Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs

by Gina Keating

Following through on Antioco’s directive, they purchased relatively economical ads that ran before the coin toss and after the last play of Super Bowl XXXIX on February 6 between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles. Cooper and his wife, Jess, stayed home to watch the game without interruption. Shortly before the kickoff, Cooper’s BlackBerry buzzed with the hourly subscriber report—two hundred sign-ups. At the hour after the first ad ran, the number was up to nine hundred. The Darth Vader ring tone emanated from his BlackBerry seconds later. “Are you seeing this?” Evangelist asked. “This is big.” Cooper was cautious. “Let’s wait and see what happens next hour,” he said. When his BlackBerry chimed next, Cooper could hardly believe it—two thousand subs. The number kept climbing. Evangelist was ecstatic. That day, Blockbuster Online signed up about nineteen thousand subscribers—nearly four times their daily average. The next day, more than twenty thousand subscribers signed up.