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Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in The US

Something’s not right in the United States.

Increasingly people start to pay for Netflix subscriptions so they can stream movies on demand.

In the States Netflix nearly doubled the number of new subscribers in the first quarter of 2010, from 1.7 to 3.3 million. In total, Netflix now has 22.8 million paid subscribers in the US, which generated a total revenue of $706 million in the first quarter of this year.

It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that Netflix’ popularity has a negative effect on the movie piracy rates in the US.

Although no torrent site has gone out of business yet, Netflix certainly is a serious ‘competitor’ for access to movies.

netflixAs we’ve said a few times in the past, the only way to decrease piracy is to compete with it and offer products that are superior to its pirated counterpart.

It appears that for (older) movies Netflix is on the right path here.

Movie piracy is not quite gone yet, but Netflix shows that people are willing to pay for access to movies online, even when plenty of pirated copies are available. The next step is to offer easy access to movies in the rest of the world, and get rid of the artificial delays in release dates.

Update: Of course Netflix is not going to stop piracy entirely, as people have many different reasons to use BitTorrent to download movies without consent of the copyright holders. This post was merely to accentuate that Netflix is taking away one of the main piracy motivators (lack of availability) for a group of people. We have some preliminary stats which show that the number of abslute US downloaders slightly decreased over the last year, but more thorough research is obviously needed to make conclusive statements.

This post is from the News Bits section of TorrentFreak where we present stories from around the web in a concise summary format. Full TorrentFreak articles can be found here. If you have a tip please let us know. News Bits have their very own RSS feed
  • AnonBuddhist

    They also need to focus on captioning their videos more. its still a small section. before they begin to go too big for their own good. Caption their videos for all audiences. That will definitely take down piracy for sure as a fact.

    • Anonymous

      disagree.. with the “”take down piracy for sure”" bit.

      If it becomes a public library , then yes there would be no reason to pirate.
      But Netflix are in the sales business , not the public sector.

      • Guestnonymous

        such eloquence… god bless anon…

      • Sseatris

        As a long time public library administrator I assure you, people still make up reasons to steal (or more politely I suppose, “pirate”).

        We currently struggle with our bandwith being crippled by torrent files; our ISP reported over 2,000 NAT connections within seconds of resetting, though we only had 30 users at the time.

        We are at an all time high for book theft, already in the hundreds for our two branch system since 2011 began. Nothing with great resell value, just people stealing because they can.

        I wonder if these patrons use the same Robin Hood style justifications as most pirates I encounter on various forums and comments?

        • Spuds

          More often than not, the reason people pirate is because of cost.

          The second reason that most people do it is because the pirated versions sometimes can offer a better product. (TV Shows with no commercials).

          The third reason most people pirate is because of availability. Many movies are released on DVD / BluRay in the US months before other countries.

          And the reason that people often pirate games are a combination of all three. Games are REALLY expensive, and the target audience for video games often do not have an income. Some people pirate games because the companies that make games have included DRM that is so strict that it can often cause paying customers to have to repurchase. So people pirate games that have the DRM ripped out. And finally– even more than movies, Video games are often not released to some countries at all because of the language or violence.

          You can call it stealing when your actual books are being taken from your library.. you can call it stealing when people come there and use all of your bandwidth to download things. (they ARE stealing the bandwidth– more then their fair share) but you can’t say that piracy is stealing. If it were stealing, there would be criminal consequences instead of civil ones, and they wouldn’t bust people for breach of copyright or DMCA, they’d bust them for STEALING.

          In some cases, bittorrent CAN be like Robin Hood. We take from our rich country all of its culture and its magic and its freedom, and we use the Internet to pass it along to our brothers and sisters that don’t have it or can’t get it. How can that not be magical?

        • guest

          weak argument, find a new career if you find your patrons so offensive to your sensibilities

      • Markansas61

        Yeah, well they (Netflix) has operation expenses, so $8 a month for unlimited movies, hell yes. They have to pay for licensing, server and employee expenses too. You can’t go to the theater for that not to mention buy a movie for that, yes, you can get movies at wally world for $5 but if you take in consideration, taxes and the cost of gas to get the movie… well your still ahead of the game aren’t ya?!!

        So don’t bitch about a great service.

