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January 13, 2008

Netflix Offers Unlimited Streaming As iTunes Rental Spoiler

Duncan Riley

42 comments »

netflix-logo.pngNetflix will begin offering unlimited online movie streaming from a library of over 6000 movies to customers on their $16.99 plan starting Monday.

The move is said to be in response to the expected announcement by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo Tuesday that iTunes will offer movie rentals from most major studios. The expected price of the iTunes rented movies is $3.99 each, putting Netflix is a competitive position for high value regular movie watchers.

Netflix has previously offered limited movie streaming to its 7 million + customers, but capped the streaming access at 17 hours a month.

According to AP, the offer will not be available to Netflix customers currently on the $4.99/ mth 2 DVD plan.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Everett

    January 13th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    This will be interesting.

  2. whydowork

    January 13th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    I think its a great step in the right direction for NetFlix. They have proven themselves in a competitive market time and time again. Apple won’t likely go the route of Walmart and soon BB in terms of failed online rentals but Netflix will remain the leader with this move.

  3. Jeff Greco

    January 13th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    The thing that everybody ignores is that NETFLIX’S MOVIE STREAMING SELECTION SUCKS. It’s hardly even worth mentioning in its current stage.

  4. Liz

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    But of course, even though we non-Intel-based Mac users can’t get the streaming films, we don’t get a discount on our monthly fees. What a ripoff.

  5. Jon

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

    I hope both companies offer online video streaming for those located OUTSIDE North America… if the internet is global, so should movie streaming! ;-)

    Jon
    http://buzvia.com - Share Influence

  6. Planet Malaysia

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    Probably should offer online video streaming outside of US too.

  7. Trevor Carpenter

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    @Liz,

    No, none of us Mac users are included. One must run Windows to get the instant play. I for one have prided my self in being MS free (kinda like smoke-free) and will not be adding that crap, just so I can watch a movie.

  8. Bob Caswell

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    The real news is where this could go when combined with the previous Netflix announcement of having a set top box that gets these (now unlimited) movies onto your TV:

    http://www.techconsumer.com/20.....ne-movies/

  9. Matt Hendry

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:29 pm

    All you Mac users need to ask Steve Jobs why he still refuses to licence fairplay to companies like Netflix although you can be sure they will have Fairplay DRM on the rental movies they will be offering tomorrow and Im sure the rentals will have a timebomb and be Pay Per View silly old media bussiness models ….

    Unlimited Subscription or Ad Supported based streaming is the future of the industry and actually preferred by content owners so you don’t have all the pieces of the movie stored on your device .

  10. Jeremy Chone

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    I am not a big Apple user (yet), but I love these side effects.

    Thank you Apple for making Netflix better.

    Note: Agree with #3, Netflix better improve their selection, otherwise, this move could backfire on them.

  11. Mark

    January 13th, 2008 at 6:51 pm

    I think Netflix is being shy of mentioning that their ONLINE VIDEO selection is different than that of IN-MAIL video selection.

    The inventory of online videos doesn’t have latest titles - all old which most of titles not worth of any money.

  12. other

    January 13th, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    max is 24 hours, do your hw.

  13. Nathan Clark

    January 13th, 2008 at 7:40 pm

    Great points above.
    With Apple constantly gaining traction in the home market Netflix’s move ignore a sizable portion of their user base. And we’d all be happier if they’d improve their selection instead of increasing how much we can watch. As it stands now, there’s no way I could find 17 hours watchable content a month.
    I am curious how iTunes would handle tv shows - would the stream give me 4 episodes, like a DVD does, or just 1?

  14. Michael

    January 13th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

    I hope that we can stream it in Australia!

  15. Amanda at i5invest

    January 13th, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    It will be interesting to see what Blockbuster will do to stay competitive.

    When you Google “Blockbuster Netflix,” you’ll see that Blockbuster is paying for a sponsored search result with the headline “Why Blockbuster is Better”

    I’m sure we’ll hear an announcement soon that Blockbuster has released a me too offering.

  16. john

    January 13th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    == my email sent to netflix

    Here’s a joke for you guys:

    you are starting to offer unlimited streaming for 16.95 customers.

    mac people are out of luck.

    that’s the joke.

    got it?

    I’ll explain it to you: people that own Apple macintosh computers, cannot watch a single streaming video.

    If you want to know what macs are, go to http://apple.com/

    an otherwise happy customer,
    john

  17. Amanda at i5invest

    January 13th, 2008 at 9:44 pm

    Good point John: how can Netflix really compete with Apple if its streaming rentals service isn’t available to Mac users?

  18. Kenotic

    January 13th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    While this is mostly good news, the biggest problem is that Netflix’s offerings are somewhere between “sparse” and “awful.” There are some good new ones on there, as well as some classics (2 seasons of Heroes are available, which is a plus), but the amount of C-list TV series, documentaries by Michael Moore wannabes, and bad movies far outweigh the good. I love the concept, but they’ve got to get some deals made before it’s a hit.

  19. Don

    January 13th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    Gee, I guess Netflix will have to shoot for the 95% of the market that don’t use Macs.

