Time Warner Cable has ended the latest round of talks with the National Football League to bring the NFL Network and NFL RedZone to Time Warner cable customers.

Sports Business Daily reports the talks ended with a contentious meeting held last Friday at the cable company’s New York office.  Sources say the talks didn’t end with a dispute over the cost of the network, noted to be among the most expensive sports networks available.  That likely leaves streaming and other ancillary rights issues to be the latest reasons for the talks to end.  Time Warner has gotten aggressive in negotiations for the right to stream cable programming, and also time shift it for subscribers with its “start over” feature.

The NFL has been negotiating with the cable operator more more than seven years without success.

Time Warner Cable customers still waiting for access to HBO Go, the premium movie channel’s online streaming service, won’t have to wait for the cable company any longer if they happen to own a Roku set top box.  Roku owners who maintain subscriptions to the premium movie channel will be able to access HBO Go via Roku for no additional charge by the end of October.

Roku’s announcement follows Microsoft, who announced Oct. 5 HBO Go would be available to Xbox Live ($60/yr) game service customers.

HBO has been suffering declines in subscriber numbers from customers dropping premium movie channel subscriptions to save money.  HBO Go offers on-demand viewing of many HBO movie titles, and comes at no additional charge to subscribers.  But before HBO Go can be made available, agreements between your video provider and HBO must be signed to handle the authentication process, which verifies a valid subscription to HBO before allowing the service to work.

Time Warner Cable has been dragging its feet on signing an agreement, and that leaves a lot of potential customers without the service.  Time Warner Cable is the nation’s second largest cable operator, behind Comcast.

Roku believes its agreement allows HBO Go to reach more viewers, which in turn may discourage them from dropping the channel.  It also helps drive sales of Roku boxes, which are becoming increasingly affordable.  Roku announced this week it was cutting the price of its least expensive box to $50, a $10 savings.

Roku owners can stream their own video library with third party applications like PlayOn, or choose from a menu of more than 300 channels.  But most Roku owners buy the device to stream Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu content to their television sets over the home Internet connection.

Get ready for Qwikster

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings apologized this morning on the company’s blog for the perceived lack of “respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming, and the price changes,” imposed on customers this month.

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD, plus lots of TV series. We want to advertise the breadth of our incredible DVD offering so that as many people as possible know it still exists, and it is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection on DVD. DVD by mail may not last forever, but we want it to last as long as possible.

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV, and I can watch anytime I want. The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail. We feel we need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolve, without having to maintain compatibility with our DVD by mail service.

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures, different benefits that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently. It’s hard for me to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary and best: In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”.

We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/YouTube An explanation and some reflections 9-19-11.flv[/flv]

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings apologizes and explains the company’s new mailed DVD service Qwikster.  (3 minutes)

Hastings promises little will change with Netflix’s DVD-rental business except the name.  But is that enough to erase the perceived price and policy changes customers are complaining about?  Some of our readers say no, and most of the 10,000+ comments on Netflix’s blog as of this afternoon were also very hostile.

“He’s re-arranging the deck chairs and calling them lounge seats, but they are really the same deck chairs,” shares reader Tom Defrancisco in Austin, who shared the story with us.  “The ship is still taking on water, and that will only get worse when the rest of Hollywood gets their piece.”

Defrancisco is referring to ongoing content contract renewals Netflix is pursuing to keep, and expand, its online video streaming.  With the potential forthcoming loss of content from Starz, which could take a significant amount of current movie titles offline, subscribers may not be willing to pay more for less content to stream.

“It’s inevitable Netflix will have to raise streaming prices in the next six months when some of their content deals are renewed, and I am asking myself if it is worth $10-12 a month to stream old documentaries, TV shows, and movies I barely care about when current movies are simply not available online,” Defrancisco adds.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CNBC Netflix Quixster Equals Quitster 9-19-11.flv[/flv]

CNBC investors and analysts are calling Netflix’s announcement they are splitting up their streaming and DVD rental business a “the third strike” for the company and are telling investors to get out before it’s too late.  “Qwikster=QUITster,” says Michael Pachter, Wedbush Securities, who thinks customers are once again the big losers.  “In the last three months, customers have seen prices rise, the quality of streaming content decline, and they just made the service a lot more complicated.”  (4 minutes)

Several of our readers miss Netflix’s 1-out-DVD/streaming companion plan, which used to offer unlimited streaming and one DVD rental at a time for $9.99 a month.

