A sign stands in front of the Netflix headquarters on July 20, 2011 in Los Gatos, California.
(Justin Sullivan - Getty Images)
Netflix on Wednesday said it added two people to its Washington, D.C. government lobbying and policy office as it seeks a greater voice on issues that could affect its ambitions to become a global provider of online video.
Victoria Luxardo Jeffries was named senior manager of government relations. Jeffries comes from the a division of the Federal Trade Commission’s bureau of competition that oversaw merger reviews in the high-tech industry and of video rental services. She will begin at Netflix later this month.
Netflix also hired Colin Bortner as manager of government relations. He comes from Monument Policy Group, where he advised Netflix and other Web firms including Zillow, Travelocity and Microsoft.
They will report to Michael Drobac, head of Netflix’s D.C. office and for many months Netflix’s sole employee on federal policy. Drobac, who worked at the Online Publishers Association and Expedia, is a veteran of privacy and media policy.
I “look forward to working with them as we expand globally and address important consumer issues within the thriving digital economy,” Drobac said.
Netflix has ramped up its lobbying around issues such as reforms to the Video Privacy Protection Act, which prevents its service from merging with social network Facebook in the United States. The law prevents video rental services from sharing information about its users.
The firm has been under siege after missteps this summer on a consumer price increase and confusion around its spinoff of its video rental business form its streaming video service.
The company sees its future in online video services. It has expanded to Latin America and Canada with Internet streaming services and 75 percent of all new customers in the second quarter of the year were streaming-only subscribers.
But it also faces risks associated with Internet service providers who are imposing caps on how much data consumers can use. Netflix has argued that data caps could deter consumers from watching online videos.
Related:
Netflix abandons separate video rental plans
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