Amazon, Apple, And Their Future In Steaming Video

Not everybody thinks Apple or Amazon, not to mention others such as YouTube or Wal-Mart, can make a serious business out of streaming video. For that matter, perhaps it might be said that Time Warner doesn't think most media companies can really do so, either.

Nor is Netflix likely to have an easy time, from now on, getting access to the compelling content it needs to remain a viable provider of top -notch video programming. Content owners now see "streaming" as the key new business to protect, rather than the DVD business, as important as that latter business has been, over the last decade or two. See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/business/media/13bewkes.html.

In the late 1990s the media industry embraced Netflix as a new distribution outlet for renting DVDs. Perhaps nobody clearly understood that the move might accelerate the decline in the sales of DVDs, which for years had been the lifeblood of the film industry. Now, with its success online, Netflix has raised fears that consumers may stop paying for cable television as well.

That new perception is likely to put the brakes on Netflix, to some extent, as well as others that might like to participate in the streaming business.

The studios and networks will see to it that the streaming business is not handed to Netflix, much less to Apple, Amazon or anybody else.

Amazon, Apple, And Their Future In Steaming Video - 24/7 Wall St.