Sounds like Netflix Watch Instantly may get some Amazonian competition soon.
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Rumor: Amazon Wants Netflix-Style Streaming
Amazon reportedly wants to be more like Netflix, with subscription-based streaming of movies and television — if only Hollywood studios would play along.
The Wall Street Journal’s unnamed sources say Amazon has spent weeks, or perhaps months, courting major media companies, including NBC Universal, Viacom and Time Warner. Amazon has proposed all kinds of ideas, including a service bundled with Amazon Prime, which provides unlimited two-day shipping and other perks for $79 per year.
So far, the retailer isn’t getting much traction, the Journal suggests. It’s not clear whether any media companies are interested, and Amazon could put the plan on ice or give up entirely if there aren’t enough content providers involved. (Update: WSJ has filled out its story considerably since this post, and the tone isn’t as dreary. There’s no longer any language that says it’s not clear whether any media companies are interested, and instead cites two unnamed media executives who describe the program as a possibility. I’ve removed “Can’t Seal the Deal” from the headline here, since that seems premature.)
Even if studios were more liberal about licensing their content on a subscription basis, Amazon still has another problem: It’s woefully behind Netflix in the race for ubiquity.
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Netflix Arrives on the iPhone: Watch Instantly, Watch Anywhere
Netflix Watch Instantly, which was one of the iPad’s launch apps back in April, is now on the iPhone (and iPod Touch), too. There isn’t much to say other than that it’s just about everything that makes Watch Instantly such a delight and such a deal, in handy pocketable form. Pay Netflix for a red-envelopes-in-the-mail plan starting at $8.99, and you get unlimited access to on-demand movies and TV shows. Recent releases are still absent, but the selection continues to improve and now includes some high-profile titles from 2009, such as Up.
The service works with both Wi-Fi and 3G connections. I was impressed by the quality in both forms, and the 3G option is yet another reason I’m glad I clutched onto my grandfathered unlimited AT&T data plan for now.
I do miss one feature that’s present in most other incarnations of Watch Instantly: The thumbnail previews that pop up when you skim forward in a video.
After the jump, a few images.
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Western Digital's New WD TV Does Netflix
There are a gazillion ways to watch movies and TV shows on the Internet, and I’m not sure if any of them are more fundamentally appealing than Netflix’s Watch Instantly: It’s reasonably priced, fun to use, and bursting at the seams with stuff worth watching. Small wonder that it’s among the most widely-supported services on gadgets that let you connect an HDTV to your home network–the latest of which is Western Digital’s $150 WD HD Live Plus HD. I tried a unit loaned to me by Western Digital.
Physically, the WD TV Live Plus HD looks like earlier incarnations of WD TV and reminds me of Roku’s player: It’s about the size of a thick sandwich, and plugs into your TV via component cables or HDMI (the latter cable isn’t included). Unlike Roku, it doesn’t have built-in Wi-Fi–you’ve got to connect it to your network via Ethernet or spring for an extra-cost Wi-Fi adapter. I used the former approach, and found that the box worked with minimal setup.
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Roku to Get a Nicer Netflix
Netflix may be among the most widely-available Internet video services on gadgets like set-top boxes, game consoles, DVRs, and TVs themselves, but what you get has been a Netflix player–you’ve had to find, queue, and otherwise manage stuff you want to watch in a browser on a computer.
Now Internet TV box maker Roku is offering a sneak peak at a software update which will give Roku users apparently comprehensive access to Netflix on the TV, no PC required. Looks pretty slick. (Bonus: I assume that this interface shows only Watch Instantly titles, removing the clutter of movies and TV shows that are available only on DVD.)
Roku says the new Netflix experience will be ready in June; it’ll ship on new Roku boxes and will be a free update for current owners.
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YouTube Opens Up Rental Store
The streaming rental industry is getting ever more crowded, and now it’s going to have to make room for at least one more. YouTube has seemingly launched an streaming rental service, offering movies and television shows for anywhere from 99 cents to $3.99. Content would be viewable in a 48-hour window following purchase.
While most of the content available appears to be from independent, small studio and Bollywood sources, I spotted several Lionsgate movies in the list. Recent hit Precious and Brothers are currently being featured, and the service had a few catalog titles, including the Saw movies and 3:10 to Yuma.
Television show content does not appear to come from any major American network. YouTube has not officially announced this service as of yet, and it may just be that the weak offering here could be a result of this merely not being ready for prime time.
YouTube had previously experimented at the beginning of the year with $5 rentals of Sundance titles. The offering did not do so well, likely making the site much more than $10,000 or so in rental fees.
As I mentioned earlier, any offering from YouTube runs into the reality of a small yet increasingly crowded market. If the service wants to be successful, it’s going to have to ramp up its offerings quickly, as Netflix is currently king in this space. That said, the extreme popularity of YouTube itself works in the service’s favor.
We’ll have to watch this in the coming months to see the site’s next moves, and if it begins to strike hardware deals to bring the service off the computer screen and into the living room. After all, who wants to sit in front of a computer screen for two hours to watch a movie?
