Are you still wondering why Netflix has not yet released an Android version of its app? After a recent announcement of Netflix on the Windows Phone 7 platform, Netflix finally decided to speak on the absence of the Android version of the streaming app.
The product development team, via The Netflix Blog, provided an update on enabling Netflix streaming support for Android. In a nutshell, they are delaying the launch of Netflix for the Android platform due to some security concerns they have over the Android platform. Netflix fears the release of this app might make it easier for pirates to steal content via the Netflix app.
According to Greg Peters, Netflix Product Developer :
We regard Android as an exciting technology that drives a range of great devices that our members could use to instantly watch TV shows and movies from Netflix. We are eager to launch on these devices and are disappointed that we haven’t been able to do so already. The hurdle has been the lack of a generic and complete platform security and content protection mechanism available for Android.
The same security issues that have led to piracy concerns on the Android platform have made it difficult for us to secure a common Digital Rights Management (DRM) system on these devices. Setting aside the debate around the value of content protection and DRM, they are requirements we must fulfill in order to obtain content from major studios for our subscribers to enjoy.
Although we don’t have a common platform security mechanism and DRM, we are able to work with individual handset manufacturers to add content protection to their devices.
Unfortunately, this is a much slower approach and leads to a fragmented experience on Android, in which some handsets will have access to Netflix and others won’t. This clearly is not the preferred solution, and we regret the confusion it might create for consumers. However, we believe that providing the service for some Android device owners is better than denying it to everyone.
The good news is that they will eventually launch the app early next year. The bad news – it will only be on select Android devices. According to the blog post, Netflix will eventually work on developing a standard, platform-wide solution for all Android-based devices – but who knows when? Besides, I wonder what percentage of Android devices will fall under the ‘select devices’ category. Until then, we might just have to wait.
By the looks of it, Netflix seems intimidated by the openness of the Android platform. Android’s popularity seems to pose a threat to their streaming service. Should they be taking advantage of the popularity of Android devices to get their content to the masses or should the company play it safe by preventing piracy which could cripple their business? I think they should just give it a try and see. After all, sometimes you really never know until the app is actually pushed out.
Do you think it’s a good move by Netflix to release its app to a select few Android devices?
Source: The Netflix Blog
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Very dumb move and argument. What difference does it make whether Android is an open platform or not. Are Linux users banned from viewing Netflix as well because Linux, just like Android is an open platform? To me it sounds like they are lacking the technical ability to produce an app that meets the “studios” requirements…
Umm so you can’t copy a DVD that is sent to you in the mail or screen capture anything that is streamed over your xbox or wii? Seems they are blowing smoke up our……
Well the DVD remark is spurious. DVDs are protected (if badly), and the studios can’t very well argue that DVDs are insecure if they’re selling the darned things.
As for Xbox/Wii…I’m not aware of any way to capture Netflix streams with them. I have to believe that doing such a thing would be non-trivial, and possibly require modchips or the like, yes?
Actually, yes, Netflix is not supported on Linux because Netflix PC streaming uses Silverlight, which doesn’t run on Linux. (You can monkey around with WINE or virtual machines or whatever, but no native Linux streaming.)
It’s not that Android is open. It’s that there’s no unified DRM mechanism (like what they have with Silverlight on Windows). So, yes, in a sense, they haven’t worked out a uniform way to satisfy the studios’ requirements. (And Vesselin, why did you put “studios” in quotes? Do you think it’s not really the studios that push for this?)
That’s not to mention the platform fragmentation. Surely not all Android devices will have the horsepower, e.g. a G1. Some phones have gfx acceleration hardware; others do not. And so on. So the “select handsets” might just end up being a way to make sure the devices have the guts to run the streaming smoothly.
Netflix will survive without Android. With that fact out of the way, the market would be a lot more developer friendly if Android had minimum requirements like Winphone7. It’d be nicer to have high end Android phones only. Then again, you could easily say that Cydia could make the iPhone just as much a problem. All phones can be rooted and messed with. The problem is that the main complaints will be from the lower end Androiders whose phones can’t handle the processing requirements. It’s obvious which phones will get it. EVO, Desire and any other hi-end HTC. Samsung and Motorola. HTC will be the most desired. More than all the others combined.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a huge part of it. Could you imagine trying to stream on a G1? I mean, I loved my G1, but I think we can all agree that its processing power is weak at this point.
Greg Peters tells us exactly what this is about in his statement. Netflix wants someone else to pay for their DRM software. Microsoft provided DRM to Netflix for free (as in beer); that’s why Netflix is on XBOX 360, and Windows/Silverlight. Nobody currently provides a free DRM-protected-video solution for Android. We can assume that the “select devices” will be those where the manufacturer provides the DRM software to Netflix for free, because Greg Peter’s statement is 100% about DRM: not Android speed, not the Android OS’ security, not *NIX security in general, etc. Microsoft set a precedent here, and Netflix wants others to follow. The alternative would be for Netflix to buy this capability from someone, or hire cryptographers to write it. They don’t want to do that when Microsoft already set a you-get-it-for-free precedent.
I am frustrated by this situation. I want Netflix on Android now, but it looks like that will never occur unless Google, Motorola, Samsung, or someone else, hands the capability to Netflix.
Another annoying thing about this is that people are not understanding the statement, and believing that the problem is with Android itself. That makes Android look bad unnecessarily.
Thank you for sitting through my rant,
Paul
Well said.
It will most likely fall to Google to build DRM into Android, just as MS built DRM into most of Windows (including Silverlight). Studios want that content protected from the moment it’s read until it hits the screen and speakers- from the codecs through the player through the sound & video drivers through HDCP (for those devices with HDMI).
If Netflix offers a streaming client without this level of DRM in place, the studios will undoubtedly pull their content, and then we’d be left with something like GoogleTV- neat service, but no content.
DRM sucks. Nobody likes it, including myself. But the fact is that the studios demand it, and if we want to get their content (through legitimate means), we have to play by their rules.
Silverlight DRM encoding is actually free for everyone. You can download the encoder from Microsoft MSDN, and have at it.
Silverlight DRM encoding is actually free for everyone. You can download the encoder from Microsoft MSDN, and have at it.
This explains it’s all. Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings is on the Board of Directors at Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/mar07/03-26HastingsPR.mspx