  • http://twitter.com/yoshuawuyts yoshua wuyts

    If you look at it from a marketing perspective it’s genius. Piracy “killed” conventional movie rental only to be taken down by netflix. The better product always survives.

    • Anonymous

      I agree. Netflix is DEFINITELY a better product than what most pirated streaming link sites can offer. Their model is great, it works well, it’s high quality. The only thing that could make it completely competitive with piracy streams are release dates. I RARELY venture out to the theaters any more. I don’t like being treated like a criminal when I go to enjoy a movie. Same reason I don’t fly on commercial airlines anymore. I’m not a fan of trading liberties for false sense of security or to protect other’s private interests, so it makes sense to pay for access to high quality multimedia content in my home. But I still venture to piracy streams for movies that are still in theaters even with the poor sound and/or video of a cammed telesync, being able to lay on my couch, kick my feet up & enjoy a neat glass of scotch with a cigarette makes the entire experience worth every penny.

      • Anonymous

        “I don’t like being treated like a criminal when I go to enjoy a movie.”

        I’m not judging anyone for d/ling the occasional movie, but the lengths to which you go to pretend the theater business has forced your hand in the matter is hilarious. What movie theater are you going to that … has a metal detector? What is it, I can’t for the life of me think of anything a theater has done where I felt as though they were treating me like a criminal. Comedy.

  • Anonymous

    I cancelled my subscription because of no Linux Client. once there is one, my piracy rate will probably decrease substantially.

    • Notmsftfanboy

      Why did you subscribe in the first place if you only use Linux? Idiot.

      • Myspacelupercus

        The service still works but you might need a home console or a set-top box. There is still a belief though that it would be good for netflix to support linux not for the fight against pirates but for the benefit of it’s actual consumers.

        Nothing will kill piracy but there is definite merit in bringing a product to users that is more about users and less about standing still against winds of change. Why are mp3 downloads .99c? Why is there no lyrics sheet? Why is there no cover art? A karaoke version? Why does a digital download of movie A actually cost more then buying the dvd at wal-mart? The music industry and to a lesser degree the movie industry are simply falling behind. Why did they push blu-ray (or hd-dvd) when they could’ve made a portable player that supported digital downloads that I can watch anywhere (including on a tv set if I want) that holds hundreds of movies and even supports netflix, pandora, rhapsody, or other similar services? It’s because they are afraid of piracy but that’s not all. They are afraid that they can’t milk people for a media cost that doesn’t even really need to exist.

        Piracy is never a solution. You don’t win by destroying the jobs of musicians, movie-makers, game developers, and the supporting cast of people needed in these fields. I love playing music but if it doesn’t put food on the table then logic states that I’ll need to do something else. There is a solution though. A happy medium where music, movies, games and other entertainment can cost less, be enjoyed in more ways, and revolutionize this industry but sadly you often see the big boys fighting against such change rather than working to bring it about.

      • Anonymous

        Where did he say he ONLY uses Linux? lrn2 read idiot.

      • Anonymous

        as @FrostyC said below, I did not say that I only use Linux. I do on my PC, but that is besides the point. I subscribed before I switched over to exclusively Linux, and also because I liked the Idea of having the DVDs delivered to me, until I realized that I was not watching enough of my queue to warrant paying for it…especially once I realized that NetfFlix was not FOSS friendly, and I would have to wait for M$ Silverlight to get to 2.0, and then wait for Moonlight to get to 1.0, and then wait for some lovely FOSS fans to make a viable client. I will probably resubscribe when there is an actual client, but until that time, a-Torrenting I shall go!

        I hope that answered your question accurately and in depth enough, and I hope that you have a pleasant night! Oh, and please don’t call people names if the only reason that you feel the need to do so is from one comment on a Disqus discussion that just happens to not align itself perfectly with your point of view.

        Thanks,

        Wiggums, The Halfling Rogue

        • Simmmo

          He said he uses Linux. I believe that’s why he’s an idiot.

        • http://darwinweb.net/ Gabe da Silveira

          LOL! “He”? You’re responding to the same guy who originally posted about Linux. You might not want to spout off your ignorant opinions about what makes someone an idiot if you yourself are not the brightest bulb in the box.

        • Goober

          hhahaha… Simmmo you just outed yourself as a fucking moron lmao.

