Netflix May Let You Download Videos In The Future

Despite a steady decrease in the amount of content over the last couple of years, Netflix still remains one of the top video streaming services here in the US. Whether you're at home watching it on your TV, or on the bus with your phone, it's pretty easy to use almost anywhere. But wouldn't it be much nicer if you could just load up some episodes of your favorite show, and watch them without having to rely on an internet connection?

Netflix hasn't talked much about the possibility of offline viewing, as their bread and butter comes from streaming. However, they haven't ruled it out completely, as a recent quarterly earnings call showed. During the call, the company's CEO had this to say, regarding offline viewing:

"We should keep an open mind on all this... as we expand around the world where we see an uneven set of networks, it's something we should keep an open mind about."

Amazon Prime Video spells disaster for Netflix

The timing of the statement is actually rather interesting. Just yesterday Amazon announced that they would start offering their Prime Video service in a standalone monthly subscription of just $8.99. That's a buck cheaper than Netflix's streaming service. What's more, Amazon Prime Video already offers offline viewing.

I imagine that the hardest part about getting this feature to happen will be convincing the various studios to actually let them offer it. Since most of their contracts likely center around the word "streaming", they would have to renegotiate in order to be able to let people download content to playback later.

VIA: TechInsider