Netflix Change...

[mithrilG60]

Originally Posted by mariogolbee

I got that email. I changed from blu-ray and streaming to just streaming. I'd quit altogether, but I can stream Netflix on my Mac, laptop, iPod touch, 360, blu-ray player, and 3DS. I can't do all of that with Blockbuster, Amazon Prime, or Hulu. Netflix has enough Star Trek alone to keep me busy for the next year. For the price of one season of Trek I can get them all for a year streaming on a boatload of devices. Why would I change services now?

This is exactly what they're banking on, and they are quite correct that physical media is a dying business model compared to streaming content. The physical media side of their business (DVD & BluRay) will probably be killed off entirely within a year or two due to lack of profitability. Personally I can't imagine why you'd ever want the hassles of dealing with DVD's and BluRay's anyway. It's so much easier and more convenient to just stream and/or download everything. Hell, I bought my BluRay player over 2 years ago now and still have yet to put a disc (DVD or BluRay) in it. In fact I'm not even sure if it works The next time I take apart the entertainment console it's just getting pulled out and sold full stop.

[ktblunden]

Originally Posted by mithrilG60

This is exactly what they're banking on, and they are quite correct that physical media is a dying business model compared to streaming content. The physical media side of their business (DVD & BluRay) will probably be killed off entirely within a year or two due to lack of profitability. Personally I can't imagine why you'd ever want the hassles of dealing with DVD's and BluRay's anyway. It's so much easier and more convenient to just stream and/or download everything. Hell, I bought my BluRay player over 2 years ago now and still have yet to put a disc (DVD or BluRay) in it. In fact I'm not even sure if it works The next time I take apart the entertainment console it's just getting pulled out and sold full stop.

I will be a lot more satisfied with Instant if they expand their library. 75% of the stuff I want to watch and search for is DVD only. I deal with what they have currently, and since they jacked up the price on the DVD service I won't be adding that any time soon, but I've seen titles drop off my Instant Queue as they become no longer available and haven't seen a lot of new stuff added.

[357]

Originally Posted by ktblunden

I will be a lot more satisfied with Instant if they expand their library. 75% of the stuff I want to watch and search for is DVD only. I deal with what they have currently, and since they jacked up the price on the DVD service I won't be adding that any time soon, but I've seen titles drop off my Instant Queue as they become no longer available and haven't seen a lot of new stuff added.

This is key. Bandwidth and distribution costs are why more content isn't available for streaming. It sucks because I think most of us would drop the mail service if streaming content had half of what is available via DVD/BR.

[Apoco]

Originally Posted by 357

This is key. Bandwidth and distribution costs are why more content isn't available for streaming. It sucks because I think most of us would drop the mail service if streaming content had half of what is available via DVD/BR.

More importantly - licensing fees. Starz wouldn't accept the insane dollar amounts (~$200 million for a single year IIRC) for Netflix to obtain the right to stream content. They can't afford everything and/or the entities aren't willing to sell the rights to Netflix.
Posted via Mobile Device

[357]

Originally Posted by Apoco

More importantly - licensing fees. Starz wouldn't accept the insane dollar amounts (~$200 million for a single year IIRC) for Netflix to obtain the right to stream content. They can't afford everything and/or the entities aren't willing to sell the rights to Netflix.
Posted via Mobile Device

That's what I meant by distribution costs, aka paying the movie distributors for the right to offer it via streaming.