Netflix Now Worries Studio Execs

You knew it had to happen: senior executives at three of the big six television and movie studios said they were seeking ways to contain Netflix, which now is starting to look like a too-powerful distributor.

The studios will try to delay the DVD release window for Netflix, and try to make access to that content more costly for Netflix, as well.

After the music industry's experience with Apple iTunes, everybody basically expected video and movie content owners to be wary of giving too much power to any of the distributors.

'The problem is that Netflix is not the company we thought it was when we started doing these deals a few years ago. It has changed,' said a studio executive quoted by Reuters.

Cable TV and other distributors likely have almost as much to fear. If Netflix can get rights to enough content, and can get rights that allow relatively quick access to content on a "day and date" basis (close to real time or at the same time as TV networks show content), Netflix becomes a replacement for a cable TV, satellite or telco TV subscription.

Netflix scrambles future of TV and films | Reuters