        • Goober

          hhahaha… Simmmo you just outed yourself as a fucking moron lmao.

        • Bounce

          To be fair, a Roku is 59 bucks and offers superior viewing and has a remote control I think the Linux thing isn’t a Netflix issue – the plugin uses Silverlight which IIRC doesn’t work on the *Nix boxes.

        • http://www.facebook.com/mr.e.cameron Earl Cameron

          yeah the spec is open and the foss version is moonlight… the problem was having the drm mechanism in linux scares them!

      • Goober

        Yeah because nobody in the history of time has ever CHANGED operating systems. Idiot motherfucking moron.

      • Goober

        Yeah because nobody in the history of time has ever CHANGED operating systems. Idiot motherfucking moron.

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  • CuraHack

    This was the whole idea behind Netflix, a legal online movie distribution system. but yeah, its far from perfect, just like halfling_rogue said: They don’t support Linux. And I don’t live in the US so there’s no legal way for me to watch movies online. So for all the people unable to use services such as Netflix have a good reason to pirate.

    • Anonymous

      THE only reason that they don’t support Linux right now is because they (stupidly) use Silverlight (I can almost guarantee you that they did this in order to use some BS proprietary DRM because MPFIAA insisted…they have some smart engineers and I’d like to think that people who know WTF they’re doing wouldn’t favor Silverlight above all other options). Silvelight IS compatible with Linux under Mono (which M$ just said they wouldn’t sue…how generous of them), but the DRM technology DOES NOT support Linux.

      They could use WebM or some other reasonable modern codec, but it’s DRM that is at fault here, not just Netflix.

      • Anonymous Coward

        Actually Silverlight’s DRM is PlayReady. It exists on Android phones (eg: Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab), which are modified Linux. So the code is there to be deployed. MS just aren’t sharing.

  • Ninja

    Tell that to MAFIAA. They’ll dismiss this argument. For sure. Sometimes I think they have wet dreams with lawsuits involving retired firefighters, elderly ppl, moms, teens and printers and that’s the reasoning behind their insistence in maintaining the aggressive lawsuit strategy…

    • Flying Dutchman

      “Sometimes I think they have wet dreams with lawsuits involving retired firefighters, elderly ppl, moms, teens and printers and that’s the reasoning behind their insistence in maintaining the aggressive lawsuit strategy… ”

      You forgot “Dead people”, “Disabled people” and “Homeless people”.

      As long as it’s bad for MAFIAA wallets, they will sue it…
      When it fills their wallets, they still sue it to get more…
      When there is no more money, they sue it again…

  • Ninja

    Tell that to MAFIAA. They’ll dismiss this argument. For sure. Sometimes I think they have wet dreams with lawsuits involving retired firefighters, elderly ppl, moms, teens and printers and that’s the reasoning behind their insistence in maintaining the aggressive lawsuit strategy…

  • NIGS

    Netflix doesn’t have that many good choices anymore. I’ll stick to the real shit son

  • NIGS

    Netflix doesn’t have that many good choices anymore. I’ll stick to the real shit son

  • Coolvajkaka

    I would pay for Netflix also if it didn’t suck in Canada.

    • http://twitter.com/milkycowbiz charles moon

      As an Investor in Netflix, and hearing first hand from a user of the product, it is now understandable why they are making an operating loss in Canada. Nevertheless, streaming movies is the beginning of a new era, and soon, the DVD, just like the VHS, will become obsolete, and owning movies will become non physical like MP3s to CDs. Take the success of the MP3/ITunes and compare it to the demise of CDs, and Streaming movies will have the same effect on DVDs. In 5 years from now, DVDS will be a thing of the past.

  • http://toby7728.myopenid.com/ TT7728

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/04/netflix-eyeing-latin-america-great-britain-for-next-international-launches.html

    Good, I hope they launch in Britain. I might use it, but it will never stop me from pirating things.

  • Anonymous

    Indeed, definitely willing to pay sensible prices to be able to stream (or even download) movies (in HD). If only Netflix can include newer movies… and the studios stop being such control freaks. Win-win-win situation.

    • Ah-ha-ha-ha

      What would be a sensible price? If it’s done on anything like cinema prices then it will be far from sensible.

    • Scott

      Your right about the studios. If they were to be a little more lax Netflix would really cash in.

