Holiday Cheer Heats Up Netflix

One of the phone calls I made this Christmas was to customer support at Netflix (NFLX Quote). I had bought a year of the video-rental service for my parents, and I wondered why the company was demanding their credit card number when the subscription was, after all, a gift.

That's a quibble that I wish Netflix would fix, but my point here is this: I ended up on hold for a while, and it got me thinking -- why are so many people calling Netflix on Christmas? Don't they have better things to do? Or is Netflix becoming a popular enough gift that it will see a sizable bump in subscriptions this quarter?

I asked Netflix that question, and I was told the company doesn't give out subscriber data before its earnings report. But the anecdotal evidence is pretty strong. I chatted up one of the support staff and found that, yes, lots of people were giving Netflix for Christmas.

(And many had called up with the same question I had. It turns out Netflix wants a credit card number on all accounts in case someone swipes a DVD.)

On the Web, there's more evidence of Netflix's popularity as a gift. Do a search on "Netflix Christmas gift", and a lot of blogs show people were thinking of it as a virtual stocking stuffer. Some suggest that Netflix is also benefiting from Blockbuster's Dec. 20 announcement that it's raising fees on some accounts.