Netflix

[Slamz]

direct streaming seems to be the wave of the future, but despite some initial success Netflix may be in trouble there. I get the impression that studios are starting to think to themselves "hmm, why can't we stream our content to customers directly, and cut out the middleman? more profits for us!" and in this case "the middleman" is Netflix.

This is where I feel Netflix has something up their sleeve.

There's nothing wrong with a good middleman. Amazon and Wal-Mart are kind of like the ultimate middleman. You don't want to shop at 20 different stores if you can get the best prices at one store. I don't want to visit ABC.com, NBC.com, Syfy.com, etc, etc, if I can get everything I want in one place. I especially don't want to setup accounts for billing at all these channels if one site can do it all. From the perspective of the networks, they don't have to own and operate their own server network if Netflix is running it for them and paying them for the privilege.


Netflix must have seen some real value in this move to brand "Netflix" as the entity dedicated to streaming. I wouldn't put it past the movie studios to make some sort of batshit crazy demands (like "stop distributing DVDs because I want to sell those") that forced this split in order for Netflix to move forward with streaming.

I think after all these "Oh, sorry, we suck now" announcements, Netflix is warming up to a big "TA-DA" of some sort and their stock is going to explode.


Just my optimistic hunch, though.

It's also possible that they are just idiots.