The new Netflix partnership with set-top box maker Roku caused a buzz in the geek community and rightfully so: a $100 box that will make Netflix even more convenient than it already is with no increase in subscription costs is a good deal.
For some reason I woke up pondering the new partnership and the thought popped into my head that this combination is ripe for the picking by a business like Google. Netflix’s streaming of high-quality (and one day possibly high definition) videos will tax Internet resources in a way that Google’s YouTube could never imagine. It may also attract entertainment lawyer-sharks needing to be fended off. Thanks to its YouTube purchase, Google has experience with both. It also has a wealth of experience with load-balancing, massive storage systems, and miles and miles of dark fiber crisscrossing the country.
Sound farfetched? That’s what I thought until I considered that in the 1970s no one would ever have imagined Sony becoming an entertainment company. Or Apple Computer, for that matter. Buying Netflix would give Google its own iTunes-like content business, only this one would specialize in videos. It would be the 800-pound gorilla that keeps greedy Hollywood entertainment moguls up all night. Well, that and all the cocaine.
Anyway, just groggy musings at this point. It will be interesting to see what kind of attention this Netflix-Roku partnership attracts.