  • L24D

    I’m not necessarily sure that it’s killing it IMO. I think it’s fueling something bigger. You would be surprised how many people get movies from Netflix (via DVD) and then make copies of said discs. That’s just my view though.

  • Anonymous

    Cant use Netflix in Canada the isps wont allow us to do so , plus Netlfix Canada’s content isnt that great. I could get a US vpn and atch Netflix but I also use Linux so i am shit out of luck. Nothing beats my seedbox and private torrents sites

    • Keithclark1966

      I’m in Canada and I use Netflix. Worked fine for me on Rogers cable and now on Eyesurf (no stupid bandwidth limits/extra charges).

      I do agree that no Linux clients suck. I have to use my PS3 for content delivery.

    • Keithclark1966

      I’m in Canada and I use Netflix. Worked fine for me on Rogers cable and now on Eyesurf (no stupid bandwidth limits/extra charges).

      I do agree that no Linux clients suck. I have to use my PS3 for content delivery.

  • Anonymous

    Cant use Netflix in Canada the isps wont allow us to do so , plus Netlfix Canada’s content isnt that great. I could get a US vpn and atch Netflix but I also use Linux so i am shit out of luck. Nothing beats my seedbox and private torrents sites

  • Luisdavila23

    Wait Y pay for service when u can get it for free… hey if some1 want to pay for me then i will stop the piracy till then screw dat…

    • Ah-ha-ha-ha

      Why spell and use grammar correctly either?

      You, Sir must be an anarchist!

      Oh wait no, I mean fuckwit.

    • Nick

      You are posting a sub-optimal tardspeak version. If you increase your tard factor your text will be shorter. For example:

      “Wait Y pay 4 srvc when u can get it 4 free… hey if sum1 want 2 pay 4 me then ill stop the piracy til then screw dat…”

      If you’re willing to further abbreviate things, you can gain a substantial savings in length and increase your tard factor at the same time. Try it sometime!

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  • Anonymous

    I tried the free month demo of Netflix. I was so thoroughly disappointed that I cancelled my subscription a week and a half early. The selection is absolute garbage, almost nothing I wanted to watch was available for streaming, and I wasn’t interested in the DVD mailing plan.

  • Ah-ha-ha-ha

    Pedantry…
    “Netflix now has 22.8 paid subscribers in the US.”

    The .8′s someone who’s lost a limb?

    Pedantry Over…
    I can’t really speak for movies as over the last few years there’s been very few released of real interest.

    With TV shows however, if a service was offered in the UK where I could pay a *reasonable* amount a week to download programs to keep (or watch once, with a small payment to own the DVD at the end of the season) I would happily do so

    Bear in mind also, that by waiting a few months I can just record straight from the set top box when they’re released here and save them semi-legally anyway…
    (A fact which I still fail to comprehend. Will we all soon have to watch commercial breaks or end up in front of a judge if we pop out to put the kettle on and have a smoke whilst the revenue making advertising is being shown? Can I just watch 10 straight days of ads now and never have to see one ever again?)

    Looking at the prices to watch shows online atm, it is cheaper to wait till the season’s end and just get the DVDs, a fact which seems ridiculous. So it’s cheaper for them to ship a small package from overseas, then probably twice round my country, rather than just to let me download it episode by episode, the main expense of which is their server power and my computer power. I… just… don’t… understand…

    I guess it all comes down to what price the market will stand for non physical purchases.

    Also I’d prefer to legally own downloaded media as I don’t have to get up to change discs every hour or two, I can just stick them all on a USB stick. But then I guess I have to get some exercise…

  • Andrew McCann

    If all of Netflix’s mail order content was available for live streaming I would be willing to pay around $40 per month. But thats just me.

    What do you all think?

  • Ttedpikul2

    Too bad they haven’t “got around” to a real official android client yet.

    When they do – its probably going to be Froyo or higher – with high end specs…

  • joroe

    Netflix selection blows big time. Plus who wants to wait for the official release when bit torent has the newest movies right now?

    • Nick

      I didn’t want to wait for your invitation, so I snuck into your home and slept in your bed when you were out last weekend. Who wants to wait for an invite when you can infringe on other people’s rights now?

