Thursday, June 08, 2006
What Netflix Could Teach Hollywood - New York Times
The New York Times has an interesting article What Netflix Could Teach Hollywood. They stock 60,000 movies and it turns out, on any given day, 2/3 of them are rented out by their 5 million customers. American's tastes are broad, and apparently not well served by Hollywood's attempts at one size fits all blockbusters.
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That was an interesting article. I have been a satisified Netflix customer for several years for 3 reasons: convience, wide selection, and price (hate lated fees). I agree that viewers tastes are broad, broader than expected, and that it would better if there were more movies.
But...I don't know that this is what Netflix could teach Hollywood.
My interpretation of the article is that it is Netflix that *supports* and *not teaches* Hollywood, due to its support of the existing model of digital rights...and the subsequent movie distribution model we have now of 1st run at theatres, then DVD, then cable. And that it is emerging movie download companies like MovieLink that will enable a shift to more movies appealing to smaller segments.
A new movie making and distribution paradigm...of more smaller movies on a broader range of topics...distributed through new channels such as downloadable from the internet ....well...it would appeal to me as I would have morebetter movies to watch. But it is not Netflix, which supports the existing paradigm, to teach Hollywood....this is better taught from the experiences of MovieLink and iTunes.
What Netflix could teach is an amazing job of logistics and inventory management, which is very difficult with such a large number of inventory items and high rate of obsolence and spiky demand patterns. But again...this is a lesson from the school of 'brick and mortar'....no the school of 'click and download'.....which is the lesson Hollywood needs to learn in order to make more movies appealing to a broader audience.
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