Netflix Allegedly Working on Offline Viewing Feature

Netflix

Netflix will follow the leads of Amazon, Comcast and others to make its streaming service more appealing, reports Light Reading, citing industry insider and Penthera COO Dan Taitz. But if you ask Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Dan Rayburn, the offline viewing feature is an open secret and it rather is a “natural progression” for Netflix.

“We know from our sources within the industry that Netflix is going to launch this product,” says Taitz. “My expectation is that by the end of the year Netflix will be launching download-to-go as an option for their customers.”
“It’s a natural progression for Netflix to want to have some of their content available for consumers to watch offline, and we’ve been hearing for months now that they are in fact going to roll something out soon,” says Rayburn.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, on the other hand, didn’t go into much detail of the company’s product roadmap, but did mention that he was open to the idea of offering video downloads. This could serve a better customer experience, and that’s exactly what Netflix wants. Still the details are kept under wraps — at least for now.

Comcast already offers this option, but since it refrained from sharing any numbers, it suggests that adoption rate for downloads is still low, despite positive feedback from customers. But this is expected to change over time.

Rayburn highlights another issue Netflix may run into: the offline viewing feature may be limited by the studios to certain titles. It makes sense for Netflix to make its originally produced content available for download, since it owns the content.

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