According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the company may start offering a streaming-only monthly subscription beginning in 2010, eliminating the need for physical media delivery.
Netflix has over 10 million subscribers and notes that "millions" of those users currently use the company's streaming library. The library consists of over 12,000 titles compared to over 100,000 physical DVDs.
Customers currently pay for a monthly subscription that includes mail delivery and access to streaming movies, but Hastings noted that the company's future success "hinges on its ability to transition to online video from DVDs."
“Most companies that are in our shoes fail,” Hastings added. “Most companies that have a sort of generational evolution forward, like AOL from dial-up to broadband, fail. And it’s catastrophic for investors.”
The company has been broadening access to its online streaming library in the past six months, adding the service to the Xbox 360 as well as to TiVo and a number of Blu-ray players.
“Right now, the power of the service is that hybrid message, the best of both,” Hastings noted, in reference to users ability to stream and get physical delivery. “So we’re putting most of our wood behind that. But we recognize at some point in the long term, the streaming will be good enough that an appreciable number of people will find streaming is all they need.”
Customers currently pay for a monthly subscription that includes mail delivery and access to streaming movies, but Hastings noted that the company's future success "hinges on its ability to transition to online video from DVDs."
“Most companies that are in our shoes fail,” Hastings added. “Most companies that have a sort of generational evolution forward, like AOL from dial-up to broadband, fail. And it’s catastrophic for investors.”
The company has been broadening access to its online streaming library in the past six months, adding the service to the Xbox 360 as well as to TiVo and a number of Blu-ray players.
“Right now, the power of the service is that hybrid message, the best of both,” Hastings noted, in reference to users ability to stream and get physical delivery. “So we’re putting most of our wood behind that. But we recognize at some point in the long term, the streaming will be good enough that an appreciable number of people will find streaming is all they need.”
