Follow Up
I was a little surprised to see David Wilkerson comment on my open letter to him. I have to give him credit for that.
I will apologize for the insult of saying he does not know what he is covering. This is more of a general frustration of reading stories in the business press when I see something missing from the story. Netflix is in an industry where they cannot decide their future alone. Just because they will want to stream new releases.
I wonder why I never see quotes from content providers asking what they think about netflix plans. There is no cross reference to how content providers feel about these business models. I think looking at Netflix plans without looking at the content providers plans feels incomplete. Netflix is committed to a subscription model. How do studios feel about letting new releases being viewed on a subscription model replacing the current VOD models? That is the questions I want answered in a story like this.
I am speaking as someone who has worked for TiVo and VUDU, seeing the frustration of working with content providers first hand. That is why I want to see studio reaction in these stories.
Dear Rich:
It's rather unfortunate that, having objected to the story, you felt the need to suggest that I " do not know what business" I'm covering. I suppose that's the state of discourse on the Web these days.
As I indicated in the article, Netflix has said for some time that it fully expects the DVD business model to endure for at least another five to 10 years. This is obviously because, as you say, the studios want to protect such a vital revenue stream.
Netflix also takes great pains to point out that its core audience does happen to want older, catalogue titles. It sees this is a one of the ways it differentiates itself from brick-and-mortar video stores, which they see primarily as purveyors of recent, big studio content.
The point of the story was how Netflix intends to be positioned once the model does become dominated by streaming. By then, it intends to be able to offer recent studio hits as well as the catalogue titles that its subscribers crave.
Hope this clarifies things. If not, well -- I tried. Thanks for reading, anyway.
David Wilkerson
I will apologize for the insult of saying he does not know what he is covering. This is more of a general frustration of reading stories in the business press when I see something missing from the story. Netflix is in an industry where they cannot decide their future alone. Just because they will want to stream new releases.
I wonder why I never see quotes from content providers asking what they think about netflix plans. There is no cross reference to how content providers feel about these business models. I think looking at Netflix plans without looking at the content providers plans feels incomplete. Netflix is committed to a subscription model. How do studios feel about letting new releases being viewed on a subscription model replacing the current VOD models? That is the questions I want answered in a story like this.
I am speaking as someone who has worked for TiVo and VUDU, seeing the frustration of working with content providers first hand. That is why I want to see studio reaction in these stories.
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