There will be dedicated Netflix buttons on more smart TV...

That’s a “significant positive” for Netflix because smart TVs are “becoming a larger percentage of all TVs,” he said. Tablets are increasingly being used by Netflix subscribers to stream content, as well as smartphones to a lesser degree, Hastings said. “The question is, is it a straight substitute for a laptop as it grows, in which case it doesn’t particularly affect us, or is it a net addition because it’s a better consumption device than a typical laptop,” he asked. “We think there’s some truth to the latter.” Another “scenario where tablets are really interesting” is the devices being used to select content that is then watched on a TV, he said. “All the supplemental information” related to content can be consumed on a tablet while somebody is viewing the movie or TV show on a TV, he said. “That’s nice.” What Netflix sees as “a big opportunity” is using the touch functionality of a tablet to “choose what you want to watch, and then to be able to select it and then it’s automatically playing on your TV,” he said. That capability is being demonstrated now on iPads and Android mobile devices when used to control Netflix streaming via the PS3, he said. That’s “something we're working with all the CE ecosystem to build in so that over the next several years, this becomes a general capability,” he said. For now, TVs remain the device most often used to view content via Netflix, whether via smart TVs, videogame consoles, Apple TV, Roku or Blu-ray players, said Hastings. Mobile device usage in general has “been very strong for several years and continues to be strong” for Netflix content viewing, he said. Netflix is “constantly testing user interfaces,” said Chief Financial Officer David Wells. There are “a lot of exciting user interfaces coming up enabled by devices that enable gesturing, voice and other things,” he said. “You'll see us continue to experiment and play with those types of interfaces in tests, and if we find one, then we'll continue to innovate in those areas.” Netflix shares closed 12 percent lower Wednesday at $60.12, after the company reported that Q3 profit tumbled to $7.7 million from $62.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue grew to $905.1 million from $821.8 million. The number of U.S. streaming members grew to 25.1 million, in line with the company’s forecast, Netflix said. It predicted that U.S. membership will grow to 26.4 million to 27.1 million in Q4, up more than 20 percent year-over-year. Domestic DVD members tumbled to 8.6 million (8.5 million of them paid subscriptions) from 13.9 million (13.8 million paid) in Q3 last year, it said. This quarter, Netflix, “as expected,” will “likely move to a consolidated loss” due to its initial launch investment to enter the Nordic region, it said in a letter to shareholders. The company still expects it will take three years to return to full “brand recovery” after boosting pricing and separating its streaming and DVD services last year, said Hastings. There is “still some room for recovery, but we've seen it trend in the right direction,” said Wells. The London Olympics hurt subscriber additions, as Netflix projected in July, said Wells. “We had a strong July, a soft August and then a slower bounce-back in September.” Netflix continued to see little impact on its growth from Amazon’s streaming service, said Hastings. “I think as Amazon builds out their original content, which they're very actively engaged in and they'll get exclusive deals against us, they'll more and more be a different service than ours.” He predicted “many subscribers, potentially, will subscribe to both” Amazon and Netflix. “I think that’s the way that it evolves over time, like it has in the U.K.,” he said. Netflix sees Hulu as its “closest” U.S. streaming rival, it said in the letter to shareholders. “While there are now around 2 million Hulu Plus members in the U.S., the ownership of Hulu makes it a wild-card in terms of future evolution as a global competitor,” it said. “What makes them” the wild card is that it’s owned by three of the largest content companies in the world and focuses on TV, Hastings said on the call. Despite rumors that Netflix will eventually have to raise pricing, Hastings said the company remains “very excited about” the $7.99 price point for its main subscription plans, and “we have no plans to change that.”