Remember the days of making it a Blockbuster night? You would pick up a couple of DVDs (or VHS’s) from your local Blockbuster store on a Friday night and return them at the end of the weekend. At the time, that was as good as it got, and Blockbuster was king.
Well the king has been dethroned and now all of your current video needs can be met with the click of a button on your computer, video game console, and soon even the cell phone in your pocket.
Netflix emerged as a competitor to ‘King Blockbuster’ at the turn of the century and has since successfully surpassed Blockbuster with its video by mail business model. It even thrived during the recession adding subscribers to its DVD by mail service and was up to 12.3 million subscribers at the end of 2009.
Netflix has become much more than rental service via mail. It also has a digital streaming component where subscribers can stream digital versions of their favorite movies and TV shows to their computers and TVs. Netflix has also secured deals with the three major game consols, Microsoft’s XBOX 360, Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii to allow for streaming through these devices as well as Sony Blue Ray players. Netflix has taken your living room media outlets by storm and they still aren’t done.
For a long while Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was somewhat of a fence sitter when it came to committing to “small screen” digital streaming. But with the release of Apple’s iPad last week, so came the Netflix app for the mobile media device. In fact, it was the second most downloaded app on the iPad after the apple book reader application.
Netflix also has no plans to stop their penetration into the ‘small screen’ digital market. Currently the company is seeking out digital engineers to develop programs to allow for Netflix digital streaming to Google’s android platform for their smart phones as well as Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Windows’ smart phone that is due to hit the market soon and most likely, eventually Apple’s iPhone.
Digital media is clearly the future of TV and movie consumption. Netflix has positioned itself to become the king of the future. Blockbuster continues to struggle and can’t seem to figure out that people no longer want to drive to physical stores, have limited time with the DVDs and worry about late fees. Currently there are more mailboxes than points of download for digital media, but as Netflix has mastered the by mail distribution system, it has also positioned itself perfectly for the growing digital tidal wave.
A simple job posting on their Web site for the digital engineers might have been the biggest news to hit the media consumption market in the last 10 years. It not only signifies a shift in Netflix’s overall strategy, but also the direction of the entire industry.
