Chris Anderson interviewed Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the Wired Business Conference, and Jay Yaros from Business Insider posted his notes from the session. A couple of interesting tidbits:
Hastings on waiting for bandwidth to launch streaming: But in 2000, dial up was king, AOL was king. So we took a spreadsheet, and we figured in 2012, you get 15 megabits, which is about what you'll have. It has followed moore's law almost exactly. If you drag out spreadsheet to 2021, you'll have a gigabit to a home. It may sound crazy, but Google is doing it in Kansas City. In a long time frame, this is all predictable.
Why Netflix won't try to compete directly with cable TV: In the long run, fears we become a internet cable company, or we get sports, or we get current season shows. The cable idea is bad, it would start an Armageddon and we would not survive. How do we get big enough to grow, but not so big we incite people.
On possible competition from Apple, Amazon, etc: Ask about Amazon: I love it for books, it does video? For us, we're all video. Hulu has done a good job of standing for video from the start. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft have deep pockets, and reason is they are judicious, they dont tend to throw it away. They don't tend to chase companies. They find bold new ways to innovate.
He had some good points, until I read "Microsoft" and "bold new ways to innovate" in the same paragraph.
I think he is selling Amazon short. In the fall, when people signup for Prime for all their holiday shopping, and spend hours on Amazon doing that shopping, I expect an uptick in cultural awareness of Amazon's video offerings. If it doesn't happen this fall though, he may be right.
Posted by: Bob E. | May 04, 2011 at 10:23 AM
Yeah his best point was his statement "“It would start an Armageddon battle [competing head-to-head with cable], and we would not emerge alive from that battle,” Hastings said. “So we are concentrating on our niche.” Realizing that cable would hand him his lunch!!
Posted by: Osama Hastings | May 04, 2011 at 10:42 AM
Die in a fire, fluffy.
Posted by: BP | May 04, 2011 at 02:08 PM
15 megabits to the home? Where does he think we live, Europe or Asia? This is America we are talking about and speeds like that are a dream to most of us. I have been stuck at 3 for the longest time and there are no plans to upgrade our area. Cable is getting more and more bandwidth restrictive, FIOS stopped it's rollout, and DSL is dying.
Bandwidth in America stinks.
Posted by: LordJezo | May 04, 2011 at 03:19 PM
@LordJezo
Cable here is 25 megabits or so... Maybe it depends on where you live.
Posted by: Anon/B/ | May 04, 2011 at 04:17 PM
>He had some good points, until I read "Microsoft" and "bold new ways to innovate" in the same paragraph.<
I agree with Bob E.
Another laugher was "They don't tend to chase companies."
Posted by: Johnny Moss | May 04, 2011 at 08:14 PM
Osama hastings, fluffy, jolly, Pud, jv42, Manuel - I think we all want to know (or maybe not) what happened between you and Netflix to cause your Rainman-like, relentless negativity. Did you lose a lot on the stock? Get fired from Netflix? Don't get me wrong, skepticism and criticism have their place. Just curious where you're coming from in general.
Posted by: John | May 05, 2011 at 01:13 AM
Maybe you should ask BP
Posted by: fluff | May 05, 2011 at 07:03 AM
Both BP and ANON work for NETFLIX but pretend like they are random fans. Just another example of the questionable morals of this company.
Posted by: fluff | May 05, 2011 at 07:11 AM
I AM REED HASTINGS!
-BP
Posted by: BP | May 05, 2011 at 09:05 AM
Nope your just a boring underling who has nothing better to do then hawk this website and defend your job.
Posted by: fluff | May 05, 2011 at 09:39 AM
BP is this you?
Netflix call center worker fired for stealing credit card numbers
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/05/04/netflix_call_center_worker_fired_for_stealing_credit_card_numbers?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+afterdawn+%28AfterDawn.com%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
Posted by: Osama Hastings | May 05, 2011 at 10:46 AM
"I AM REED HASTINGS!
-BP"
No - I AM!!!
But no, definitely not a Netflix employee. I work in the game industry. I'm just a fan boy.
I think Jolly is a comcast employee.
Posted by: Anon/B/ | May 05, 2011 at 03:52 PM
If your just a fan why are you not streaming a movie from your beloved Netflix (must of watched the 10 good ones already?) instead of wasting your time commenting to everthing I have been saying??
Posted by: Osama Hastings | May 05, 2011 at 04:27 PM
I can't stream at work... but I can post comments here. Gotta settle for commenting on a troll's posts.
Posted by: Anon/B/ | May 05, 2011 at 09:22 PM
thank you I appreciate the attention draws more focus to me and what I'm saying.
Posted by: Osama Hastings | May 06, 2011 at 10:10 AM