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Windows Phone 7 to Get Netflix
For some folks, here’s a fairly compelling reason to buy a Windows Phone 7 Series handset: Microsoft’s mobile OS is going to get Netflix Watch Instantly.
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Wii Gets Netflix. What’s Next?
My heartfelt congratulations to those who have a Wii in their living room, and nothing else that connects to the Internet. With nary an Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Roku box, connected HDTV or Blu-ray player, these poor souls will finally be able to watch Netflix’s streaming movie catalog from the television, starting this spring. Sure, it’s hobbled by the Wii’s 480p playback, and makes you insert a disc beforehand akin to the Playstation 3, but it’s better than nothing.
Drawbacks aside, I refuse to believe that this is it for the Wii. There must be more in store on the multimedia front, because a selection of old and B movies isn’t going to cut it. Netflix streaming is incomplete when it’s not supported by on-demand video or some other kind of catalog.
That’s why Roku is no longer just a Netflix player, and why Nintendo’s console competitors offer so much more as well. You can buy and rent movies and TV shows through Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. Xbox Live Gold subscribers can listen to endless music playlists with Last.fm. And of course, the Xbox 360 and PS3 play DVDs and Blu-ray discs, respectively.
The Wii’s addition of Netflix makes the console seem lopsided. It’s no longer strictly a gaming device, but a box of entertainment (I know, the Wii has news and weather channels, but that’s just information). And that entertainment section has to grow.
My prediction? The Wii’s video channel, which debuted in Japan last year, is not too far off. It has Hollywood movies. It has pay-per-view content from Warner and Disney, among others. It should be ready to roll by now. Dream scenario: Those Netflix discs will arrive along with a console update bearing a video store and some more Web channels, but maybe those poor Wii owners will pick up a more capable set-top box by then.
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No Netflix for Xbox Live-Averse
The Playstation 3’s upcoming support for Netflix isn’t enough to shake Microsoft, which will still require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to stream Netflix movies through the console.
IGN confirmed that Microsoft won’t offer Netflix streaming to users of the free Xbox Live Silver service, a bare-bones offering that doesn’t include online play, among other features. A Gold subscription costs $50 per year, while access to the Playstation Network has always been free, though both consoles require you to have a Netflix subscription as well.
The official line from Microsoft is that Xbox Live is “a generation ahead of the competition” despite the extra costs. A company representative cited Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm support, which are coming soon, along with Netflix and the quiz show 1 vs. 100.
This argument seems to validate what I’ve said before, that Microsoft really wants to build a case for Xbox Live even if you don’t play too many games online. Multiplayer remains the best reason to grab an Xbox Live Gold subscription, but it’s not for everyone. Once Microsoft reaches for the casual crowd with Project Natal, other lures will be necessary.
None of Microsoft’s non-gaming incentives stand on their own, but when combined, Xbox Live Gold becomes attractive, and Netflix is a piece of the puzzle. That’s why the Microsoft representative used the phrase “best value in home entertainment” when referring to Xbox Live Gold as a whole. Microsoft can’t afford to diminish that value, even if parts of the service can be had for free elsewhere.
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Playstation 3 Gets Netflix. What About the Wii?
Starting next month, the Playstation 3 will be able to stream Netflix Instant Watch movies, and just like that, the Xbox 360 and Netflix are no longer an exclusive couple. But does this open relationship signal a similar offering for Nintendo’s Wii? Doubtful, for now at least.
The details thus far: PS3 owners will be able to order a free Blu-ray disc from Netflix that taps the Internet through BD-Live. This connects you to the streaming content through your Instant Queue or directly from Netflix’s Web site. The ship date for these magical discs wasn’t announced, but you can now sign-up for an alert. It’s not the ideal solution, but Sony and Netflix use the word “initially” when describing the process, so maybe a firmware update can fix this.
I’m wondering about the Wii because in June, Netflix surveyed some users on whether they’d like to see disc-assisted streaming on Nintendo’s console, just as Netflix conducted at least two similar surveys for Playstation 3 owners. The curious thing is that the Wii doesn’t have a Blu-ray player, and therefore, no BD-Live access, but I imagine something similar could be worked up with a regular game disc.
That’s assuming there’s enough interest in Netflix for the Wii to begin with. I don’t see why people wouldn’t want it, especially if they don’t already have another capable set-top box handy. But Nintendo might not love the idea, as its console has avoided multimedia features like the plague. Nintendo has been building a video channel in Japan, even adding Hollywood movies last June, but there hasn’t been any word that the “Minna no Theater Wii” (”Everyone’s Theater Wii”) will be available elsewhere.
If Nintendo does ever bring its video channel here, it’ll make Netflix look like a glaring omission, but right now, its absence bolsters the Wii’s posture as a straight-up gaming console, one that looks ever more different from both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.
Update: For the record, Netflix told Joystiq that “the Wii represents a great opportunity given the size of its installed base, but we have nothing specific to say about it at this point.”