Will Netflix kill the Internet?

[Kadie]

Will Netflix kill the Internet?
Peter Burrows, Bloomberg Businessweek
Sunday, December 5, 2010


By any measure, Netflix is having a really good year.

Its subscriber base jumped by 52 percent in the third quarter, and its stock price has doubled since July 1. Analysts and customers are bullish about the Los Gatos company as it moves from a DVD-delivery service to an on-demand entertainment provider and de facto rival to cable TV.

Netflix's 16 million subscribers are so eager to stream Sandra Bullock movies - "Crash" and "The Blind Side" are currently the No. 1 and No. 5 most-streamed movies - that the company now accounts for 20 percent of all Internet traffic during a typical evening, according to Sandvine, which makes network-monitoring equipment.

At San Francisco's Web 2.0 conference in mid-November, an onstage interviewer asked Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings whether the Internet's infrastructure can withstand the strain as his streaming business grows.

"If there's anything you'd want to bet on," Hastings said, "it's that technology will make bandwidth faster and cheaper."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/04/BUK81GL5A7.DTL#ixzz17G5KFFfu

[Fearless]

1. Sorry I'm pro-net neutrality and that will forever remain my position.

No amount of DoomSpeak will change my mind there.

[NightWatcher]

2. will not kill the internet but encourage more, faster, and cheaper bandwidth

Everything uses more and more bandwidth these days. iPhones, Xboxes, Wii's, multiple laptops, streaming movies, streaming music. Maybe the Netflix/smartphone revolution will just provide the boost to get more and more bandwidth. Millions of customers want it, so why not provide it and then sell us more shit that we can plug into the Net. Tv's are now coming with internet compatibility and it will only be a matter of time before the fridge, washer, and dryer are online (for what purpose I have no idea)

[Kadie]

5. ...

Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Electronics continues to introduce its line of Internet appliances including the Web-enabled refrigerator, microwave oven and washer, after a successful debut at the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show in April 2001. "These products bring to reality LG's vision of a new class of 'smart' appliances that have the ability to communicate with each other through LG's Living Network System. The Living Network System utilizes the Internet refrigerator as the "residential gateway" to the home -- allowing appliances to interact via a digital home network," said Simon Kang, President, LG Electronics, U.S.A., Inc. "As we refine this technology, we envision everything in the house to be tied together through the refrigerator since it's the only appliance on 24 hours a day."


http://www.beststuff.com/fromthewire/lg-internet-refrigerator-is-at-the-heart-of-the-digital-home-network.html

and...


http://www.pcworld.com/article/141085/the_internet_refrigerator_back_from_the_dead.html


just a matter of time before they are the norm.

[NightWatcher]

7. sweet! get an IM at work letting me know there's no beer in the fridge...from the fridge

I'll give the fridge my debit card and let it order some online. Hell, it could probably hack my computer and get the cc# on its own

[drm604]

29. My refrigerator, microwave, etc. work just fine without an internet connection.

Wait. One day all your appliances will require an internet connection, and won't work without it. The manufacturer of each appliance will charge you a monthly or annual fee for a maintenance and update service and your appliance won't work without that service.

We'll end up buying our appliances and then paying an ongoing fee to keep them turned on. We need to refuse to use internet connected appliances before we get to that point.

[FormerDittoHead]

27. Too bad that's not going to happen as long as broadband Inet is a monopoly in most places.

In case you haven't noticed, in spite of tech equipment always going down in price, Comcast et al has managed to keep raising prices.

When Comcast installed their 250 gig limit, I KNEW this day was coming, but everyone was defending THEM because we were just copying games and movies.

Now we're here, and seeing how corporately oriented even Democrats are, the only future I see is one where they will be constantly pushing to see how much more we're going to be willing to pay.

TO ANTICIPATE A REPLY: the other day someone suggested that there is competition among broadband providers. Let's nip that into the bud right now.

