DISQUS

Davis Freeberg · 10 months ago

I think that Netflix is seeing early adopters buy devices like Roku and Blu-Ray Netflix players, but that they'll be another layer of customers who start signing up once Netflix CE devices become more common. People who would have normally just bought a TV will all of a sudden have this new capability and inevitably some of them will want to check out. In effect each CE device will become a marketing vehicle for Netflix's subscription solution. It should help them greatly expand their membership. The monthly subscriptions really are genius. Cable could potentially be a monthly subscription competitor, but they're limited by a geographic footprint and have notoriously closed systems. We could also see Blockbuster try to mirror Netflix's approach, but they seem to be three steps behind in their efforts. It will be hard for an Amazon or Apple to take a monthly approach because they don't have the DVD base to subsidize the digital offerings.