Future of Film: Netflix About to Put The Net in Flix

Authored by Jay Baage on March 21, 2007 - 2:12pm.

From the Future of Film: Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer, gave the audience a look into the future of the home video market. In spite of all the hype around web video, he said that legal downloading is not going to replace the DVD business anytime soon. “Today the consumers overwhelmingly choose DVDs over downloading, but they are becoming more and more net savvy”, Sarandos said.

If you are one of the 6 million Netflix subscribers you might have noticed a little “Watch Now” button on top of their website. This button represents a strategically important step towards instant viewing and Internet distribution of home video. However, Sarandos is very quick to point out that this does NOT mean that the DVD format is in any way dead.

Sarandos pointed out that the money generated from downloading music singles on any site was smaller than the VHS rental business last year - which shows that legal downloading of content in any form is still a business very much in it infancy.

However, Netflix is slowly moving to a hybrid model where downloading is part of the business in order to satisfy those customers that wants to have the option to watch a movie instantly and not wait for the postman.
“Change is coming, but it is evolution, not revolution”, said Sarandos.

Joakim Baage