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Netflix looks at streaming only option
February 20, 2009, 9:49 PM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA | 355 views
Dear cheap thrifty XBOX 360 users,
Netflix may soon be offering a streaming-only option for their video service. Bloomberg reports on a recent interview with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in which Hastings says, "in the long term, the streaming will be good enough that an appreciable number of people will find streaming is all they need."
Netflix currently streams about 12,000 of their 100,000 titles. I'm am a Media Studies student, so films are a big part of my education (be jealous). On more than one occasion, I've been disappointed to find that assigned viewings haven't been added to the streaming service. In fact, this semester, only one of my films have been in Netflix's streaming library.
I love the streaming idea, though. With services like the XBOX 360's Netflix streaming ability and products like the Roku Player on the market, the demand indeed appears to be there. Roku is sending us one of their devices, so we'll be sure to review it for you.
Where there is a demand, however, others will do their best to fill it, too. Support of Amazon's Video on Demand is currently in private beta and, as soon as we recieve our Roku Player, we'll be (pardon the pun) playing with it. One benefit I can see to Amazon's option as a business model would be that there is no constant shipping of DVDs back and forth; it is entirely web based. If a viewer wants the DVD, they purchase it directly. Further, they've got about 40,000 titles available. Weigh that, however, against the fact that you can watch unlimited streaming titles on Netflix for the price of just two titles on Amazon and you might have a good explanation of why Netflix's shares are up 39 percent over the last year.
Will Amazon's streaming be as popular as Netflix? As Hastings says about Netflix, "We’ve got one singular objective, which is 'Be successful in streaming.' If we do that, that's a homerun."
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