The Continuing Rise of Netflix
It seems that Netflix has been able to completely put their splitsville fiasco squarely behind them. The company continues to rise in every respect imaginable, and this past quarter it has surpassed HBO in terms of its US user base. Netflix has added three million new subscribers, of which two thirds are in the US. It is also growing internationally and becoming the premier destination for video content online.
For the past couple of years I’ve coem to almost completely rely on Netflix for my video entertainment. The service has become big enough and robust enough for me to be fairly certain that I can find something to watch there anytime. And the ubiquity of fast wireless internet also ensures that I can watch things almost anywhere. I am still unable to watch my favorite shows overseas in most locations, but that has everything to do with the copyright laws (and perhaps Netflix server availability), and almost nothing with technology’s capabuilities.
An interesting question to ask would be if Netflix would be interested in creating and marketing its own set-top hardware streaming box. Sure, Netflix service is incorporate in almost all streaming devices today, but it is very likely that Netflix may have to pay those device manufacturers some small fee for the privileges of inclusion. Having a set-top box of one’s own would cut out the middlemen. Amazon is supposedly already working on a Kindle TV box, and Apple TV might (finally) be just around the corner.
Another thing that might spur Netflix to launch its own hardware could be the prospect of capturing a slice of the TV advertising market. They could take a page out of Amazon’s book (no pun intended) and distribute a heavily-subsidized (or even free) Netflix box that is ad-supported. Maybe even have a “free” version of its service that is also ad-supported, something like what Pandora already does. I think that these options are very real, and I would be surprised if they have not already consider them at Netflix. Their competitor are certainly not ignoring them.
About the Author
Bojan Tunguz
Bojan Tunguz was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he and his family fled during the civil war for the neighboring Croatia. Over the past two decades he has studied, lived and worked in the United States. He is a theoretical physicist with degrees from Stanford and University of Illinois. Tunguz has taught physics at several prominent liberal arts colleges and has been writing about physics, science and technology for more than a decade. He also has a wide spectrum of interests, and reads and writes about current events, society, culture, religion and politics. Over the years he has reviewed many of the books that he has read, and posted his reviews on various online outlets. In 2011 he had become a top 10 reviewer on Amazon.com, where he continues to be very active. Aside from reading and writing, Tunguz enjoys traveling, digital photography, hiking, and fitness. He resides with his wife in Indiana. You can follow my review updates on the following pages as well: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tunguzreview Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tunguzreviews Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104312842297641697463/posts
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