Netflix battles Apple by eliminating online-watching limits

UPDATE: Netflix made its official announcement on Monday morning.

In an attempt to counteract whatever announcements Apple will make at Macworld this week, Netflix has decided to let subscribers stream unlimited movies and TV shows, with almost every basic plan, the Associated Press is reporting.

Currently, subscribers can watch anywhere from 5 to 48 hours a month, depending on their plan, although I don't see how anyone could be on the "eight-at-a-time" plan. (My two-at-a time plan came with 14 hours.)

The new, unlimited plan will be available to all subscribers, except for those on the two-rentals-per-month plan.

Even though we knew this was coming, it is still big news. We are so close to the large-scale broadband video revolution, I can almost taste it. With download speeds increasing and the promise of Netflix-enabled set-top boxes, we are almost there. I can't envision many better scenarios than having Netflix's entire catalog available for watching on my TV instantly.

Apple is expected to announce its own movie rental service on Monday--but with a pay-per-movie model as opposed to a subscription-based one like Netflix's.

I personally like Netflix's model better. But then again, Apple used the same strategy in music, and it has worked out pretty well so far. With all of these recent developments looking so promising, someone is going to have to break the news to Sony that all of this fuss over Blu-ray isn't going to matter in a year or two.

[Azzuro10]

If iTunes charges $9.99 for a movie, it would be smart to allow users to rent the movie for $3.99 for 48 hours and then give you the option after the 48 hours to own the movie by paying an additional $6. Movies should be DRM free and with a resolution of 480p. (should be streamed so that you can start watching the movie several minutes after you pay for it).

But ultimately the media should be at least 10% cheaper than purchasing the DVD and have the same quality. Then we are talking! At the moment, it makes no sense to buy movies on-line when you can buy the DVD for the same price or cheaper...and you can burn it as many times as you like and so-on - and the quality is better as well (480p rather than "near DVD quality"). I mean if a DVD costs $9.99 at the store - you have to assume that the retailer is making at least a 20% gross margin and then you have distributor and manufacturing costs. That means that the movie studio is making $6-7 a DVD. Therefore, you need to sell the media at ~$7 a pop.

I don't know what the movie studios are worried about....they can make the same margin and see increased volumes! If they are worried about piracy.....well, its a little to late to be worried about that.

[Robocoastie]

I highly doubt the retailer (usually Wal-Mart) is making a 20% gross margin on a $9.99 movie. There is little to no mark-up in high tech products which is why screwdriver shop computer places actually specialize in the service and upgrades - not the pc sale, they sell that at cost because they know they can't match the high volume capable chainstore.

[sharkfan1781110]

that's sooo true no one will need blue ray or a player for that fact. as long as some online storage company allows u to store these content on a server then we could even access it wherever there is internet which will shortly be EVERYWHERE and that'll be like having a DVD...and think about that with all files and music....did anyone say GOOGLE?
I wish i just had a little more money right now so when google hits $3,000 I would b able to benefit more than my measly one share i have right now

[youcangetholdofjules]

Yeah online might work ok for the US market, but most of the rest of the world has either a) slow download speeds or is b) capped, meaning you can download more than a certain amount per month.
I think blu ray will be just fine.

[tyman703]

Saying that physical media (optical discs, etc) will be obsolete because of the Internet is a lot like saying email removes the need for the Postal Service - if you've ever ordered anything from Amazon, you know that just isn't true.

To be fair, you're saying I'll need at least 200GB per movie (size of a blu-ray disc), and with a modest library of 25 movies that's 5TB of storage per user. Current drive-space limitations and bandwidth speeds push your ideas *several* years into the future.

Enter the optical disc. At least until your dreams become a reality, these are going to be the backbone of the industry - so don't expect that Blu-Ray player of yours to disappear anytime soon.

[cxc21]

No competition for Apple users. Netflix instant view feature is Windows only and will never be available for MacOS since it is M$ DRM.

[catch23]

Unlike Apple, who won't license their DRM to anyone, Microsoft will license it to anyone. It being unavailable on the Mac has nothing to do with Microsoft.
So if there is enough interest, it would happen.

[billrubin]

So now that Netflix has unlimited viewing, why won't they let other profiles view movies this way? I want my kids to be able to watch them but not logon as me.