Self:

Netflix FAIL

June 8, 2008 by Kyle Brady
Tags: "Watch Instantly", Failure, Linux, Netflix, Windows
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics

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I'll be the first one to admit it... I love Netflix.  With my addiction to all-things-SciFi, getting movies on a regular basis is great, and it lets me quickly catch up on all the movies that were before I become genre-sentient (or alive).  Through it I've come to love many "great" series:  The Terminator, Rocky, Rambo, Die Hard, etc.

But there's one thing that really bothers me:  Netflix's "Watch Instantly" Feature.

In a new era of digital media, where you can have movies delivered to your home or stream them to your TV, you'd think the company that has pioneered (and continues to innovate) this market would make a better and more informed decision.

The FAILboat

Let's take a look at what happens when I try to watch a movie through my computer using Netflix:

Yep.  That's right.  I can't.  All because I don't run Windows SP2 or higher, or use IE.  Who would, in this day and age, restrict such a wonderful (and potentially highly revenue-generating) thing to such arkane requirements?

Demographics

Netflix, I think you should take a look at your demographics.  Let's do a quick analysis.

1. The audience that made you popular were geeks.  Highly technically adept people that typically run the software they want, and spurn anything made by Microsoft.  (Granted, this isn't always true, but it's true enough to work with.)


2. Your current userbase is most likely comprised of well-off white collar families, movie buffs, and geeks.  Throw in a handful of college kids (who are probably highly technical as well), and you've got it.


3. Take a look at the recent browser metrics.  If you believe even the lowest estimates, ~15% of the Internet uses Firefox.  Not IE, but Firefox.  And, given your userbase, I'm betting your server logs show something closer to 35%.  Would you like to put odds on that?


4. While it's difficult to get a solid number on the amount of non-server computers running Linux, the numbers are growing.  Dell and ASUS, among others, are now offering Linux as the pre-installed OS... not to mention the unbelievable growth of Ubuntu, a flavor of Linux.

Do The Math

So, movie geniuses... do the math.  Even if "only" 20% of your users are on Firefox, and maybe 10% use Linux, why would you alienate such a large amount of your paying customers?  Just because they don't conform to the money-hungry agenda of Microsoft doesn't mean they should be punished.  Choosing a better, and free, alternative should be something to celebrate.

We may not be Anonymous, but we are angry nonetheless.

Technology

While we're at it, don't give us the "technological restrictions" excuse.  Anyone who's worked with streaming media can tell you this is a load of crap.  The only reason you can legitimately say your system is IE-dependent would be due to an ActiveX control... and in that case, you're just FUBAR'd already anyways.

I'm not sure how the current system works, but I see there really only being two ways for you to stream through a browser:

• Using a Flash-based Player


• Embedding a Streaming Video File

Flash is one of the most universal things on computers in this day and age... YouTube doesn't restrict their viewers to Windows + IE only, why should you?

And, if it's a streaming file, there's an easy answer too.  People on Windows + FF should have no problems accessing a streaming file, even if it's in some Windows format... it will just automagically open Windows Media Player.

We are rising, join us while we still like you!

Those of us on Linux + FF know MORE THAN ENOUGH to be able to run a streaming file in a media player.  Maybe it doesn't work when we click.  But that doesn't really bother us, because we get what we want, and know how to do it.  Chances are we already have the media player (and codecs) to support the format... all we need is the location of the stream.  Which is very easy for you to give us.

Conclusion

In the end, any reason or excuse you can provide for these restrictions comes down to pure and utter nonsense.  You need to resolve this issue, before your users get more frustrated (which may hurt you in the long run), and especially as the market share for Firefox and Linux continue to grow at unprecedented rates.

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Update (6/9/2008 12:32pm PST): Neil from Netflix (confirmed via IP address) posted a snarky rebuttal in Comment #1.  See my equally snarky reply in Comment #2.

Self posts are about me (Kyle Brady), in one form or another.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.