Netflix Releases 'Meridian' Test Footage To All Including Competitors, Open Sources Some Tools (variety.com)

Netflix has released 'Meridian' to not just all its 83 million subscribers, but to everyone. The company produced the title as test footage to evaluate anything from the performance of video codecs to the way Netflix streams look like on 4K TVs. But the company decided to make it to open to all -- be it hardware manufacturers, codec developers, or even competitors like Amazon and Hulu. From a report on Variety:Netflix is using a Creative Commons license for the release of "Meridian," which is new for an industry that isn't used to sharing a lot of resources. "They are in the business of exploiting content, not of giving it away," Chris Fetner, the company's director for content partner operations said. But for Netflix, it's just par of the course. Thanks to its Silicon Valley DNA, Netflix has long collaborated with other companies on cloud computing-focused open source projects. Now, it wants to nudge Hollywood to do the same -- and "Meridian" is only the beginning. This week, Netflix is also open-sourcing a set of tools tackling a common problem for studios and video services.

Comments

Re:Way to polish one's image.

[houghi]

The VPN ban was not their idea. I am sure they are willing to provide anybody who has money. It was forced upon them buy the MAFIAA companies. The reason is that they do not care if you buy in Europe, India or the US. They will be making around the same amount.

In fact I could imagine that they would encourage it and use it as a business model. "Even if you are in country A, you can subscribe in country B". Turks living in Germany would subscribe to Turkish Netflix instead of not subscribing at all.