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shin-Abbas/730713793 Shin Abbas

      yah dude !! just that sometimes quality matters

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  • Jc

    Netflix is great if you want to watch movies from 1981. Also, the silverlight player is a resource hog on my mac.

  • http://foomandoonian.net/ Foomandoonian

    Though common sense suggests the article’s headline probably has some truth to it, I would expect to see such a claim backed up with evidence. Surely a large percentage of new Netflix users are still abandoning Blockbuster and other brick and mortar alternatives.

  • Jimlang

    I pay for content because the price is good, the quality is good, and it’s not a hassle. Frankly, it’s easier than finding a torrent and downloading it, only to find out it’s the Italian version or something. (Yes, I know, but it _is_ a hassle) I know what I’m getting with Netflix and I’m happy with it.

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  • Carbonlib23

    man, i can’t believe the thieves on here…

    • http://www.facebook.com/tzecco Tony Zecco

      How are you surprised at that? Honestly?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shin-Abbas/730713793 Shin Abbas

    what i would say that most people are lazy why would they wait if they know they can watch or use it without waiting but still they are sure of the quality??? well some of the torrent files are you know …not that quite acceptable you’ll wait for hours and hours and the result is not good thats very disappointing imagine NETFLIX gone FREE damn it would WIPE TORRENT for sure so what what needs to be done if downloading is FASTER and GREAT QUALITY less VIRUS i think it would work TORRENT cam out before NETFLIX and the SUBSCRIBERS still LOVE to DOWNLOAD …. there is always hope…….

  • http://twitter.com/craigvn Craig

    This and iTunes is proving how lame the media companies arguments are. The only reason people pirate is because they don’t have a convenient way to legitimately view the content they want at the time they want on the device they want. People will pay for that convenience, it is not about getting free movies. Basically the consumers want control over their viewing habits, media companies don’t want to give away control as no large organisation does.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_E63N5WNJ6JUBM6YZJUT7EDC5X4 Nick

    Killing BitTorrent? Uh… no

    BTW NetFlix sucks in Canada, and anybody complaining about always downloading cam shit in italian or arabic languages with a bunch of viruses should just forget about using a computer altogether

  • http://www.facebook.com/David.B.Bernal David Barrera Bernal.

    This rates are incredible for netflix i even have an xbox 360 and ive tried to use it a couple of time now but the moronic message always appear ” Not available in your 3th world Fuc”)ing country” maybe when they’ll expand worldwide i pay a month just to see what the big deal is but one thing is for sho ill never stop peering.

  • Mike Bailey

    You say “Although no torrent site has gone out of business yet”, why should torrent sites be classified as a commercial endeavor?

    • ahoy

      Because any torrent site with advertising on it IS a commercial venture?
      Just sayin’

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Walker/501673745 Jason Walker

    I personally fail to see what’s so intriguing about Netflix. You get what you pay for.

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    • Hippowhore

      fuck off

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  • http://www.edmartechguide.com EdmarTech

    Netflix will not kill torrent, but it will heavily cut piracy especially if they offer it globally. I hate waiting for torrents to finish downloading but I don’t have a choice because that is the best option for me at this time.

    I am a heavy torrent user, and I am one of those ready to subscribe to Netflix and stop “torrenting” movies. The problem is, it is not available here in Thailand.

  • CNN0828

    That is true because to many people are paying a lot of money buy just renting movies and it is killing the bitorrent in the us. Because of delay of a movie or the movie is late that will make you pay a late fine. That’s why it is killing the bitorrent in the us.

  • Nom

    I use Netflix. Only $8/mo for a ridiculous amount of content. I pay $5/mo for access to almost ten million songs on MOG. That’s a total of $13.

    The other day, I wanted to check out an episode of some new show that was recently on television. It is a shitty little sitcom that isn’t exactly going to have a second season, I suspect. I just wanted to see it because I know someone who is on it. This isn’t even a cable show. It’s an over the air broadcast network (CBS or NBC or ABC – I forget which).

    Anyway, I went to Hulu for the first time in my life and started watching it – once I figured out how the hell the episodes were ordered and what were just stupid clips and what were actual shows. Two minutes into it, the video stopped and it told me that I needed to become a paying member to watch any more. Seriously, they wanted me to pay $10/mo or whatever to watch one episode of a show that is free over the air and that I didn’t actually care that much about. (That’s almost 50% more than it costs me to access the entire Netflix streaming catalog).

