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NetFlix Founder Promises Movie Downloads This Year
NetFlix founder Reed Hastings says that although he expects to launch a video-on-demand service on the Internet sometime this year, he expects that studios will make only a limited number of movies available and that therefore customer interest will be modest. "We expect DVD, both standard DVD and high-def, to have an exclusive window through at least this decade," he told Home Media Retailing magazine. Nevertheless, some analysts predict that the VOD service may prove to be crucial to NetFlix's survival. Mark Mahaney, an analyst for American Technology Research, told today's (Monday) San Francisco Chronicle, "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 [challenges to its online subscription service by] Blockbuster, Amazon and Wal-Mart."
NetFlix founder Reed Hastings says that although he expects to launch a video-on-demand service on the Internet sometime this year, he expects that studios will make only a limited number of movies available and that therefore customer interest will be modest. "We expect DVD, both standard DVD and high-def, to have an exclusive window through at least this decade," he told Home Media Retailing magazine. Nevertheless, some analysts predict that the VOD service may prove to be crucial to NetFlix's survival. Mark Mahaney, an analyst for American Technology Research, told today's (Monday) San Francisco Chronicle, "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 [challenges to its online subscription service by] Blockbuster, Amazon and Wal-Mart."