Personalized Movie-Finding Destination NetFlix Kicks Off Year Three With Top-Notch Executive Hires

13-Jun-00

Kicking off its third year in existence, NetFlix, the personalized movie-finding destination, announced new executive hires and site enhancements. Following on the heels of the companyís signing of Goodby, Silverstein and Partners to launch a national advertising campaign and the addition of Debbie Pinkston, Vice President of Advertising Sales to secure online advertisers, NetFlix has hired top-notch executives, Leslie Kilgore as Vice President of Marketing and Ted Sarandos as the Vice President of Content Acquisition to further support the ongoing growth of the company. In response to customer demands, NetFlix has added movie showtime listings as well as a DVD price search feature to the site. A resource for highly personalized movie recommendations, movie news, reviews and DVD information, NetFlix currently offers more than 7,000 DVD titles for rent and has strategic relationships with Circuit City and major consumer electronics brands including Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba. About Leslie Kilgore Leslie Kilgore joins NetFlix as the Vice President of Marketing. Leslie comes to NetFlix from Amazon.com, where she served as Director of Marketing. Prior to that, she spent six years at Procter and Gamble where she was Brand Manager of Pantene and Head & Shoulders, two of P&Gís largest brands. She holds a B.S. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. About Ted Sarandos Ted Sarandos joins NetFlix as the Vice President of Content Acquisitions. A 17-year veteran of the home video business, he brings the full weight of his industry knowledge and key relationships to the company. Ted negotiated the industryís first revenue share contract for DVD with Warner Home Video for Video City, a 154-store publicly-held chain where he served as Vice President of Product and Merchandising. Prior to that, Ted had been part of the first wave of video retailers, helping to grow Superstar Video out of Phoenix, Arizona to eight locations. From there, he moved into distribution for ETD where he was instrumental in developing the video sales category in Costco and Samís Club. Site Enhancements Effective immediately, customers visiting NetFlix (www.netflix.com) can take advantage of the following new features: ""NetFlix Showtimes"" As part of its added-value to customers, NetFlix recently launched ""NetFlix Showtimes"", which provides movie show time listings and locations on the site. Keeping in theme with its ""one-stop-shop-for-movies"" premise, NetFlix, also offers personalized movie recommendations, reviews, and theatre critiques within its ""Showtimes"" area. Additionally, customers can keep a ""wish list"" of movies theyíd like to see in the theater. Once these movies are released to DVD, NetFlix notifies the customer and they can then decide to rent or purchase those titles through NetFlix Unlimited Rentals or NetFlix Shopper. ""NetFlix Shopper"" Another added-value effort for its customers, ""NetFlix Shopper"", is a DVD Price search feature that compares prices between several vendors in order to help customers get the best price and service when purchasing DVDs. Through affiliate relationships with several vendors such as DVD Express, Reel.com and Amazon.com, NetFlix customers can compare DVD prices, shipping costs, and consumer ratings of those sites. They can then link directly to the site to purchase their selection. About NetFlix.com NetFlix is a personalized movie-finding destination where people go to find the movies they would enjoy most. Unique to NetFlix is Cinematch - a technology which compares an individualís movie tastes with those of other like-minded NetFlix visitors in order to make highly personalized recommendations. NetFlix currently specializes in DVD movies offering NetFlix Unlimited Rentals, a subscription movie service for $19.95 per month. NetFlix has marketing relationships with the leading DVD player manufacturers including Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, RCA/Thomson and others.