Comments on: Netflix Online: return to sender

By: Kevin M

Kevin M — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:36:19 +0000

Om,

Guess you weren't one of the ones who bought a new tv. Guess you dont have a PC hooked to that new tv.

Well I can hook my laptop to my TV HDMI connection , and in less than a minute have the Netflix stream on the TV in full screen mode and pic is pretty good. Not much of a hurdle. Or I can use my dedicated HTPC to do the same thing.

Wow that was tough. I think you are premature to call this DOA.

By: Bill Butler

Bill Butler — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 03:55:42 +0000

Netflix is trying to get the geeks to stay instead of jumping to Blockbuster. I like it. I like watching movies in a corner of my laptop while I work and if it means I can watch some that my family doesn’t care to watch without walking to the mailbox in freezing rain, I like it.

I’ll have to disagree with you on this one…although a deal with TIVO plus this would by far have been the best of both worlds.

By: Rick Hanley

Rick Hanley — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:58:25 +0000

The average user with 300 films/shows in their queue will have about 4 or 5 (1,000/70,000 = 1.5%) films/shows in their queue that can be streamed. Within 1 month they will be done with their preferred films and then can rework their queue to find more streamers.
Netflix can only offer limited selections with its new service because most popular film titles are tied up in long-term electronic subscription distribution agreements between the major film studios and premium cable channels, like HBO and Starz Entertainment Group.
Netflix and others were sued on January 3, 2007 by Internet search engine Lycos over the way they provide recommendations to customers for movies or television shows.

By: Pete Mauro

Pete Mauro — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 01:12:28 +0000

Why hate on this one? Sure, it’s not the best product but Netflix has to start taking some steps in this area or get left behind.

Moving from physical to digital distribution is a huge transition for Hollywood and it ain’t gonna happen overnight.

By: Paul G

Paul G — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:57:46 +0000

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fact that netflix can leverage (for existing customers of course) their extensive recommendation data into the VOD space with this. Providing it free just increases the switching cost a little from netflix to BB.

Selection is not great yet, but who cares. This is effectively their public-beta/ please-the-Street rollout, not that different from when cinemanow trialed their advanced stuff like Burn-to-DVD with their 'mature' titles first.

As for the hundreds of other online video startups out there, this proves that for the moment this is better off as a feature to an existing offline service, rather than a service in its own right, much less a standalone company.

By: K. Lamont

K. Lamont — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:01:15 +0000

Streaming movies through Netflix might not be a world beater, but I’m totally confident that video has yet to see its finest hour. There will be legitimate, market-grabbing challengers to Akamai and Limelight.

By: maxconfus

maxconfus — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:45:30 +0000

For people who travel and have a netflix sub I imagine this is a nice feature.

By: az

az — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:26:52 +0000

I think episodic content like TV programs that run 40-50 minutes is a better approach. This content is smaller file size. I also am willing to watch this content on a monitor. I also multi-task with TV programs compared to watching movies. When I watch a movie, I prefer to sit in a darker room and view it on a TV while sitting in a comfy chair.

I do believe most IP-based services will fail until bandwidth increases and there are more means of making the transition from computer to living room a better experience.

The real issue isn't delivery method IMHO, but rather sifting through all content, getting appropriate recommendations based on my interests, and having a large on-demand catalog. IOW, Tivo for any content I can find on cable, time and format shifted. That is a long way off.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:02:56 +0000

I’m interested to know how the ISP’s are going to react to this new trend. In the UK we’re already plagued by fair use policies and monthly bandwidth limits. This is going to put even more of a ’strain’ on their networks and ‘force’ them to put charges up.

By: Lionel

Lionel — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 08:56:49 +0000

I haven’t been able to try Netflix streaming service yet (don’t have the option to), but I’m hopeful that I can stream to my Xbox 360 in the living room. Seems possible on the surface (stream is wmv format). If that’s the case, I won’t have a problem with their strategy. I’ll use it as a way to augment my current membership. I like Netflix and love that they offer high-def movies that are available for no premium. If I can stream to the living room, this will help address the instant gratification need, which is currently the only gap I see in the Netflix service.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 08:17:38 +0000

Why would you expect them to allow you to burn it to DVD? First off, even if you rented the actual DVD, burning it yourself is illegal and secondly you are only renting it, it’s not DTO content.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:51:20 +0000

I agree with earlier comments calling this service DOA is a little premature. Everybody seems to be demanding downloads of HD-quality movies. This would take way to long. The whole point of this is instant gratification and I don’t want to wait 4 hours for my movie to download. And most people don’t wan’t to deal with files sizes of several GB. So with those constraints in mind, I think streaming DVD quality video and being able to watch the movie immediately sounds pretty good to me. Comparing this to cable VOD is comparing apples & oranges because of the limited selection on cable. And it’s not too hard to hook up your computer to a big-screen TV. You don’t need Apple TV for that.

By: Ted Avery

Ted Avery — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:33:03 +0000

I agree with that Bryan. I have been in that same position, in a hotel with the choice of overpriced PPV or a downloaded movie, and of course the downloaded movie won.

Movielink and Cinema Now are both great for that.

As far as there being a lot of competition in this space, even though Netflix is technically a late entry they have a user base that already associates them with nex-gen movie viewing schemes. That base will follow them into the next method and they will have a sizeable market chunk automatically that should carry them through the storm.

Blockbuster would also benefit from their base but (right or wrong) they are associated with the old way of doing things.

Ultimately the biggest winners of the downloadable movie race will be the cable companies themselves. Ip-TV plays in their favor as well as the captive audience that they have for TV and broadband. Once they figure out how to attractively package their offerings in a way that covers both the PC and the TV screen they will dominate.

Comcast and Time Warner should already be dominating this space…

By: Bryan Campbell

Bryan Campbell — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 05:07:00 +0000

I don’t know, I’m sitting in a hotel room right now and debating whether I should pay $14 for a movie… getting free streamed video or a downloadable movie for a reasonable price seems reasonable to me… movielink.com is a pretty good service.

By: Ved

Ved — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:56:33 +0000

Netflix had no choice but needed to get into this market. In 2-5 year, DVD rental business will be 10% of today’s market. But, it would be harder for Nextflix to win this market as there are lots of players with deep pockets and technology.

By: Randy Smythe

Randy Smythe — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:34:43 +0000

Please remember Netflix does not own this content. If they are going to stream it on the web the rights holders (studios) are going to demand a payment every time it is streamed this will limit the number of titles available and will require that Netflix charge for the service. So while they have a fantastic collection of titles most will not be available on this service.

Besides, they currently only have one major competitor with rentals when they get into streaming content they will have 100's of competitors.