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Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

I believe this is exactly right. And all the things that gave networks monopoly power (like spectrum ownership) will become irrelevant. You can mark the day this happens when NetFlix starts offering a daily 'news' update type program.

Of course most people see this already, and the extreme tactics around last mile broadband are exactly around this problem. Netflix can't work if their packets can't get to you, and the person who controls that last mile can hold their packets hostage (and has). If you want to poke a dragon some time, start advocating for equal access to broadband in your municipality :-).

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I didn't know I needed a Netflix live news channel until you mentioned it. Now I can't stop hoping they do that.

Could that fit with Netflix's current culture? They're big on content that's curated, high-quality, high-definition (with graceful degredation). Live news' editorial agility and responsiveness would require a department with a substantially different attitude and expertise.

They're capable of expanding and pivoting though, more than most companies, so if they decide it's a priority, it's possible. It seems like a pretty big commitment though.

Before doing a cable news type thing they would probably be better off starting with a PBS / 60 minutes type program. Long form journalism that still has value the next day.

Making a Murderer is already in this direction.

I could certainly imagine them doing a much better job of news coverage where all the "Stories" would be available independently and when things changed you got an indication of new data so you could, if you wanted to, watch from the change forward, or the whole piece. Sort of like the NY Times pushing and re-pushing an article as the available information gathers texture.

Since most of the news channels consist of rehashing things with the assumption that this is the "first" version you are seeing, they could provide a much better viewing experience that would certainly feel more curated and much more efficiently inform.

Like their current original content, they would just sub it out to another organization, which would provide them the content. I could see them going to an existing organization that may not be entirely linked to a network (at least not in as competitive a way) and using their new. The BBC for example, or NPR if they had a video cast equivalent to their audio one.

I like that. I could see them having NPR and BBC news report 'channels' with each article being a different program. That would be a serious hit agains cable and satellite TV. Sure, it's wouldn't be live streaming, but I imagine that live streaming is just another evolutionary step they could approach after they master the short new reports.

They should just start picking up the conventional news channels; an custom one would instantly make them enemies who thought it was either too conservative or too liberal.

At some point the channels will realize that cable carriers are a dead end and start selling to online companies like Netflix. Why should Netflix replace cable when it could become cable (less the exorbitant pricing and punch-a-hole-in-the-wall customer service)?

You could imagine a kind of curated UGC for Netflix, where they take News personalities that are already well developed on YouTube and give them a platform to really go global. I for one cannot wait until this happens. The programming they've been putting out lately has been amazing for me.

Just like the airlines auctioning off business upgrades at the gate I read about today, this idea and the news idea are two ideas that are not obvious until you hear them. Cool!

Do you have a link to the article about the upgrades at the gate?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/going-once-going-twice-airlines-...

"Passengers who bid see where they stand on a leaderboard, and just before boarding begins, the airline awards one upgrade to Main Cabin Select and one to first. The auction, with people bidding against each other in the gate area, can add some excitement—and some potential added frustration—to the boredom of waiting for a flight."

News is a money-loser unless you're MSNBC or Fox or Maury Povich. They'd be smart to let others handle same-day content.

It's a money loser in itself, but perhaps it improves the overall product.

One thing I miss, since giving up cable, is instant content. I could turn the TV on and start watching something, before choosing to watch something else.

Now I turn on the TV and I'm immediately faced with the paradox of choice. If the news was just there, playing in the background while I browsed my other options, I would love this. It's something that would differentiate Netflix and keep me paying for their service.

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