I get over 3 MEGABITS with my Comcast, compare that to my 192K I got from DSL. Everything else is slower than that.

Funny, but I have to point out that in my area we HAPPEN to have competition, choice between Fios and Comcast, however, their prices and services are virtually the same.

[blogslut]

3. Hmmm

That article smells funny - kind of like it was written by lobbyists from the communications industry.

[drm604]

30. I thought there was an odor in here.

I was afraid maybe I needed a shower, but I think you figured it out.

[Egnever]

4. No it wont

Your last line is the money line.

Students have already created networks with way more bandwidth capacity than we currently have it is only a matter of time till these technologies come to market. Other countries curently provide much higher bandwidth than we get here.

The only thing netflix might do is force our internet providers to upgrade their infrastructure.

[Kadie]

6. I agree.

The only thing netflix might do is force our internet providers to upgrade their infrastructure.

there are always growing pains in one form or another.

[aquart]

8. Netflix is living in a dream world.

[JTFrog]

9. Both of those movies are only available to me by DVD, can't stream them.

Wonder how they got to be No. 1 and No. 5 most-streamed movies.

:shrug:

[tkmorris]

10. Nice catch! I just checked, those movies can't be streamed

This article is full of crap.

[PeaceNikki]

11. Not necessarily. They change up the Watch Instantly offerings regularly.

It's possible they were available until recently.

[JTFrog]

12. No. I have kept my eye on both of those movies and they have not been available for stream.

Perhaps they are in other countries (Canada)? It's the only thing I can really think of.

:shrug:

[Motown_Johnny]

13. how is using the internet for streaming movies killing the internet

[PBS Poll-435]

15. The internet is tired. Never has a chance to sleep.

Between the uzi fire, car crashes, dogs barking, the internet can't get any rest at all.

[PeaceNikki]

16. It'll clog the tubes.

That's the theory, anyway. The reality is that infrastructure will need to built to support the amount of data that is being sent.

[PBS Poll-435]

18. It is NOT a truck!

But yeah we need to realize that the internet is as or more important than roads/bridges and voice telephone lines.

[Motown_Johnny]

21. then why is it that Youtube didn't kill the internet or clog the tubes?

It even has "Tube" in it's name


I would think that it would be worse than something people need to pay for

[PeaceNikki]

28. Probably the sheer amount of data per video. I think Youtube limits to 99 MB

HD movies are in the GB's.

[WinkyDink]

14. Hardly.

[Hawkeye-X]

17. My dad is getting a 40m/5mup upgrade tomorrow

and I live four blocks from him, and I can't get it upgraded! I can get max of 20m/864kup and they just finished rolling out two years ago on the fiber optics. I am PISSED.

Thanks, Qworst!

[PBS Poll-435]

19. That is still pretty damn fast.

:woohoo:

[TheKentuckian]

20. The answer: Of course not, it is being used as an excuse to maintain limited infrastructure

and maintain scarcity so that they can forever raise prices.

Capitalism requires at least the impression of scarcity.

[Lucian]

22. Exactly.

:thumbsup:

[PBS Poll-435]

23. On the flip side...

In 1996 I paid 25 bucks for AOL.

In 1999 I paid 65 bucks after tax for cable internet.

Today I pay 35 bucks for Fiber Optic internet that is more reliable.

[Motown_Johnny]

24. do you get internet service on your cell phone?

because I think that is really the future


we won't need hard lines for the internet anymore than we need it for voice calls

give it another 20 years, what we now think of as the internet will have evolved to include pretty much everything that can be seen or heard and it will be nearly ubiquitous (for those who can afford it)

[PBS Poll-435]

25. I do. It is limited to the device, but I get news and other interweb.

Getting a Blackberry next month (for free) that will cost me the same.

(and I can tether it to my wifi-only devices)

[alphafemale]

26. Anything that's ever been printed taped or filmed at the moment you want it

Of course that's what's coming and nothing can stop it.

And it is fucking awesome.