    So, I went to EZTV and downloaded it in seven minutes for free.

    • http://mochachilo.wordpress.com Kartikay S

      All hail EZTV!

  • http://suratlozowick.com/ Surat

    “It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that Netflix’ popularity has a negative effect on the movie piracy rates in the US.”

    Isn’t this just like saying that piracy’s popularity has a negative effect on DVD sales? It seems like an odd statement to make, since you and many supporters of piracy (myself included) often claim that piracy does not have a significant negative effect, since it provides access to people who might not otherwise buy the movie. If illegal downloading does not have a significant effect on sales, then paid streaming should not have a significant effect on free downloads. Different demographics, essentially.

    I also suspect Netflix and piracy could overlap — I don’t think there’s any argument over which has a bigger selection, and some people might stream movies on Netflix but download them for their collection.

  • http://suratlozowick.com/ Surat

    “It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that Netflix’ popularity has a negative effect on the movie piracy rates in the US.”

    Isn’t this just like saying that piracy’s popularity has a negative effect on DVD sales? It seems like an odd statement to make, since you and many supporters of piracy (myself included) often claim that piracy does not have a significant negative effect, since it provides access to people who might not otherwise buy the movie. If illegal downloading does not have a significant effect on sales, then paid streaming should not have a significant effect on free downloads. Different demographics, essentially.

    I also suspect Netflix and piracy could overlap — I don’t think there’s any argument over which has a bigger selection, and some people might stream movies on Netflix but download them for their collection.

  • MacK

    Wait a minute… You mean if the movie companies actually embrace technology that the enduser LIKES and WANTS to use, they dont have to resort to piracy to enjoy movies and films they have ALREADY probably paid for in one fashion or the next? IMPOSSIBLE I SAY!

  • Anonymous

    You know…I never expect anything from torrentfreak, because, you know…it is one of the worst sites on the internet, but somehow you always seem to be able to lower your own bar even more.

    You make a claim and offer ZERO evidence for it. You just claim that it is making people use bit torrent less..and give no numbers to show that bit torrent is actually declining.

    I sure as fuck am not going to take anyone are torrent freak’s word for it, being as you swore up and down that The Pirate Bay trial was a slam dunk acquittal.

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  • http://openid.blogs.es/kinoss kinos

    Excelente noticia!! Thx x la informacion facilitada, y seguir asi ya que es una pagina estupenda y gracias a ella estamos al dia.

    pd: Visita y conoce las mejores Ofertas ADSL Vodafone,salu2.

  • http://openid.blogs.es/kinoss kinos

    Excelente noticia!! Thx x la informacion facilitada, y seguir asi ya que es una pagina estupenda y gracias a ella estamos al dia.

    pd: Visita y conoce las mejores Ofertas ADSL Vodafone,salu2.

  • http://chevyavalancheforsale.net/ Jamesus

    That is true because to many people are paying a lot of money buy just renting movies and it is killing the bitorrent in the us

  • http://www.facebook.com/randall.lind Randall Lind

    downloading movies will never die not when you have media center programs like XBMC

  • Anonymous

    Nah, no way. I dont see it happening anytime soon. torrents are here to stay.
    complete-privacy.edu.tc

  • Jonjuan

    This is a good thing! Those of us in the US who aren’t dumb get less heat.

  • scenickarma

    The reason netflix is doing so well, sony, samsung, lg, panasonic all incorporated an app in their products, tvs blu ray to stream netflix, once they can stream current movies it will do even better

  • http://francojtorres.tumblr.com Franco J. Torres

    I keep saying it. “the internet is the future.” Well, I actually don’t, but it is.

  • http://profiles.google.com/matthendry Matt Hendry

    I know I personally don’t download as many movies as I used to because of Netflix on the Wii

  • KaZ

    I’m not sure if this has been mentioned already by someone else, but I don’t believe Netflix is successfully pulling away from piracy. I know people who have Netflix that still pirate because of the simple fact that most of the movies that people want to watch are either not available on Netflix on Demand or because they love to watch movies and Netflix cannot keep up with their demand for movies.

