Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Netflix promises video on demand this year

Via the San Francisco Chronicle:
"A major initiative for Netflix sometime in 2005 is the planned premiere of video on demand, considered the future of movie viewing. Users will be able to download films over the Internet rather than having to wait for them to be delivered by mail.

Only a limited number of movies are going to be available at first, [NetFlix founder Reed] Hastings said. He added that initial customer interest will be modest, but then grow every year until the end of the decade as more films become available and more households get high-speed Internet connections.

Several Internet companies such as Movielink and Cinemanow already offer online movie downloads. Cable companies have had equivalent services over their lines for several years.

'Two years from now, I think we'll be looking back more at how Netflix handled the challenge of video on demand than how it responded to Blockbuster, Amazon and Wal-Mart,' [Mark] Mahaney, [an analyst for American Technology Research] said. "

2 comments:

  1. I think two years from now on, we will be also looking at what Microsoft is bringing on the table for movie distribution..When you mention about something on demand, you cannot think it without microsoft....

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  2. Netflix doesn't have a prayer of becoming a player with video on demand. they add no value.

    Last time I looked netflix was not a rights holder like the studios, a connectivity provider like your cable company or dsl company, or even a tangental player like a digital rights facilitor. Do they propose to compete with Sony, Verizon or Microsoft?

    The entire VOD chatter is just spin to keep their investors from worrying about the elephant in the tent: which is that direct mail of dvd films has a life of about five years before a steep and rapid decline.

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