Netflix Watch Now Offers Video Streaming
January 16, 2007 | by Geoff Duncan
DVD-by-mail service Netflix is embracing the Internet with its new Watch Now service, offering subscribers streaming movies and TV shows.
Beginning today, DVD-by-mail darling Netflix is offering its subscribers another option in the growing world of Internet-based video delivery. Netflix's new Watch Now service will enable Netflix subscribers who install a special browser applet the ability to immediately watch TV shows and movies on their computers.
"We named our company Netflix in 1998 because we believed Internet-based movie rental represented the future, first as a means of improving service and selection, and then as a means of movie delivery," said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. "While mainstream consumer adoption of online movie watching will take a number of years due to content and technology hurdles, the time is right for Netflix to take the first step."
Watch Now is scheduled for a phased roll-out through the middle of 2007, offering the service to about 250,000 subscribers per week through June to ensure its systems can handle the video streaming demands. Videos available via Watch Now are considered rentals, rather than a download-to-own model like that offered by Apple's iTunes store and others. But the streaming model also means selections begin playing in a few seconds, rather than forcing users to wait until an entire download is complete. Netflix says movies can be paused, and a position bar lets viewers jump to any point in a video.
Watch Now requiers a broadband Internet connection with a minimum of 1 Mbps downstream bandwidth, but the more bandwidth a user has available, the higher quality video they receive, up to DVD-quality with a 3 Mbps connection.
Right now, only about 1,000 movies and TV shows are available from Netflix's larger catalog of over 70,000 titles, but the company plans to expand the selection of content as the service matures. And, Watch Now will be available at no additional charge to subscribers, although the amount of video users can view online depends on their Netflix subscription. Subscribers with an entry-level $6/month plan get six hours of online viewing time; subscribers with the company's $18/month plan get 18 hours on online video.
Right now, Netflix's Watch Me browser applet is requires Windows XP, although the company says it plans to expand the offering to other platforms and, eventually, to mobile devices.
Post Your Comment...Comments
mike on Jan 25th, 2007 at 3:38 PM:
Chuck, perhaps they merely performed an app upgrade that unintentionally broke Firefox support as a side-effect, and since they don't officially support anything other than IE-Windows yet, they haven't worried about it? Not everything is a conspiracy, man. They wouldn't waste their time with something so petty and stupid.
Of course their stated goal is to get it working on all platforms, but any web developer with experience in any credibley large company will tell you that in a phased rollout, you focus on the largest audience first (being up front about it, of course), making sure it works perfectly for them, and worry about everyone else afterwards. Remember, that is what this is:A PHASED ROLLOUT. Not everyone is SUPPOSED to have access to it, yet.
Netflix told everyone they only support IE and Windows right now. So you happened to get lucky for a little while. It's not like they took anything away that they promised you. In fact, they did you a solid, quite frankly, for the time it ran for you.
Suck it up, drop the fanboyism, and use IE. I mean, honestly.
Jordan on Feb 7th, 2007 at 5:25 AM:
just get the IE Tab extension for Firefox. When switched on Netflix will think your're using IE.
Michael R on Feb 14th, 2007 at 12:07 PM:
In addition, Watch Now requires XP with SP2, and will not run on Win2k. It sounds to me that Microsoft is involved in some way and is trying to ensure that people are not using an older version of the OS or service pack. I would think that Win2k should otherwise be perfectly capable of streaming video from Netflix.
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Chuck in Portland on Jan 21st, 2007 at 9:56 PM:
I have been using the Watch Now feature on Netflix for the last few days. I stopped today. Why? I am a Firefox web browser user. Today, Netflix decided that Firefox customers are not important to Netflix any longer, and they no longer allow Firefox users to access Watch Now features -- only Internet Explorer users. I guess I wouldn't be as upset had they introduced the service as being non-Firefox compatible, but it was compatible for the first few days of introduction, then POOF it no longer worked with Firefox. It makes me wonder how much money Microsoft paid Netflix to discontinue allowing use with Firefox. It wouldn't be the first time Microsoft did this.