NetFlix close to launching online movie downloads

It seems that the whole movie download scene is about to explode. CinemaNow and MovieLink are the front runners in this space, but so far no one's made it easy to watch their downloaded movies on the TV without the PC whirring away. MSN TV has been working with CinemaNow for most of the year on getting the service ready. But still, the market is a small one...for now. I think what is keeping CinemaNow and MovieLink from exploding is that they're not making much use of the long tail theory which has kept iTunes humming along. A good example is the foreign movies (one of my favorite genres because most of the movies made in the US are pretty much cater to the day worker set these days). CinemaNow lists 74 movies in this category while Netflix has a whopping 6,700! So you can see the dilemma. And don't get me wrong, it's not CinemaNow's or MovieLink's fault. It's the (you guessed it) movie studios who continually do stupid things (like make movies like The Dukes of Hazzard). But I digress...

The online movie space is going to heat up very soon as Netflix is close to offering online movie downloads and Apple is rumored to be getting into the video download business as well. I personally can't wait and hope that MSN TV 2 works with Netflix's interpretation of the content delivery over the net, but we'll have to wait and see for that one.

Netflix-To-Tivo Soon?

We've all known about the Netflix/Tivo shackup for almost a year now, but Hacking Netflix breaks news of a "glitch" (read: accidentally exposed web page) that gave up the goods on how soon this marriage of movie watching nirvana will come to fruition. Anyway, my two Tivos can't wait to see these overly anticipated new features since we're getting tired of Friends reruns (although Hongyun has been digging them lately). Link.