Netflix users who want the video streaming company to offer offline viewing to help them get around patches of bad wi-fi shouldn’t get their hopes up any time soon.
Cliff Edwards, the company’s Director of Corporate Communication and Technology, said in an interview with TechRadar that offline viewing is “never going to happen.” In his view, the desire for online streaming is a byproduct of bad WiFi connectivity and speeds, especially on transportation. Netflix expects that will all get better in the coming years, which will eliminate the need for offline streaming.
This situation is one case where Amazon’s Prime Instant Video has an advantage — users of the service with one of the company’s Fire devices can download video for offline viewing.
Amazon was quick to capitalize on the situation, releasing this statement a few minutes ago from Michael Paull, Vice President, Amazon Digital Video.
“We want our customers to be able to watch their digital videos on all devices, anywhere they are—that’s why Prime Instant Video is the only U.S. video subscription service that enables offline viewing—on a plane, in a car, anywhere you want to go. Offline viewing is already available on Fire tablets and we’ll continue to roll out this functionality to other devices in the future.”
Netflix’s Edwards did go on to clarify that he could see a future where offline streaming was on the table, but he doesn’t think it’s likely at this point. In the meantime, while we wait for the glorious future of pervasive and fast WiFi, people won’t be able to watch the latest episodes of “House of Cards” while they’re stuck on a plane flying home for the holidays.
