Most Popular
| Top Stories | Commented | Featured |
ATI Radeon HD 5570 Review featured
AMD's six-core Thuban to have feature like Turbo Boost?
Google to launch Twitter-like service for Gmail
Intel Core i5-based MacBook Pros coming soon?
Intel unveils Itanium 9300 series enterprise processors
Netflix to roll out 1080p streaming later this year
China closes major hacker ring, arrests three members
Sharp and Samsung end LCD patent suits with cross-licensing agreement
TS Community
| User Gallery | Recent Discussion |
 sleeping by blackhawke |  My New Rig Nearly Ready by jtickner1 |
 Desktop Revised by larryiam |  Windows 7 preview screenshots @ PDC by Julio |
TechSpot RSSThe Web
Netflix planning streaming-only option for 2010
If you're a Netflix customer that has taken advantage of the very nifty but somewhat scope-limited streaming feature, you might be in for a cost break in the near future. Netflix's CEO has stated that they are considering to offer a streaming-only plan option by next year that would do without the physical DVDs sent by mail.
With the advent of more hardware streaming devices ready to take advantage of Netflix's video streaming, the only setback for people would be video selection. If Netflix can beef that up, a streaming-only option that is somewhat discounted from their regular service rates would be very attractive. Netflix has found in their own studies that given a choice, many people prefer to use their “Watch Instantly” feature over waiting for a DVD. In fact, there's over a million Xbox users currently using that feature.
Netflix definitely has the subscriber base and the appeal to make such options viable. Their only setback is video selection, where their online library still pales in comparison to their massive DVD library.
With the advent of more hardware streaming devices ready to take advantage of Netflix's video streaming, the only setback for people would be video selection. If Netflix can beef that up, a streaming-only option that is somewhat discounted from their regular service rates would be very attractive. Netflix has found in their own studies that given a choice, many people prefer to use their “Watch Instantly” feature over waiting for a DVD. In fact, there's over a million Xbox users currently using that feature.
Netflix definitely has the subscriber base and the appeal to make such options viable. Their only setback is video selection, where their online library still pales in comparison to their massive DVD library.
Related Stories
User Comments (3)
Post a comment| viperpfl on February 24, 2009 12:30 PM | With many ISP's currently having internet caps, streaming
video is less appealing. Who would want to pay extra to
there ISP just to watch a streaming video? Time Warner is
going to be charging $1 a gig over your 40 gig cap and
Comcast will cut you off if you go over your 250 gig cap.
I have used the streaming video option from Netflix and thought it was great but only as an option. Streaming video provides a convenience but that is all. There is still a lot of people including myself who prefer the physical DVD.
|
| sngx1275 on February 24, 2009 5:31 PM | I found I wasn't ordering DVDs as often, so I dropped my
plan to 1 dvd at a time, but am paying more to keep
streaming as an option. I may consider dropping the mail
part all together if I could keep the streaming, especially
if they continue to get more movies. Starz really helped
them out there. I guess one of the few advantages of me living in an area where there isn't the big providers like Comcast and TW is that my ISP doesn't have any silly caps. I can download at my max dl 24/7 and not get a notice from my ISP. While I've never actually tried it for a month, I have transferred at my max dl for a solid 2 weeks without issue. The only problem is the max available speeds here are much slower than those offered by the big boys.
|
| tengeta on February 24, 2009 10:43 PM | I don't know why people complain about Cox, I'm at 370+ gigs
this month and they don't care at all. They called and asked
me if my computers had viruses or something but I just told
them I've been using that much traffic, and they didn't seem
to care at all when I said that. Its really funny because since I just looked at it there is an actual cap at 40, I guess they just don't enforce it.
|
