Netflix Facebook App Clears Congressional Hurdle

It's not exactly "almost there" but a Facebook-based Netflix application is one big hurdle closer to possibility.

The Los Angeles Times blog Company Town reports that the House of Representatives Tuesday passed H.R. 2471, which breaks down roadblocks created by the 1988 Video Protection Privacy Act against companies like Netflix accessing certain consumer data.

Netflix CEO claimed earlier this year that because of the VPPA stipulations, the U.S. wouldn't be joining the 44 countries where he originally claimed a Facebook app would be launching this past fall.

Congress passed the law after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental records were disclosed during his 1987 confirmation hearings. As a result of the VPPA's protections, a woman sued Blockbuster Video in 2008 for disclosing her rental records. In 2009, a VPPA suit was also filed against Netflix. if H.R. 2471 becomes law, Netflix would then be able to access consumer data via the internet.

The company could use the boost. After a PR debacle involving first raising rental-plan prices, then announcing that Netflix would be splitting into separate services for DVD/Blu-ray/video game rentals and streaming video respectively, and finally deciding to remain one entity under the Netflix name but not to lower prices, the streaming video and disc-rental service lost roughly 800,000 subscribers in three months between July 1 and Sept. 30. As a result, stock has fallen 76 percent since July 1.

Already a good sign? Despite the NASDAQ being down overall, Netflix shares gained 5.6 percent Wednesday following the House victory to $71.96 per share.

So everything else over this past summer was a devastating blow, but not a crippling one. Though Hulu has introduced its own Hulu Plus streaming plan with many of the same general points as Netflix for about the same price, Netflix still has the bigger library. Plus, the company has the bragging right that they snapped up a little show called "Arrested Development" whose cult following made it a phenomenon on DVD after FOX cancelled it, and upcoming new episodes will be coming exclusively to Netflix.

A lone word of caution to Netflix, though: beware the characteristic Facebook-developer attention-deficit disorder. Those people are absolute crackheads when it comes to their jones for changing things needlessly, making interfaces needlessly complicated and never letting users get settled in and comfortable for long with changes. More to the point, when Facebook changes something, it often trickles down to many applications and impacts them either directly or indirectly.

One would hate to see something like this that could be so positive in helping Netflix rebound and evolve turn sour just because Team Facebook can't lay down a strategy and stick with it.