Heard on the tech street that Amazon is looking to gobble up Netflix. I love both the companies and use them pretty avidly. Almost daily in fact. Problem is how well can Amazon take Netflix to the next level? Few hunches:
1. Netflix is unchallenged. It single-handedly killed the Blockbuster dinosaur with innovative technology and superbly easy to use web interface. Amazon is a major retailer for DVDs and BlueRays so on the surface this is a marriage made in heaven. Marry the content of Amazon to the neat distribution of Netflix. With the streaming vidoes taking off, this is only gonna go to the next level. Neat!
2. Amazon owns IMDB, the most popular site for anything related to movies. This can be and will be well leverage by Amazon in tying up with user-ratings and related stuff for Netflix, which already developed/is developing complex matrices for understanding user patters in movie tastes and preferences. IMDB rocks, I personally go there almost daily and this should help both the parties integrate better.
3. With Comcast and ATT trying to stream movies along with gaming devices like Wii and PlayStation joining in, there is a war out there to get movies to users. This reaching out effort will be good for users, as prices get low and choices improve. I guess it wont be long before Kindle starts streaming movies and here Netflix technology will help Amazon get an edge over the iPad, if at all. This is a really interesting space to watch. Media distribution over Internet almost killer Warner with its incompatible marriage to AOL but newer channels will emerge. Set-top boxes, gaming devices, iPads will all be eager to stream movies as they become distribution channels. The key is to ink smart deals with the studios who might not be over-cautious in releasing their content. Warner already has a wait-list on Netflix for its new DVDs so sales can be as much front-loaded as possible thus shifting rentals to the backburner. Naturally, studios would want to sell DVDs than rent since margins will be greater.
I think Amazon and Netflix make a good pair. Lets see what happens!
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