of hundreds of thousands consumers ready for their on-demand entertainment. That’s why it was especially puzzling when Netflix CEO Reed Hastings decided to belly up to the DVD/VOD war and claim Qwikster would be his champion.

That’s when things got tricky, as Netflix subscribers were fleeing the scene, hoping this meant they wouldn’t have to spend double the amount they were spending to get the same DVD and streaming service. Now that Qwikster is dead and gone, it seems that the original company is still suffering from its mistake. From Variety:

While investors were disappointed with the reported decline of 810,000 streaming subscribers in the second quarter, some equally depressing projections for the final months of 2011 also contributed to a 27% drop in after-hours trading, sending the stock to $85. It had opened the day at $119.37.

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If you’re as addicted to Instant Netflix as the rest of us, you’re probably glued to the New Releases feed to see what the benevolent Netflix gods will bring you to enjoy from the comfort of your bed/couch every night. One company who has helped aid in their vast streaming library is Starz, which expands to original series and films that make it to their movie channels.

It looks like that deal won’t last much longer, as it’s been announced that Starz will choose to discontinue their deal with Netflix and Instant Netflix, pulling their content from the servers. Here’s the press release from Starz.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Sept. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Starz, LLC, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chris Albrecht, issued the following statement today regarding the status of affiliation agreement renewal discussions with Netflix.

“Starz Entertainment has ended contract renewal negotiations with Netflix. When the agreement expires on February 28, 2012, Starz will cease to distribute its content on the Netflix streaming platform. This decision is a result of our strategy to protect the premium nature of our brand by preserving the appropriate pricing and packaging of our exclusive and highly valuable content.”

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Now that just about every new device, be it a TV, computer, game console, or Blu-Ray player, comes with Instant Netflix programmed into the device itself, the rules have to change to accommodate just about everyone on the planet watching Netflix either through streaming or the original DVD plan. That means the company is making changes in the way you use the service, and exactly how much you spend monthly.

Now, instead of having that fancy DVD and streaming plan together, the company is making you choose or pay for both at double the price. Here’s the breakdown from the horse’s mouth.

First, we are launching new DVD only plans. These plans offer our lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs – only $7.99 a month for our 1 DVD out at-a-time plan and $11.99 a month for our 2 DVDs out at-a-time plan. By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members. New members can sign up for these plans by going to DVD.netflix.com.

Second, we are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into separate plans to better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan or the option to subscribe to both. With this change, we will no longer offer a plan that includes both unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail.

So if you have the current $9.99 unlimited streaming/DVD plan, you’ll have to pick between paying for JUST unlimited DVD’s at $7.99 or unlimited streaming for $7.99. Or both if you’re so ambitious. Unfortunate, but it was bound to happen with this service becoming more and more popular.

With Instant Netflix making itself readily available on both the Playstation 3 and Wii without the use of a disc this week, there have already been some major leaps made in the world of streaming. Netflix has already projected that the last quarter of their yer will see more streaming customers than disc users.

With projections like that, action is required.

Until now, Netflix users who want to stream have been tethered to a disc-subscription plan, which means that the only way to get Instant Netflix is by subscribing to at least their lowest disc-subscription plan of one disc at a time, for a limited time. The company plans to change that by the end of the year. From the LA Times.

The company last month started offering a streaming-only service in Canada for $7.99 per month. Hastings said success there has led Netflix to test an identical offering in the U.S. If the test fares well, all consumers will be able to sign up for streaming-only service. Chief Executive Reed Hastings did not identify a price, but it is likely to be the same as it is in Canada.

It’s also noted that this won’t effect their current subscription plans, only annex a new plan at the bottom of the scale to accommodate those users who only plan to watch movies and TV shows via their computer or streaming device.

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Yesterday we brought you news that may have changed the console race between PS3, XBox 360, and PS3 as it was announced that the Wii owners will no longer need a disc to stream Instant Netflix on their console. However, mere hours later, the same was announced for the PS3, with a all-new browsing and search functionality, that may just blow XBox 360 out of the water.

Coming with this new system is the ability to browse through the thousands of movies and TV shows available to stream instantly via Netflix by way of genre, category, and even suggestions. Also added is a fully functional search feature, which is new to all forms of the streaming service.

Dolby 5.1 Stereo and 1080p video are also available to help the PS3 keep the edge on video playback.

Finally, and probably the coolest feature in the system, is the new Browser feature that allows you to cycle through each movie, while a select scene plays in the background. Just in case you need extra incentive to watch that classic episode of Dexter. Check out a full video of the new features after the jump.

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Just this weekend, Saturday Night Live returned with its 36th season to a 15 percent ratings bump from last season’s premiere. Amy Pohler and Katy Perry were the guests, along with a whole slew of former cast members dropping by throughout the show.

The premiere had its funny moments. But one of the main things the episode also accomplished was to make the audience look back and fondly remember the classic episodes of the series over its rich 35 year lifespan. Fortunetely, we don’t have to scrounge YouTube or Hulu for old episodes as Netflix and NBC have signed a deal to get every episode of SNL available on Netflix’s streaming service.

But that’s not all as according to the press releasing announcing the deal, along with SNL, we’ll also be treated to tons of other NBC Universal properties coming to the service.

Episodes from every season of NBC’s signature comedy franchise “Saturday Night Live,” including day-after broadcast of the upcoming 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons plus hundreds of episodes from the first 35 years of “SNL.”

Every episode from the last season of the multiple Emmy® Award-winning series “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Law & Order: SVU,” as well as earlier seasons of those shows renewed for streaming from Netflix under the current deal.

All prior seasons – and eventually next year’s final season – of “Friday Night Lights,” the small-town drama surrounding high-school football in Dillon, Tex.

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Since the announcement of Hulu’s pay service (aptly titled Hulu Plus), the big question on everyone’s mind is simple: Why pay for a service that I was getting for free? Well, we’re happy to say that it’s definitely worth it. The worth became apparent to me as I stood in a 45 minute line at Comic-Con in San Diego and passed the time by watching episodes of Family Guy and The Office.

You may be saying to yourself: “I have plenty of videos on my iPhone so who cares.” and before today I could agree with you. There is something incredibly freeing about having access to the handful of movies or TV shows stored on your iPhone. The wonderful new Hulu Plus app gives you instant access to every episode of hundreds of different TV shows and movies.

Unlike previous streaming technologies, such as Slingbox, that required WiFi, the videos streamed seamlessly using the 3G network and the quality was on par with any video purchased in iTunes. Another concern that usually pops up with programs like this is how it will handle multitasking when faced with oncoming texts and phone calls.

Hulu Plus performs admirably by reloading the video where you left off, rather than restarting from the beginning.

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