Quietly something is happening. Without any fanfare, streaming movies are starting to take over.
And it is because of our want it instantly culture that is pushing it forward much more quickly than forecast. Currently using mainstream methods involve having to wait or do some work before viewing your movie streams.
The company doing the most to drive it forward currently is Netflix, starting to diversify from its postal DVD service with its new service called ‘Watch Now’ which is actually worth watching now.
It started a year ago when origionally launched, Watch Now allowed every regular Netflix subscriber the option of watching a choice from around 1000 plus streaming movies via PC, and on demand, with no downloading needed.
As the catalogue of available movies grew to 12000 plus movies and availability for Mac users. The time limit that had been set for useage wss eliminated. So for your $9 per month you can get DVD by mail and unlimited streaming movies on PC, wicked huh?
So watch as many movies as you want, no worrying that it may be pants. You can just watch a few scenes then move on. The only problem was that you have to sit in front of your PC screen. Not always an audio visual feast.
So to counter this Netflix teamed up with Roku and developed a small settop box for $100 that lets Netflix users watch streaming movies straight onto that massive plasma TV rather than your 14 inch PC screen.
You still have to choose the movie via PC though before viewing, but hey its getting to be great for watching movies.
But then came another development. Netflix starting getting even busier, streaming movies appeared on TiVo’s. Xbox 360 joined in, Bluray DVD players and next will be a feature built into the Television sets themselves (coming in spring). Because the software has already been developed in can be pretty much dropped into any hardware device.
The only real current downside is that the selection of streaming movies arent exactly bang up to date with Hollywood blockbusters. Due to the stupid Hollywood system of release windows, internet has to wait until the movie has been released on DVD, played on subscription cable and satellite channels before becoming available online.
But even with these restrictions, you can see that this service will just get better and better. Whilst everything else is downsizing, the streaming movie market is growing in leaps and bounds.