Quickflix upbeat despite downturn

Mr Langsford seems little fazed by the predictions of the company's much larger peer in the US, Netflix, which has cut growth projections twice this month, saying the market meltdown is rocking consumer confidence.

Quickflix users select movies online to have them delivered by mail. Quickflix, whose shares have fallen 80 per cent this year, still had plenty of room to grow even if its subscriber numbers had stalled in the past six months, Mr Langsford said last week.

"When you've got 25,000 subscribers and 5 million Australian households, in my mind there is still an upside," he said."We've got high interest rates, high fuel prices, people copping it in the mortgage belt. History shows our consumption of movies should benefit."

He said the slowing economy should help the company to "pick up Foxtel refugees" unwilling to spend top dollars on pay TV.

It has been a long slog for the company, which at one point was backed by Lachlan Murdoch and now has Bruce Gordon's WIN Corp and the troubled internet company Destra as its biggest shareholders.

Five years after its inception it is still losing an average of $70,000 a month, and last year posted a loss of $4.3 million. By the end of September it had $1.5 million cash in hand, and no existing credit lines.

But Mr Langsford said the company, which competes with Telstra's BigPond Movies, has always run a tight ship.

Having reached 25,000 subscribers this year, he said the business had reached a level where it could carry its operating costs. That would allow him to seek new distribution channels and expandinto areas such as ticketing.

Mr Langsford said Quickflix, which has relationships with Woolworths, Moshtix and iiNet, was in talks with five retailers and internet companies to increase its DVD distribution channels in the next three months.

But for shareholders it is hard to see a Hollywood ending soon.

Quickflix's biggest investor, Destra, had to take a loan from Prime Media Group last week to stay afloat and is seeking to sell assets, with the likely sale of its 19.9 per cent stake hanging over Quickflix's share price.