    I just recently wanted to watch a bunch of martial arts movies, but all of the good ones aren’t even available for DVD from Netflix. I have no choice but to Amazon it or pirate it if I want to see it, therefore Netflix isn’t dissuading me at all. I find constantly that I cannot watch the movie I want to watch on their service, which is not necessarily their fault, but I also cannot get it on DVD through their service either.

  • Anonymous

    Just speaking for myself, of course, but my typical actions when I hear about a film I might be interested in is in this order:
    1) check Netflix Watch Instantly
    2) check Netflix DVD/Blueray
    3) check…elsewhere

    (2 and 3 are sometimes flipped depending on how bored I am, of course :p )

    • brianca

      I do the same thing. Piracy has become my ‘fallback’ method of getting content. Its not so much an ethical issue but a practical one since I rather not have a ton of movies clogging up my hard drive and my externals.

  • Sean

    This is definitely the case with me. I used to download lots of movies. Netflix’s selection isn’t perfect by any means, but there are plenty of good movies available for streaming at any time, and it just looks better and is easier to use on my TV than a downloaded file (e.g. if I decided I want to watch a movie *now*, I don’t have to wait for it to download via bittorrent – I can just start streaming it immediately). And the price is right.

    I hear lots of people quip about Netflix’s streaming selection, but it’s much better than most people think. Yeah it doesn’t have most of the mainstream movies that get nominated for awards, but it seems to me that almost everything that’s at least 3-4 years old is on there (that I want to watch anyways). Their web site also has really good filters for narrowing down exactly the types of movies you watch. This is how I find the good ones. I browse the genres I like and set a lot of filters, then I look for anything that’s 3 stars or higher. My instant queue has almost 200 movies in it and I’m sure I’ll thoroughly enjoy 90% of them at least. I’m very satisfied with it. :)

  • George

    With torrent I have to wade through hundreds of stupid .rar and bugus files to find the valid file I want and can actually do something with, then wait days for it to finally download. In most cases I then need to spend several more hours converting the file to a format supported by the iPad or my Blu-Ray player. Storing all of these files forces me to micromanage my hard drive.

    In contrast, I can stream immediately from Netflix, without any file format or disk management issues and the quality is excellent (up to HD is available). The only issue so far is content. There’s not much current content (although it’s improving), forcing me to still turn to the torrent sites from time to time.

    All in all, I’m willing to fork out $8/month to avoid the hassles of bittorrent.

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  • chim chim

    As far as Bit torrent versus Netflix – in the words of a great liberator “Free at last Free at last” when people are broke – Free at last beats pay for anything – spend those couple of bucks on a candy bar

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  • markie

    It may be killing bittorrent in the US. But the point of availability only works worldwide. So killing bittorrent fat chance.

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  • CHurryUp

    I would happily paid a few bucks for netflix, but sadly for us outside the US this is not even an option! I have credit card in hand waiting for a global roll out!

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  • http://www.slimdreamreviews.com slim dream

    Netflix is also planning to compete against Starz, HBO, and Encore next year.. Weren’t they planning on producing their very own TV shows and movies. Netflix is planning to do big things for the up coming years just wait… Also Hulu plus just recently joined the Xbox 360 dashboard to compete against Netflix…and GOOGLE + Facebook are going to be producing movie rentals as well.. wtf????

  • Jsheesch

    No big surprise. I think most people would happily pay for content. It’s just that a lot of times the content isn’t available to people in certain parts of the world, so people are sometimes sort of “forced” into pirating content that they normally wouldn’t have been able to pay for even if they wanted to.

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  • http://twitter.com/d4m4s74 Alfred Nonymous

    I “pirate” (watch movies online for free) for the simple reason that I don’t have much of a choice. For example, take the movie Wes Craven’s New Nightmare or another good but not that well known movie, if I go to the store, it’s obviously not there. Where I live there’s no such thing as netflix, and if I buy it online it takes like a week to arrive here. So right now, piracy is the way to go (for me)

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  • http://rt-now.com/ Rob T

    Netflix’s selection isn’t even good. Plus they don’t have the dirty and illegal stuff.

  • http://rt-now.com/ Rob T

    Netflix’s selection isn’t even good. Plus they don’t have the dirty and illegal stuff.

  • http://rt-now.com/ Rob T

    Netflix’s selection isn’t even good. Plus they don’t have the dirty and illegal stuff.

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