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Comment by psranga | Hacker News Reader

Really surprised to see Netflix listed as neutral. If anybody agrees with the original parent, I would love to hear your thoughts.

I see Netflix grabbing huge market share from the overpriced cable-TV companies and become the standard way to watch paid video content.

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I like Netflix as well but they are definitely a long-term risk as their current business model is going to dwindle and on-demand is going to rise. Now they are doing some good stuff in the on-demand space, but they are going to be competing against all the cable providers (some of which are going to be buying movie companies like Comcast). They could also end up competing against Apple or anyone else who decided to get into streaming, they might have first mover but will it be enough? I think Hulu is a sign of how the studios want it to work, they want to own the deliver network so when they have a choice they might start their own and block out netflix.

Completely agree with you. That is why I didn't put Netflix on the list. I just think they cant own online streaming like they have owned "rentable" DVD subscriptions.

Google is also positioned to compete, either through a payments for streaming copyrighted content and especially through targeted advertisements.

Mostly agree, though I think physical media rentals are going to be around a lot longer than many people think. Though perhaps not the Netflix (i.e. mail delivery) model, maybe more likely the RedBox (vending machine) model.

A lot of folks who like to watch movies don't even have computers... it's easier on the budget to spend a buck or two on a movie rental vs. $500+ on a computer plus broadband internet.

I love my Netflix account, and haven't done any research, but here are some questions:

How big is the paid video content market? What are their other existing and potential markets and sources of revenue? Can they expand their existing service to the rest of the world?

yeah my friend and I recently cancelled a $80/mo cable bill to switch to a $9/mo Netflix account / We get 1 dvd out at a time and use our PS3 to stream a ton of history channel and other stuff ~ so far its not too bad :)

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