Slashdot Mirror
Netflix to Offer Movie Downloads
kev0153 writes "Over at CNN Money they are reporting on a story about Netflix offering a video on demand over the web service in '05. They are also eyeing the multibillion-dollar video game market. "We're playing it a little defensively, because if we lose the digital download market, you'll soon be hearing about the rise and fall of Netflix," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings."
Someone will still be upset about the DRM and decide to crack it. Then again movies are harder to distribute then mp3s. At least high quality ones. ....And cue the people who say it HAS to work on every platform, be completely open, and so on, ad infinitum. If you don't like it, you can vote with your wallet, and not buy it.
I agree. I think the U.S. market is trying to push too much through the bandwidth. This ain't exactly Japan where everyone lives 3 inches away from each other with 100baseT networks.
DVD writers probably have something to do with this. With the release of personal dual layer DVD writers, the world of (DVD) movie rentals will change.
Is not announcing your product an entire year ahead of launch - giving your competitors plenty of time to catch up.
Case in point: Apple suprising everyone with iTMS - and than not getting a windows version out until all the other win music stores were released.
It won't be easy to pull all of this off. VOD is going to require a wholly new infrastructure and business model for them. Renting video games might be a problem too, when people start "losing" the games. A DVD probably runs about $5 in bulk... a game will probably cost them $30 or more.
Still, it's great to see some innovation left in the dot-coms of the world....
filmcritic.com - Movie reviews on Internet time
I'm sure they mean renting the actual disc, like they do for movies. I doubt that games would be downloadable, at least for the current generation of consoles.
Sony seems to be pretty interested in it as a future distribution method, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it in a couple of years. The story-driven, linear RPGs popular in Japan could work, if you are able to download the content as you go. Each night download the next few levels, and unless you run through a lot of the game in one sitting it wouldn't be a problem.
And why would the cable companies want to help Netflix out? They've got their own video-on-demand services to push. Netflix is just more competition...
~ Aero
Some of us do have the notion that that is stealing, and actually do make an effort to pay for what we watch and play.
Actually I think if the music/film industry had treated people well, instead of treating everyone like a thief just because some are thieves, then there would be little need for DRM and people would play nice. (The vast majority of people are fundamentally honest).
Dude, I hear what you're saying, but there's a difference between voting with your wallet and a company making a product that works properly from the get-go. It doesn't make sense to me that a coporation would make something closed and spend billions of dollars defending their product from crackers, anti-trust lawsuits, and constant requirements for upgrades. The way it works today is any closed proprietary format _will_ be broken and made available to the public. Why fight it? Just create something that works for everyone and you'll save yourself a lot of hassle and dollars in the long run. And you'll look good to the hacker community and the public, to boot. Then again, I'm not a corporate vice president of legal affairs/development/marketing/etc., so I have zero badges to wear that will allow me to crow about this with any credibility.
I also reply below your current threshold.
The satellite companies would be better off to partner with Netflix and offer deals along with your satellite service.
Satellite companies just do not have the bandwidth to do movies on demand like the cable companies do.
They will once they look at the numbers. Porn is one of the best selling things ever, and nobody would want to lose an opportunity that large. Except, possibly, some religious or morally incensed people, but greed should rule those out.
I seriously doubt they will rent porn just because it is a big market. Blockbuster doesn't and I wouldn't categorize them as religious or morally incensed.
They are merely image concious. That is to say, they are not willing to give up the family market just to grab the extra sales in the porn market. And being new at this (movie downloads) makes them very visible and extra sensitive to their image.
Technically, the music industry DID treat everyone as being honest. Until fairly recently, audio CDs had no protection on them whatsoever. That didn't stop Napster and Kazaa from booming as these "fundamentally honest" people began trading files in mass quantities.
Not that I support the RIAA or their actions, but it is important to remember that things WERE all rosy and DRM free at one time and it got abused.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999