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Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ definition to Web TV

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:November 14, 2008 Become a writer!

They are at the door of the video revolution. home delivery effortlessly..it s the dream come true. With the economy like this, more people will be renting movies instead of going to the theatre.no idea – was wondering the same thing myself… who’d have thought that netflix would be a top performer over the past couple of months…

Mark Sullivan, PC World says Nobody denies that the marriage of Web and TV will happen, but there are many competing theories about how it will happen. Hastings says we can expect to see the Web migrate to the TV, not the other way around.

“Letting go of the tab keys and going to the mouse was incredibly revolutionary 20 years ago,” said Hastings. “The real breakthrough will be in the remote. The videogame generation is very comfortable with a pointer on the screen.”

Web interface through the TV within the next few years will require customers to have Internet-capable set-top boxes such as Apple TV and Netflix Player by Roku, which Netflix launched in May, because TV makers won’t be quick to build Web capability into their sets, Hastings said. He estimated that TV makers will start regularly integrating Web capability two or three years from now.

On the flip side is the Web, which right now has many problems when it comes to video, but significant advantages. Looking back, Hasting walks us through the advances and problems with online video. The first breakthrough for video on the Web was flash; the problem of course was that we needed to install codecs. The second breakthrough was YouTube streaming; that proved not only was it possible to put video on the Web, but that it was hugely popular. However, since then, there have been a plethora of products and services all competing for the same space, and make no mistake, the online video space is enormous. Lidija Davis writes.

Below are live notes :

-What you want, when you want, where you want — and importantly, discovering what you want.

-Two big approaches: Standard television and reinvention via the web. But how do you create an on-demand personal experience?

-The first big breakthrough in web video was Flash. The second big breakthrough was YouTube — this brought these Flash videos to millions.

-”There is no reason why YouTube won’t be streaming high-definition content going ahead.”

-Laptop-based viewing is a big benefit to the youth of today.

Web video models:

-Ad-supported, pay-per-view, subscription.

-Ad-supported will be the largest part of the market because it’s so easy, you don’t need to buy anything. The CPMs will rise, and if they get high enough, we can see very sustainable models — maybe only one or two ads per hour of video.

-Pay-per-view will continue to have tracking with new release movies and new television shows

-Subscription is the area Netflix is focusing on. This is also good for specialty content like sports.

What you want – we’re 15% there.

When you want – we’re 100% there.

Where you want – again, we’re 15% there.

Discover what you want – we’re 25% there. Amazon is good at it for books, Apple is good at it for music, Netflix is working on movies and TV shows. “We’re all learning from each other.”

-Netflix streaming getting to TV: Xbox, Roku, LG and Samsung Blu-ray, TiVo. Each one is a proprietary encoding, and we’ll see more next year.

-There needs to be a standard for making interfaces to control all this media. A standard which a company like Netflix publishes to and which device makers will support. Then we’ll see even more media partners coming to devices.

-But we could talk about this for 1 to 3 decades. But there is a simpler solution: The web

-”We need web browsers built into TVs.”

-Web on television has a bad rap because of the failure to do it right 10 years ago (in 1999). But that was the days of dial-up with standard definition television. Now we have broadband, with high definition screens and input devices like the Wiimote.

-The real breakthrough will be in the remote. The video game generation is comfortable with the pointer on the screen. The old remote isn’t needed anymore. “Abandon the TV remote today.” Go to a simple pointer to begin to control everything. This will happen next year.

Reed Hastings
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Reed Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 and launched the subscription service in 1999. Netflix grew to one million subscribers in less than four years, and reached 8.4 million subscribers by mid-2008.

In seven consecutive surveys since 2005 Netflix has been ranked number one in customer satisfaction across all of ecommerce by independent researcher ForeSee Results. In the fall of 2005, Netflix was the winner of Fast Company’s national Customers First Award, with Reed appearing on the cover of the October issue.

Also in 2005, Time magazine added Reed to its “Time 100″ list of the one hundred most influential global citizens. Newsweek wrote that “Netflix revolutionized the way we watch movies.”

In March 2007 Reed was appointed to Microsoft Corp.’s board of directors and he was inducted into the Video Business Hall of Fame in December.

Earlier in his career, Reed founded Pure Software, which he built into one of the world’s 50 largest public software companies. After a successful public offering and a number of acquisitions, Pure was acquired by Rational Software in 1997.

Reed is an active educational philanthropist and board member of many non-profits. In addition, he was President of the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004. He has led successful statewide political campaigns for more charter public schools and easier passage of local school bonds.

Reed received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983 and an MSCS degree from Stanford University in 1988. He holds several patents. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the U.S. Peace Corps as a high school math teacher in Swaziland.