Netflix

I'M EMBARRASSED just thinking about it. I've owned Netflix since it was $19 a share. When it hit $277, I sold. The next day it went up to $283, and I thought, "What was I thinking?" and bought it back. The rest is sad history: It's now around $90 per share. My original gut instinct was accurate, but greed got in the way and I'm paying for it now. I've lost a lot, but at least I did milk the stock over the years, taking profits numerous times to expand my portfolio in other directions.

Netflix Inc. and chief executive officer Reed Hastings said they may face a Securities and Exchange Commission civil claim over a July Facebook post that coincided with a big gain in the company's stock price. SEC staff alleges Netflix and its CEO violated rules governing selective disclosure, according to a company filing. The July 3 post by Hastings said Netflix viewing "exceeded 1 billion hours" of videos in June. The shares rose 6.2 percent that day. The SEC action highlights the potential for legal trouble when company executives like Hastings, who has more than 200,000 Facebook fans, communicate with the public via social media.

STILL THINK of streaming Netflix as something you do on a computer? Think again. You can still watch that way, but the service - which charges $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming from its library of TV shows and movies - is available on a variety of devices, from game systems to DVD players, that connect to your television, as well as on the iPhone and Windows phone and the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook tablets. (A $4.99-a-month plan limits users to two hours of streaming a month and only on a computer.)

NEW YORK - Portia de Rossi only believed it was happening when her agent got the good news from the producers. Michael Cera only believed it was happening when the cameras rolled. It happened all right. Arrested Development has risen from the dead with 15 half-hours premiering en masse on Netflix on Sunday at 3:01 a.m. Arrested Development is the cockeyed comedy blessed with a king's ransom of talent and the twisted vision of its mastermind, Mitch Hurwitz, that aired on Fox for three seasons as a cult favorite, then was canceled for low ratings - and maybe because it befuddled everyone who wasn't hooked on its lunacy.

Netflix Inc., the world's biggest video-streaming service, said access to its movies and television shows was restored after a disruption caused by Amazon.com Inc.'s Web storage and computing system. Many customers in the Americas weren't able to access content online Monday from around 3:30 p.m. Philadelphia time until late Christmas Eve, according to Joris Evers, a spokesman for Netflix. The blockage was caused by issues with Amazon Web Services, a business hosted on the Internet that's separate from the online retail store, he said.

If this week's online fury over Netflix's price increase proved anything, the obvious choice was this: You can't take away a good deal and not expect people to squawk. Netflix said it was dropping its $10 rock-bottom subscription fee for its combination service - unlimited video streaming plus unlimited DVDs by mail, one at a time. To get the same combo, customers will have to cough up $16 a month, or $7.99 apiece for either streaming or DVDs. Within hours, tens of thousands of customers had complained online - on Netflix's blog, on its Facebook page, and anywhere else they could think of. Many promised to cancel rather than submit.

Two weeks ago, when Netflix announced a price hike for its DVD rentals, reaction from its customers was so off the charts you had to wonder what it was really about. Tens of thousands of posts flooded the company's Facebook page, variously spewing venom or demanding vaguely defined justice. Why? Netflix, purveyor of to-your-doorstep-or-laptop movies and shows, whose Internet-age business model helped eradicate store-based rental rivals, said it would charge $6 more per month in return for the ability to stream or mail-order DVDs.

Raising the stakes in streamed entertainment, phone giant Verizon Communications Inc. will launch a new national streaming service in a joint venture with DVD-rental firm Redbox later this year. The venture will be a direct competitor to Netflix, which now has more than 20 million subscribers, by offering DVD rentals through 35,000 Redbox kiosks and Internet-streamed entertainment by Verizon. Verizon will own 65 percent of the venture, and Coinstar Inc., which owns Redbox, will own 35 percent.

SAN FRANCISCO - Netflix is raising its prices by as much as 60 percent for millions of subscribers who want to rent DVDs by mail and watch video on the Internet. The company is separating the two options so that subscribers who want both will have to buy separate plans totaling at least $16 per month. Netflix Inc. had been bundling both options in a single package, available for as low as $10 per month. New subscribers will have to pay the new prices immediately. The changes take effect Sept.

