Starting today, Netflix members can check out Lilyhammer, which is the first original series available only on Netflix Instant. Lilyhammer features former Sopranos star and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt in this fish-out-of-water dramedy. Van Zant is also a writer and producer for the show.

The show centers on a New York mobster, who after testifying against a mob boss, who enters witness protection and chooses Lillehammer, Norway. He chooses Lillehammer as his hiding place due to his love of the 1994 Lillehammer winter olympics. As one might expect, hijinks do ensue.

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Even though they seem to, at times, be mostly in the business of making their customers angry, Netflix is still one of the best places to get your movie and TV content from. In fact, their streaming service is one of the most popular available.

One of the ways Netflix is going to keep that service popular, and growing, is with updates to it and the applications that make it possible. That’s just what they’ve done this week with the user interface for their Android application.

The company explained that the revamped UI now displays twice as many movie and TV titles, with larger cover art, and that users can easily swipe through titles to find additional content.

“In the last 12 months we have seen a threefold increase in how long Netflix members are watching on their tablets,” Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt said. The company also said they wanted to introduce the redesigned UI in time for the release of Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet.

Netflix said the update will be available for iPad users “in a few weeks.” The update is free and is available now in the Android Market.

Click through for the full press release from Netflix.

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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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Arrested Development is one of those series not really appreciated in its time. When it was on the air originally, it had rather low ratings and was cancelled by Fox after three seasons. It was a great show but sadly, a lot of people just didn’t “get it.”

Since its original run, the show has enjoyed newfound success in reruns as well as on DVD and Netflix and has attained cult status among those who appreciate great TV. There’s also been talk of a movie version of the series for years as well and now it seems those plans are finally coming to fruition.

But wait, there’s more. According to reports the show’s creator, Mitch Hurtwitz, plans to bring the Emmy-winning series back to television for 9 or 10 episodes before making movie. That’s right, a new series and a movie. Awesome.

Hurwitz didn’t say where the potential series would air but reportedly the two front runners are Netflix, which is looking for original programming, and Showtime, whose new entertainment president David Nevins used to work at Imagine TV and served as an executive producer on the original series.

Original series star Jason Bateman also confirmed the news on Twitter. “It’s true,” he posted. “We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ’13. VERY excited!”

Pretty sure he’s not the only one.

• Alec Baldwin is very excited to be the first host of this season of SNL, so excited he felt the need to hump Bill Heder.

• Netflix had a pretty big week, between splitting off into 2 companies and pissing off their clientele. This song pretty much explains it all.

• What happens when the world’s biggest game of dodgeball starts on a football field? Complete pandemonium.

• One of the wrongest-yet-funniest comedies on TV started back up this week as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia returned to FX. In order to prep for the season, here is the blooper reel from last season.

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What do you do if you’ve managed to make your once struggling DVD rental-by-mail company into one of, if not the, biggest rental and content streaming services in the world? Well, if you’re Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, you make some poor decisions regarding pricing, apologize for them and split off your DVD rental biz into a completely different company.

That’s just what Reed has done with Netflix’s DVD rental business. He announced this week via the company’s blog that the Netflix will split its DVD and streaming video businesses and rebrand the DVD division as “Qwikster.”

“In hindsight, I slid into arrogance based upon past success,” Hastings said in the blog post. “Now I see that given the huge changes we have been recently making, I should have personally given a full justification to our members of why we are separating DVD and streaming, and charging for both,” Hastings added.

I guess Hastings felt he had to do something what with all the backlash recently over the recently rolled out price hike of 60% which helped drop the company’s stock by almost 50%. Not only that but Starz has also has not renewed its deal with the company which means fewer movies and other content for the service.

Qwikster will be a separate company and will, in addition to movies and TV programs, also offer video game rentals. Expect to see Qwikster.com to go live in the next few weeks.

So, what do we think of this? Is it a good move or the last gasp of a dying company out of touch with customers? Sound off in the comments.

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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If you’re one of the people who was enjoying your $9.99 instant streaming plus one DVD deal at Netflix, get ready to be disappointed. That’s right, that nice low price for the service you love is going away, effective today. Can’t say we didn’t warn you this day was coming.

