$57.99
-1.01 (-1.71%)
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)
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The Company is a online movie rental subscriber which provides more than 6,300,000 subscribers access to a comprehensive library of more than 70,000 movie, television and other filmed entertainment titles on DVD.
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its only a matter of time before video on demand forces Netflix to re-invent themselves.
Sure they are the king of what they do....but their isnt much value in being the king of poop.
here here to being king of poop.
Sorry for the Wall Of Text. For some reason it is not seeing my hard returns.... Brightside, I can only guess that you don't subscribe.You can watch lots of content from Netflix at the drop of the hat, streamed to your computer (or TV) for cheaper than subscribing to cable. I do it all the time.All Netflix needs to do now is expand their streaming content, which is a licensing problem, not a technology issue. And it is not just a Netflix licensing issue. Anyone who wants to participate in this market will experience the same thing. If anything I would argue that Netflix has a leg up on any competition (including Apple's iTunes store) in delivering secured content to consumers via an on demand stream over the internet. They are already doing it today. I could also see a pay-per-view or commercial-before-viewing business model being integrated into their existing infrastructure fairly easily.The challenge that I see them facing will be bandwidth issues in to the consumers homes. But once again, anyone outside of the provider of that bandwidth will face the same issue. And that is really their only competition that I see. But it would require an enterprising cable/telephone provider to develop the same business model as Netflix for streaming only content. (i.e. They can use their own computer or buy a box from the provider.)
Or I guess it just gives a wall of text in preview....
companies like csco will be the best play on this as video on demand unfolds.NFLX (imo) will not be included.Why do you think Chambers bought Scientific Atlantica ?
netflix' dvd-based business is going to be quite solid for at least two years. VoD is still technically challenging given the average broadband penetration rate in most places, whereas netflix can go anywhere the mail does. they're also not sitting still. while i'm not thrilled with their VoD choices (silverlight? really?), they'll clearly have something competitive by the time that market grows up. and the licensing struggles, as noted earlier, affect any newcomer player just as much. they have a bigger risk, in the next few years, from things like the iTunes store: still the convenient network distribution, but without trying to do "on demand".
also, i said "at least" two years. DVD players (including laptops and the like) are likely to remain ubiquitous in ways that VoD-capable broadband isn't for quite some time to come (we're still not seeing real 4G mobile uptake, and it's not at all clear that'll be sufficient, anyway). they'll need to have a VoD story, but non-realtime, durable (stored on DVD or hard drive) video is going to dominate for quite some time.