Netflix

New Coke?

by Daniel Taylor on 11 October, 2011

Straight out of the New Coke playbook, Netflix is dropping the Qwikster brand but keeping the increased prices.

OTT à la carte

by Daniel Taylor on 6 June, 2011

The Pay TV industry should be applauding. OTT has achieved à la carte nirvana. And the simplicity of a single bill, branded channels with predictable content and so on….is enough to prove the point that OTT brands are making it more and more work to consume media. Oh yeah, and by the way, it doesn’t matter who makes which deal which whatever company there is — outside of the movie industry, nobody knows, and nobody cares about studio brands.

How Much Bandwidth Does Netflix Require?

1 June 2011

It can be a chicken-and-egg question. How much bandwidth does Netflix require for its streaming service? Which really depends on how much bandwidth Netflix gets from major ISPs. Looking at the numbers from Netflix, it’s clear that adaptive bitrate streaming is an absolute necessity. And, oh yeah, streaming requires…

Read the full article →

Netflix Steps Further Away From The DVD

19 April 2011

It’s the little things that mean a lot. Streaming audiences just don’t care which season and which disc of a TV show they’re watching. Netflix finally got rid of the vestiges of DVD meta-meta-data for streaming customers. Viewers no longer have to search for individual seasons — adding a show to the instant queue is all it takes to gain access to the entire run of a TV show.

Read the full article →

The Future: OTT Throttling

30 March 2011

Here’s a window into the future of OTT — bandwidth throttling and download/usage caps. Sure, we’ve been talking about this for…forever. But it’s getting closer to reality as announced earlier this week by Netflix in Canada: Netflix Lowers Data Usage By 2/3 For Members In Canada.

Even if this looks like the end of the world, it isn’t. For OTT, it means that there’s always a way. For Pay TV, it’s a sign that live sports will be a solid anchor for years to come.

Read the full article →

Thanks Netflix!

23 March 2011

Who you gonna call when Netflix goes out? All we can say to Netflix is “Thank You!” for making our jobs just that much easier. Because this is something that service providers need to know — that Netflix goes out now and then, and it’s just not the same as Pay TV. When it’s out, there’s absolutely nothing to watch, and there’s nobody to call. And, by the way, service providers who think they’re going to go Through The Middle and offer QoS for OTT video, here’s the type of stuff that you’re going to get into.

Read the full article →

OTT Failure: Netflix Outage…Again

22 March 2011

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this picture is worth several million. Netflix services are out. And. To add insult to injury. The site that Netflix recommends (www.netflix.com/tvhelp) is also out.

Read the full article →

The Saints and Soldiers Indicator

17 March 2011

When you look into your “top picks” list and see these two movies: Saints and Soldiers and The Boondock Saints II. That’s a sign that you’re reaching the end of the OTT content. And perhaps time to get cable for once and for all.

Read the full article →

Amazon Prime Video Not Ready For Prime Time

15 March 2011

After a few weeks with Amazon Prime Video, we’d pay the $79 for the free 2-day shipping, but not for the video.

Read the full article →

Time To Re-Think OTT

7 October 2010

If OTT vendors care about building large audiences, they’re going to have to re-think what they’re doing. There needs to be some serious innovation beyond what’s already happened. Better remotes, bigger buttons and meaningful content partnerships are just a few places for improvement.

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries