Netflix and the Future of Television

For example, Netflix UK has the first 2 Hobbit movies, Pixar's Up, the original Danish versions of The Killing and The Bridge, all of Stargate SG-1/Atlantis, 24 and The Shield - none of which are currently available in the US. There's a load more I can't remember off the top of my head. The UK also got Breaking Bad a few hours after it was aired in the US, whereas US customers had to wait several months, presumably due to an exclusivity deal with AMC.

Obviously the UK also gets all the Netflix original content. Occasionally a new season will launch a few months ahead in the US, but that's not really a big deal. I can only assume this is done for same marketing reasons that blockbuster movie launches are typically staggered worldwide.

There are a small number of US shows like 30 Rock and Better Off Ted that I wish were on the UK service, and Star Trek DS9 is conspicuously absent, but that list is much smaller than it was 2 years ago.

What does Netflix gain at this point for instrumenting DRM free streaming for a small subset of their content rather than just piggybacking off their current infrastructure? Why add even more to the cost of in-house content for DRM?

> Without someone pushing for it, it will never happen.

That someone is consumers, not Netflix. And given that the overwhelming majority of consumers don't care about DRM, Netflix has little incentive to care about it also - they have enough to worry about with their content well drying up, and I doubt they are keen on exacerbating that problem by telling their partners to license their content DRM free. Short of either the government stepping in and mandating the end of DRM, I don't think will ever see DRM go away (not to say it won't be hopelessly broken).

All that still doesn't change the fact if Netflix could, they would most likely drop DRM, if not for all the technical reasons - it would allow them to distribute on Linux and most likely simplify parts of the content delivery chain. For Netflix they have no reason to be against DRM free content, but a ton of reasons to not be actively against DRM.

They gain more trust by showing that it's not their intention to use DRM. Since they don't, they are viewed as liars when they claim that they don't want to use it. And they very well can be liars. Let them prove their intentions with actions rather than with empty words.

> That someone is consumers, not Netflix.

No, that's false logic. Users of course should push for it too. But you can't compare the scale. Individuals voting with their wallets are less visible to publishers than distributors voting with theirs. GOG already demonstrated it. And that actually feeds the cycle. Once some distributor breaks the wall of stupidity by making some DRM-free deals with publishers, then more users start supporting them from those who care about buying it DRM-free.

The bottom line, Neflix are not interesting in fighting that fight. They oblige insane publishers willingly and their claims that they "have no choice" don't sound sincere.

> Netflix has little incentive to care about it also

That's exactly the point. So they can't claim that they don't like it. In the best case they don't care, and in the worst they prefer using it even for their own content and push for that garbage into HTML standard. Incentive for caring about it should not come from estimating how many users care about it.

> ll that still doesn't change the fact if Netflix could, they would most likely drop DRM, if not for all the technical reasons

That's what they say, but no one is inclined to believe them when they don't do it for their own content as above. There is no technical reason for them to use DRM where publishers don't demand it. And when they are the publishers themselves it means they demand it themselves too.

This is sadly a really old problem. Noone is currently selling film/TV-series content to a reasonable price that could even look at competing with the piratebay/piratism. Heck, todays services can't compete with piratism from ten years ago.