Here's a real interesting question from a recent Netflix survey: "How likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?"
If you recall, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings promised that Netflix streaming would come to the iPhone "eventually" just a few months ago. While survey questions can be indicative of a company's plans—it wouldn't be the first time for this kind of company to tip their video hand via survey—I wouldn't get too excited. Not because of the tech, which is trivial (even considering the jump from Microsoft's Silverlight technology on the desktop) but because of the rights.
Netflix has already run into issues with studios afraid of it massing too much influence, too many eyeballs, squeezing the lifeblood remaining in DVD profits preserved by the window system—the journey a movie takes from the multiplex to DVD to PPV to HBO to cable— before the studios can extract the last final drops themselves. That disgusting 28-day window before you can rent a new Warner Bros. movie is a primo example. So, to get mobile streaming rights? That's probably a whole 'nother ballgame, and I don't expect the studios will play any nicer.
But we can dream, we can hope, we can pray. Even if it is only over Wi-Fi. [Hacking Netflix via SAI]


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