Look Out, Netflix! Her Comes Verizon & Redbox!

tvpredictions.com ^ | December 8, 2011 | Phillip Swann

[Las Vegas Dave]

Washington, D.C. (December 8, 2011) -- Verizon may be planning to launch a service next spring that would compete directly with Netflix and could involve a partnership with Redbox, according to several news reports.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Verizon was negotiating agreements with media companies for the right to stream their content. The wire service added that Verizon was interested in launching a streaming offering in areas outside of its FiOS TV markets. For instance, if you could not subscribe to FiOS where you live, you could subscribe to Verizon's Netflix-like streaming service.

And TechCrunch, the AOL tech site, reports this morning that Verizon is also planning a partnership with the kiosk company, Redbox, to launch a streaming service in May of 2012. Redbox, which now rents DVDs and Blu-ray discs for $1-$1.50 a night, has been vague about its future streaming plans. But the Verizon partnership could be part of the company's plan to compete directly with Netflix in both the hard media and streaming categories.

TechCrunch says the Verizon/Redbox service is being called "Project Zoetrope" internally and it will be both a subscription and streaming service available on such platforms as Google TV, XBox, Roku, Android, iOS and perhaps Blu-ray players.

The web site says the service would stream in both SD and HD in each device. Pricing would be monthly and it could include a combination of renting hard media discs and streaming videos, much like Netflix.

[Politicalmom]

I’m disgusted with Netflix for several reasons. One is the complete contempt they showed toward their customers when they they first tired to convince everyone that a price increase equalled the “lowest prices ever”. They then tried to force everyone to have to use two websites for a service that had always been conveniently covered by a single website.

Then there was the fact that they left Roku 1 owners in the lurch after they decided not to provide subtitles as they said they would previously. I am stuck with a months-old Roku that will now never do what I bought it to do.

I am also annoyed that there are inexplicable gaps in the tv seasons, usually the missing episodes are the second half of a pivotal two-part episode. I used to be able to fill in with DVDs, but I dumped them after the huge price increase. Their streamable library is seriously lacking.

[InterceptPoint]

As they say, apparently correctly, Your Mileage May Vary. I’m sticking with Netflix for now because my LG Blu-ray player supports it. But the future will be filled with many, many possibilities.