NEW YORK - Portia de Rossi only believed it was happening when her agent got the good news from the producers. Michael Cera only believed it was happening when the cameras rolled. It happened all right. Arrested Development has risen from the dead with 15 half-hours premiering en masse on Netflix on Sunday at 3:01 a.m. Arrested Development is the cockeyed comedy blessed with a king's ransom of talent and the twisted vision of its mastermind, Mitch Hurwitz, that aired on Fox for three seasons as a cult favorite, then was canceled for low ratings - and maybe because it befuddled everyone who wasn't hooked on its lunacy.

* ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. New episodes streaming on Netflix beginning Sunday. * WIZARD WORLD PHILADELPHIA COMIC CON. May 30-June 2, Pennsylvania Convention Center.   HENRY WINKLER'S living the kind of happy days Arthur Fonzarelli never could have dreamed of. The actor, producer and author just got back Monday night from Italy, where he was introducing "Hank Zipzer: The World's Greatest Underachiever" - the dyslexic hero of the best-selling series of children's books that Winkler, who's also dyslexic, writes with Lin Oliver - to a new audience.

NEW YORK - Companies that do well when the economy is improving led the market higher Tuesday after several of them notched strong earnings. Coach, a maker of luxury handbags, and Netflix, which streams TV shows and movies over the Internet, were big winners after reporting profits that impressed investors. Financial stocks rose after Travelers' earnings beat analysts' expectations. Netflix soared $42.62, or 24 percent, to $216.99 after reporting a big gain in subscribers. Coach, which makes pricey handbags and other accessories, soared $4.96, or 11 percent, to $55.55.

NEW YORK - Stocks edged higher on Monday as energy stocks got a lift from recovering oil prices. The energy industry climbed 1 percent, making it the biggest gainer in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Oil rose 75 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $88.76 a barrel Monday. A week ago, crude fell below $90 a barrel for the first time this year after reports that China's economic growth slowed. The broader market managed only a modest advance as investors focused on the outlook for company profits at the start of a big week for earnings on Wall Street.

Hemlock Grove has most of the markings of a teen scarefest - will you be Team Roman or Team Peter? - except for its um, emphatically mature displays of nudity, violence, and profanity. That's hardly surprising given that the second original series from Netflix (following the stellar House of Cards ) comes from goremaster Eli Roth. (All 13 episodes will be available simultaneously on Friday). Hemlock Grove is a typical rusty Pennsylvania steel town (the exteriors look a bit like Jim Thorpe, Pa.)

* LOUIS C.K.: OH MY GOD. 10 p.m. Saturday, HBO. His FX show is taking a break, but you can get your Louis C.K. fix in his HBO special. Moving almost seamlessly between topics ranging from the possibly unnecessary distinction between seals and sea lions ("They don't care and we don't care") to what life might be like "if murder was legal," he smiles more in an hour than he might in an entire season of "Louie. " * VEEP . 10 p.m. Sunday, HBO. Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns for a second season as Selina Meyer, whose vice presidency gets a boost just as things seem to be going south for her party.

One of this spring's most anticipated TV shows isn't actually on TV. It's on Netflix. Hemlock Grove , a creepy werewolf thriller directed by horror maestro Eli Roth, will premiere April 19 on the subscription video-streaming site. It's part of a new wave of sophisticated, polished online scripted shows that - finally - have propelled online video into the big leagues. With backing from major studios and creative spark from Hollywood A-listers including Tom Hanks and Jerry Seinfeld, online platforms including Yahoo!

Q: I use a bargain Internet service. Is that good enough to stream movies and video shows? A: A 1 Mbps (megabit per second) download speed suffices if you keep the image at quarter screen on your computer monitor. To enjoy a full screen, standard-definition TV image that won't stutter and freeze, Netflix demands 1.5 Mbps. Double that to enjoy the movie in (near) high definition.

STILL THINK of streaming Netflix as something you do on a computer? Think again. You can still watch that way, but the service - which charges $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming from its library of TV shows and movies - is available on a variety of devices, from game systems to DVD players, that connect to your television, as well as on the iPhone and Windows phone and the iPad, Kindle Fire and Nook tablets. (A $4.99-a-month plan limits users to two hours of streaming a month and only on a computer.)

* HOUSE OF CARDS. Friday, Netflix. KEVIN SPACEY is ready to provide instant gratification. He's OK with the delayed variety, too. Which means that if some binge viewers among Netflix's more than 27 million subscribers choose to make a 13-course meal of the first season of his new Netflix series, "House of Cards," when it goes online Friday, he'll be fine with it. "I'll be very curious to see at some point what the analytics tell us...