Movie rentals

There's no point in letting a $1 billion lawsuit get in the way of a good thing. Even though Viacom and Google's YouTube are still embroiled in a five-year legal tussle over video clips, the two are hooking up in a digital streaming deal.

Netflix hopes its latest move doesn't turn out to resemble a British comedy. The video buffet operator introduced its streaming service in Ireland and the U.K. on Monday. And while overseas expansion is old hat for Netflix, this time, the challenges are bigger.

Netflix (NFLX) viewers got a hint of what was to happen when Starz-owned Sony movies disappeared from their Netflix queues in June. Now it's official: Starz (LSTZA) announced Thursday that it would no longer stream its movies on Netflix, ending a rocky agreement that began in 2008. Starz's sudden...

Netflix's massive rate hike plan represents a 60% increase for some of its customers -- a giant step up by any standard. And the unspoken cost is, of course, the price of broadband Internet service customers also pay, likely on top of a cable bill, cellphone bill and other media subscriptions. In the end, how much media - and how many subscriptions - do we really need? Even as the offerings around us increase, there are still only 24 hours in a day.

Movie rental giant Netflix's decision to raise rates by up to 60% has caused a big stir among some of its 23 million subscribers. Could the higher prices lead to cancellations, slow the company's growth? Are you a subscriber? Share your thoughts about the rate hike on our message board.

Google's video-sharing site, YouTube, is giving Netflix investors a little scare with its recent announcement that it has doubled the number of movie titles in its rental library to 6,000. But could YouTube's strategy be successful enough that it could directly compete with Netflix?

Blockbuster on Monday kicked off the confidential auction process that will decide its future. Billionaire Carl Icahn and others have bid for the troubled video-rental chain.

Walt Disney is increasing the wholesale prices it charges for DVDs to movies-by-mail leader Netflix and movie-rental kiosk operator Redbox. Disney is looking to benefit further from being the only major studio to sell DVDs to the companies for rental the day they go on sale to the public.

Bankrupt video-rental company Blockbuster may put itself up for sale as early as next week, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The company had previously planned to reorganize, but creditors couldn't agree on a plan to restructure its debt.

Netflix angered customers this week by removing the option to order DVDs via videostreaming consoles and mobile devices. The news that it was eliminating the "Add to DVD Queue" button in order to focus more on streaming videos has drawn thousands of comments, many critical of the company.