Last week at the NewTeeVee Live conference in San Francisco, I did a short video interview with Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, focusing on its attempts to move beyond the DVD and work with various device companies—Roku, Xbox, Samsung, LG (SEO: 066570) and others—to embed its software into their systems. Among the points he addressed:
—Hiring a new devices head to work with the partners
—Timeline horizon on making any of these device partnerships work
—Reaching the TV through normal Web browsers
—DVD rental margins, vs streaming video margins
—Competing with the likes of Hulu, and competing with downloading
—Working with cable companies: “We would love to do it, but it is not something cable companies seem to be very excited about.”
—Bottlenecks with increasing online video inventory
—Outlook for DVD business next year