techs
Lifer
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/business/media/netflix-as-easy-as-changing-the-channel.html
Netflix, as Easy as Changing the Channel
Now, in a sign of on-demand TVs popularity, some cable companies, including Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, are talking with Netflix about doing away with the two-step and making the subscription service and other online video services available through the set-top boxes that most Americans have in their living rooms.
For the providers, the discussions are part of a broader shift toward Internet-powered delivery of television. But they also exemplify how the Comcasts of the world are gradually accepting, if not altogether embracing, Netflix, even as the cable pioneer John Malone continues to recommend that the cable industry create a Netflix rival.
Netflix, for its part, has wanted to be on set-top boxes for almost as long as it has had a streaming video service.
Having the Netflix app on a set-top box is a natural progression, Jonathan Friedland, Netflixs chief communications officer, said in an e-mail on Monday. Our goal is to make it as simple as possible for consumers to enjoy Netflix while cable operators see value, too, because it makes their broadband service more attractive.
Some cable giants (like Time Warner Cable) see themselves primarily as broadband, not television, providers. Cablevision already promotes itself as having the highest-quality Netflix experience, and in the future it and others could bundle Netflix with faster, higher-priced broadband service.
I don't get it. Having Netflix on a cable box is just like adding another cable channel that is also On Demand, as Comcast calls its version of it.
If the economics of set top Netflix worked then why hasn't someone just started a channel with lots of old movies and tv shows?
For the cable company 11 bucks a month for a premium channel is about the norm. Half to the cable company and half to the channel. Netflix charges about 8 dollars a month, so they would lose money at the going cable rate. All I can figure is Netflix has become more desirable because they have a lot of content and they have a nicer interface whether on a computer or a box like Roku. If they do this Netflix becomes just another channel like HBO.
Netflix, as Easy as Changing the Channel
Now, in a sign of on-demand TVs popularity, some cable companies, including Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, are talking with Netflix about doing away with the two-step and making the subscription service and other online video services available through the set-top boxes that most Americans have in their living rooms.
For the providers, the discussions are part of a broader shift toward Internet-powered delivery of television. But they also exemplify how the Comcasts of the world are gradually accepting, if not altogether embracing, Netflix, even as the cable pioneer John Malone continues to recommend that the cable industry create a Netflix rival.
Netflix, for its part, has wanted to be on set-top boxes for almost as long as it has had a streaming video service.
Having the Netflix app on a set-top box is a natural progression, Jonathan Friedland, Netflixs chief communications officer, said in an e-mail on Monday. Our goal is to make it as simple as possible for consumers to enjoy Netflix while cable operators see value, too, because it makes their broadband service more attractive.
Some cable giants (like Time Warner Cable) see themselves primarily as broadband, not television, providers. Cablevision already promotes itself as having the highest-quality Netflix experience, and in the future it and others could bundle Netflix with faster, higher-priced broadband service.
I don't get it. Having Netflix on a cable box is just like adding another cable channel that is also On Demand, as Comcast calls its version of it.
If the economics of set top Netflix worked then why hasn't someone just started a channel with lots of old movies and tv shows?
For the cable company 11 bucks a month for a premium channel is about the norm. Half to the cable company and half to the channel. Netflix charges about 8 dollars a month, so they would lose money at the going cable rate. All I can figure is Netflix has become more desirable because they have a lot of content and they have a nicer interface whether on a computer or a box like Roku. If they do this Netflix becomes just another channel like HBO.
