Netflix still requires its subscribers to pay $9 a month and up to have DVDs mailed to them, but the company keeps quietly expanding its features for delivering movies and television shows over the internet.
As it readies a streaming feature for the Nintendo Wii to accompany its support for televisions, set-top boxes, TiVo and other gaming consoles, Netflix asks customers if they would use an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch to stream videos from Netflix's streaming library via Wi-Fi without paying additional fees.
The company asked the same thing about the Wii before announcing support for that device, which starts this spring. Assuming customer response is positive, the long-rumored Netflix iPhone app could appear within the next few months too.
"Imagine that Netflix offers [sic] its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone," reads the survey question Hacking Netflix says Netflix sent to subscribers (via Silicon Alley Insider). "The selection availability to instantly watch [sic] includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again… for no additional fee."
Television and movie studios only allow Netflix to stream a portion of their content — the "selection availability" referenced above, which includes a little over 17,000 titles — because if Netflix could stream any show or movie to the television or phone on-demand only rubes would pay for cable. Since cable bills contribute far more to the studios' bottom lines than a $9 subscription does, studios are understandably reticent to license anything that might cannibalize those subscriptions. As it is, many people are finding it more than possible to cut the cable with various on-demand video services (legal and not) as well as HD-quality, over-the-air broadcast television for the one-time cost of a regular television antenna.
Nonetheless, internet-delivered television (IPTV) services including Netflix's streaming service are on a direct collision course with television delivered the (somewhat) old-fashioned way, for the simple reason that both are capable of delivering HD video to televisions and other devices. One upshot, assuming the major studios continue to restrict their streaming offerings, might be that people who choose to drop their monthly cable service will simply watch whatever shows are available on their devices, be it short clips, pirated downloads, the subset of programs that is available for streaming, something made by an amateur, or videos streamed from the user's own computer (using Orb, DotTunes or another do-it-yourself streaming service).
From a functionality point of view, the scant details available so far about a possible Netflix iPhone app contain one disappointment: no streaming over 3G, and no way to cache videos for offline playback. When rumors swirled of a Netflix iPhone app last summer, we speculated that it could strengthen Netflix's service, but only if it included an offline mode. After all, mobile phones are, by their very nature, portable devices, and you shouldn't need Wi-Fi to use them. Neither should AT&T allow movie watchers to slow their network by streaming movies all day over a 3G connection. The solution is to allow the user to store certain shows or films on their phones temporarily, in addition to being able to stream them over Wi-Fi, like Slacker and Spotify do with music.
AT&T recently relented on the use of VoIP apps and SlingBox's streaming service over its 3G network, and other carriers have long permitted this. Still, while it may be reading too much into a survey question to assume such a service would be Wi-Fi-only, it's unclear whether Netflix will offer that feature (we've asked Netflix about its iPhone plans and hope to have an update soon). If so, its use could be relegated to airport lounges, coffee shops, and other hotspots — and never while in motion, like in the backseat of a car or a commuter train — because if you're on your home network, the iPhone's small screen wouldn't be your first choice.
Now for our requisite mention of the iPad. Apple says the iPad will support "almost all" of the 140,000-plus officially approved iPhone apps in the iTunes store, meaning that any Netflix iPhone app would almost certainly work with the iPad — a more appealing proposition for Netflix subscribers, given that device's larger viewing area, maybe even in a private corner of that home-network zone.
See Also:
- How the Netflix Prize Was Won
- Netflix on the iPhone Will Work - But Only With Offline Mode
- $1 Million Netflix Prize So Close, They Can Taste It
- Winning Teams Join to Qualify for $1 Million Netflix Prize
- AT&T Will Donate Share of $1 Million Netflix Prize to Science
- BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos Wins $1 Million Netflix Prize by Mere Minutes
- Netflix Prize: It Ain't Over 'til It's Over
Image: Flickr/Photo Giddy