  20. buster

    January 14th, 2008 at 12:00 am

    lots of ignorant people commenting. probably better to chalk it up to apple and blockbuster fanboys. are there really blockbuster fanboys?

    #9 and #19 sum it up pretty well. it’s not netflix’s decision to leave macs out in the cold.

    as for the selection, i’m sorry that netflix doesn’t have Balls of Fury available for instant watching. they instead make available awful titles such as No End in Sight, the birds, the innocents, strozsek, and more.

    DAMN you netflix for not making the latest and greatest will farrell movies available for me to watch instantly on my PC. now i’ll have too sift through the 6000+ titles of your 96000 title library to find anything that could possibly live up to will farrel standards.

    never mind the fact that you have only included 7% of all available titles for instant watching because of silly licensing deals that studios have imposed.

    get a clue people

  21. This is cool, but...

    January 14th, 2008 at 12:33 am

    Does their selection match joox.net - I’d pay 30 or more a month for a legit version of joox!

    The newest movies in the theaters available on the net all in 2D, while their 3D versions are released simultaneously at the movie plexes! The 3D version experience is so grand that consumers can’t duplicate it at home due to economics!

    This is the future and will net Hollywood banging revenues!

  22. Kenotic

    January 14th, 2008 at 12:49 am

    It was subtle, but I’m guessing you’re not a Will Ferrell fan? I needed a few more references to pick that up….

    Of course, neither am I (although I did enjoy Elf), but I’m guessing that’s beside the point. This probably won’t take too much thunder from Apple’s announcement. Classics are great, and The Birds is better than most anything new. Still, I just wish there was one “The Birds” for every movie like “Double D Avenger” or “Marci X.”

  23. Steve Robson

    January 14th, 2008 at 5:30 am

    Aah once again the lessons of the music industry are being steadfastly ignored by other entertainment publishers and distributors. Make it universal, make it affordable and my goodness make it easy! Just like the music industry where artists are going it alone so are movie artists. The funniest Will Farrell material is available free through a universally available Flash player on sites like http://www.funnyordie.com/.

  24. smash579

    January 14th, 2008 at 6:45 am

    now if only NetFlix developed a Linux compatible player or atleast one that didnt require IE…

  25. zach wise

    January 14th, 2008 at 8:25 am

    @ Jeff Greco

    So true! Netflix’s streaming movie selection is terrible! At least Apple will be providing some decent movies. Only about 5 percent of the movies from Netflix were released within the last 10 years.

  26. ricky

    January 14th, 2008 at 11:16 am

    I have only been with Netflix for a while but it really irked me that, as a Mac user, I could not take advantage of the on-demand service. Recently, I had use of a PC for a while and decided to try it out, and it is pretty damn lame.

    The movie selection is a really odd mishmash. Not really commercial, not really indie… It looks like the cutout bin of a video store.

    And the inability to add movies to a playlist means you have to search for something to watch every time you want to watch something.

    It is overall a strangely uneven venture.

  27. Matt Hendry

    January 14th, 2008 at 11:46 am

    More Info on why Netflix isn’t on the Mac from a Netflix exec @ CES

    (Hint - He also blames Apple for not Licensing Fairplay )

    http://www.hackingnetflix.com/.....lames.html

  28. Tom

    January 14th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    So, didn’t MS build a cross-platform technology for streaming DRM video already? Aren’t they trying so hard to get users to actually install it that they are redoing their entire download site using it? And wasn’t a working demo shown off at Mix ‘07 using Netflix way back last may? So where the hell is our Silverlight Netflix service already?

  29. adair

    January 14th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    @zach - where do you get 5%?

    @ricky - you have obviously used this the service sparingly, and way back at that. open it up now and it’s very different. watch now movies are much more visible and there is an entirely separate watch instant queue now.

    your comment is totally off base and just plain wrong.

  30. CanCar

    January 15th, 2008 at 6:11 am

    The 2000 film, Gladiator, stars Russell Crowe as General Maximus who is fighting the Barbarians on the frontlines of Rome’s expansion. ENJOY IT!!!

  31. Jim

    January 15th, 2008 at 6:22 am

    Why isn’t it a flash based streaming player, like YouTube? Why all the DRM for “online movie streaming” when you could just have people sign-in with their NetFlix accounts?

    This shows the real attitude of management: control and monopolize. Consider the LG hype they’ve been on about, it’s hardware that control’s the system. Now they just need every manufacturer to buy into NetFlix controlling the market…

  32. Durka

    January 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    @ #24 Ewww… it requires IE?

    As a Mac using Netflix customer, iTunes rentals are looking good. (At least for movies i don’t want to wait 2 days for) We’ll see how this plays out but I have a feeling that Apple will surpass the 6000 netflix movies in a matter of months.

  33. MacsUgg

    January 16th, 2008 at 10:53 am

    Stop complaining about what your Macintosh doesn’t do. You should have known going in that Mac’s can’t do half of what PC’s do.

    What Mac’s can do; they do poorly, and with limited interface.

    “I’m a mac, and I’m a PC - Leapord is faster” - Leapord is software and doesn’t have a “speed” if it executes in shorter time, its because it consists of less code as is it much more primitive in design, go PC DOS! -doesn’t take much to impress a mac user-

    *sigh*

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