To Stream or to Stream

According to the Wall Street Journal “Netflix’s paid domestic streaming subscriber base has increased to nearly 28 million from 25.5 million at the start of 2013 and 22 million a year before.” For those of you who have been living under a rock Netflix is a DVD rental and video streaming company through Internet subscription that incorporated on August 29, 1997. Netflix offers TV and movies.

HuluPlus is another online subscription that offers video streaming. Most of what is on HuluPlus is TV, and some older movies. HuluPlus offers a lot of TV shows on NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX. Some of which can be viewed the next day after airing live.

Redbox is literally a big red box that you can rent DVD’s overnight for $1. Redbox launch on March 14, 2013, Redbox Instant, which allows you to stream movies online. Even though Redbox has made it’s name by holding onto DVD’s now RedBox Instant offers an $8 a month subscription for DVD rentals plus online streaming.  Sounds a lot like Netflix, huh?

Amazon who is well known for being an online retailer with the world largest selection of everything also offers an online subscription of video streaming called Amazon Prime. This Prime subscription also offers you a free two-day shipping on items you purchase on Amazon.com.  According to Variety.com, Amazon just may be launching their own set-top box. This would allow TV’s to stream video titles purchased or rented not only through Amazon, but also through 3^rd parties.

The only issue I would foresee with this idea is that technology is forever changing, not to mention that Netflix almost tried this back in 2007. Right before it was going to release the company canned the idea. This should tell Amazon something, right? How about Netflix being one of those 3^rd parties? What about AppleTV? Netflix is one of the highest used apps on AppleTV. Let not forget about Roku and Chromecast.

Well it is no wonder that Netflix “stock has surged 178% so far” for 2013.  According to the Wall Street Journal “Netflix also has become a choosier content shopper. It now targets exclusive deals for high quality programming, opting not to pay for as much old library content as it did before.” Let’s not forget about Netflix original shows Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. Netflix also walked away with 14 Emmy nominations, and a win. Which is the first for an online TV company.