How many people does Netflix (NFLX) expect to pay its $1-per-month Blu-ray rental surcharge, which it'll begin charging next month? Not many: About 500,000 -- or less than 6% of its current 8.67 million subscriber base, CEO Reed Hastings said during the company's Q3 earnings call this evening. An interesting stat, but not too surprising -- Netflix has never broken out its Blu-ray subscriber base before, but it's always maintained that it's tiny.
Hastings, of course, expects that number to grow as Blu-ray players come down in price. He's also hoping that Netflix's movie streaming service will be built into "as many Blu-ray players as possible."
The first, LG's $400 "BD300" Blu-ray player, started shipping earlier this month; Hastings says Netflix will announce more Blu-ray partnerships as soon as they're ready for consumers.
See Also:
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Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.
