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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."
They are also eyeing the multibillion-dollar video game market video game market.
They must be eyeing it with both eyes.
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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.
The servers with the porn titles better have some mighty good hardware.
The coolest voice ever.
Download speeds for files as large as full games and video are still too slow. Video download services are going to be a niche market until that can be improved. I hope netflix isn't staking their near term future on this.
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.
Hastings expects that Internet VOD market is still relatively small, with relatively long download times for even those with cable or DSL Internet connections.
Is there a rental timeframe? Wouldn't it suck if your download didn't finish before the period was up?
"Just 5K more to go! Just -- "
"Sorry. Your rental period for 'My Pipes Need Cleaning' has expired. Thank you and please come again."
The coolest voice ever.
I guess they want to take on the currently established market leader....Kazza. I just hope Netflix edits out those annoying messages, the ones that say this is a screener copy only so call this number if you are not suppose to be watching this.
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.
I don't think anybody can launch a Hollywood-movies-on-demand without having the cable companies on board. They can place servers closer to their users, and have the advantage of being able to allocate more bandwidth to themselves on their cable systems. They're going to have an advantage over any outside provider...
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.
Uhh, the previous post should probably read:
They're still developing their Video-On-Demand system. That probably should read:
They are also eyeing the multibillion-dollar bufferring...bufferring... video game market.
I read an article about 6 months ago where the Netflix guys said they weren't interested in the video game market. I'm glad they've wised up.
In the meantime, Gamefly is an excellent video game rental service. The pricing and service are almost identical to Netflix.
So I get a video on demand over the internet - and I assume that it'll stream and make use of my cache (or some other temp file). If I keep the cache/temp file, does that mean I can keep/own the movie??
Or will these guys have some kind of no-cache proxy in place?
It's an online DVD rental system -- you pick out DVDs to rent, they mail them to you. You can keep them as long as you want, no late fees -- but you can only have three checked out at a time. $20/month, they pay for shipping both ways (USPS first class). Huge selection, lots of hard to find movies, in ~20 warehouses around the U.S.
I'm already copying and burning DVDs from netflix as fast as I can get them. Game rentals will be awesome for my stock pile.
Getting ready for the day when everyones dead, except me. And the power is still on. Oh yeah, and my girlfriend will be there too.
Yea for piracy. I love piracy. It feels like I'm making money!
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....
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The obvious answer is that they'll take a leaf out of BitTorrent's book and have people that are downloading/viewing the movie share with each other (maybe they could even give you a little discount if you provide enough bandwidth). Only, of course, it would be a closed, DRM-encumbered system...
--- Bwah?
will they be starting abm.netflix? or maybe #netflix on some dcc friendly irc network??
I also reply below your current threshold.
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).
The story-driven, linear RPGs popular in Japan could work,
Or the rocket-driven (but also linear) RPGs popular in Soviet Russia...
--- You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad- Neal (not Cowboy) Boortz
"How can games be downloaded from netflix or any other place."
There's a relatively simple way, well simple if Microsoft lends a hand. XBOX's have a network port. Connect that to broadband. Then, create a disc that alters things on the XBOX a bit, where the data that should be coming through the optical drive is instead pulled in from the network connection. So, in essence, the data is pulled down from the net in real time as if the disc is in the drive. There are obvious issues here, but I've seen a variant of this technique done on the PC before. It'd require broadband and a special disc.
"Derp de derp."
Lion's Gate (LGF ) owns a majority stake in CinemaNow, the closest competition. LGF stock has been all over the place in the past few months due to Video-On-Demand deals with major studios. Unlike LGF, which grew from strength to strength after acquiring Artisan Films, is based in Hollywood, and has exclusive rights to several hundred movies as well as ties with the major players in the entertainment business, Netflix is more a rental mall for DVDs.
otoh, Netflix's CEO has been predicting his entry into the VOD market for the past few years, and they did trails with sample footage for most DVDs.
Competition's always beneficial to the consumer.
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
Watch me go from zero to dvd collector in one swift car heist!