“I don’t care if they call it Netflix or Qwikster or MasterWatch,” says our reader Kyle. “It’s the same thing at the same high price called something else.  Who are they trying to fool?  I think it’s very telling Mr. Hastings doesn’t even directly own shares in his own company, and has sold off tens of millions in indirect shares he controls.”

The company’s new YouTube channel is also being pelted with negative views of Netflix’s latest business moves.

VoiceOreezn:

You guys just don’t get it. You don’t care what your subscribers want, and now are trying to justify your actions. Your streaming service sucks, and the pickings are very slim. I cancelled my account. It’s not about price, it’s about greed. You started off with a good concept, (but not enough streaming movies). Now, you’re just another greedy corporation. Want people back? Give them MORE, not less. I’d be very afraid of Amazon if I were you.

Netflix stock has lost nearly 50 percent of its value since the company first announced its price increase and plan changes on July 12.  Last week, Netflix admitted it was adding fewer new subscribers than forecast since raising prices nearly 60 percent on combination streaming-DVD plans.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Cory Johnson Discusses Netflix Subscriptions 9-16-11.flv[/flv]

Bloomberg talks with Cory Johnson about the outlook for Netflix Inc., after the company cut its U.S. subscribers forecast following a price increase.  Netflix has some surprise expenses coming up.   (2 minutes)

Some analysts, including Gabelli & Co analyst Brett Harriss don’t think today’s developments will make much of a difference, telling Reuters Hastings has talked repeatedly about separating the businesses in the past.

But one thing Qwikster will bring that Netflix never had: video game rentals for Wii, Playstation 3 and XBox 360 owners.

Netflix streaming customers who happen to share their account with other family members are having a frustrated Labor Day weekend as Netflix completes implementation of strict new limits on the number of concurrent video streams available for viewing.

Netflix has always unofficially had streaming limitations:

Some membership plans allow you to watch simultaneously on more than one personal computer or Netflix ready device at the same time. If you are on the 1 disc out at-a-time plan [or stream-only plan], you may watch only one device at a time. If you are on the 2 discs out at-a-time plan, you may watch on up to two devices at the same time. Members on the 3 disc plan can watch on up to three devices. The maximum is four devices simultaneously, and that is available for members on the 4 or greater discs out at-a-time plans.

But many of our readers have told us they have never had problems running two or even three concurrent streams at the same time on a “stream-only” plan… until recently.  What Netflix’s “official policy” was and what customers could actually do were two different things.

“Netflix never liked two streams at the same time on the same browser, but if you have several family members, two or three people could watch different shows on their own devices at the same time, but no more,” says Stop the Cap! reader Jared Ustel.  “As of this weekend, streaming customers can only watch one show at a time.”

Stop the Cap! was able to verify this ourselves this weekend.  Sure enough, while in the recent past we were able to support up to three video streams running at the same time, now it is just one.

This new restriction seems timed to coincide with Netflix’s recent price increases, which took effect Sept. 1.  Now, large families sharing a Netflix account will either have to reserve time to watch their respective favorites or:

1. Pay considerably more for a combo disc-rental/streaming plan which unlocks a corresponding number of concurrent streams.  If you want two concurrent video streams, you will need to pay $19.98 a month, which also allows you two mailed DVD’s out at a time.  Three streams (and DVD’s) runs $23.98, four: $29.98;
2. Sign up for a second Unlimited Streaming account at an additional $7.99 a month;
3. Forget about Netflix.

While Netflix may have been hoping to cut down on the number of “shared accounts” with friends and distant family members, their policy change will hit families hard.

With the controversial Sept. 1 price increase effectively near-doubling the cost to watch video streams and rent one DVD at a time by mail, now may not be the best time to further antagonize loyal customers.

[Updated 9/7/11 — 12:22pm ET — “No Netflix member is limited to less than two concurrent streams,” Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey reports. “A few Netflix members have heard differently from us, which is an error that we are correcting.”

They have not corrected it as of yet.  Jared updates us to say he is still unable to stream more than one program at a time, and as of 11:45am ET this morning, launching more than one stream at Stop the Cap! HQ brings the error message shown below.  Technical glitch or last-minute policy shift?  Two concurrent streams still don’t work for us or for several of our reporting readers (at the moment anyway) and their long-standing FAQ still states Unlimited Streaming customers are limited to a single stream.  Mr. Swasey can help his own customers by ensuring concurrent streaming is restored and the FAQ updated to reflect the information he shared.]

[Updated 9/7/11 — 3:00pm ET — Two concurrent streams are back.  More details here.

As of late this morning, Netflix was still delivering this error message.