Maybe folks don't hate Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) as much as they say they do.

The video giant announced this week that it served up 2 billion hours worth of streaming content during the fourth quarter.

Think about that.

These are 2 billion hours of premium content, since Netflix began charging for its streaming service just before the quarter began. With more than 20 million streaming members, this breaks down to roughly 30 hours of monthly streaming per subscriber. That seems like a pretty good deal for $7.99 a month. It also blows holes in the claims that Netflix doesn't have enough streaming content. Clearly, there's plenty enough for folks to continue playing and sit through 2 billion hours of Web-served movies and shows.

I realize that Netflix isn't perfect. Last year was a disaster. However, it seems as if the company isn't as loathed as some think.

Forgive and stream on, I say.

Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.

  • Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) revealed that store-level comps fell 1.2% in December. Really? Folks aren't shopping at Best Buy as much as they used to? Yep. In fact, it's been that way for more than a year already.
  • With China's Ministry of Public Safety requiring Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and its smaller rivals to link to the country's five largest state-owned banks at the top of every search-engine page, do you think we can get stateside portals to have Fool.com links pop up whenever someone enters a search query for what will be a regrettable investing decision?
  • Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI) added 540,000 net new subscribers during the fourth quarter. There are now 21.9 million satellite-radio accounts. Is it safe to say that this is not a fad and perhaps not even a transitory technology?
  • The unemployment rate fell to 8.5%. The last time that important metric was that low, it was 2009. Wait a minute. Weren't we in a recession in 2009?

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz