• Netflix to offer online streaming as stand-alone service
By Traci Patterson

Netflix Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy announced this week that the company plans to offer its online streaming service – which boasts thousands of movies and TV episodes – on a stand-alone basis, according to Reuters. "We're likely to do that in the foreseeable future," Reuters quoted McCarthy as saying at the Jefferies 5^th Annual Internet and Media Conference in New York.

About one year ago, Netflix announced that it was allowing its subscribers to stream an unlimited number of movies and TV episodes on their PCs for no additional fee (story here). But the Watch Instantly streaming service is now offered via Roku set-top boxes, Microsoft Corp's Xbox, LG Electronics’ products and other devices.

Netflix’s 10 million subscribers currently pay a fixed monthly fee for access to the company’s by-mail DVD service, which offers about 100,000 titles, as well as its online streaming service, which offers more than 12,000 titles.

• Analyst: Online advertising may decline
By Mike Robuck

Online advertising could be headed for its first decline since the dot-com bust of 2001, according to an IDC analyst.

IDC analyst Karsten Weide wrote in a research note yesterday that Internet advertising could decline by 5 percent in the current first quarter.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Weide also wrote that the decline could extend into the second quarter despite industry forecasts that have predicted growth.