Instead, you can now pay $15.98 (60% more) for the same service. Of course, you can opt for the streaming only plan like most of us here at The Flickcast do. That’s still only $7.99, which is a pretty good deal.

Sadly, the selection of movies that are available for streaming is still not all that great and if you’re looking for relatively new movies, you can forget it. Most of them don’t ever make it to Netflix streaming. However, there are some and there is also a pretty decent selection of older and classic movies. Plus, the selection of TV programs is pretty good, even including some cable and non-US shows in some cases caught up with their current seasons.

So, it’s not a total loss and worth it for the money. Still, for those of you who enjoyed that low priced plan for streaming and for a DVD now and then, today just isn’t your day.

Now that this new pricing is in place, will this cause you to leave Netflix, change to a different plan or just pay the higher price? Sound off in the comments.

On the heels of Netflix announcing they are raising prices by up to sixty percent, Blockbuster is trying to provoke  a mass exodus to their service. Blockbuster began rescuing upset Netflix customers by launching a limited time, nationwide promotion for all Netflix customers who switch to Blockbuster Total Access.

“Blockbuster quickly responded to the cries of Netflix customers,” said Michael Kelly, president of Blockbuster. “Blockbuster Total Access is Netflix ‘without the wait.’ The combination of DVDs by mail and unlimited in-store exchanges provides more than 100 million people living near Blockbuster stores immediate convenience and unparalleled choice.”

There are many additional benefits that Blockbuster Total Access provides over Netflix, including things like sooner availability of many new releases, unlimited in-store exchanges, game rentals included in their plans, and no additional charge for Blu-ray movies. The only thing this plan is missing will be the same thing missing from the new Netflix plan, unlimited streaming. Blockbuster is looking to keep it’s current on demand/pay-per-view streaming model.

In order to woo Netflix customers, those who “switch” to one of Blockbuster’s two most popular Total Access plans will receive a 30-day free trial. Once the free trial ends, customers can choose between the $9.99 per month, “1 Disc” at a time option, or $14.99 per month for “2 Discs” at a time. In other words, for the same price as Netflix’s by mail service,Blockbuster will offer much more.

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Even as Netflix raises its prices and changes its plans, networks are continuing to make new deals with the service. Today, NBC/Universal announced it is re-upping its deal with Netflix and making more episodes available from programs such as 30 Rock, The Office, Parenthood and more.

Although you will see more episodes of shows on Netflix for streaming, you still won’t be able to see current season episodes for some dumb reason. Check out all the details from the official press release:

NEW YORK and LOS GATOS, Calif., July 13, 2011 — Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) and NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution today announced a multi-year renewal of their licensing agreement expanding the selection of non-exclusive NBCU film and TV library titles available to watch instantly streaming from Netflix.

Programming under the deal includes prior-season series across multiple NBCU networks, including NBC hits “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “Parenthood.” All future seasons of these shows will be available on Netflix on a one season delay basis. Under the deal, Netflix members will also be able to enjoy prior season episodes of “Law and Order: SVU” and “The Event.”

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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.

Welcome to another edition of On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• After 13 years of production and impatient waiting, it looks like Duke Nukem Forever is finally hitting shelves very soon. So soon that the first launch trailer has hit and already has us salivating.

• As if the laws in Tennessee weren’t crazy enough, a new law has passed making it illegal for people to share Netflix accounts. Bring on the legal grey area debates!

• Green Lantern: Emerald Knights hits stores next Tuesday, but if you can’t wait that long, we totally understand. Here’s a way to win a free copy so you can spend that money on important things like tickets to Green Lantern in theaters.

• What happens when you mix classic horror and cult films with well-known cereal brands? The epicness of the Cereal Killers trading cards from Eye Wax. Names like “Clockword Porridge” and “Zomb’a Crunch” are enough to get us to buy several boxes.

• Just in time for the possibly huge release of X-Men: First Class, contributor Wally has put together a pretty comprehensive list of the Top 5 X-Men Video Games. Sadly, Marvel Ultimate Alliance doesn’t make the cut.

• In nerdy business news, Groupon has filed for an IPO, allowing it to become publicly traded. Rumor has it, there will even be a Groupon deal for stocks…

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