Netflix CEO alludes to streaming-only pricing by next year [EngadgetHD]
Netflix pioneered the idea of renting DVDs through the mail, but it looks like the company may be introducing a pricing tier offering that drops the mail entirely in favor of it's streaming product. According to this EngadgetHD post, company CEO Reed Hastings recently announced that the company was working on a streaming-only package to be offered sometime next year. Netflix streams a library of around 12,000 titles using the Roku set-top or the Xbox 360 game console.
Hastings admits that Netflix needs to "nail" the streaming concept. Those 12,000 titles sound like a lot, but coming from someone with a Roku set-top, there are a lot of popular titles that Netflix just doesn't make available to streaming customers. Compare that number to Netflix's DVD rental library which eclipses 100,000 titles.
In addition to the streaming package, Hastings has also indicated that Netflix wants to strike a deal with HBO or Showtime to stream their video content.
Hi Michael,
It sounds like there's an opportunity here for digital TV providers who already bring their content in over a line that can carry broadband data (ie. Insight) to partner with Netflix and provide more robust "On Demand" movie programming. Is that something that's being explored?
Posted by: Kyle Moyes | Friday, February 20, 2009 at 10:34 AM