Netflix starts showing movies, TV over the Internet

@Idlewild (6090)
United States
January 17, 2007 1:24pm CST
Netflix will start showing movies and TV episodes over the Internet this week, to a small number of its customers at first. The programs will not be downloaded to the customer's hard drive, but will be streamed. Are you a Netflix customer, and are you one of the people who has been offered this service?
4 people like this
5 responses
spcbrass
@spcbrass (1190)
• United States
17 Jan 07
I am not a NetFlix customer so I had no idea that they were offering this service. However I would consider becoming a NetFlix customer if they make this service available to everyone and it is reliable. Since I have a high definition computer monitor and not a high definition TV this would certainly be a great option for me.
3 people like this
Idlewild
@Idlewild (6090)
• United States
17 Jan 07
Supposedly customers on the $18/month plan will receive 18 hours of free watching every month, in addition to the three DVDs you can have at one time. I don't have Netflix either, but it does sound interesting.
1 person likes this
Chapman15
@Chapman15 (1492)
• United States
17 Jan 07
This has to be their response to blockbuster's new deal... The whole mail it in or take it in thing... It sounds like it might be a cool idea, just I'd rather watch a movie on my much larger television over my computer screen! No, I'm not with netflix.
1 person likes this
Idlewild
@Idlewild (6090)
• United States
17 Jan 07
I'm not with Netflix or Blockbuster, but this competition certainly makes it more tempting to sign up with one of them. And the immediate gratification element is pretty appealing.
1 person likes this
Idlewild
@Idlewild (6090)
• United States
18 Jan 07
So far I've been doing the cheapest option of all-- borrowing movies free from the public library! There's a great selection and I can request movies online, but you have no idea when you're getting a given title (it could be months).
1 person likes this
Chapman15
@Chapman15 (1492)
• United States
17 Jan 07
That's true and I'm sure it's ten times cheaper than pay per view!
polachicago
@polachicago (18716)
• United States
20 Jan 07
I am not Netflix customer, but I wouldn't mind to see it on Internet:)
1 person likes this
Idlewild
@Idlewild (6090)
• United States
21 Jan 07
Going to a store or waiting for the mail would discourage me from getting a video, but if I could stream it online, that might just make it easy enough that I'd bite.
1 person likes this
hockeygal4ever
@hockeygal4ever (10021)
• United States
23 Jan 07
I don't have NetFlix anymore but I'm not surprised by this new idea/service coming ahead. To be honest, it's a matter of time before we can all just download whatever we want without ever going to the store for electronics. It's nearly that time in life already!
Idlewild
@Idlewild (6090)
• United States
23 Jan 07
How did you like Netflix? Did they have a pretty good turnaround time for getting movies to you?
shywolf
@shywolf (4514)
• United States
21 Jan 07
I am not a customer currently, but this idea might get me to sign up. I really love the idea of not having to wait for the mail and not having to go to the store to rent something. It would really save a lot of time and hassle. I wonder how long it will be before they will be offering this service to the general public? I bet that they will get a huge amount of people to sign up, if they market it widely enough for people to find out about it! ^_^
Idlewild
@Idlewild (6090)
• United States
21 Jan 07
They're rolling it out to groups of their members to make sure their servers can handle the load. I don't know if they'd offer it to someone who's not a member and just wants to see a movie without joining. Their whole model currently is based on a subscription model with a monthly fee.