Netflix offers streaming movies to subscribers (original) (raw)

The initial selection is fairly thin, with only 1,000 titles available (out of more than 70,000 available on DVD), but this was the same number of DVDs that Netflix launched with back in 1999. It's probably just as well; Netflix has made clear that they want to roll out the new technology slowly to make sure that everything works correctly. As CEO Reed Hastings notes, this isn't a market that is going to pay big dividends for a few years yet.

"While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step," he said. "Over the coming years we'll expand our selection of films, and we'll work to get to every Internet-connected screen, from cell phones to PCs to plasma screens."

The move does help Netflix in the short-term, though, by giving them a new selling point in their war with rival Blockbuster. Blockbuster has been aggressively advertising its DVD-by-mail service on TV and touts its Total Access program as a major advantage over Netflix.

With Blockbuster's plan, though, users still need to drive to a local video store to collect a new film; with Netflix, it can all be done at the PC. Of course, these movies still need to be watched on the computer, but it's clearly in Netflix's interest to develop an online distribution channel that reaches all the way to the television.