Netflix ‘Watch Now’ Service Gives Instant Gratification
Netflix Inc. has introduced a new feature that will allow customers to download and immediately start watching movies and television series on their home computers. The new service is dubbed ‘Watch Now’ and will be rolled out over the next six months, starting with an initial choice of 1,000 films and TV series.
Subscribers to the Netflix service will be able to watch their videos on demand once they have installed a computer applet that enables video to be viewed at virtually the same time it is being downloaded. The company says this new ‘immediate viewing’ feature is much faster than other currently available services for downloading large video files.
Installation of the browser applet is needed just one time and takes less than 60-seconds, the company says. From then on, most movie selections are able to begin playing on the customer’s PC in as little as 10 to 15 seconds after the selection is made.
Movies can be stopped and paused, just like on a standard DVD player, and a position bar gives viewers the ability to jump to any point in the movie. The more bandwidth available, the better the video quality will be. Although the instant watching feature requires an Internet connection with just one megabit per second of bandwidth, three Mbps service provides the best viewing quality.
Netflix says that current subcribers to their service will be able to watch anywhere from six to 48 hours of video per month, depending on their subscription level, at no additional charge. Rates start at $5.99 per month.
The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company says it budgeted some $40 million to expand its data centers for the new service and to cover licensing fees for the first 1,000 movies and episodes that will be offered.
Netflix is looking…
