Netflix is considering the possibility of morphing into a streaming only movie service by 2010, according to CEO Reed Hastings. Netflix, which got big on its “we’ll mail you a movie, you mail it back” DVD subscription model is apparently recognizing the fact that digital content is the wave of the future. Does this mean that Netflix should abruptly abandon what made them so successful in the first place? Not necessarily, but the fact that Netflix has electronic distribution on its radar is a sign that Netflix, as opposed to some other companies out there, actually gets it. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Hastings shrewdly observed:
Most companies that are in our shoes fail. Most companies that have a sort of generational evolution forward, like AOL from dial-up to broadband, fail. And it’s catastrophic for investors… We’ve got one singular objective, which is ‘Be successful in streaming.’ If we do that, that’s a homerun.
ArsTechnica has more on the story over here.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I thought they were going to start offering a streaming-only plan, not switch over to streaming-only. They do that I’ll cancel my subscription so fast it’ll make their collective head spin.
I want DVDs I can watch anywhere, not to be tied to a computer to watch a movie.