First, Netflix began hiring Facebook-savvy engineers. Then they announced they’re “regrouping” around their social strategy with several new products in the pipeline. And this week, Netflix said it has big plans for Facebook:
“We’re working on an extensive Facebook integration, which will further the notion of a personal Netflix account. This evolution from household to personal relationship will take several years, and there will always be some households that only have one account. With this shift, we are starting internally to think of our available market as the number of active mobile phones in a territory, rather than the number of households, because that is the number of people who have the means to subscribe to a service like ours.”
If you’re like my family, our Netflix recommendation engine is downright confused, thanks to the mix of cartoons (kid), romantic comedies (wife) and action flicks (me). Shifting Netflix from a household model to a personal model, using Facebook as the recommendation glue, is a very intriguing model. And given Netflix’s large audience, this would be one of the largest developments in the social TV space to date. We’ll keep you updated.