Erdos Had The Number First

5) A larger subscriber base gives Netflix more power to become HBO-like with content acquisition and production.

from Fool.com: Netflix [Post of the Day] November 22, 2005

Wow, it’s a great idea, but really? I mean, come on, HBO is able to do this because production costs are lower for them at the outset. They do not have to distribute their content on DVDs if they don’t want to.

But NetFlix would have to do a DVD release, and they would want to sell it, too. Region encoding would allow them to do international releases without it comming back to US markets but the important question here is WHY?

Netflix is not a content producer. They, like Amazon, are a logistics powerhouse. All of the New Companies are really just logistics masters. Amazon would not benefit from being a publisher of books. It’s not their thing. It’s not Netflix’s thing either.

Netflix isn’t HBO and they should not try to be. They ship movies. Focus, Nextflix, focus.